Most failed stickers are over 512 KB, not exactly 320×320, or longer than 5 seconds. Size is the hard part: an APNG made the obvious way is often several times larger than the GIF it came from, because APNG stores full-colour frames, and a GIF squeezed under the limit by other tools often loses its last frames. The maker scales your animation to 320×320 (padding with transparency, never stretching), then tries palette sizes from full colour down, gentler dithering and pixel reuse between frames until the APNG fits under 512 KB. It keeps the version that scores closest to your original.
Tips for stickers that look good
Keep motion to part of the frame. Pixels that don’t change cost almost nothing.
Flat colours and clean outlines compress far better than video clips or film grain.
Fewer than about 3 seconds of animation usually fits without dropping frames.
Need an emoji instead? Emoji allow GIF and have a 256 KB limit: use the Discord emoji resizer.
Questions
What size is a Discord sticker?
Exactly 320×320 pixels and at most 512 KB. Discord shows stickers at 160×160 on desktop, so 320×320 keeps them sharp on high-density screens.
Can a Discord sticker be a GIF?
Yes. Discord’s developer documentation lists PNG, APNG, GIF and Lottie (Lottie only for verified or partnered servers). Its older sticker FAQ still says APNG only. This maker outputs APNG by default because in our tests it kept noticeably more quality than GIF at the same 512 KB limit, with soft transparent edges.
How long can an animated sticker be?
Up to 5 seconds. Longer animations are trimmed to the first 5 seconds; speed them up first with the GIF speed changer if you want the whole loop.
My APNG sticker shows as a still image. Why?
Discord only animates APNG stickers that were added as server stickers. Sent through the chat bar as an ordinary file upload, they won’t render as stickers.
How do you get an animated sticker under 512 KB?
APNG files grow quickly. The maker searches palette size, dithering strength and frame-to-frame reuse, and only drops frames if it must, keeping the total length the same. Each try is scored against your original and the best one that fits is kept.