# remove.bg alternatives: what to use after 1 December 2026 > On 1 December 2026 (9:00 AM CET) the remove.bg website closes — its background removal moves to Canva — and the self-service API moves to Leonardo.Ai; remove.bg pay-as-you-go credits expire the same day and Enterprise API contracts continue. For a simple replacement with no subscription, try Kenerate AI (25 free credits, Cutout HD for hair and glass). Canva suits Pro users, Leonardo.Ai suits developers, and Photoroom, Pixelcut and others are compared below. URL: https://kenerateai.com/remove-bg-alternative Publisher: Kenerate AI (https://kenerateai.com) Last updated: 26 September 2026 ## Key facts - Website closes: 1 Dec 2026, 9:00 AM CET → moves to Canva - Self-service API: Stops 1 Dec 2026 → Leonardo.Ai - remove.bg credits: PAYG credits expire 1 Dec 2026 - Kenerate: No subscription, 25 free credits, 4 cut-out modes ## In depth ### Who made remove.bg remove.bg was built by Kaleido, a Vienna company that also made Unscreen for video; Canva acquired Kaleido in February 2021 [1]. remove.bg's own FAQ now says its background removal moves to Canva — and its self-service API to Leonardo.Ai — from 1 December 2026 [2]. ### What one-click removal actually does Tools like remove.bg estimate an alpha value for every pixel — the transparency channel introduced by Porter and Duff in 1984 [3]. Edges are the hard part, because each edge pixel mixes subject and background colour [4]; modern segmentation models such as U²-Net and BiRefNet were built to get that detail right without a manual trimap [5][6]. ### Switching without surprises Download any remove.bg results you want to keep before your credits expire, keep PNG masters (they preserve soft edges [7]), and run your hardest photos — hair, glass, white-on-white — through the replacement before you move a whole workflow. References: [1] TechCrunch — Canva acquires Kaleido, maker of remove.bg (2021): https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/24/canva-acquires-background-removal-specialists-kaleido/ [2] remove.bg — FAQ (moving to Canva and Leonardo.Ai): https://www.remove.bg/faq [3] Porter & Duff — Compositing Digital Images (SIGGRAPH 1984): https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800031.808606 [4] Levin, Lischinski & Weiss — A Closed-Form Solution to Natural Image Matting (TPAMI 2008): https://webee.technion.ac.il/people/anat.levin/papers/Matting-Levin-Lischinski-Weiss-PAMI.pdf [5] Qin et al. — U²-Net (Pattern Recognition 2020): https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.09007 [6] Zheng et al. — BiRefNet (2024): https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.03407 [7] W3C — PNG Specification, Third Edition (2025): https://www.w3.org/TR/png-3/ ## FAQ Q: Is remove.bg shutting down? A: The standalone website is. remove.bg's FAQ says its background removal is moving to Canva and the website won't be available from 1 December 2026 at 9:00 AM CET. The self-service API stops accepting requests on the same day and moves to Leonardo.Ai; Enterprise API contracts continue as normal. Q: What happens to my remove.bg credits? A: remove.bg says pay-as-you-go credits expire on 1 December 2026 (9:00 AM CET). Use them before then and download anything you still need; its FAQ also covers refunds for annual subscriptions. Q: What is the official replacement for remove.bg? A: Two, depending on how you use it: Canva for the website's background removal, and Leonardo.Ai for the self-service API. Both are part of Canva. Q: What is the best remove.bg alternative for occasional use? A: A tool without a subscription. Kenerate uses one-time credit packs that never expire, with 25 free credits to start and no watermark. Self-hosting open-source models has no per-image fee but costs time and servers. Q: Is there a free remove.bg alternative? A: Yes. Kenerate gives 25 free credits with no watermark, Adobe Express has a free plan, and open-source tools like rembg are free if you run them yourself. Q: Which alternative is best for hair and fur? A: Use a tool with a high-detail mode. On Kenerate that is Cutout HD, built for flyaway hair, fur, lace and glass. Q: I use the remove.bg API. What should I do? A: remove.bg says the self-service API stops accepting requests on 1 December 2026 and points users to Leonardo.Ai (a new account and API key are needed). Enterprise API contracts are not affected. Test your replacement on real images before the deadline. ## Related pages - Free AI background remover: https://kenerateai.com/free-ai-background-remover - Transparent background maker: https://kenerateai.com/transparent-background-maker - Free PNG maker: https://kenerateai.com/png-maker - White background: https://kenerateai.com/white-background - Remove white background: https://kenerateai.com/remove-white-background - Black background: https://kenerateai.com/black-background - Transparent logo: https://kenerateai.com/remove-background-from-logo - Signature PNG: https://kenerateai.com/remove-background-from-signature - Remove shadow: https://kenerateai.com/remove-shadow-from-photo - Remove glare: https://kenerateai.com/remove-glare-from-photo - Remove text: https://kenerateai.com/remove-text-from-image - Make an image transparent: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-make-an-image-transparent - Remove background in Canva: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-in-canva - Remove background in Photoshop: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-in-photoshop - Remove background in GIMP: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-in-gimp - Remove background on iPhone: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-on-iphone - Remove a person from a photo: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-a-person-from-a-photo - All background remover alternatives: https://kenerateai.com/background-remover-alternatives - Photoroom alternative: https://kenerateai.com/photoroom-alternative - Pixelcut alternative: https://kenerateai.com/pixelcut-alternative - Canva BG Remover alternative: https://kenerateai.com/canva-background-remover-alternative - Adobe Express alternative: https://kenerateai.com/adobe-express-background-remover-alternative - erase.bg alternative: https://kenerateai.com/erase-bg-alternative - removal.ai alternative: https://kenerateai.com/removal-ai-alternative - Picsart alternative: https://kenerateai.com/picsart-background-remover-alternative - Pixlr alternative: https://kenerateai.com/pixlr-background-remover-alternative - Clipping Magic alternative: https://kenerateai.com/clipping-magic-alternative - PhotoScissors alternative: https://kenerateai.com/photoscissors-alternative - PicWish alternative: https://kenerateai.com/picwish-alternative - Slazzer alternative: https://kenerateai.com/slazzer-alternative - Fotor alternative: https://kenerateai.com/fotor-background-remover-alternative ## Sources - remove.bg — FAQ (moving to Canva): https://www.remove.bg/faq - Leonardo.Ai — remove.bg API migration: https://docs.leonardo.ai/docs/migrate-from-the-removebg-api-to-leonardoai - remove.bg — API page (move to Leonardo.Ai): https://www.remove.bg/api - remove.bg — Pricing (credits expire 1 Dec 2026): https://www.remove.bg/pricing - rembg on GitHub: https://github.com/danielgatis/rembg