Blur that follows distance
Depth Anything V1 Small estimates how far away each part of the photo is. Whatever is at the focus distance stays sharp, and the blur builds up the farther anything is from it, in front as well as behind.
Private image tools
Blur the background by how far away it is
A real lens blurs a wall a step behind someone less than a hillside a mile behind them. This page does the same from a single photo: the farther something is from what you focus on, the more it blurs, and the subject stays sharp out to the edge of its outline.
An AI tool, and what the AI does. Depth Anything V1 Small, a 100MB model that runs on your device, estimates how far away each part of the photo is. The site's background remover can outline the subject. The blur itself is arithmetic on your own pixels: nothing is generated and nothing is uploaded.
Result proof
Your photo with the background blurred by distance
01
Input
A photo with its background still in it: JPEG, PNG or WebP
02
Local pass
A depth model estimates how far away each part of the photo is, the Fast background remover outlines the subject, and each background pixel is blurred more the farther it is from the focus, averaging background pixels only; the subject is then put back on top with its own soft edge
03
Result
A PNG at the size the page worked at, which is your photo's own size unless the page said it scaled it down
How to verify it: The caption under the result gives the largest blur in pixels and how much of the photo was blurred. Drag the before-and-after divider across the subject's edge: the background right beside it should be the background's own colour, with no glow in the subject's colour.
Depth, not one blur radius
The farther something is, the softer it gets
A blur with one radius treats a wall a step behind someone like a hillside a mile away. This page estimates depth on your device and blurs each part of the background by its distance from what you focus on, with the subject kept sharp.
100 MB
Depth model, first use only
No glow round the subject
The background is blurred from background pixels only, so the subject's colours do not smear into the backdrop beside it, and the subject goes back on top with its own soft edge.
Change it without downloading again
The subject stays sharp by default. Click the photo to focus somewhere else, or change strength and falloff, and the page redraws from the depth it already has.
Know before you process: The depth is an estimate from a single photo and can be wrong, bright points become soft glows rather than round lens highlights, and a cutout with a transparent background is refused.
What people use this for
Portraits and profile photos
Soften a busy room or street behind someone without cutting them out, so the photo keeps its setting.
Pets
The subject outline, not the coarser depth map, decides where the animal ends, so fur the outline takes in stays sharp. Stray hairs and whiskers it misses count as background and blur with it.
Products on a table
The table the product stands on stays sharp where it is as close as the product and softens as it recedes, as it would through a lens.
Scenes with depth
On a street or a room with no single subject, click or tap where the photo should be sharp and let the rest fall away with distance.
Limits worth knowing
- The depth model estimates relative distance from one photo, and it can be wrong. We checked it on five photorealistic test images (a portrait, a dog on grass, headphones on a table, a street and a busy cafe), all computer-generated rather than taken with a camera, and near and far came out in the right order on all five. We have not tested glass, mirrors or reflections.
- Bright points become soft glows, not the disc-shaped highlights a real lens makes.
- Where something blurred in the foreground overlaps something sharp behind it, its edge stays crisper than a real lens would leave it.
- Without the subject outline, the subject's edge follows the depth map, which is coarser than your photo, so hair and fine edges can soften.
- At the strongest setting the largest blur is 4% of the photo's shorter side. It will not turn a background into pure colour.
- It needs the photo's own background. A cutout with a transparent background has nothing behind the subject to blur, so the page refuses it.
- An image larger than the working limit this device can hold safely is scaled down to that limit first, and the page says so when it happens.
How the local workflow runs
- Choose a photo. It stays on your device.
- Allow the 100 MB depth model, once, and leave Keep the subject sharp ticked.
- Press Blur the background.
- Adjust Blur strength and Falloff, or click or tap the photo (or use the arrow keys on it) to focus somewhere else. The result updates without downloading anything again.
- Drag across the before-and-after to check the edges, then download the PNG or open it in the editor.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from blurring the background in an editor?
An ordinary background blur gives everything behind the subject the same blur, and it blurs the subject along with it, so the subject's colours smear into the backdrop as a glow round its edge. This page estimates how far away each part of the photo is and blurs it by that distance, and with the subject outlined (Keep the subject sharp, on by default) it averages background pixels only, so the backdrop next to the subject stays the backdrop's own colour.
Is this AI?
Yes, in two places. A depth model, Depth Anything V1 Small, estimates how far away each part of the photo is, and if you keep "Keep the subject sharp" ticked, the site's Fast background remover outlines the subject. Both run on your device. The blur and the compositing after that are ordinary arithmetic on your own pixels: nothing is generated.
What does it download?
The depth model is 100 MB, downloaded once when you allow it and then kept by your browser. It is Depth Anything V1 Small, published under the Apache 2.0 licence. Keeping the subject sharp also uses the Fast background remover, about 45 MB the first time. The first run also fetches the shared ONNX Runtime engine both models run on, up to about 24 MB, unless this browser already holds it from another tool on this site. None of those requests carry anything of your photo.
Why is something that is not the subject still sharp?
Because it is about as far away as the subject. Whatever is at the focus distance stays sharp, such as the ground under a person's feet or the table a product stands on, which is how a real lens behaves. Choose Sudden falloff to blur more of what is close behind, or click or tap the photo to focus somewhere else.
Can I choose what stays sharp?
Yes. Click or tap the photo, or select it and move the focus point with the arrow keys. Whatever is at that distance stays sharp and everything nearer or farther blurs, including the subject if you chose a point away from it. Clicking the subject, or pressing Focus on the subject, goes back to the default. Changing the focus, strength or falloff after the first run re-renders without downloading anything again.
Can I use it in the image editor?
Yes. It is under More Tools, with a strength slider, and in the AI Tools panel, and both run the same blur as this page. In the editor the subject outline comes from the image's mask, so run AI Background Removal first. The depth model download is asked about once, and the answer holds on this page and in the editor.
Does it make round bokeh highlights?
No. The blur is smooth, so a bright point in the background becomes a soft glow rather than the disc-shaped highlight a real lens makes. That is a limit of this tool, not a setting.
Does my image leave my device?
No. The photo is decoded, measured, blurred and encoded in this tab. The only network requests are the one-time model and engine downloads described above.
Related tools
Background Remover
Remove the background entirely instead of blurring it.
Image Editor
Crop, adjust and export the blurred photo, or run Portrait Blur there from More Tools.
Privacy Blur
Blur faces, licence plates and text rather than the whole background.
Photo Check
Find out whether a photo will outline cleanly before you start.
Ready to try it?
Nothing is uploaded, and nothing downloads until you allow it.
Blur a background by depth →