macOS has had basic background-removal built into Preview since Big Sur (the "Instant Alpha" tool) and a more refined version in the Photos app since Ventura.
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macOS Preview has a "Instant Alpha" tool that lets you click on a background colour and remove similar pixels. It works for solid-colour backgrounds where you do not mind some manual cleanup, but it is not a neural network — it is a colour-similarity selection. Anywhere the subject has a colour similar to the background, the tool removes part of the subject too. For modern background removal where the model understands subject versus background semantically, Preview is the wrong tool.
The Photos app on Ventura and later has a "Lift Subject" feature that uses a neural model running on-device. The quality is good and the integration is convenient if your image is already in Photos. But it is hidden behind a long-press gesture in the iOS-style UI, only works one image at a time, and the cutout cannot be saved as a transparent PNG without manual steps (long-press, drag to desktop). For batch work or for images outside the Photos library, the browser tool is faster.
Pixelmator Pro has excellent neural background removal but costs around $50 one-time and only makes sense if you also want the rest of Pixelmator's editing features. Photoshop's "Remove Background" is one of the best in the industry but requires an Adobe subscription. For Mac users who already pay for these tools, use them — the integration is excellent. For Mac users who do not, the browser tool is a free in-browser alternative that handles the same workflow.
A small but real privacy note for Mac users: the in-browser tool keeps your image on your device, just like Photos' Lift Subject. Some online background removers send your image to a server, and on a Mac that may end up touching iCloud and other syncing infrastructure if the image originally came from your photo library. The browser tool keeps the image entirely in the browser tab, which is a cleaner privacy story for personal photos on a Mac.
Browser-based background removal that works on any Mac running a modern browser. No install, no sign-up, no watermark.
Step-by-step guide to remove image background on mac:
Open the tool in Safari or Chrome
Open the FixTools Image Background Remover in any modern macOS browser. The page loads quickly and the segmentation model caches after the first visit.
Drag the image from Finder
Drag your image directly from a Finder window onto the upload zone. JPG, PNG, and WebP files are all supported. HEIC files from iPhone usually need to be converted to JPG first.
Wait for the cutout
The neural model produces a transparent PNG. On modern Macs (M1 and later) the processing is fast — usually three to five seconds for typical photo sizes.
Download to the Mac
Click Download. The PNG saves to your Downloads folder by default. Move it to your preferred location and rename it for your project.
Use the cutout in Keynote, Pages, or any Mac app
The transparent PNG opens directly in any Mac app — Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Preview, Photos, Sketch, Pixelmator, Affinity, or browser-based tools like Figma and Canva.
Common situations where this approach makes a real difference:
Mac user without Photoshop
A Mac user needs to cut a few backgrounds for a presentation and does not have a Photoshop subscription. Preview's Instant Alpha is not good enough for the photos in question. The browser tool gives a clean cutout in fifteen seconds per image, the result drops straight into Keynote, and no purchase is needed.
MacBook user batching catalogue work
A small business owner on a MacBook needs to cut backgrounds for thirty product photos. The Photos app's Lift Subject is too one-at-a-time for the volume. The browser tool batches in a single tab with sequential upload-and-download, completing the catalogue refresh in under an hour.
iMac user processing personal photos privately
A retired professor wants to cut backgrounds out of family photos to make a digital scrapbook. They are uncomfortable uploading personal family photos to a third-party online service. The in-browser tool runs on the iMac with the photos never leaving the device, which feels comparable in privacy to using a local app like Preview.
Mac mini user editing on an external monitor
A photographer with a Mac mini setup wants a quick browser-based cutout option that does not require switching focus to a heavy desktop application. The browser tool sits in a Safari tab on the second monitor and produces cutouts on demand without breaking the photographer's primary editing workflow in Lightroom.
Get better results with these expert suggestions:
Convert HEIC to JPG first
iPhone photos imported to Mac are often HEIC, which the browser tool may not handle directly. Open the photo in Preview, choose File > Export, and set the format to JPG before uploading. Alternatively use the FixTools HEIC to JPG converter for batch conversion. Once converted, the cutout step works normally.
Use the Files app or Finder drag instead of file picker
Dragging files directly from Finder onto the upload zone is faster than clicking the upload button and navigating the file dialog. It also lets you drag multiple files at once for batch processing.
Save to a project folder, not Downloads
By default Safari and Chrome save downloads to ~/Downloads, which becomes cluttered. After the first cutout, move the file to a project-specific folder and update your browser's default download location for the session if you are working through a batch.
Use Shortcut keys for fast Keynote drag-in
After downloading the transparent PNG, you can drag it from the Downloads stack in the Dock directly into Keynote or Pages without opening Finder. Combined with the FixTools browser tab in the background, this gives a fast capture-cut-place workflow for slide deck assets.
More use-case guides for the same tool:
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