What a transparent background is
Every pixel in a PNG carries four numbers. Three of them are colour. The fourth is opacity, and it runs from 0 to 255. A pixel at 0 shows whatever sits behind it. A pixel at 255 hides it completely.
That fourth number is the whole trick. Making a background transparent means setting it to 0 everywhere the background was, holding it at 255 across the subject, and letting the values in between do the work along hair and fur.
Save it as a PNG
So why does a cut-out sometimes come back with a white background? Because it was saved as a JPG. A JPG has no fourth number, so every transparent pixel has to become something, and that something is usually white.
PNG keeps the transparency. WebP keeps it too and runs about a fifth of the size, which is worth having if the picture is going on a web page (both are in the format menu here). JPG is the right choice once you’ve put a solid background back in, and only then.
Doing it here
Drop a photo above, paste one with Ctrl+V, or pick a file. The cut-out appears in about a second on the grey checkerboard that every image editor uses to mean nothing is there. Press Download and you have your PNG.
You can drop several photos at once. They queue up along the bottom, and “Download all” gives you a zip of the lot. That’s built for bulk product shots, and it doesn’t cost anything either.
When the edges come out wrong
Sometimes they will. Hair against a busy background is where every one of these tools struggles, and this one refines the edge against your actual photo rather than stretching a small mask over it, which helps and doesn’t always finish the job.
Open More options and reach for the brush. Bring back paints the subject in again; Rub out takes it away. You can start a stroke outside the picture and drag inwards, which is how you fix a subject that runs off the edge of the frame.
The Edges sliders move the whole outline. Pull it in by a pixel or two when the cut-out leaves a rim of the old background behind, and push it out when it has bitten into the subject.
If what you’re cutting out is a product, a logo or an animal rather than a person, switch Subject to Object. That loads a different model, which handles things that aren’t people.
Why nothing is uploaded
Every other free background remover sends your photo to a server, cuts it out there, and sends a picture back. This one downloads the model to your browser instead, once, and runs it on your own machine. Your photo never crosses the network.
It works with no connection at all after the first visit. Open your developer tools, switch to the network tab, and cut out a photo: nothing goes out.
Questions
How do I make a background transparent?
Drop a photo onto the page, or paste one with Ctrl+V. The background is removed in about a second and you download a PNG. Nothing is uploaded: the model runs inside your browser.
Which file format keeps a transparent background?
PNG and WebP both store an alpha channel, so both keep transparency. JPG has no alpha channel, so saving as JPG fills the transparent areas with white.
Is there a watermark or a resolution limit?
No. The file you download is the same size as the photo you dropped in, with nothing added to it, and there is no account or sign-up.
Does my photo get uploaded to a server?
No. The background removal runs on your own machine. You can open your browser’s developer tools and watch the network tab stay empty while it works.