GIF is a decades-old format limited to 256 colors per frame with basic compression. Animated GIFs can easily reach tens of megabytes for just a few seconds of animation, slowing down web pages dramatically.
Reduce the number of frames (lower frame rate). Reduce the resolution. Limit the color palette. Crop to only the essential area. These steps can reduce GIF size by 50-80% while keeping the animation recognizable.
Consider converting animated GIFs to WebP (animated) for 30-50% smaller files with better quality, or to MP4/WebM video for 80-95% smaller files. Most platforms that accept GIFs also support these modern formats.