Headshot background remover, no upload.
Drop in a photo of a person and get a clean transparent PNG back. The photo is read straight off your disk and never uploaded, so there is no signup, no queue and no watermark. Built for people specifically, not for products or pets.
Runs on your machine · Built for photos of people
Drop a photo of a person
JPG, PNG, WebP — any size, nothing uploaded
7MB · downloaded once, then it works offline
About this tool
How to remove the background from a headshot
Drop a photo into the box above and the cutout starts on its own. The first run pauses to fetch a 7MB model into your browser, which takes a few seconds on a normal connection. After that the model is cached, so every later photo starts straight away and keeps working with the wifi off.
Once the model is loaded, a single headshot usually takes a couple of seconds. You get a before and after pair so you can check the edges before you commit to anything.
Then pick what sits behind you. Transparent gives you a PNG you can drop onto any colour later. White, cream, charcoal and ember are there because those are the backdrops people actually ask for on a profile photo. Download the PNG, or copy it straight to the clipboard and paste it into a document.
Why this tool only works on photos of people
This is a human matting model, and we would rather say so than take the traffic. It is MODNet, the one cutout model we found that is small enough to run in a browser, carries a licence we can use commercially, and is genuinely good at people. It handles flyaway hair, a fringe, glasses and a beard far better than its 7MB size suggests.
Point it at a dog, a trainer or a coffee cup and it falls apart. It looks for something person shaped, so on a pet it erases parts of the body and leaves a ragged, unusable edge. Every general purpose background remover in these results will beat us on a product shot.
If you need a cutout of an object, that is what the Yaps desktop app is for. It runs a general purpose model on your own machine, so it cuts out whatever is actually in the frame.
A background remover with no upload, and why that matters
Almost every free background remover works the same way. You hand your photo to a server, their GPU does the work, and you download the result. Your face sits on someone else's machine, usually with a retention window in the terms, usually behind a queue and a file size cap that exist to keep their costs down.
This one never sends the photo anywhere. The model downloads to your browser once, and the image is read off your disk into a canvas. Turn off your wifi once the model has downloaded and cut out another photo anyway. Turn the wifi off after the model has cached and the tool still works.
That is a structural difference, not a promise, and it explains what this page does not have. No account, because there is nothing to attach one to. No file size limit or daily quota, because we are not paying for the compute. No watermark, because there is nothing to upsell you out of.
What you get back: a transparent PNG at full resolution
The output is a PNG at the same pixel dimensions as the photo you dropped in. A 4,000 by 6,000 shot off a camera comes back at 4,000 by 6,000. Nothing is downscaled to save bandwidth, because no bandwidth is involved.
Transparency is written into the alpha channel, so soft edges stay soft. Hair fades out rather than being cut at a hard line, which is what stops a cutout looking like it was traced with scissors. If you pick a solid colour instead, the subject is blended onto that colour using the same soft alpha, so you do not get a fringe of the old background clinging to the edges.
Inputs can be JPG, PNG or WebP. Output is always PNG, because JPEG cannot store transparency. If you need a JPEG, pick the white backdrop and convert it afterwards.
Using the cutout for LinkedIn, a CV or a team page
A transparent PNG is more useful than a photo with a new background already baked in, because you only make it once. Put the same file on your company colour for the team page, on white for a CV, and on whatever a given platform expects for a profile picture.
A few practical notes. LinkedIn and most job boards flatten transparency onto white anyway, so if that is the only place it is going, pick the white backdrop here and skip a step. Slack and Notion avatars crop to a circle, so leave a little room around the head rather than cropping tight before you cut out. A team page reads best when every headshot sits on the same colour, which is exactly what a transparent PNG makes easy.
For an ID badge or a passport style photo, check the rules first. Some require a specific off white and a specific head height, and a cutout on a plain colour does not automatically meet them.
Hair, glasses and group photos: what to expect
Hair is the part people check first, and it is where this model earns its place. Fine strands against a plain wall come out cleanly. The same strands against a busy bookshelf are harder, because the model has to guess where the hair stops and the shelf starts.
Glasses are usually fine. Thin wire frames can lose a section where a lens picks up a bright reflection. A hat, hood or high collar is fine. Something held up near the face, like a phone or a mug, may be dropped, because the model is looking for a person and does not know the mug was part of the shot you wanted.
Group photos generally work. It mattes people rather than one specific person, so several figures in a frame tend to be kept together. Very small background figures and heavily overlapping people are less reliable. If one person comes out ragged, crop to them and run it again.
Getting a cleaner cutout out of a phone photo
Most of the difference comes from the photo, not the tool. Separation is what matters. The more the subject stands apart from whatever is behind them, the more decisive the edge. A plain wall a step or two behind you beats standing flat against it, because the slight blur gives the model an obvious boundary.
Even light on the face helps. Hard backlighting turns hair into a bright halo that reads as background. A dark jumper against a dark sofa is the hardest case there is, and it is worth moving rather than fighting.
Frame the head and shoulders clearly. A very tight crop of a face, or a person taking up two percent of a wide landscape shot, both give the model less to lock onto. Use the original file rather than a screenshot or something that has been through a messaging app twice, because compression artefacts around the shoulders become ragged edges in the cutout.
How to use background remover in your browser
Drop in a photo of a person
Drag a JPG, PNG or WebP onto the drop zone, or click it to pick a file. The photo is read from your disk and is not uploaded.
Let the cutout model load
The first time you use the tool, your browser downloads a 7MB cutout model. It is cached afterwards, so later photos start immediately and work offline.
Check the before and after
The original and the cutout sit side by side. Look at the edges around hair and shoulders to confirm the cutout is clean before you use it.
Pick a backdrop
Keep the background transparent, or place the cutout on white, cream, charcoal or ember. The subject is blended onto the colour using the soft edge, so there is no fringe.
Download the PNG
Save the transparent PNG at the original resolution, or copy the image to your clipboard and paste it straight into a document or design tool.
Questions
How do I remove the background from a headshot for free?
Drop the photo into the tool on this page. It cuts the person out and gives you a transparent PNG to download. There is no account, no payment and no watermark, because the work happens in your browser rather than on a server we have to pay for.
Is my photo uploaded to a server?
No. The cutout model is downloaded to your browser once, then the photo is read straight off your disk. Nothing is sent anywhere, which is also why there is no queue and no file size limit. Once the model has cached, the tool keeps working with the wifi off.
Why does it only work on photos of people?
It runs MODNet, a human matting model. It is the one cutout model small enough for a browser that also carries a licence we can use commercially, and it is excellent on people including fine hair edges. On a pet, a product or an object it produces a ragged, unreliable cutout, so we say that up front.
Can it remove the background from a product photo or a pet?
Not well. The model looks for something person shaped and will erase parts of anything else. Use the Yaps desktop app for that instead. It runs a general purpose model on your machine, so it cuts out whatever is actually in the frame, and it is still fully on device.
What file types can I use, and what do I get back?
You can drop in a JPG, PNG or WebP. You get back a PNG with a transparent background at the original resolution, or the same cutout placed on a solid colour if you pick one. Output is always PNG because JPEG cannot store transparency.
Is there a resolution limit or a watermark?
No to both. The cutout comes back at the same pixel dimensions as the photo you put in, and nothing is stamped on it. There is no limit because we are not paying to move your file across a network or run it on our hardware.
Can I put a white background behind my headshot instead?
Yes. After the cutout appears, pick a backdrop: transparent, white, cream, charcoal or ember. The subject is blended onto the colour using the soft edge from the cutout, so you do not get a hard fringe around hair.
Does it handle hair, glasses and beards?
Usually well. Fine hair against a fairly plain background is where this model is strongest, and beards and most glasses are fine. Thin wire frames can lose a section where a lens catches a bright reflection, and hair against a busy background is harder for any model.
Does it work on group photos?
Usually, yes. It mattes people rather than one specific person, so several figures in a frame are generally kept together. Very small figures in the background and people heavily overlapping each other are less reliable. If one person comes out ragged, crop to them and run it again.
Why is the first cutout slower than the rest?
The model is about 7MB and downloads the first time you use the tool. Your browser caches it, so later photos start immediately. After that, a single headshot usually takes a couple of seconds on a normal laptop.
Does it work on a phone?
It runs in mobile browsers as well as on a laptop. Everything happens on the device, so a very large photo on an older phone can be slow. If it struggles, try a smaller version of the same shot.
Can I use the cutout commercially, on a CV or a company website?
Yes. It is your photo, and we never receive a copy of it or the result. Use the PNG wherever you need it, including a CV, a LinkedIn profile, a company team page or printed material.
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