Background removal API

Switching from remove.bg

remove.bg has announced that its standalone service closes on 1 December 2026 and that self-serve API requests stop the same day, with its API moving to Leonardo.Ai. If your code calls api.remove.bg, point it here instead:

The header stays X-Api-Key, the fields keep their names, and errors keep remove.bg's shape, so client libraries that let you set the base URL work as they are.

Get a key

1. Sign in with Google.
2. Open My Account and create a key under Background removal API keys.
3. Copy the key when it is shown. It is displayed only once.

Quick start

Send the image as a file upload, as base64, or as a public URL. The response body is the finished image.

curl -H "X-Api-Key: $IMAGIC_API_KEY" \
  -F "image_file=@photo.jpg" \
  -F "size=auto" \
  -o no-bg.png \
  https://imagic-ai.com/api/v1.0/removebg

import os, requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://imagic-ai.com/api/v1.0/removebg",
    files={"image_file": open("photo.jpg", "rb")},
    data={"size": "auto"},
    headers={"X-Api-Key": os.environ["IMAGIC_API_KEY"]},
)
response.raise_for_status()
with open("no-bg.png", "wb") as out:
    out.write(response.content)

import { readFile, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";

const form = new FormData();
form.append("image_file", new Blob([await readFile("photo.jpg")]), "photo.jpg");
form.append("size", "auto");

const res = await fetch("https://imagic-ai.com/api/v1.0/removebg", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "X-Api-Key": process.env.IMAGIC_API_KEY },
  body: form,
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(JSON.stringify(await res.json()));
await writeFile("no-bg.png", Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer()));

Request fields

POST /api/v1.0/removebg accepts multipart/form-data, application/x-www-form-urlencoded or JSON. Send exactly one of the three image fields.

scale, position, roi, bg_image_url, bg_image_file and shadow options are not supported. Requests that use them get a 400 rather than a silently different image.

Response

By default the body is the image itself, with these headers: X-Width, X-Height, X-Type, X-Foreground-Top, X-Foreground-Left, X-Foreground-Width, X-Foreground-Height, X-Credits-Charged (always 1) and X-RateLimit-Limit / -Remaining / -Reset for the daily allowance. Send Accept: application/json to get JSON instead:

{
  "data": {
    "result_b64": "iVBORw0KGgo…",
    "foreground_top": 115,
    "foreground_left": 477,
    "foreground_width": 637,
    "foreground_height": 824
  }
}

Remaining allowance

GET /api/v1.0/account returns remove.bg's account shape. credits.total and api.free_calls are both the number of images left today.

Errors

Errors use remove.bg's envelope, shown below. A failed request does not use up an image.

{"errors": [{"title": "Daily limit of 50 images reached. …", "code": "rate_limit_exceeded"}]}

Limits

• 50 images a day per account, shared by all of its keys. Up to 3 active keys per account, so you can rotate them.
• Uploads up to 22 MB. Output up to 25 MP, or 10 MP for PNG.
• Requests are queued and processed a few at a time. Expect a few seconds per image, more for large photos.
• There is no paid tier yet, so the daily allowance is the ceiling for now.

What to expect from the cutouts

Cutouts come from the isnet-general-use model, the same one behind the Background Remover tool. It is reliable on products, people and animals against ordinary backgrounds. Fine hair, glass and subjects that match their background are where it is weakest, and remove.bg's own model may do better there. Test with a few of your own images before you move a production pipeline.

Questions

Is this an official remove.bg replacement?

No. Imagic AI is not affiliated with remove.bg, Canva or Leonardo.Ai. The API accepts remove.bg's request format so existing code keeps working.

Is the API free?

Yes. Every account gets 50 images a day at no cost. Every size counts as one image, including preview.

Do the official remove.bg client libraries work?

Libraries that let you set the base URL work by changing it to https://imagic-ai.com/api. Libraries with api.remove.bg hard-coded need that one line changed in their source or a small wrapper.

Do you keep my images?

Images sent to the API are processed and returned in the response. They are not added to any gallery or used for training.