Free Video Background Remover

Worked example

A 30-second selfie clip shot on a phone at 1080x1920 and 30 fps, with the "Blur" background at strength 6 and "720p (faster)" selected. The output is 720x1280 at 30 fps, encoded at roughly 2.2 Mbit/s, so the finished MP4 comes to about 8 to 9 MB plus the original sound. Choosing "1080p" instead keeps 1080x1920 at roughly 5 Mbit/s, which is about 19 MB for the same 30 seconds, and takes longer to render.

Which settings to use, and the limits

• Check the still and the 3-second preview first. Rendering is the slow part. The still shows one frame with your new background, and "Preview 3 seconds" renders a short clip at lower quality. If the person is cut off or the edges look wrong here, fix the settings before pressing "Remove background".
• Use 720p unless you need 1080p. "720p (faster)" means the short side is 720 pixels, so a portrait phone clip becomes 720x1280. The output never goes above the source size, and the frame rate is capped at 30 fps even if the clip is 60 fps. On a phone, 720p is the only option.
• Know the length limit for your device. A computer processes up to 5 minutes in one go. A phone processes the first 60 seconds. For anything longer, the page makes the first part and tells you where it stopped. Cut the rest into pieces with Video Trimmer and run each piece.
• Pick the output that your editor can read. Blur, Colour and Image give an H.264 MP4 that plays everywhere. "Transparent" gives a VP9 WebM with an alpha channel, which works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and OBS but not in many desktop editors. For those, use the "Green screen" colour and key it out. Transparent also needs a browser that can encode it, such as Chrome or Edge on a computer.
• Set Edges by what is in the shot. "Soft" suits loose hair, "Sharp" suits a clean outline against a plain wall, and "Normal" is the default. Good light and a person who fills most of the frame help more than any setting, because the model is small and only looks for people.

Common problems and how to fix them

A preview or render fails with an error about the background model.

The model and its runtime (about 14 MB) did not finish loading. Check your connection, reload the page and try again. Once it has loaded it is kept on your device, so later runs do not need the download.

The preview says it cannot read the video, or shows no frame.

Your browser could not decode this file's video format. Convert the clip to MP4 (H.264) with Video Converter and add it again, or try Chrome or Edge. A file that is damaged or only partly copied will fail the same way.

It says the file changed or moved after you picked it.

This usually happens with a file that lives in cloud storage or was still being copied when you chose it. Copy the video to a normal folder on the device, wait until the copy finishes, then choose it again.

Removing the background stops with an error partway through, or stops responding.

The tab probably ran out of memory, because the decoder, the encoder and several full-size frames are all open at once. Choose "720p (faster)", use a shorter clip, close other tabs and keep this one in front while it works.

It says "No person found in this frame".

The model only separates people, so a pet, a product or an empty room gives nothing to cut out. If a person is in the shot, move the preview frame to a moment where they are fully visible and well lit.

How it compares

Doing this in the browser means the video is never sent to a server, which is the main reason to choose it for private footage. The trade-off is speed and size: a service with its own servers can render long, high-resolution clips and handle objects, while here the work runs on your own device. That is why there is a 5-minute limit on a computer and 60 seconds on a phone, and why the model only looks for people.