Image background removal

POST /api/image-remove-bg2 quota units per call · cache hits free

Remove a uniform background from an image. Picks the dominant background colour automatically, or accepts an explicit hex value, and replaces it with transparency.

Removes a uniform background colour from an image and replaces it with transparency. The background colour is detected automatically (most common edge colour) or you can pass an explicit hex value. Works well for clean product shots and graphics with flat-colour backgrounds. For photographs with complex backgrounds (foliage, varied lighting) consider an AI-based service instead — this is a simple colour-key tool, not a learned segmentation model.

Inputs

Name	Type	Default	Description
image*	file	—	Input image (PNG / JPEG / WebP).
color	string	"white"	Background colour to make transparent (CSS / IM colour name or #rrggbb).
fuzz	number (0…100)	10	Tolerance percentage 0–100. Higher catches more of an anti-aliased edge.
invert	boolean	false	When true, keep matching-colour pixels and remove everything else.
format	enum (png \| webp)	"png"	Output format. PNG and WebP support transparency; JPEG isn't offered (it can't preserve alpha).

Response

Modes: binary, stream, json. Cache: yes (24h TTL).

Large outputs stream: responses over the 4 MiB cache limit are piped through as they are produced instead of buffered. They carry x-cache-skip: size and are never cached — identical follow-up calls recompute.

Every response carries x-cache (HIT / MISS / BYPASS), x-cache-signature (stable across identical inputs), and the rate-limit headers listed below.

Quota & limits

Cost per call	2 units against the 10,000-unit monthly quota. Cache hits are free — only cache misses decrement.
Burst limit	200 requests per rolling minute, shared across all tools.
Max request size	`16 MiB` (base64 inflates file payloads ~33% — the limit applies to the decoded bytes).
Max response size	`32 MiB`
Timeout	30s wall clock.
Rate-limit headers	`X-RateLimit-Limit`, `X-RateLimit-Remaining`, `X-RateLimit-Burst-Limit` on every response; `X-Quota-Warning` once 80% of the monthly quota is spent; `Retry-After` on 429s.

Errors

Errors are JSON with an error string; schema failures add a details object (Zod's flattened field errors).

Status	When	Body
400	Input fails the tool's schema (wrong type, missing required field, malformed base64) or the file bytes can't be parsed as the expected format.	{ "error": "invalid inputs", "details": { "fieldErrors": { … } } }
401	Missing or invalid X-Api-Key / X-Account-Id headers (or no session when called from the browser).	{ "error": "unauthorized" }
404	Unknown tool id, or calling /api/* on the website hostname instead of api.xtract.bot.	{ "error": "not found" }
413	Request body over the tool's max request size, or an image header declaring more megapixels than the tool's pixel budget.	{ "error": "…exceeds maxRequestBytes…" }
415	Content-Type isn't application/json on the json-body transport.	{ "error": "unsupported content-type; expected application/json" }
429	Monthly quota or the 200/min burst limit exhausted. Check Retry-After and the X-RateLimit-* headers.	{ "error": "monthly quota exceeded", "monthRemaining": 0, … }
5xx	Conversion engine failure. Safe to retry; if it persists, the input is hitting a bug — please report it.	{ "error": "…" }

Code samples

Built from the white-bg example.

# Download or substitute the example input:
#   curl -O https://xtract.bot/examples/image-png-to-webp/sample.png
IMAGE=$(base64 -w0 < sample.png)

curl -X POST https://api.xtract.bot/api/image-remove-bg \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/octet-stream" \
  -H "X-Account-Id: $XTRACT_ACCOUNT_ID" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $XTRACT_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "color": "white",
  "fuzz": 10,
  "image": "'"$IMAGE"'"
}'