Cap the quantity, never the quality
The free tier is nearly free to serve — most of it runs on your machine, and background removal never costs a credit on either of its two engines. Got one picture to fix? $3 covers it, once, with no subscription. Doing this most weeks? $9 a month makes the everyday tools unlimited, and you can still top up for $3 in a busy month. Nothing is ever watermarked, at any tier.
Free
$0forever
- Ten selection tools — AI grab, wand, lasso, brush, marquees, grow/shrink/invert
- Up to 8 megapixels signed out — a free account removes that tier cap; device memory is still the ceiling
- Background removal and edge cleanup, always free
- Smooth fill behind a cut — sky, gradients, flat walls, no ghost
- Spot and index colour separation, with a garment proof
- Unlimited .ora, PNG-stack and flattened exports · layered .psd one a day · downloads need a free account
- 6 server-AI credits when you sign up — no card required
- Nothing ever watermarked
One-off
$3one time
- 50 server-AI credits — they never expire
- No subscription, no card kept on file
- Every server tool — subject separation, auto-detect, occlusion & HD fill
- Print-ready colour separation
- Top up again any time you have a busy month
Monthly
$9per month
- Unlimited layered .psd — the free plan is one a day
- Unlimited background removal, object erase and layer splitting
- 50 credits a month on top — about 8 HD erases or 5 print-ready separations
- Top up mid-month for $3 whenever you need more
- Cancel any time — no annual commitment
Doing this all day? Studio — the same unlimited tools plus 200 credits a month, $19/mo
Same unlimited tools as Monthly; the difference is the credit allowance for the HD engines.
What the alternatives cost
All figures in US dollars, so the columns compare — your own price is on the cards above.
| Layersmith | Image to Layers | remove.bg | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest way to buy anything | $3, one time | $120 / year | $9 / month |
| Monthly | $9, cancel any time | $10, annual commitment | $9 for 40 images |
| Top plan | $19 | $30 ($360 / year) | — |
| Free tier | The whole in-browser pipeline, unmetered, plus free background removal | 20 one-time credits | Preview only |
| Commercial use on the free tier | Yes | No — personal use only | No |
| Background removal | Free and unmetered — sharper on our server, or entirely in your browser, your choice | Metered | ~$0.20–1.00 per image |
Competitor figures read from their own pricing pages on 20 August 2026: imagetolayers.com and remove.bg. Prices change — check theirs before deciding. Credit counts are not compared on purpose: a credit buys different operations at each vendor, so the number is not convertible. Image to Layers also offers longer file retention (7 to 365 days) and an API on its top plan; we delete uploads within 24 hours by design, which is a different promise rather than a smaller one.
Plans are monthly subscriptions — credits refill each month and you can cancel anytime. Credits are spent per server-AI operation: about 1 for a subject separation or a detection pass, from 2 for an occlusion fill (large holes cost more), 6 for an HD erase and fill, and 10 for a print-ready colour separation — charged once per image, with free re-renders of that image for 24 hours. Background removal is free on both engines and on every tier; spot and index colour separation, and every in-browser tool, are free too. 14-day no-questions refund on any first purchase. Terms · Privacy