The best background remover for Mac in 2026

Preview: best for one image

Open the image in Preview and click Remove Background. If Preview asks to convert the document to PNG, choose File → Duplicate first if you want to keep the original. It’s free with macOS and straightforward for a single cut-out. Apple’s guide does not specify a maximum output resolution.

Source: Apple Support: Remove a background in Preview, checked 27 October 2026. For the differences from Sweepcut, see Sweepcut vs Preview.

Photos: best for a quick share

In Photos, Control-click an image and choose Copy Subject to paste the cut-out into another app, or Share Subject to send it. It’s useful for a quick handoff, rather than a ready-to-file batch export. We haven’t tested the resolution of the copied result.

Source: Apple Support: Isolate and share a photo’s subject, checked 27 October 2026.

Finder Quick Action: best for a handful

Select images in Finder, Control-click and choose Quick Actions → Remove Background. In our dated test on 22 October 2026, a selection of three images produced three transparent PNGs. In a separate test on 26 October, photos from 15 to 49 megapixels were saved at about 12.5 megapixels each, with “Background Removed” added to the filenames.

The Finder steps are in Apple Support; batch and output-size observations are our tests, dated above. See the full Preview comparison.

Keynote: best for a slide

Select the picture on your slide, open the Image tab in the Format sidebar and choose Remove Background. Keynote can also remove another color or restore parts of the image with a modifier-drag. The result remains part of the slide, rather than a folder of marketplace-ready files.

Source: Apple Support: Edit an image in Keynote, checked 27 October 2026. Read our PowerPoint and Keynote guide for more.

The trade-off: the built-in options are convenient for one image or a small selection. They don’t provide a single workflow for applying marketplace dimensions, padding and a white background across a whole product catalog.

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop’s Remove Background quick action creates a mask. You can brush the mask by hand and refine areas such as hair or fur. Adobe’s US standalone plan is US$22.99 per month on an annual plan billed monthly (checked 27 October 2026). For a folder, Photoshop can run Actions you create; record and test the Action on copies before processing originals.

Sources: Adobe’s Remove Background overview, US Photoshop plans and Adobe’s batch-processing guide, checked 27 October 2026. See our Photoshop guide.

GIMP

GIMP is a free image editor for Mac with manual selection and colour-based tools, including Foreground Select, Fuzzy Select and Color to Alpha. These tools need you to guide the selection; GIMP’s 3.2 manual describes no one-click subject-detection step. Use GIMP when you want hands-on layer editing, not an automatic cut-out of a folder.

GIMP lists version 3.2.6 for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 11 Big Sur or later. Sources, checked 27 October 2026: GIMP downloads and the Foreground Select manual. Read our GIMP background removal guide.

Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is a Mac image editor with background isolation and an adjustable mask. Apple lists the Mac one-time purchase at US$49.99; Pixelmator Pro is also included in Apple Creator Studio. The price and bundle were checked against Apple’s June 2026 announcement. We haven’t confirmed a folder-batch workflow or whether the background removal itself runs on-device, so those aren’t claimed here.

Sources: Apple Pixelmator Pro and Apple Newsroom, 30 June 2026.

Affinity: not counted as a background-removal pick

Affinity is available with a free Canva account, and Canva says paid plans unlock Canva AI tools inside Affinity. We couldn’t confirm from the current first-party pages whether Affinity offers a dedicated one-click photo background-removal command on Mac, so we have not counted it as a background remover or assigned it a price for this task.

Sources: Canva Help: Accessing Affinity for free and Canva Newsroom: Affinity, checked 27 October 2026.

Canva: best inside a design

Canva’s Background Remover is available on paid plans. Its help page says it works on uploaded photos under 9 MB, handles up to 50 images at a time in one folder, and downscales results over 10 megapixels to 10 MP. Canva’s US pricing page lists Pro at US$144 per year for one person. Choose Canva when you want to remove the background in the same place you’re building the design.

Sources: Canva Help: Remove photo and video backgrounds and Canva plans and pricing, checked 27 October 2026. See the Canva alternative comparison.

Photoroom: best for phone and web editing

Photoroom is available on iPhone, Android, the web, and Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 15 or later. Its help centre lists 100 exports per month on Free and 1,000 on Pro; Batch editing is available, but batch exports require a paid plan. Export resolution varies by plan and platform, and we couldn’t verify a current maximum for web Batch, so we don’t repeat the older 2,048-pixel figure. Paid prices vary by plan and storefront.

Sources: Photoroom device guide, export limits, Batch feature, resolution limits and pricing, checked 27 October 2026. See the Photoroom alternative comparison.

remove.bg: check the move to Canva

remove.bg says its standalone website will no longer be available from 1 December 2026 at 9:00am CET, as its background removal moves into Canva. The company’s notice also covers its desktop app, Photoshop plugin and self-service API; check the notice for product-specific details before relying on them.

Source: remove.bg’s transition FAQ, checked 27 October 2026. Read the remove.bg alternative for Mac.

Sweepcut uses Apple’s Vision subject detection, the same Apple model used by Preview, Photos and Finder. We don’t claim a cleaner cut-out. What it adds is the folder workflow around it:

• Process a folder and its subfolders, with a published limit of 20,000 images.
• Export full-size results, marketplace presets or a custom size up to 8,000 pixels, with padding.
• Choose transparent, white, grey, black or a custom background; export PNG, JPEG, HEIC, AVIF or TIFF.
• Keep the original filenames and put results in a Cutouts folder, so originals aren’t overwritten.
• Process photos on your Mac. Sweepcut says it never uploads them.

It’s not for everyone. Sweepcut is Mac-only, doesn’t include a brush for manual touch-ups, and doesn’t create scenes, blurred backgrounds or video. It costs US$19 once.

These are Sweepcut’s first-party product specifications, checked 27 October 2026, not an independent test. See the batch workflow, export sizes, privacy details, and price, plus the comparison with Preview, the guide to making a photo background white and the Amazon main image requirements.

Buy Sweepcut $19

We included tools Mac users can use to remove a still-photo background: macOS features, desktop editors, online design tools and Sweepcut. The four Apple options come first because they are already available on a Mac and can be enough for one-off cut-outs.

We checked vendor prices, plan limits, device support and feature descriptions on 27 October 2026, using the linked company or Apple pages. The Finder output-size statement is our dated test, not a vendor guarantee. Sweepcut’s feature list is first-party information from its maker. We have not tested every tool with the same images and workflow, so we publish no overall winner score, star rating or claim that every edge is equal.

Where the available source didn’t confirm a limit, resolution or upload behavior, we say “Not checked” or describe only what the source supports. Prices can change and may differ by region or storefront; check the linked price page before subscribing or purchasing.