README.md

metadata

title: BiRefNet Background Remover
emoji: ✂️
colorFrom: indigo
colorTo: purple
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 5.45.0
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
license: mit
short_description: Remove image backgrounds with BiRefNet.

BiRefNet Background Remover

A small Gradio app that creates transparent PNG cut-outs with BiRefNet-General, through rembg. It replaces the previous RMBG-2.0/Transformers implementation.

Run locally

Requires Python 3.10 or newer.

python -m venv .venv
# Windows PowerShell
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Open the local URL printed by Gradio. The first removal downloads the birefnet-general ONNX weights and caches them; later requests reuse the same in-process session. To choose a persistent cache location, set REMBG_HOME before starting the app.

Deploy to Hugging Face Spaces

1. Create a new Gradio Space, preferably with Python 3.10+.
2. Push these files to the root of the Space: app.py, remove_background.py, requirements.txt, README.md, and LICENSE.
3. Wait for the build to finish. No secrets or manual model download are required. The model downloads automatically on the first inference.
4. For quicker or more reliable cold starts, use a persistent-storage upgrade and set REMBG_HOME=/data/rembg in the Space variables. This is optional; the default cache also works but is recreated after a free Space restarts.

The app queues one request at a time to keep memory usage safe. It supports Hugging Face ZeroGPU and requests a GPU only while removing a background; a CPU Space also works, albeit more slowly.

Licensing and attribution

This repository's code is MIT licensed. BiRefNet's upstream repository is MIT licensed, and rembg is MIT licensed. The selected birefnet-general model is the BiRefNet general-use ONNX model distributed by rembg; unlike the prior BRIA RMBG-2.0 model, it is intended here to support commercial use. Keep this attribution and independently review upstream model and dataset terms for your specific deployment.

Links: BiRefNet · rembg model list