How to remove the background from an image on iPhone

To remove the background from an image on iPhone, open it in the Photos app, touch and hold the subject until an outline appears around it, then tap Copy, Share or Add Sticker. iPhone lifts the subject off its background, ready to paste into a message, an email or a note. When you need a file instead, such as a PNG with a transparent background, use the Preview app in iOS 26 and later, which has its own Remove Background command and exports PNG. Menu names here follow Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27, the current version as of September 2026; earlier versions may word some steps differently.

Lifting a subject in Photos

Lifting works on photos and on video. Open a photo so it fills the screen, or pause a video on the frame you want, then touch and hold the subject. Once the outline appears, Apple's guide lists these choices:

• Copy puts the cutout on the clipboard, ready to paste into an email, a text message or a note. In some places the button reads Copy Subject.
• Drag it instead: keep holding, open a document in another app with a second finger, and drop the subject into it.
• Share sends it with an option such as AirDrop or Mail.
• Add Sticker keeps it in your stickers for later.
• Look Up shows information about the subject.

This is the quickest route when the cutout is going straight into a conversation or a note. Apple's guide doesn't say what pixel size or file format the copied subject has, so when either matters, use Preview.

Safari, Files and Quick Look

Apple lists Safari and Quick Look alongside Photos as places where lifting works. In Safari, touch and hold the subject of a picture on a web page the same way; pictures online usually belong to someone, so make sure you're allowed to reuse one. In the Files app, touch and hold an image, tap Open With, then choose Preview with Quick Look. With the image open, touch and hold its subject.

Saving a PNG with Preview

Preview is part of iOS 26 and later. Besides cropping, rotating and resizing images, it can remove the background of any image in which it detects a subject, and it exports the result as a file. The numbered steps below start from a photo in your library: Copy Photo puts it on the clipboard, and New from Clipboard opens it in Preview as a new image. For a picture that's already a file, such as a download or something in iCloud Drive, open it from Preview's Browse tab instead.

A few details from Apple's guide help along the way:

• Pick PNG. Export offers HEIC, JPEG, PDF, PNG and TIFF. JPEG has no way to store transparency, so the background would come back as a solid color.
• Resize first if you need to. Tap the More button, then Adjust Size, choose your options and tap Done.
• Undo is in the same menu. Tap the More button, then Undo.
• Expect small differences between versions. Apple's iOS 27 guide lists an Alpha switch for PNG exports and its iOS 26 guide doesn't, so your export screen may look a little different.

Turning a cutout into a sticker

Add Sticker keeps a cutout for later. The sticker lands in your stickers menu, which you open from the onscreen keyboard or the Markup tools, and Add Effect gives it a style such as Outline or Comic. Lift the subject of a Live Photo and you get an animated sticker; Add Effect can also turn the animation on or off. Stickers sync with iCloud, so they also show up on your iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro when you're signed in with the same Apple Account.

Getting a cleaner cutout

Automatic cutouts are only as good as the photo. A subject that stands out from its background in color and brightness, even light and a sharp picture all make the edge easier to find, while hair, fur, glass and motion blur are the hardest cases for any background remover. Before you paste or export, zoom in and check the edge. Many apps show transparent areas as a checkerboard; the pattern is only how they display transparency and isn't saved in the file.

Doing it in the browser instead

If your iPhone doesn't have Preview, or you'd rather not switch between apps, open Background Remover PNG in Safari and choose a photo; iPhone photos in HEIC format open directly. It's free with no signup, the photo is processed on your iPhone instead of being uploaded, and you download a full-size transparent PNG, although photos above about 16 megapixels are scaled down to fit a phone browser's memory and the page tells you when that happens. The first cutout downloads the AI model, roughly 50 MB, once, so Wi-Fi helps. For photo tips for people, pets and products, see removing the background from any image.