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 (about 110 MB on a desktop, 90 MB on a phone). 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.