Koutuxiaremove.bg is closing on December 1, 2026. What changes, and a free alternative that never uploads your image
Koutuxia removes backgrounds with an AI engine that runs inside your browser. The free path is unlimited, needs no account, and does not upload your image to our server. Pro adds cloud models, Magic Eraser, photo unblur, 2× upscaling and AI backgrounds.
remove.bg has told its users that the standalone website goes offline on 1 December 2026 at 9:00 CET. The technology is not disappearing; it moves inside Canva, and the API moves to Leonardo.Ai. If you only ever wanted a transparent PNG and no design editor, that is a bigger change than it sounds. This page lists what remove.bg announced, what Canva and Leonardo offer instead, and how Koutuxia's free in-browser cutout compares.
What remove.bg announced
From 1 December 2026 at 9:00 a.m. CET the standalone remove.bg website will no longer be available, and accounts will not be accessible after that. remove.bg has been part of Canva since 2021, and Canva is consolidating background removal into its own platform rather than running two products.
Monthly subscriptions keep working until the cutoff and then end on their own; any final renewal on or after 1 November is free. Annual plans with unused time get a pro-rata refund to the original payment method without any action from you. Unused pay-as-you-go credits expire on 1 December 2026 with no refund, so spend them first.
The self-service API stops accepting requests on 1 December 2026. Enterprise API contracts are not affected. Before the cutoff, download your credit usage report and invoices from the Account page, because they cannot be retrieved afterwards.
What Canva and Leonardo.Ai offer instead
For single images and batches, remove.bg points you to Canva's Background Remover, which uses the same technology. You remove the background from inside a Canva design, then keep editing there. That is convenient if the transparent image was going into a Canva layout anyway. If all you wanted was the PNG, you now go through a design editor, and your image is uploaded to Canva.
For automated or high-volume use, the remove.bg API is replaced by Leonardo.Ai's API, also owned by Canva. Leonardo's migration guide is clear that this is not a drop-in swap: the request becomes a JSON body with a model name and an image reference (base64 for smaller files, a URL for larger ones), and the response is JSON with a result URL rather than the image bytes. Budget some engineering time for the change.
Where Koutuxia fits
Koutuxia's free cutout runs its cutout engine through WebAssembly in your browser, using a 1024-pixel inference input by default and falling back to 768 if the 1024 model cannot be loaded. Drop a JPG, PNG or WEBP of up to 10 MB and download a transparent PNG. There is no account, credit counter or image limit. Batch mode takes up to 50 images at a time and packs the results into one local ZIP; an erase/restore brush handles manual edge corrections locally too.
We measured the no-upload claim rather than just stating it. On 9 September 2026, on the production site in Chromium 152, we generated a 689,733-byte test image inside the page, ran a cutout, and added up the bodies of every outgoing request. The warm-run total was 396 bytes, all of it two analytics events carrying timing numbers, and none of it image data. You can repeat this yourself: open the Network tab in DevTools, run one cutout, and compare the total request body size with your source file.
The first visit downloads the model and runtime, which the browser then caches. After the first cutout it keeps working offline; we tested this with the local server stopped, the browser offline and the model CDN blocked. For a computer that will have no connection later, click "Preload for offline use" under the FAQ on the home page while online; it downloads the runtime and the standard model in one go. Speed depends on the device and image, and the public benchmarks page shows measured timings by device class.
Koutuxia Pro is the cloud tier. It runs larger cloud models at up to 2048 pixels on the long edge and adds Magic Eraser, photo unblur, 2× upscaling and AI backgrounds. Pro does upload the image, through private storage with time-limited links, and the privacy page describes how long that data lives. If you never switch to Pro, nothing leaves your browser.
If you are a remove.bg user, before 1 December
Use up pay-as-you-go credits. Download invoices and the credit usage report from your remove.bg account. If you rely on the API, read Leonardo's migration guide and test the new request format on a staging pipeline; Koutuxia has no public API today, and the FAQ below says how to ask for a remove.bg-compatible one. If you only need transparent PNGs by hand, try the free cutout here on the images you would normally send to remove.bg and judge the edges yourself.
Side by side
| Canva Background Remover | Leonardo.Ai API | Koutuxia free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Canva's cloud, inside a design | Leonardo's cloud | Your browser |
| Your image is uploaded | Yes | Yes | No (free local path) |
| What you need | A design open in the Canva editor | An API key and code changes | Nothing, no sign-up |
| Batch | Yes, bulk removal in Canva | Yes, via the API | Yes, local ZIP |
| Automation / API | No | Yes | Not yet; built if enough people ask |
| Works offline | Needs internet | Needs internet | Yes, after the first cutout or the offline preload |
| Best for | Removing a background, then designing in Canva | Pipelines that used the remove.bg API | One-off transparent PNGs without uploading |
Canva and Leonardo details come from remove.bg's FAQ and Leonardo's migration guide as of 9 September 2026.
Switching takes three steps
Step 1 · Open Koutuxia and drop the image
Go to the home page and drag your image into the box, or paste a screenshot with ⌘V / Ctrl+V. The first visit downloads the model; later visits use the cached copy.
Step 2 · Check the edges
The result appears next to the original. The checkerboard is transparency. Zoom in on hair and thin edges; if you need a cleaner cut on a very large image, that is what Pro's cloud models are for.
Step 3 · Download the PNG, or a ZIP
Download the transparent PNG. For several images, use batch mode and get one ZIP. Nothing was uploaded on the free path.
Who this is for
- ·Sellers who cut out product photos for listings and want the files to stay on their machine
- ·Creators making thumbnails or stickers who need a PNG, not a design tool
- ·Anyone who used remove.bg without an account for quick one-offs
- ·Small teams who hit remove.bg credit limits on batches of simple images
FAQ
Is remove.bg really shutting down?
The standalone website closes on 1 December 2026 at 9:00 CET, according to remove.bg's own FAQ. The background-removal technology continues inside Canva, and the API continues through Leonardo.Ai.
Is Koutuxia free?
Free cutouts run locally in your browser with no image limit or sign-up. Upgrade only when you need Magic Eraser, photo unblur, cloud precision, 2× upscaling, or AI-generated backgrounds.
Does Koutuxia upload my images?
Free cutouts, recoloring, compression, resizing and format conversion run in your browser and are not uploaded to our server. Pro cloud features do upload, through private storage and Replicate, and the privacy page explains retention.
Is the quality the same as remove.bg?
The free tier computes its mask from a 1024-pixel inference input by default, with a possible fallback to 768 if that model cannot be loaded. It exports at the source dimensions, which is not native full-resolution inference. Pro works at up to 2048 pixels on the long edge. The current paid remove.bg comparison has only one paired image, so it cannot establish equal quality; compare your own images.
Do you have an API to replace the remove.bg API?
Not today. For automation, Leonardo.Ai's API is the official successor, and there are other background-removal APIs on the market. If you would use a remove.bg-compatible API from us (same request shape, only the domain changes), email szpwqq@gmail.com with the subject remove.bg API and your rough monthly volume. If enough people ask, we will build it before 1 December.
Could Koutuxia disappear the same way?
We are an independent product, not part of a design platform. We cannot promise anything forever, but the free cutout depends on your browser rather than on our processing servers; after the first load the model is cached on your device and it works offline.
Sources
- remove.bg FAQ: remove.bg is moving to Canvawww.remove.bg
- remove.bg API page (Leonardo.Ai notice)www.remove.bg
- Leonardo.Ai: Migrate from the remove.bg APIdocs.leonardo.ai
- Koutuxia benchmarks (real device timings)
Try it on the image you were about to send to remove.bg
Free, no account, and the picture stays in your browser.
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