diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/behavior/23371-AL.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/behavior/23371-AL.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4e70f123347c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/api/next_api_changes/behavior/23371-AL.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+The default ``rcParams["animation.convert_args"]`` changed
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+It now defaults to ``["-layers", "OptimizePlus"]`` to try to generate smaller
+GIFs.  Set it back to an empty list to recover the previous behavior.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc b/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc
index b4d3b850836a..bfa973d7f80d 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc
@@ -779,7 +779,7 @@
 ## ImageMagick in the registry (as convert is also the name of a system tool).
 #animation.convert_path: convert
 ## Additional arguments to pass to convert.
-#animation.convert_args:
+#animation.convert_args: -layers, OptimizePlus
 #
 #animation.embed_limit:  20.0     # Limit, in MB, of size of base64 encoded
                                   # animation in HTML (i.e. IPython notebook)