Why you can’t pause a GIF in the browser
Browsers play GIFs automatically and offer no controls: an image element has no pause button. This player decodes the GIF into frames and plays them itself, honouring each frame’s delay, so it can stop, step and slow down. That’s useful for reading text that flashes by, studying motion in tutorials and sports clips, checking animation timing, or finding the perfect freeze frame.
If you need a GIF that’s permanently paused, save the frame and use Static GIF (still a .gif) or GIF to PNG.
Accessibility and motion
Accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.2.2) ask that moving content lasting more than five seconds can be paused. If you publish GIFs, consider offering a still version or a video with controls — GIF to MP4 gives viewers a standard play/pause button. To inspect timing data rather than watch, use the GIF Tester.