Is 5 year old expired tramadol okay to take?

In general, keep your script meds in a dry, cool, dark place away from heat and moisture in the air (like in a bathroom cabinet) then these meds can last for a very long time and still be viable years later.
Last year (in the summer of 2023) I found an old script for 15 tabs of Valium 10 mg that was kept in a closed pill bottle in cool dry, dark closet over the years. The Valium script was dated--- June 1996. The pills looked fine so I took them for muscle relaxers, which they were initially prescribed for, and they worked great.
Now if the pills are crumbly, have a yellowish to brownish color or have a distinctive bad odor then throw them out or flush them.
So if you want to save meds then keep these meds in a cool, dry, dark drawer or closet.

--- The one exception is antiboitics; they do not hold well and will degrade. So use up antibiotics when prescribed for an infection because they do not store very well but instead antibiotics will degrade over the long term.

Click on the link in order to access important information:

https://www.drugs.com/article/drug-expiration-dates.html