Transparent Background Maker
Make a flat background transparent with this free online tool. Pick the color to remove, or let the tool take the color of the corners, then save a PNG or WebP. It suits logos, icons, screenshots, signatures and product photos on a plain background. It is not an AI cut-out, so it does not find a subject on a busy background.
- The tool removes one flat colour. A photo with a busy background needs an AI cut-out, and this tool does not do that.
- Upload limit for the free web tool is 5 MB per picture, and 30 jobs per day per visitor without an account.
- A JPEG has compression noise around edges. If specks remain, raise the tolerance a little.
Drop an image here
PNG, JPG, WebP, AVIF, GIF, BMP or TIFF, up to 5 MB
Made for flat, single-colour backgrounds: logos, icons, screenshots, signatures and product photos on white. It does not find a subject in a photo with a busy background. That needs an AI cut-out, which this tool does not do.
0 removes only the exact colour. Higher values also remove similar colours. Raise it if a JPEG leaves a speckled background.
0 gives a hard edge. Higher values blend the edge pixels over 1 to 3 pixels, so no light fringe is left around the subject.
Areas of the same colour inside the subject, such as a white eye, stay. Leave this off to remove the colour everywhere, including the holes in letters.
Only PNG and WebP can hold transparency, so JPEG and GIF files become PNG.
Complete the human check to enable the button.
Result
Your image will appear here.
The free web tool takes images up to 5 MB, 30 per day. Signed in, the limit is 10 MB. The image keeps its pixel size unless you choose Make smaller.
Retention: web-tool results are deleted after 10 minutes. API results are kept 1 day on the free plan and 7 days on Starter and Pro (30 days on Business and Scale). A record of each job (type, time, status and credits, not what you submitted) is kept for 30 days without an account, or while your account exists if you are signed in.
No account needed
30 images per day for free, no watermark.
Only your edit is applied
The rest of the picture is left as it is. Camera and location tags (EXIF, GPS) are not written to the result.
Deleted automatically
Web tool results are removed after 10 minutes.
Privacy: what you submit is used only to make this file. It is deleted when the job ends, also from the job record, and the result is deleted after 10 minutes. See the privacy policy.
Do this from your code
The same edit as an API request: send the image bytes, then poll the job. It needs an API key; a free account can create one.
curl -X POST "https://api.aiipworld.com/v1/image-jobs?op=image_edit&action=flip" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AIIPWORLD_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: image/png" \
--data-binary @input.png
# returns {"job_id": "...", "status": "queued", "credits_reserved": 1}; then poll:
curl https://api.aiipworld.com/v1/jobs/JOB_ID -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIIPWORLD_API_KEY"Batches
The web tool handles 1 image at a time. The API takes one request per image, so you can script as many as your plan allows.
Retention
Web-tool results are kept 10 minutes; free API results 1 day; Starter and Pro results 7 days; Business and Scale 30 days. The web tool allows 10 conversions per minute and 50 per day per visitor.
In one sentence
A free online tool that makes a flat background transparent by removing one color (taken from the corners or chosen by you) and the colors close to it, with soft edges, and saves a PNG or WebP; it is not an AI cut-out.
Key facts
- Input: one picture up to 5 MB in the free tool and 10 MB when signed in, and up to 16 MP (4096 x 4096); an animated GIF or WebP uses its first frame only.
- Settings: the color to remove (the color of the four corners by default, or a color you pick or click on the picture), the tolerance (0 to 100, default 10), the soft edge (0 to 100, default 50; 0 gives a hard edge), an option to remove only the background that touches the edges of the picture, and the save type, PNG or WebP with a quality setting; JPEG and GIF are not offered because they cannot hold full transparency.
- It removes one flat color and does not find a subject in a photo, so a picture with a busy background needs an AI cut-out, which this tool does not do; the pixels of the subject keep their color and transparency exactly.
- In our test a generated 800 x 480 px PNG logo of 22 KB on white became a PNG of 21 KB with the edge option on (68.5% of the pixels fully transparent, 1,936 edge pixels partly transparent) and 74.8% transparent with it off; the test pictures were generated by our scripts and results vary.
- Free without an account: up to 10 conversions per minute and 50 per day per visitor, no watermark. Signed in, each render costs 1 credit (100 free credits every month).
- Files are deleted automatically: 10 minutes after conversion without an account, 1 day with a free account.
- Developers can run the same job with POST https://api.aiipworld.com/v1/image-jobs?op=image_edit (the image as the request body, settings in the query string) and an API key (see the API docs page).
Sources
Last reviewed:
How it works
- Drop your picture into the box, or select it from your device. Check the preview and the file size.
- Keep "Automatic: the colour of the corners", or choose a colour and click on the picture to take the colour of a pixel.
- Set the tolerance and the soft edge, or leave the defaults. Tick "Only remove the background that touches the edges of the picture" if the subject has areas of the same colour inside it.
- Click "Make background transparent".
- Check the result over the checkerboard, then save the PNG or WebP.
Example output
Original PNG, 800 x 480 px, 22 KB
Background removed: PNG, 800 x 480 px, 21 KB
How to make a background transparent with this tool
Start with the picture you want to change. Drop it into the drop zone, and the tool shows a preview with the file size. Accepted types are PNG, JPG, WebP, AVIF, GIF, BMP and TIFF.
Click "Make background transparent" when your settings are ready. The result panel shows the picture over a checkerboard, which is how transparent areas look, together with the colour that was removed and how many pixels became transparent.
Your original file on your device is never changed. You can run the tool again with other settings to compare results.
What this tool can and cannot do
The tool removes one flat colour and the colours close to it, so you can make an image transparent when its background is one color. It works well when the background is one colour, such as a logo on white, an icon, a screenshot, a signature on paper, or a product photo on a white backdrop.
It does not find a subject in a photo. If a picture of a person or an animal has a busy or changing background, removing one colour will not isolate the subject, and that job needs an AI cut-out. This tool is not an AI tool and does not offer one.
A background that fades from one colour to another is not a flat colour. In our test, a drawn picture with a white-to-blue gradient lost only 11% of its pixels, the part close to white.
Make PNG transparent: white background to transparent
The most common job is changing a white background to transparent background, which many people call remove white background. Keep the colour on Automatic, and the tool reads the four corners. When the corners agree, that colour is removed. In our test on a drawn logo on white, the colour found was #ffffff.
To make a PNG transparent, save the result as PNG. To make a white background transparent in a JPG, upload the JPG: the result is a PNG, because a JPEG cannot hold transparency.
If no two corners have the same colour, the tool uses one of them and says so in the result panel. Choose the colour yourself if that is not the one you want to remove.
Choose the color to remove
Choose "Choose a colour" to remove a colour that is not in the corners, such as a coloured backdrop. Use the colour box, or click on the picture to take the colour of the pixel you clicked.
This also works to remove green screen from a still picture when the background is plain green. In our test, a drawn logo on #00b140 green lost the green and 68.6% of its pixels became transparent. It does not work on video, and it does not remove green light reflected on hair or skin.
If the colour you choose is not in the picture, nothing is removed and the result panel says so.
Tolerance: how close a colour must be
The tolerance goes from 0 to 100, and the default is 10. At 0 only the exact colour is removed. Higher values also remove colours that are close to it.
A JPEG often has small colour differences in a flat background. In our test, a JPEG saved at quality 60 left speckles with tolerance 0 and a hard edge: 66.9% of the pixels were removed, against 74.8% at tolerance 20. At the default of 10, 74.2% were removed.
Do not set it higher than you need. A high tolerance also removes parts of the subject that are close to the background colour.
Soft edge: no white fringe around the subject
The edge of a shape in a logo is made of pixels that mix the shape colour with the background colour. If those pixels were kept as they are, a light fringe would show on a dark page.
The soft edge setting goes from 0 to 100, and the default is 50. The pixels next to the removed background, up to 1, 2 or 3 pixels away, are given the colour of the nearby subject and a partial transparency. At 0 the edge is hard: each pixel is either removed or kept as it is.
Pixels of the subject itself keep their colour and transparency exactly. In our test on a drawn logo, the default setting made 4,240 edge pixels partly transparent, and a soft edge of 0 made none.
Only remove the background connected to the edges
By default the colour is removed everywhere in the picture. A white ring or a white star inside a logo would become transparent too, and so would the holes in letters.
Tick "Only remove the background that touches the edges of the picture" to keep them. Only the background that is connected to the edge is removed, like a paint bucket fill from the outside.
In our test, the logo lost 74.8% of its pixels without the option, and 68.5% with it, because the white ring and star stayed. If no pixel of the colour touches the edge, nothing is removed and the result panel says so.
Transparent signature maker and logo tips
For a signature, photograph or scan it on plain white paper in even light, then use the defaults. Shadows and paper texture are not a flat colour, so raise the tolerance a little until the paper is gone, and check the strokes.
For a logo, start from the largest file you have. The tool does not make a picture sharper or bigger, and it keeps the size in pixels.
To use the result on a coloured page, check it over both a light and a dark background before you publish it.
Choose the file format
"Same as the original" is the default. It saves PNG, except that a WebP stays a WebP. A JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF or AVIF is saved as PNG.
You can also choose PNG or WebP. JPEG and GIF are not offered, because a JPEG cannot hold transparency and GIF only has on-off transparency. The quality slider from 1 to 100 applies to WebP, and its default is 90.
In our test, a 22 KB PNG logo was saved as a 17 KB PNG with the default settings, and as a 15 KB WebP.
Animated GIF and WebP
For an animated GIF or WebP, only the first frame is used, and the result is a single picture. The tool shows a note when your file is an animation.
Results vary with the file. Review the result panel after each run.
Limits: file size and pixels
Each picture can be up to 5 MB in the free web tool, and up to 16 MP (4096 x 4096). Signed-in users can upload up to 10 MB per picture.
A result can be up to 40 MP in one picture, and 20 MB of file. WebP results can be up to 16,383 px on a side. A result over these limits is refused, not shrunk.
Pictures over the pixel limit are refused before they are decoded. Camera and location tags are not written to the result.
Transparent PNG maker from code
Use the API when you want to remove backgrounds in your own software. Send a POST request to https://api.aiipworld.com/v1/image-jobs?op=image_edit&action=transparent with the raw picture bytes as the body, not JSON or multipart. Set the Content-Type to image/png, image/jpeg, image/webp, image/gif, image/avif, image/bmp or image/tiff.
Settings go in the query string, and unknown names are rejected. Write a colour such as #ffffff as %23ffffff in the query string. Send your API key in the Authorization header as Bearer, or in x-api-key. The response is 202 with a job_id. Poll GET /v1/jobs/:id until the job is done, then download the result from the short-lived download_url.
The tool page shows a ready cURL, Node and Python example below it, built from the settings you chose. One request makes one result. Errors include 400 invalid_params, 400 unsupported_image, 413 file_too_large, 402 insufficient_credits and 429 rate limited. Full details are at /docs/#image-jobs.
Privacy: what happens to your picture
Your picture is sent to our server, where it is processed with sharp, built on the libvips library. Use only pictures you have the right to use, as set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.
The uploaded picture is used only to make the result. The working copy is deleted as soon as the job ends, whether it succeeds or fails. The result in the free web tool is deleted after 10 minutes. Download links are short-lived.
A record of each job is kept. Signed-in users see their jobs in the dashboard.
Questions
How do I make image transparent for free?
Use the free web tool. Drop your picture into it and click "Make background transparent". No paid plan is needed. Anonymous use needs a human check, and you can run up to 30 jobs per day per visitor without an account.
How do I make a white background transparent?
Drop your picture into the tool, keep the colour on Automatic, and click "Make background transparent". Then check the result over the checkerboard and save the PNG.
Is this an AI background remover?
No. It removes one flat colour and the colours close to it. It does not find a subject in a photo, so a picture with a busy background needs an AI cut-out, which this tool does not offer.
How do I remove the white background from a logo but keep the white inside it?
Tick "Only remove the background that touches the edges of the picture". Only the white that is connected to the edge is removed, and white areas inside the logo stay.
How do I make a PNG transparent?
Upload the PNG, make the background transparent, and save the result as PNG. A JPEG or other format you upload is saved as PNG, or as WebP if you choose it.
Can I remove a green screen?
For a still picture with a flat, evenly lit green background, yes: choose the green with the colour box or by clicking on it. The tool does not work on video and does not remove green light reflected on hair or skin.
Why are there specks left after I removed the background?
A JPEG has small colour differences in a flat background. Raise the tolerance a little until the specks are gone, and check that the subject is not affected.
Why does my picture look jagged or have a light fringe?
Set the soft edge to the default of 50 or higher. At 0 the edges are hard, and a light fringe can stay around smooth edges.
Can I make a signature transparent?
Yes, if it is on plain paper in even light. Use the defaults, raise the tolerance a little if paper texture remains, and check the strokes over a dark background.
Can I make an animated GIF transparent?
Only its first frame is used, and the result is a single picture. The tool shows a note when your file is an animation.
Can I remove backgrounds in my own code?
Yes. Use the image_edit operation with action=transparent of the image jobs API with the raw picture bytes. The tool page shows a ready cURL, Node and Python example for your settings.
Need this in your app or in bulk?
This tool runs on the same platform as the API, so the same image is one HTTP request from your code. A free account includes 100 credits a month.