Person or Any subject: which one to pick
The remover offers two cutout models. Person is the default. It is a 25.9 MB model trained on people, and it handles hair, shoulders and the soft border around a head well. Use it for portraits, selfies, team photos and anyone standing in front of a busy scene.
Any subject is the opt-in choice for everything else: products, pets, cars, plants, furniture. It is larger, at 88.1 MB, and slower on devices without WebGPU, so the editor asks before it downloads. If Person comes back almost empty on a photo of a mug or a dog, you will see “No person found — try Any subject”. That is your cue to switch.
Each model downloads once. After that it stays in your browser's cache, and every background tool on the site uses it, so moving on to Background changer or Background blur later costs nothing extra.
Cleaning up the edge
The first result is usually close. Edges are where cutouts go wrong, and three controls deal with them.
- Edge softness feathers the border from 0 to 10 px. A little softness hides a jagged line; too much leaves a faint glow.
- Shrink/grow edge moves the border in or out by up to 6 px. Shrink it when a thin rim of the old background clings to the subject. Grow it when fingertips or the tips of ears have been clipped.
- Erase and Restore are brushes for the mask itself. Erase takes out leftovers, such as a patch of sky between an arm and a body. Restore paints back anything the model cut away. Set the brush size to suit the job.
Saving a cutout that keeps its transparency
Turn on Mask view to see the mask in red over the photo. Gaps and stray specks are much easier to spot that way than against the checkerboard preview.
To keep the transparent area in the file, export as PNG or WebP. JPEG has no see-through pixels, so it would fill the empty area with a solid color. PNG is the safe pick for slide decks and design apps. WebP gives a smaller file for web pages, where your browser can encode it.
Every applied step goes into History. Try a different edge setting, check it with Hold to compare, and step back if the earlier one was better. Up to 20 versions are kept while the page is open.
Photos that give a cutout trouble
Flyaway hair against a similar color, glass, smoke, veils and anything semi-transparent are hard to separate. Plan on a minute with the brushes for those. A subject that stands clear of its background, in even light, gives the cleanest start.
The mask is worked out on a copy no larger than 4096 px on the long side, then scaled up to your full photo. Your export keeps the original resolution; only the edge is computed at that size.
What it will not do
- Fine hair, glass, smoke and semi-transparent objects can come out imperfect. Erase and Restore are there to correct them.
- The mask is computed on a copy of at most 4096 px on the long side and scaled up to the full photo.
- Person mode looks for people. For products, animals and objects, switch to Any subject.
- JPEG cannot hold transparency. Export PNG or WebP to keep the background clear.
Devices and downloads
Person downloads 25.9 MB the first time you use it, and Any subject downloads 88.1 MB only if you choose it. Both are Apache-2.0 licensed, and the editor shows the name, size and license before anything is fetched. They run in a background worker, on WebGPU when your browser offers it and on WebAssembly otherwise. On WebAssembly, Any subject takes around 17 seconds per photo; with WebGPU it takes a second or two.
| Model | Download | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Person cutout | 25.9 MB | Apache-2.0 |
| Any-subject cutout | 88.1 MB | Apache-2.0 |
On-device AI: A small neural network that runs on this device after a one-time download. See what is stored on this device.
Step by step
- Open your photo. Drop it on the page, paste it, or pick it with the file chooser.
- Choose the subject type. Leave Person on for people. Switch to Any subject for products, pets or objects.
- Tidy the edge. Use Edge softness, Shrink/grow edge and the Erase or Restore brush. Mask view shows what will be kept.
- Export with transparency. Save as PNG, or WebP where your browser supports it, so the background stays clear.
Questions about background remover
Why does my cutout save with a solid background instead of a clear one?
The file was probably saved as JPEG, which has no transparent pixels. Export as PNG or WebP and the empty area stays clear.
Can I cut out a product or a pet rather than a person?
Yes. Switch the subject to Any subject. It is a separate 88.1 MB model made for objects and animals, and it downloads only when you ask for it.
Do I need to download the cutout model again on my next visit?
No. It stays in this browser's cache and is reused, unless you clear it from the Model manager page or your browser settings.
What causes a pale outline around my subject, and how do I remove it?
It is usually a thin strip of the old background. Move Shrink/grow edge a pixel or two inward, lower Edge softness, then use the Erase brush on any spot that is left.