AetherCut™ background remover
Remove the background from any video clip directly in the browser. The ML model runs on your device; no frame is uploaded anywhere.
AetherCut's background remover runs MediaPipe SelfieSegmentation locally in WebAssembly. The model file (~3 MB) downloads once and stays cached in your browser. Every frame is segmented on your device's CPU and GPU — there is no server-side inference, no upload queue, and no per-second cost.
If you want to confirm this for yourself, open Chrome DevTools (F12) → Network tab → click the Background Remover tool. You'll see the model file download once on first use, and then absolutely nothing else. No frames go out.
This is the same on-device approach a desktop NLE would take, except you don't have to install anything. It works in a tab, on a Chromebook, on a borrowed laptop, on a plane.
How the background remover actually works
The tool feeds each frame of your clip through MediaPipe's SelfieSegmentation model — the same model Google ships in Meet for blur-background. It produces a per-pixel alpha mask separating the person from everything behind them.
AetherCut then composites the masked person onto either a transparent background (so you can stack the clip on a different scene in your timeline) or a solid color of your choice. You can also chain Color Spill Suppression after this step to clean up the edge tinting that always shows up around hair and shoulders.
On-device vs cloud background removal
Most browser-based background removers (Kapwing's, Canva's, Runway's) send your clip to their servers for processing. The model is identical or near-identical; the difference is where the inference runs.
When the inference runs on a server, your raw footage briefly lives on that company's storage. Even with the best privacy policies, the footage exists outside your machine for the duration of the job. For client work, NDA footage, journalism source material, or anything you'd rather not be on someone else's S3 bucket — that's a meaningful difference.
AetherCut runs the same model on your device's WebGL+CPU. Slower than a cloud GPU, faster than not having to wait for an upload. For a 60-second 1080p clip on a 2024 MacBook Air, the full mask job typically completes in 8–15 seconds.
When this tool isn't the right pick
MediaPipe SelfieSegmentation is tuned for people. If you need to remove the background from a product shot, a pet, or anything that isn't human-shaped, the mask quality drops noticeably. AetherCut's Magic Mask (Pro, MediaPipe + MobileSAM) handles arbitrary object segmentation better — also fully local.
If your source footage has motion blur on the subject, very fine hair detail, or low contrast against the background, no in-browser model will match a manual rotoscope. For that we'd genuinely recommend After Effects Roto Brush — paid, slow, but the result is what it is.
Frequently asked questions
Does the background remover upload my video?
No. The MediaPipe model runs in WebAssembly inside your browser tab. Open Chrome DevTools and watch the Network tab while you use the tool — you'll see zero outbound traffic carrying frame data.
Is the background remover free?
Yes. It's in the AI shelf on the free tier with no usage cap. Because the inference runs on your device, the cost to us is zero, so we don't meter it.
What model does AetherCut use for background removal?
MediaPipe SelfieSegmentation, the same model Google Meet uses for background blur. We ship the WebAssembly build (~3 MB), cached in your browser after first use.
How fast is it?
On a 2024 MacBook Air (M3), a 60-second 1080p clip processes in roughly 8–15 seconds. On older hardware or higher resolutions, it scales linearly with frame count.
Try AetherCut now — no signup required.
Open the editor and verify the no-upload claim yourself in Chrome DevTools.
Free tier · Pro $14.95/mo · $129.88/yr · Lifetime Pro one-time
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No signup. No upload. Verify privacy in DevTools in 30 seconds.