remove.bg Is Shutting Down: What to Use Instead

What is happening to remove.bg

remove.bg's FAQ says the standalone website will no longer be available from December 1, 2026, at 9:00 CET. The company describes itself as having become part of Canva in 2021, and its features move to two places:

• Background removal on the web moves into Canva.
• The self-serve API moves to Leonardo.ai.
• Enterprise API contracts are not affected and continue as normal.
• The Photoshop plugin and the other integrations stop working, and the self-serve API stops accepting requests.

Unscreen, the video background remover from the same company, closed earlier: since mid-2026 its address redirects to Canva's video background remover, and Canva's help article gives June 29, 2026 as the closing date.

What happens to your credits and subscription

These are remove.bg's own terms, as published in its FAQ and help center. Check your own account against them before December 1, because we cannot see or change anything there:

Subscription credits never carried over between billing periods, so there is nothing to rescue there. If you bought a large pack of pay-as-you-go credits, spend them or plan around the expiry date rather than assuming they transfer to Canva.

remove.bg alternatives compared

Free tiers differ more than the tools themselves. The figures below come from each company's own pricing page or help center, read in September 2026:

Whether you search for a remove bg alternative, an alternative to remove.bg, or a remove.bg alternative free of charge, the shortlist above is the same. Two things the table cannot show. First, usage rights: remove.bg's free and no-account results were for personal use only, and Photoroom says free accounts cannot be used commercially, while cutouts from CutoutBG AI are yours to use commercially on the free allowance too. Second, price per image once you pay: remove.bg's subscription worked out at $9 for 40 credits, one credit per full-resolution image.

People also search for Photoroom vs remove.bg specifically. Photoroom is the closest match if you want a full editor with templates; it asks for an account, caps free exports at 2000 × 2000 and reserves commercial use for paid plans.

Why CutoutBG AI works as a remove.bg free alternative

CutoutBG AI does one job: it takes the background out of an image, and then puts back whatever you want. From one upload you can download a transparent PNG, a solid color such as white, the original background blurred, or your own photo behind the subject.

• Full-size downloads on the free tier. Nothing is scaled down and nothing is stamped on top.
• The first three each day need no account. Google sign-in takes it to ten.
• Commercial use allowed, free results included.
• Prices you can work out in advance. From $9.99 monthly for 400 images, or $4.99 once for 100 that last a year.

Sites like remove.bg often charge per full-resolution image, which is what made a small job feel expensive. Here the same $9.99 covers 400 images, about $0.025 each, against $0.225 on that $9 / 40-credit subscription.

See plans and token packs→

If you used the API or bulk processing

The self-serve remove.bg API moves to Leonardo.ai, and enterprise API contracts continue as normal, so check which of the two you are on before rewriting anything.

CutoutBG AI does not offer a public API today, and there is no bulk upload yet: you add images to the web tool one by one, and up to two can be processing at once on the free allowance, five with a paid plan or token pack. An API is planned after the main site is finished. If your work depends on scripted calls this month, Leonardo.ai or another provider with a published API is the practical route, and this page is worth checking again later.

What about video background removal

Unscreen users land in the same spot: its address now redirects to Canva's video background remover. CutoutBG AI handles images only, so for video the honest answer is to use Canva or another video tool.