Removing the background from a video

The Video Background Remover does for clips what the main tool does for photos: the subject stays, the background goes, and everything runs on your device. Nothing about your video is uploaded. Frames are decoded, processed, and re-encoded in the browser.

Choosing a model

The single most important choice is the model tier, because they work differently:

• People runs Robust Video Matting: a recurrent network. Each frame's result feeds into the next, so the model remembers where you were a frame ago. That memory is what makes edges hold still instead of flickering, and it is also the fastest tier (~15 MB, one-time download). Use it whenever your subject is a person: talking heads, presenters, dance clips.
• Any subject, Fast and Any subject, Best segment each frame independently (the same ORMBG and BiRefNet models as the image tool) with smoothing blended between frames. Use these for products, pets, and objects, anything that is not a person. Best gives the sharpest hair and edge detail; Fast is roughly three times quicker.

If you pick People for a coffee mug, expect poor results. The model was trained on humans. That is a model property, not a bug.

The 60-second / 1280px limits

Every single frame runs AI inference and is then re-encoded by ffmpeg in your browser. Sixty seconds, processed at up to 1280px on the long side, is the bound that finishes reliably without exhausting browser memory. Longer footage: trim it first, the Video Editor trims without re-encoding your master, and process the section you need.

Transparent WebM vs composited MP4

• WebM output is encoded as VP9 with a real alpha plane (yuva420p). That is genuine transparency, not a checkerboard baked into pixels. Chrome, Edge, CapCut, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, and OBS all read it directly.
• MP4 cannot carry alpha, so MP4 output composites your chosen background, solid colour or a blurred version of the original, into every frame. It plays everywhere.

One honest caveat: transparent WebM support varies outside Chromium, so some players show an opaque background. The file is not broken. Use the composited MP4 for broad playback compatibility.

Original audio is kept in both outputs.

Putting the subject on a new scene

For a quick result, pick a solid or blurred background before processing. For full control, export the transparent WebM and open it in the Video Editor: every lifestyle scene and custom background shows through wherever the clip is transparent. If you open an unprocessed clip in the editor and pick a scene, the editor will tell you the clip is opaque and offer to remove the background in place.

Troubleshooting

• Edges shimmer on an Any-subject clip: try the Best tier, or if your subject is actually a person, switch to People.
• Processing feels slow: WebGPU (Chrome/Edge) is substantially faster than the WebAssembly fallback; close other heavy tabs, and remember the first run includes the one-time model download.
• The result opens with a black background in some player: that player does not support WebM alpha. The transparency is still in the file; verify in Chrome, Edge, or a compatible editor.