How to remove a background in Canva

To remove a background in Canva, select the photo in your design and choose BG Remover from the editor toolbar; Canva separates the subject and drops the background in one step. To take the cutout out of Canva with its transparency, download the design as a PNG with Transparent background turned on. Both depend on your plan, so it is worth checking that first.

remove.bg is moving into Canva

remove.bg became part of Canva in 2021. Its FAQ says the standalone remove.bg website will no longer be available from December 1, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. CET, and that background removal is moving into Canva, whose Background Remover "uses the same background-removal technology as remove.bg". After that date, removing a background "in Canva" means BG Remover in the editor, as described on this page. Check the plan details below before relying on it: it is a paid-plan feature, and a transparent download is limited to certain plans. The remove.bg alternative page covers what else ends on December 1 and other ways to get a transparent PNG.

Which Canva plans include it

As of September 2026, Canva's Help Center says:

• Background Remover is "included with paid plans". Canva's AI help articles add that Free and Education users can access some AI tools, Background Remover among them, with limited monthly usage.
• Downloading with a transparent background is only available on Canva Pro, Canva Teams, Canva Business, Canva Education and Canva for Nonprofits plans. Downloading a Canva Doc with a transparent background isn't possible.

Plans and AI allowances change over time, so if an option is missing, compare with what Canva shows for your own account.

Other places to find BG Remover

You don't have to start from a design:

• Projects: from the homepage, go to Projects, then Images. Hover over the photo, select the More icon, choose Edit image, and under Tools select BG Remover.
• Background Remover pages: Canva also has standalone pages where you upload a file, sign in when prompted, wait while it processes, and then choose Download or Open in editor.
• Canva AI: on paid plans, you can attach a photo in Canva AI and type a prompt such as "Remove background".

For a whole folder, paid plans can remove the backgrounds of all uploaded images at once: in Projects, hover over the folder, select the More icon and choose Remove background. Folders with more than 50 images can't use it, Canva library photos and designs are skipped, and the results go into a new folder with "Edited" in its name while your originals stay unchanged.

Cleaning up the edges

Hair, fur, colors that match the background and busy scenes are hard for any automatic remover, so check the edges and fix what was missed. After removing the background, reselect BG Remover to switch to the erase and restore brushes:

• Erase paints away leftover background.
• Restore brings back parts of the subject that were removed.
• The Brush size slider sets how wide the brush is; a small brush is best along an edge.
• Show original image lets you compare with the photo you started with, and the Undo and Redo icons reverse a stroke.

Canva's own advice for the best results is to zoom in and move around the image while you brush.

Downloading a transparent PNG

A normal download includes everything on the page, so remove anything you don't want in the file first. For the page itself, Canva says you can either delete the background or set its color to white: with Transparent background turned on, a white page background comes out transparent.

In the Download panel, Size and Quality are set before you download, and Save download settings keeps your choices for new designs of the same type on that device. Keep the file type on PNG, because the Transparent background option depends on it. If your design has several pages, choose All, This Page or Custom to control which pages are downloaded.

Limits worth knowing

A few details from Canva's help that explain unexpected results:

• Background Remover works on photos under 9 MB and isn't available for vector images.
• Uploaded photos over 10 MP are downscaled to 10 MP after their background is removed.
• Video backgrounds can be removed too, for videos with an original length under 10 minutes.
• If the remover won't load, Canva suggests checking your internet connection and trying again.

For a product shot or scan on white, our guide to removing a white background covers halos and white areas inside the subject.

Doing it in the browser instead

If Background Remover isn't included in your plan, or you want the cutout at your photo's full resolution, Background Remover PNG removes photo backgrounds online, with editing in your browser and an optional full-size Max re-cut for one credit. Download a free Preview PNG up to 0.25 megapixels or unlock a larger Max export with one image credit, then add it to Canva like any other image. To see what else a transparent PNG is good for, try the transparent background maker.

Designing in Figma instead? The Figma guide covers its built-in Remove background button.