The best app to remove a person from a photo

The best app to remove a person from a photo depends on the photo. For a stranger in the background, the free eraser on your phone is usually enough: Clean Up on iPhone, Magic Eraser in Google Photos, or Object Eraser on a Samsung Galaxy. Photoshop gives you the most control if you already know it. When the person is right next to you, with an arm around you or a head against yours, Remove Your Ex lets you describe them in your own words instead of brushing around them.

Before

After AI-edited

The apps side by side

Plans and features change, so check each company’s site for what’s current where you live.

Photoshop: the most control, the most work

Photoshop on desktop has two tools for removing a person. With the Remove tool, you brush over them or draw a loop around them, and Photoshop fills the space. Its Find distractions option can also detect the people in a photo, and you review and refine what it found before you commit the change. These steps are in Adobe’s Photoshop help.

With Generative Fill, you select the area with any selection tool, then type a prompt or leave it blank so Photoshop fills the selection from the pixels around it. You then choose from the variations it generates.

Photoshop is the right pick if you already pay for it and know your way around selections and layers, or if one photo matters enough to spend an evening on it. If you’ve never used it, the learning curve is the real cost.

Phone erasers: free and good at strangers in the background

Clean Up, Magic Eraser, and Object Eraser all work the same way. You open one photo, mark the person, and the app fills in the space behind them. For a photobomber at the edge or a stranger walking past, they’re often all you need, and they’re free. Clean Up needs a supported iPhone, Magic Eraser is in the Google Photos app on Android and iPhone, and Object Eraser is in the Gallery app on Galaxy phones.

They struggle with the person beside you. You mark them yourself, and the bigger and closer they are, the more the app has to rebuild. Step-by-step instructions for all three, and what to expect from each, are in how to remove your ex from a photo.

Online erasers: handy in a browser, check the fine print

Picsart and many similar sites offer an eraser in the browser or in an app. Most work like the phone tools: you brush over what should go. They’re useful when your phone doesn’t have a built-in eraser. Free plans, limits, and watermarks vary from site to site and change often, so check them before you start, and read the privacy policy before you upload personal photos.

Remove Your Ex: made for the person next to you

Remove Your Ex does one thing: it removes the person you describe from a photo. Instead of brushing, you say who should go, like “the man in the straw hat on the right”. You can upload up to 10 photos per batch, in JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, or HEIC, up to 20 MB each. It works in the browser on your phone or computer, so there’s nothing to install.

Each photo costs 1 credit, including a free second edit if the first isn’t right, and failed edits return the credit automatically. There’s no subscription: you buy a credit pack, and credits never expire. Current prices are on the pricing page.

It has limits too. Arms around shoulders and heads touching are the hardest cases for any tool, this one included. Look at the result at full size, and if something looks off, use the free second edit with a clearer description. If the person is still there in a paid edit, tap “Report: person still there” and the credit comes back, up to 3 times every 30 days.

Your photos are stored privately and deleted automatically after 90 days. Google doesn’t use them to train its models. You can delete them sooner from My photos. You need to be 18 or older to use Remove Your Ex, and it isn’t available in the EU/EEA, the UK, or Switzerland yet.

Which app should you use?

• A stranger or photobomber in the background: your phone’s free eraser. Start there.
• You already use Photoshop, or one photo deserves hours of careful work: Photoshop.
• Your phone has no built-in eraser: Google Photos is free on Android and iPhone, and an online eraser works too.
• The person is right next to you, touching you, or in the middle of a group: Remove Your Ex. Describe them instead of brushing around them.
• A whole album of photos with the same person: Remove Your Ex, up to 10 photos per batch.

You can mix them: a free eraser for the easy ones, Remove Your Ex for the close-ups. If the person you want gone is an ex, there are guides for an ex-boyfriend, an ex-girlfriend, and group and wedding photos. For the paid options side by side, see Remove Your Ex vs ExEraser vs removepeople.ai.

Just want to see them less?

You don’t have to edit anything to stop someone popping up in your memories. Facebook, Google Photos, and the iPhone Photos app all let you hide a person from memories. Here’s how to stop seeing your ex in photo memories.