Background remover for Windows100% on deviceFree for personal use
Lift the subject. Drop the background.
Drag in a photo (or a whole batch) and Liftr lifts the subject out automatically, entirely on your PC, then drops in a transparent, solid color, blurred, gradient or custom background. Nothing is ever uploaded, no account, no per-image fee.
v1.4.0 beta · Windows 10 (1809+) & 11 · 64-bit · Installs without admin rights · No account
01 How it works
Drop it. Lift it. Drop in a new one.
Drag in your photos
Drop one image onto the window from File Explorer, or a whole folder. Liftr lifts the subject out on-device, no upload, no waiting on a server.
Drop in a new background
Transparent, a solid color, a blurred version of the original, a gradient, or your own image. Refine the edge, add a soft shadow, and trim to the subject, with a live before/after slider.
Touch up if it needs it
Cut too much, or left a stray speck? The brush flips between Erase and Restore (press R). Hold Shift to connect two points with a straight line.
Export, copy or drag out
Write PNG, JPG, HEIC or TIFF, copy the cut-out straight to the clipboard, or drag it into another app. Every export writes a new file: Liftr never writes over a photo you added.
02 Features
Everything a background remover should be.
One focused window with every tool you reach for, without ever sending a photo to the cloud.
On-device removal
An on-device machine-learning model finds the subject and cuts it out right on your PC. No upload, no server round-trip, no waiting. See the Beta note below for how this build's engine compares to the Mac app's.
Drop in any background
Keep it transparent, or drop in a solid color, a blurred version of the original photo, a gradient, or your own image. Switch modes instantly: the cut-out is cached, so it never re-runs.
Pan & zoom your background
When your background is your own photo, Zoom/X/Y sliders under Background → Fit let you reframe it without leaving Liftr. It works with both Cover and Contain.
New in 1.3
Eyedropper & color picker
Sample a color straight from your photo with the eyedropper, then dial it in exactly with a full color picker: a saturation/brightness square, a hue slider, and a hex box.
New in 1.2
Fade the background back
A Keep original slider brings the original background back: from fully removed at 0% to untouched at 100%. Stop anywhere in between for a soft, ghosted backdrop.
New in 1.1
Edge refinement
Tighten, feather, and clean up the cut-out edge so hair and fine detail look natural, not a paper-cut halo. Dial it in and watch it update live.
Touch-up brush
The brush flips between Erase and Restore (press R). Zoom in and clean up the edge by hand. Hold Shift to constrain a stroke to a straight line. Your fixes carry through to every background, and into Copy and Export.
New in 1.2
Soft drop shadow
Add a natural shadow beneath the subject: pick a Soft, Natural or Long preset, or dial blur, opacity and offset yourself. The shadow tracks the subject when it's moved or scaled.
Trim, aspect & size
Trim-to-subject auto-crops to what's left, then set an aspect ratio, output size, or a round crop, with one-tap size presets for marketplace, profile and social.
Reposition the subject
A Subject panel adds Scale/X/Y sliders so you can nudge or resize the cut-out within the canvas, handy for recentering after a crop or leaving room for text.
New in 1.3
Batch with presets
Drop in dozens at once and apply a preset (Transparent PNG, Product White, Studio Gray, Soft Shadow, Portrait Blur, Social Gradient) to all of them in one click. Or save your own background-and-export setup as a named preset, right beside the six built-ins.
New in 1.2
Before/after compare
Drag the compare slider to see exactly what changed (the original on one side, the clean cut-out on a checkerboard on the other), then export it as a shareable before/after reveal GIF in one click.
New in 1.1
PNG, JPG, HEIC & TIFF
Export a transparent PNG, HEIC or TIFF for cut-outs, or a flattened JPG, at full resolution, with the size and aspect you set.
Copy & drag out
Copy the cut-out straight to the clipboard to paste into any app, or drag the finished image out of the window into another one, no export step required.
Light, dark, or follows Windows
A header button pins the app to Light or Dark, or leaves it following your Windows setting. Switch anytime without restarting.
New in 1.3
Updates itself
Liftr checks about once a week and badges the update button when something new is out (never a forced pop-up), and you can turn the check off. Click it and Liftr downloads, verifies, and installs the update in place, then reopens.
100% on your PC
Nothing is uploaded, ever. No account, no cloud, no usage analytics. Editing needs no connection at all; the only requests Liftr makes are its update check and, if you buy one, a business-license check.
Privacy
13 languages
English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (BR), Dutch, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Korean. Liftr follows your Windows display language automatically, and you can pin a different one from the language picker.
Built for everyone
Keyboard-navigable throughout, with Windows High Contrast support, live announcements for async results, and measured WCAG 2.1 AA contrast in both light and dark.
WCAG 2.1 AA
03 Reads & writes
PNG
Transparent PNG
JPG
HEIC
TIFF
+ common image formats in
04 Beta
You're testing the first Windows build.
Liftr has been on the Mac for a while. This Windows build tracks the same interface and most of the same feature set, but it is not a straight recompile. The one piece that genuinely differs: background removal itself runs on a different on-device model than the Mac app, because Apple's Vision framework doesn't exist on Windows. It is the one deliberate difference between the two builds, and it is named here rather than buried.
What would help most
Cutout quality, especially vs. the Mac build
This build lifts the subject with an open-source on-device model, not Apple's Vision framework. Try a hard case (hair, fur, glass, a busy background) and tell me where it struggles or where it does great.
Drag & drop, for real
From File Explorer, from the desktop, from a search-results list, from a network drive. Single files, multi-select, whole folders.
The install itself
Whether SmartScreen let you through, whether the shortcut and taskbar icon look right, whether uninstall leaves anything behind.
Anything that looks wrong
Clipped text, a scrollbar where there shouldn't be one, an odd translation, a dialog you couldn't reach with the keyboard.
06 Pricing
Free for you. Fair for work.
Personal use is free forever: full resolution, unlimited batch, every background mode, no account, no watermarks. If Liftr earns its keep at your job, a one-time business license keeps it supported.
Personal
Free forever
For individuals and personal projects
- On-device removal at full resolution: no per-image cost
- Every background mode, preset, and batch, all unlimited
- Non-destructive: originals never modified
- 100% on-device, nothing uploaded
- No account, no nag screens
- Free updates forever
Business
$5 / computer
One-time payment, no subscription
- Everything in Personal
- Use commercially at work
- One-time payment, no subscription
- Free updates forever
- Supports solo indie development
The personal tier is the full app. Buy a business license only if you use Liftr commercially. One seat per computer, paid once, yours for life. Secure checkout via Stripe; your license key is emailed instantly. The same key works on the Mac build.
07 Download & install
Get set up in about a minute.
Run the installer and Liftr lands in your own user folder: no admin password, no UAC prompt, nothing else to install.
Version 1.4.0 beta · Liftr-Setup.exe · about 91 MB · Free updates forever
Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11 · 64-bit
Liftr bundles its on-device background-removal model right inside the installer, which is why the download is bigger than a typical utility: everything it needs is already in there, nothing else to fetch. It does use the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime to draw its interface, which ships with Windows 11 and reaches almost every Windows 10 machine through Windows Update. On the rare PC without it, Liftr will say so on launch and Microsoft's free installer is a one-click fix.
No admin rights needed
Liftr installs per-user into
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Liftr, so there's no UAC prompt and no argument with your IT department. Uninstall from Settings → Apps → Installed apps like anything else.Windows may warn you the first time. Here's the honest story.
Liftr is Authenticode-signed, so the publisher shows as a real, verified name rather than "Unknown publisher." But signing alone does not switch SmartScreen off: Microsoft builds reputation per file, and a brand-new build starts with none. Until this exact file has been downloaded enough times, you may still see a blue "Windows protected your PC" box.
- Click More info
- Check the publisher name shown
- Click Run anyway
08 FAQ
Common questions.
Is Liftr really free?
Personal use is free forever: full resolution, unlimited batch, every background mode, no account, no trial timer, no watermarks. If you use Liftr at work, a one-time $5 business license per computer keeps it supported.
Does Liftr upload my photos anywhere?
No. Every photo is processed entirely on your PC using an on-device machine-learning model: nothing you open or export is ever uploaded, there's no account, and there's no usage analytics. The only time Liftr contacts our server is if you enter a business license key (to validate it) or it checks for a new version (automatically about once a week, or when you ask), which sends the app version and can be switched off. Your photos are never involved.
How is Liftr free when remove.bg and Photoroom charge?
Cloud tools like remove.bg, Photoroom and Canva upload your photos to their servers and charge a subscription or per-image fee to cover that compute. Liftr runs its background-removal model on your own PC, so there's no server to pay for, which means no per-image cost, no subscription, unlimited batch, and full resolution. Personal use is free forever; a one-time $5 business license per computer covers commercial use.
What Windows version and hardware do I need?
Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11, 64-bit. Liftr's on-device model runs on the CPU, so there's no specific GPU requirement. See the download section for the full story on what's bundled versus what Windows needs to already have.
Will Liftr change my original photos?
Never. Liftr is non-destructive by design: your originals are never modified, and every export writes a new file. Liftr will not write over a photo you added to its list, not the one it's reading, and not any of the others.
Can Liftr generate a brand-new AI background?
No, that's a deliberate non-goal. Liftr replaces the background you have with transparency, a solid color, a blurred version of the original, a gradient, or your own image. It doesn't invent new scenery, and there's no generative model: everything runs on-device.
What formats can it read and write?
Out: PNG, JPG, HEIC and TIFF, with transparent PNG, HEIC and TIFF for cut-outs, and a flattened JPG when you need one. In: common image formats including JPG, PNG, HEIC and TIFF.
Why did Windows show a blue "protected your PC" warning?
Because the file is new, not because it's unsigned. SmartScreen builds trust per file over downloads and time, and a fresh build starts from zero. Code signing gives you a verified publisher name in the dialog but does not skip it. Click More info → check the publisher → Run anyway. See the install section for the full explanation.
How do I update Liftr?
It updates itself. Liftr quietly checks about once a week and badges the update button when there's something new (never a pop-up), and you can turn the check off. Click it and Liftr downloads the new installer, verifies its signature and version before running anything, installs over itself and reopens. If any of those checks fail it deletes the download and sends you here instead. Your settings carry over.
How is this different from the Mac version?
Same interface, same tools: backgrounds, edge refinement, touch-up brush, shadow, trim, presets, batch. The one place this build is genuinely not a straight port: background removal itself runs on a different on-device model, since Apple's Vision framework is part of macOS and has no Windows equivalent. Cutout quality should be close, but I haven't independently verified it matches on every kind of photo. That's exactly what beta feedback is for. A business-license key works on both platforms.
How does the business license work?
If you use Liftr commercially, buy a one-time $5 license per computer from the pricing section: secure checkout via Stripe, and your license key is emailed instantly. The personal tier is the full app with no nag screens, so you can evaluate it freely first.
Where do my settings live, and what does uninstalling remove?
Preferences sit in
%APPDATA%\Liftr and your license key in your user profile. Uninstalling removes the app from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Liftr; delete those two if you want every trace gone. Nothing is written outside your user account, and nothing goes in the registry beyond the uninstall entry.