Remove.bg is shutting down and moving to Canva — I built a free, local-only alternative

Ardiana Ajdari — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:38:56 +0000

Remove.bg's standalone site is closing

Remove.bg announced it's shutting down its standalone site on December 1, 2026. Background removal is being folded into Canva, and the API is moving to Leonardo.Ai. If you've relied on remove.bg for quick, one-off image cutouts without wanting a full Canva subscription, you're going to need somewhere else to go.

I ran into this exact problem myself, so I built CutOutFree — a free background remover that runs entirely in your browser.

What it does differently

Nothing is uploaded. The AI model runs client-side using @imgly/background-removal, so your images never touch a server.
No account, no credits. Drop a photo, get a full-resolution transparent PNG. No signup wall.
Batch support. Process up to 20 images at once.
Beyond the basic cutout — you can blur the original background, replace it with a solid color or your own photo, add an outline, and manually clean up edges with erase/restore brushes if the AI misses a spot.

Try it here: https://cutoutfree.vercel.app

Why local processing matters

Most background removers (remove.bg included) upload your photo to their servers, run inference there, and send back the result. That's fine for a lot of use cases, but it means:

Your images pass through a third party's infrastructure
You're bottlenecked by their servers under load
Free tiers often cap resolution, and full-res downloads cost credits

Running the model directly in the browser (via WebAssembly / Web Workers) sidesteps all of that. It also means the tool works even if you're dealing with photos you'd rather not upload anywhere — product mockups pre-launch, client work under NDA, personal photos, etc.

The trade-off, to be fair

Local processing isn't strictly better in every way — it depends on the device running the model, so very old or low-power devices may see slower processing than a beefy cloud GPU would give you. For most modern laptops and desktops, though, it's fast (under 2 seconds per image in my testing).

Try it / feedback welcome

CutOutFree is free while I keep improving it — a paid tier for heavier use may come later, but the core background removal will stay free. It's also open source (AGPL-3.0), so feel free to look under the hood or contribute.

If you're one of the people affected by the remove.bg → Canva migration, I'd love your feedback: https://cutoutfree.vercel.app

What do you use for background removal in your workflow — curious if others have run into the same "just want a cutout, not a whole design suite" problem.

I’m Ardiana, a young aspiring web developer, sharing my journey 🚀

Ardiana Ajdari — Tue, 27 May 2025 15:47:00 +0000

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m Ardiana, a passionate young web developer, currently building my own productivity website and diving deep into web technologies. I’ve always been fascinated by how the web works and love creating cool projects to make life more organized and efficient.

I’ve recently started sharing my journey as a tech creator and web dev on Instagram and TikTok—I’d love for anyone interested to follow along! I’ll be posting tips, behind-the-scenes of my projects, and sharing ideas on how to grow as a developer and creator. 🌐✨

If you’re into web dev, productivity hacks, or just want to connect with someone on a similar path, let’s chat and grow together! 🚀

Insta
website

Looking forward to connecting with you all! 😊