About withoutBG#

withoutBG builds background removal models. The open-weights model runs on your own hardware. The API model runs as a hosted service. Founded in 2019, based in Berlin.

Measured, not claimed#

Every model is tested against paid services and open-source alternatives on the same images.
The results are published, including the cases where withoutBG scores worse.
A quality claim on this site should come with a number you can check.

The open-weights model on the public benchmark set, against widely used open models:

Open weights vs	MAE	Gradient error	Connectivity
BRIA RMBG	0.033 vs 0.023 worse	0.039 vs 0.052 better	0.032 vs 0.022 worse
BiRefNet General	0.033 vs 0.033 better	0.039 vs 0.054 better	0.032 vs 0.033 better
BiRefNet Lite	0.033 vs 0.047 better	0.039 vs 0.057 better	0.032 vs 0.045 better
IS-Net	0.033 vs 0.064 better	0.039 vs 0.070 better	0.032 vs 0.063 better
u2net	0.033 vs 0.084 better	0.039 vs 0.087 better	0.032 vs 0.084 better
silueta	0.033 vs 0.089 better	0.039 vs 0.094 better	0.032 vs 0.089 better
u2netp	0.033 vs 0.092 better	0.039 vs 0.088 better	0.032 vs 0.091 better

Mean error against ground-truth alpha mattes on Bench v0 (36 images, same inputs for every model). Lower is better. Each row links to the side-by-side images.

The rows that say “worse” stay in the table. Side-by-side results for the API model, including against remove.bg, are in Compare.

How results are measured#

Same input images for every model (benchmark methodology).
Standard alpha matting metrics: SAD, MSE, gradient error and connectivity error (what each metric measures).
A public evaluation set: withoutBG100.
300+ tracked training experiments. A model change ships when the numbers improve.

Data, training and evaluation in detail: Engineering background removal.

Products#

API: REST endpoints for background removal and alpha mattes.
Web app: batch background removal in the browser, using the API model.
Open weights: Python, Docker, CLI and ONNX on Hugging Face.
Mac app: the open-weights model, offline on your Mac.
Figma plugin and Shopify app.
Car API: cutouts, shadows and studio backgrounds for vehicle photos.

Hosting and privacy#

The API runs on AWS in Frankfurt. An EU region was chosen for GDPR: most customers are in Europe.
Images sent to the API are not stored (privacy policy).
In the web app, the original image stays on your device. Only a reduced copy is sent to compute the mask.
The open-weights model sends nothing anywhere.

Licensing#

Open weights: Apache 2.0 for the withoutBG parts. The DINOv3 backbone is under the Meta DINOv3 License. Details: license.
API model: closed weights, paid per image with credits (pricing).

Company#

Founded in 2019 in Berlin by Imran Kocabiyik. Legal details: imprint.
Support in English: contact form or contact@withoutbg.com.
Code and models: GitHub, Hugging Face, Docker Hub, PyPI.