Free AI Background Removal API — PixelAPI vs Remove.bg vs Cloudinary

I've been building image processing tools for a while, and background removal is one of the most requested features. There are several APIs that offer it, but the pricing, quality, and developer experience vary wildly. Here's an honest comparison.

Quality Comparison

All three produce good results, but there are differences:

Hair and fine details: Remove.bg has historically been the best here — they've had years to tune their model. PixelAPI uses BiRefNet which is the current academic state-of-the-art and handles hair edges very well. Cloudinary is solid but occasionally struggles with wispy hair.

Complex backgrounds: All three handle simple backgrounds well. For complex scenes (busy patterns, similar foreground/background colors), BiRefNet (PixelAPI) and Remove.bg are notably better than Cloudinary.

Transparent objects: Glass, water, semi-transparent fabrics — this is where they all struggle. Remove.bg handles it best, PixelAPI is close, Cloudinary tends to over-clip.

Verdict on quality: For most use cases, all three are production-ready. Remove.bg has the most polished edge refinement; PixelAPI has the newest model tech.

Developer Experience

PixelAPI

import requests, time

API_KEY = "your_key"

# Submit (multipart upload)
with open("photo.jpg", "rb") as f:
    resp = requests.post(
        "https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/remove-background",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
        files={"image": ("photo.jpg", f, "image/jpeg")}
    )
job_id = resp.json()["id"]

# Poll (async — result in ~2s)
while True:
    time.sleep(2)
    r = requests.get(
        f"https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/{job_id}",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
    ).json()
    if r["status"] == "completed":
        print(r["output_url"])  # transparent PNG URL
        break

Async model — you submit a job and poll for the result. Slightly more code than a synchronous API, but it means no timeouts on large images.

Remove.bg

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.remove.bg/v1.0/removebg",
    files={"image_file": open("photo.jpg", "rb")},
    data={"size": "auto"},
    headers={"X-Api-Key": "your_key"}
)
with open("output.png", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Synchronous — simpler code, but can timeout on large images. The free tier returns low-res previews (up to 625×400). You need a paid plan for full resolution.

Cloudinary

import cloudinary.uploader

cloudinary.config(cloud_name="yours", api_key="key", api_secret="secret")

result = cloudinary.uploader.upload("photo.jpg",
    background_removal="cloudinary_ai")
print(result["secure_url"])

Integrated into Cloudinary's pipeline — great if you're already using Cloudinary for media management. Overkill if you just need background removal.

Pricing Deep Dive

This is where things get interesting.

PixelAPI

• Free: 100 credits (2 credits per removal = 50 images)
• Starter: $9/mo → 1,500 credits → 750 images ($0.012/image)
• Pro: $29/mo → 6,000 credits → 3,000 images ($0.0097/image)
• Scale: $99/mo → 25,000 credits → 12,500 images ($0.0079/image)

Remove.bg

• Free: 50 images/mo (low-res only!)
• Subscription: from $0.23/image (1 credit plans)
• Pay-as-you-go: $0.45-1.99/image depending on resolution

Cloudinary

• Free: 25 credits/mo (roughly 25 transformations)
• Plus: $89/mo for 225 credits
• Background removal is an add-on transformation

Winner on price: PixelAPI by a wide margin, especially at scale. Remove.bg is 20-50x more expensive per image.

When to Use Each

Use PixelAPI if:

• Cost matters (startup, indie developer, high volume)
• You want other AI tools too (upscale, face restore, image generation)
• You want full-res results on the free tier
• You don't mind async polling (2 extra lines of code)

Use Remove.bg if:

• You need the absolute best edge quality
• You want a synchronous API
• Budget isn't a concern
• You only need background removal

Use Cloudinary if:

• You're already on Cloudinary for media management
• You need a full CDN + transformation pipeline
• Background removal is just one step in a larger workflow

My Take

I'm biased (I built PixelAPI), so take this with a grain of salt. But here's my honest assessment:

Remove.bg is the established player and their quality is excellent. If you're a large company with budget for $0.23/image, it's a solid choice.

But for indie developers, startups, and anyone processing more than a handful of images — the pricing is hard to justify when newer models like BiRefNet produce comparable results at 1/50th the cost.

I built PixelAPI because I wanted these tools to be accessible, not locked behind enterprise pricing.

Try Them All

• PixelAPI: pixelapi.dev/tools/background-remover.html (free web tool, no signup)
• Remove.bg: remove.bg (free web tool)
• Cloudinary: Requires account setup

Test with your own images and see which works best for your use case.

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I'm Om, building PixelAPI solo from Hyderabad, India. Feedback welcome at [e-mail].