Background Remover
Cut the background out of a photo and keep clean edges.
The first cutout downloads about 18MB — the model runs here rather than on a server, so your photo is never uploaded. It is cached afterwards, and every cutout after the first is immediate.
Drop a photo here
People, products, pets, objects — anything with a clear subject. Paste works too.
Working…
That didn't work.
The model is downloaded to your device and your photo is cut out here. It is never uploaded.
Keyboard shortcuts
- / or ⌘K
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- ⌘↵
- Run this tool, from anywhere on the page
- ⌘S
- Download the result
- ?
- Open and close this list
About the Pathine Background Remover
Finds the subject of a photo and deletes everything behind it, leaving a PNG with a transparent background. Drop a photo in and it comes back cut out — no selecting, no brushing, no rubbing out edges by hand.
It does this with a neural network that runs inside this browser tab, which is unusual and is the point. Every other tool that does this sends your photo to a server. The photos people most want to cut out are a product they are about to list, a headshot, a picture of their child for an invitation — and those are exactly the ones worth not handing to somebody else's computer.
The trade is an 18MB download the first time you use it: the model and the runtime that executes it. After that it is cached, works offline, and every cutout is immediate. That number is on the page before you choose a file rather than hidden behind a spinner.
When you'd reach for it
Product photos for a listing
Marketplaces want a clean background and shoppers respond to one. Cut the product out and drop it on white, or leave it transparent and put it wherever you need it.
A headshot for a profile or a slide
A photo taken against a kitchen wall becomes one that can sit on any background. Nothing about your face is uploaded to produce it.
Cutouts for a design
Posters, invitations, thumbnails, decks. A transparent PNG drops straight into anything without a white box around it.
Anything you would otherwise trace by hand
The manual version of this is ten minutes with a selection tool and a steady hand. This is about two seconds, and good enough that the ten minutes is rarely worth it.
How to remove a background
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Drop in a photo
Or paste one. Anything with a clear subject — a person, a product, a pet, an object on a table.
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Wait for the first download
About 18MB, once, with a progress bar. It is the model itself, which is why nothing has to be uploaded. Every cutout after this one skips straight to the next step.
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Check the edges
The result appears on a chequerboard so you can see exactly what is transparent and what is not. Most photos need nothing further.
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Download the PNG
PNG, because it is the format that carries transparency. If you want it on a colour rather than on nothing, the Screenshot Beautifier will put it on one.
Common questions
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The model is downloaded to your device and run here, which is the whole reason this tool is built the way it is. Once the first download has finished you can turn off your wifi and it still works — which is a test worth doing if you would rather check than take our word for it.
Why is there an 18MB download?
Because the alternative is uploading your photo. That 18MB is the neural network and the runtime that executes it; sites that start instantly are sending your image to a server where the model already lives. It downloads once, is cached for a year, and is the price of the photo staying on your device.
How good are the edges?
Very good on a clear subject — people, products, animals, anything that stands out from what is behind it. Loose individual hair strands and things like netting or fur wisps come out softer than a careful manual cutout would, because the model works at a fixed internal resolution. For most photos the difference is invisible; for a magazine cover it is not.
When does it get it wrong?
When there is no obvious subject — a landscape, a crowd, a flat-lay of ten things — it has to guess which one you meant and may pick differently than you would. It also struggles when the subject is nearly the same colour as the background. A photo where a person could point at the subject in a second is a photo this handles.
Can I put it on a different background?
Not in this tool — it gives you a transparent PNG, which drops onto any background in whatever you are using. The Screenshot Beautifier here will put an image on a colour or a gradient if that is all you need.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes, in a modern mobile browser, though the first download and the first cutout are slower than on a laptop. A very old phone may not have the memory for it and will say so rather than freezing.
What model is this?
U²-Net, in its smaller u2netp form — an open, Apache-licensed model for picking out the salient object in an image. It is served from this site rather than from anyone else's, so using this tool tells no third party that you did.