Choosing Background Remover for Your AI Workflow

From web based to open source, I tested so you don't have to.

Example image before and after background removal.

Let’s create an image first. I’ll use Gemini:

Now let’s remove the background using different tools.

1. Photoroom Background Remover. Web based, free (no log in), very good result (smooth edges, text not removed).

2. macOS “Remove Background” (built-in). Local, available by right-clicking an image, then “Quick Actions”, then “Remove Background”. It’s quick and convenient but very bad result (rough edges, text removed).

3. rembg: open source, run from command line, can use different models. This is where it gets interesting. With the default model, the result is not desirable:

Example command: rembg i input.png output.png

But by specifying different model bria-rmbg), the result can be as good as Photoroom:

Use -m to specify model. Example: rembg i -m bria-rmbg input.png output.png

For me, the result from rembg is sufficient for my workflow and since it runs locally, I can create custom Quick Actions using macOS Automator.

Pick an image, right click, rembg!

It can be slower than Photoroom (took ~20 seconds in my MacbookAir M4, 24GB) but that’s not a pain for me because I can leave it running in the background.