GSAP Performance

GSAP Performance

When to Use This Skill

Apply when optimizing GSAP animations for smooth 60fps, reducing layout/paint cost, or when the user asks about performance, jank, or best practices for fast animations.

Related skills: Build animations with gsap-core (transforms, autoAlpha) and gsap-timeline; for ScrollTrigger performance see gsap-scrolltrigger.

Prefer Transform and Opacity

Animating transform (x, y, scaleX, scaleY, rotation, rotationX, rotationY, skewX, skewY) and opacity keeps work on the compositor and avoids layout and most paint. Avoid animating layout-heavy properties when a transform can achieve the same effect.

• ✅ Prefer: x, y, scale, rotation, opacity.
• ❌ Avoid when possible: width, height, top, left, margin, padding (they trigger layout and can cause jank).

GSAP’s x and y use transforms (translate) by default; use them instead of left/top for movement.

will-change

Use will-change in CSS on elements that will animate. It hints the browser to promote the layer.

will-change: transform;

Batch Reads and Writes

GSAP batches updates internally. When mixing GSAP with direct DOM reads/writes or layout-dependent code, avoid interleaving reads and writes in a way that causes repeated layout thrashing. Prefer doing all reads first, then all writes (or let GSAP handle the writes in one go).

Many Elements (Stagger, Lists)

• Use stagger instead of many separate tweens with manual delays when the animation is the same; it’s more efficient.
• For long lists, consider virtualization or animating only visible items; avoid creating hundreds of simultaneous tweens if it causes jank.
• Reuse timelines where possible; avoid creating new timelines every frame.

Frequently updated properties (e.g. mouse followers)

Prefer gsap.quickTo() for properties that are updated often (e.g. mouse-follower x/y). It reuses a single tween instead of creating new tweens on each update.