The complete image API for developers.
Plus upscaling, face restore, stickers, studio shots, alpha-channel video, and 28 endpoints behind one key. ~200 ms per call. MIT licensed, self-hostable, 10× cheaper than remove.bg.
curl -X POST "https://useknockout--api.modal.run/remove" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
-F "file=@cat.jpg" -o out.png
# → 200 OK · image/png · 184 ms
Built on open infra · ship the credit, not just the call
SOTA quality. Real photos.
BiRefNet ranks #1 on DIS5K and HRSOD. We benchmark against remove.bg on hard subjects: hair, fur, glass, group photos.
Group photos
Eight overlapping subjects, busy background. Drag the slider: one /replace-bg call swapped the pier for mountains in a single pass.
One API, twenty-eight endpoints.
Cover the full image-cutout, composition, and enhancement workflow without stitching together half a dozen vendors.
Enhancement
How it stacks up.
Most image APIs charge up to 10× more for half the surface area. We're open source on top.
| Feature | useknockoutOURS | remove.bg | Photoroom | Slazzer | ClipDrop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per-image cost (PAYG) | $0.02 | $0.20 | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.05 |
| Free tier / month | 10 / mo | 1 / mo | 0 | 20 / mo | 100 / mo |
| Background removal | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Super-resolution | ✓ | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| Face restore | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Sticker outline | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | – |
| Studio composite | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Drop shadow | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Smart crop | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | – |
| Silhouette portrait | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Inpainting | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Video background removal (real alpha) | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Layered PSD export (API) | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Batch endpoint | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Node SDK | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – |
| React SDK | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Python SDK | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – |
| MIT licensed | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
Pricing and feature snapshot as of May 2026. Vendor pages may have changed since. Open an issue if anything is stale.
Install in your stack.
Official SDKs for Node, React, CLI, and Python. Or hit the REST API directly.
npm i @useknockout/node
import { Knockout } from "@useknockout/node";
const client = new Knockout({ token: process.env.KNOCKOUT_TOKEN });
const png = await client.remove({ file: "./input.jpg" });Pricing
For reference: the same image on remove.bg is $0.20 at their PAYG rate.
Free
Best for: Eval, side projects, OSS
- ✓10 images / month
- ✓No card required
- ✓Background removal: /remove, /remove-url
- ✓Utilities: /mask, /compare, /preview
- ✓Community support
Pay-as-you-go
Best for: Side projects, early startups
- ✓Per-image billing
- ✓Credits never expire
- ✓All endpoints: incl. AI upscale, face restore, colorize, e-commerce presets & batch
- ✓PSD export $0.10/image
- ✓Video background removal $0.10/output sec
- ✓Email support
Knockout Plus
Best for: Designers, agencies, power users
- ✓250 images included, then $0.02/image
- ✓Layered PSD export: included free
- ✓Video background removal $0.08/output sec
- ✓Edge despill + saved presets
- ✓Custom watermarks, resize & compression
Volume
Best for: Production workloads
- ✓Negotiated per-image rate
- ✓99.9% uptime SLA
- ✓Slack support
- ✓Usage dashboard