remove.bg is shutting down. Here is what to use instead.
On December 1, 2026 at 09:00 CET the standalone remove.bg website closes. Background removal moves inside Canva, the API moves to Leonardo.Ai, and unused credits expire the same morning. If you only ever wanted the one-step tool, you now need a new home for it.
What actually changes on December 1
| If you used… | What happens |
|---|---|
| remove.bg in the browser | The site goes away. You are pointed to Canva, which needs an account and puts the remover inside the full design editor. |
| The remove.bg API | Moves to Leonardo.Ai, another Canva company. New endpoint, new pricing, new keys. |
| Prepaid credits | Expire on December 1, 2026 at 09:00 CET. Spend them or lose them. |
| Photoshop, Figma or Sketch plugins | Stop working with the standalone service. Check Canva's replacements. |
Why DropBG is a different kind of replacement
Every other alternative you will find this month is the same product with a new logo: you upload your photo to their server, they run a model, you download the result and pay per image once the free tier runs out. DropBG flips the architecture.
- The model runs in your browser. Your photo is never uploaded. There is no server holding it, no retention policy to read, no training clause to worry about.
- There is nothing to meter. Because processing happens on your device, one image costs us the same as a thousand: nothing. So there are no credits, no daily limit and no watermark.
- No account. Open the page, drop the file, download the PNG. That is the whole product.
- Full resolution. remove.bg's free tier capped downloads at 0.25 megapixels. DropBG returns the image at its original size.
Side by side
| DropBG | remove.bg (until Dec 1) | Canva | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, unlimited | 1 free preview, then credits from ~$0.20 per image | Free tier with limits, Pro subscription for full use |
| Account required | No | For HD downloads | Yes |
| Photo uploaded to a server | Never | Yes | Yes |
| Full-resolution output on free tier | Yes | No (0.25 MP) | Limited |
| Works offline | Yes, after the first load | No | No |
| Batch processing | Yes, drop several files | Paid | Manual |
Where DropBG is honest about its limits
The first image on a new device is slow, because your browser has to download the model once (roughly 40 to 90 MB). After that it is cached and most photos finish in one to three seconds on a laptop.
Quality is excellent on people, products, pets and anything with a clear edge. Like every automatic remover, including remove.bg, the hard cases are fine hair against a busy background, semi-transparent glass and very thin structures such as wires or fences. You get the full-resolution PNG, so touching up an edge in any editor is straightforward.
Migration checklist
- Spend remaining remove.bg credits before December 1, 2026 at 09:00 CET.
- If you used the API, evaluate Leonardo.Ai's pricing against your volume before the cutoff.
- Bookmark DropBG for the everyday browser workflow.
- Open DropBG once on each device you use, so the model is cached before you need it in a hurry.