Guides / Microsoft Teams

How to Add Animated Custom Emoji in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams supports custom emoji and reactions. Anything you upload is shared with everyone in your organization (tenant), alongside the standard Teams emoji.

Microsoft doesn't publish a strict size limit, but small square images look best in chat and reactions. Gifmoji's Teams preset exports a 128×128 GIF and keeps it under 256 KB so it loads quickly for everyone.

Microsoft Teams emoji requirements

Dimensions: Square; Gifmoji exports 128×128 px
File size: No published limit; Gifmoji keeps it under 256 KB
Formats: PNG or GIF
Animation: Animated GIF supported
Who can upload: All users by default; admins can restrict it

Step by step: make it and add it to Microsoft Teams

In Gifmoji, upload your photo, crop it, and choose an animation.
Under Export, choose Teams and click Download.
In Teams, open the emoji menu in a chat or the reaction menu on a message, and switch to the Custom category.
Click the plus (+) button, upload your GIF, and give it a name.
Your emoji now appears under Custom for everyone in your organization.

Make your Microsoft Teams emoji

Tips for great Microsoft Teams custom emoji

Because custom emoji are shared tenant-wide, keep them work-appropriate. Everyone in the company will see them.
A tenant can hold up to 5,000 custom emoji, so a clear naming scheme (team-name-emotion) keeps the picker tidy.
Animated reactions are great for celebrating launches and wins. Effects like Party, Confetti Drop and Money Rain work well.

Troubleshooting

There's no plus (+) button in the Custom category

Your admin may have turned off Upload custom emojis in your messaging policy, or disabled custom emoji for the whole tenant. Ask your Teams admin.

Custom emoji aren't available at all

Microsoft notes the feature isn't available for education (EDU) tenants, and admins can switch it off in the Teams admin center.

I deleted an emoji but people still see it

Deletions can take up to 24 hours to reach everyone. Clearing the Teams cache shows the change sooner.