Why the edges matter more than the middle
Any tool can cut around a solid shape. What separates a usable cut-out from an obvious one is hair, fur, fine branches and anything semi-transparent, where a pixel is genuinely part background and part subject.
The model here predicts how much of each edge pixel belongs to the subject rather than deciding in or out, which is why strands survive instead of turning into a solid outline with a halo.
The mask, and when you want it
Ask for the mask and you get a black-and-white picture instead: white where the subject is, black where it is not, grey at the soft edges.
That is what you feed into Photoshop, GIMP or a video editor when you want to do the compositing yourself — a mask can be adjusted, feathered and reused, where a flattened transparent PNG has already thrown that information away.
This one sends the picture away
The model that finds the edge of a subject runs on a graphics card, not in a browser tab. So unlike the image compressor, cropper and converter on this site, this tool uploads what you give it.
The upload goes directly from your browser to storage on a signed, short-lived address, never through this website. The picture you sent and the cut-out that comes back are both removed within about three hours.
Frequently asked questions
Does the result have a watermark?
No, and no reduced resolution either. The PNG that comes back is the full size of what you sent, with a real alpha channel.
Will it work on something that is not a person?
Yes — products, animals, food, furniture. It looks for whatever is clearly the subject. A photo with no obvious subject, like a landscape, has nothing to cut out and will give you something arbitrary.
What formats can I give it?
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and BMP. The result comes back as a PNG whatever you sent, because PNG is the common format that carries real transparency — a JPG cannot, and would hand you a white rectangle instead.
How long does the download link last?
About three hours. A cleanup job runs every half hour and removes both what you sent and what came back, so save the cutout while you have it.
Something wrong with this tool, or an idea for it? Tell us