About BackgroundDelete

I got frustrated. So I built something better.

In 2025, I needed to remove a background from a photo. A normal, everyday task. I searched "free background remover," dropped my image into the first result, waited for it to upload, and downloaded the result.

Then I thought: where did that image go? Is it sitting on some server? Who can see it? It was a photo of my ID for a verification process. I had just uploaded my personal identification to a random website with no privacy policy worth reading.

That bothered me. Not just for IDs — for everything. Product photos for small businesses who haven't launched yet. Family photos. Creative work that isn't public yet. Why should you have to hand your images to a stranger just to remove a background?

So I built BackgroundDelete. It uses a neural network — the same kind of AI the upload-first tools use — but it runs the model inside your browser. Your images never touch a server. Not mine, not anyone's. The tool works offline once the AI model is cached. You could literally turn off your wifi after the first load and keep processing images.

The tech behind it

BackgroundDelete uses IMG.LY's ISNet — an image segmentation neural network that has been trained to distinguish foreground subjects from backgrounds. Here's what makes it different from server-side tools:

WebAssembly + ONNX Runtime

The AI model is compiled to WebAssembly. This means it runs at near-native speed in your browser — no GPU server, no cloud processing, no network round-trips. The first time you use it, the model downloads (~4-80MB depending on quality level). After that, it's cached by your browser and the service worker. It runs offline from that point forward.

Three quality tiers

Fast (~4MB model) — quantized INT8 weights. Good for previews, quick edits, and images with clear foreground/background separation.
Balanced (~40MB model) — FP16 precision. The default for most use cases. Handles hair, fur, and semi-transparent edges reasonably well.
Best (~80MB model) — Full FP32 precision. Production-quality edge detection. Worth the download if you're doing print work or need pixel-perfect masks.

Smart mode — no AI, just math

For logos, icons, text, and graphics on solid backgrounds, downloading 80MB of neural network is overkill. Smart mode samples pixels from the edges of your image, clusters them by color, and removes anything that matches the detected background. It's instant — zero download, runs in under a second. It works best when the background is a single solid color and the foreground doesn't touch all four edges.

Static HTML. No framework. No build step.

This entire website is handwritten HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No React, no Webpack, no npm install, no node_modules black hole. The AI engine loads from a CDN on first use, and that's the only external dependency. Everything else — the image editing tools, the batch processor, the background compositor, the format converter — is plain JavaScript that you can read with View Source. The whole site is about 300KB of uncompressed code. Source on GitHub →

Privacy-first tools, no accounts, no uploads

BackgroundDelete is one of several tools I've built around the same philosophy: useful utilities that process your data in your browser and never send it anywhere. No sign-ups. No cloud storage. No "we'll email you a download link" dark patterns. Just a tool that works and then gets out of your way.

Other tools in this ecosystem:

Yes. Here's why.

BackgroundDelete costs me about $0 to run. Seriously. The site is static HTML hosted on Vercel's free tier. The AI model loads from a free CDN (jsDelivr). There is no server-side processing. There are no databases. The only cost is the domain name ($12/year).

"But how do you make money?" — I don't, from this tool. It's a free utility. If you find it useful and want to support the work, there's a Buy Me a Coffee link in the footer. Some people have bought me a coffee. Those coffees have covered the domain name and then some. I build these tools because I enjoy making useful things and because I think software shouldn't always come with a subscription attached.

No, I won't suddenly start charging. The core tool — remove a background, download the PNG — will always be free. If I ever add premium features (higher resolution output, API access, batch processing above 50 images), the free tier stays exactly as it is now.

How to prove your images never leave your browser

You don't have to take my word for it. Here's how to verify this yourself in 30 seconds:

1. Open Developer Tools (F12 or right-click → Inspect)
2. Go to the Network tab
3. Drop an image into BackgroundDelete and process it
4. Look at the network requests: you'll see the AI model download from jsDelivr (first use only), but zero image uploads. No POST requests containing your image. No XHR uploads. Nothing.
5. Bonus: turn off your WiFi after the model loads. The tool keeps working. Try that with remove.bg.

This is not a "trust us" situation. It's verifiable. The entire source code is public on GitHub. If this tool were uploading your images, you'd see it in the code and in your network tab.

Not just for designers

BackgroundDelete serves about 15,000-20,000 images per month across all tools. Here's who's using it:

Found a bug? Have a feature idea?

The best way to report an issue or request a feature is to open an issue on GitHub. You can see exactly what's being worked on, and your request won't get lost in an inbox.

If GitHub isn't your thing, you can also reach me at spiritpaze29@gmail.com. I read everything, but I can't promise a fast reply — this is a one-person operation.

If this tool saved you time or made something easier, consider buying me a coffee ☕. It genuinely makes my day and helps me justify building more free tools.