# imgly/background-removal-js

Remove backgrounds from images directly in the browser environment with ease and no additional costs or privacy concerns. Explore an interactive demo.

Repository: https://github.com/imgly/background-removal-js
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/background-removal-js
Homepage: https://img.ly/showcases/cesdk/web/background-removal/web
Language: TypeScript
License: AGPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: background-removal, javascript, open-source, typescript, image-matting, image-segmentation, onnx
Last push: 2025-07-18T12:56:39+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 43/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 32, release rhythm 35, longevity 83
- inputs: {"age_days": 1167, "days_push": 411, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7287, forks 468 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:58.028353+00:00)

## What it is
An npm package (browser and Node.js variants) that removes image backgrounds using ONNX-based image segmentation/matting models running entirely client-side. It requires no server calls, so there are no extra costs and user images stay on the device.

## Use cases
- remove background from product images in an e-commerce app
- cut out subjects from photos in the browser
- add background removal to a web-based image editor
- process user avatars without uploading them to a server
- batch remove backgrounds in a Node.js script
- build a free alternative to paid background removal APIs

## When to choose
- you need client-side background removal with no server costs
- privacy matters and images must not leave the user's device
- you want a simple npm library for image matting in JS/TS

## When to avoid
- you need a permissive license for closed-source use (AGPL-3.0)
- you need server-scale GPU throughput for massive batch jobs
- you need video or audio background removal rather than images

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: image-processing, machine-learning, computer-vision
- domain: image-processing, web-development, artificial-intelligence
- platform: browser, cross-platform
- tags: background-removal, image-matting, image-segmentation, onnx, client-side-ai, privacy, nodejs

## Member repositories
- imgly/background-removal-js (main) score 43

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:58.028353+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:38:52.179085+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/imgly/background-removal-js (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:58.028353+00:00, sha cd32f4d2499d)
  - homepage: https://img.ly/showcases/cesdk/web/background-removal/web (fetched 2026-08-29T08:34:30.428039+00:00, sha c65229ebee10)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/background-removal-js (fetched 2026-08-29T08:34:30.450558+00:00, sha 41a8aff0c93f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.