Clipdrop
A collection of focused AI image tools — remove backgrounds relight portraits upscale images and erase objects each as a dedicated single-purpose web app with no interface to learn.
Founded at Stability AI, Clipdrop was purchased by Jasper AI in early 2024. In 2026 it continues to be one of the most intriguing AI editing tools on the market due to its unique approach, which differs from most competitors. Instead of being one monolithic application that houses all of Clipdrop's capabilities, it's a series of discrete single-function web-based applications, including object removal, uncropping, relighting, image upscaling, sketch-to-image, and background removal. In essence, you can select the specific function you want to perform, upload your image, have the function performed, download, and move on to the next tool you might need. Of all its features, Relight stands out as being the most unusual compared to its competition. Upload any portrait or product shot, and you can add or tweak the location and brightness of simulated lights in post—add a backlight, change its hue or temperature, and move the lights to adjust shadows in a realistic way. This allows creative possibilities you wouldn't normally be able to afford outside of renting out a full studio space and performing your own professional lighting or doing your own advanced Photoshop compositing. Devs are drawn to their API for its flexibility to integrate single functionalities like background removal into their products on a pay-per-use basis. It should be noted, however, that since its purchase from Stability AI by Jasper, the focus has been on an enterprise-level marketing solution, and consumers have been experiencing slowed progress in the updates on some individual tools. If you are wanting to try out before buying, a limited free option is available, and Pro, for just $9 a month, provides access to all of Clipdrop's capabilities, including their most powerful SD models for creation.
- Category: Image Editing
- Pricing: Freemium
- Rating: 4.3 / 5 (0 reviews)
- Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
Key features
- Relight — Add move or change virtual light sources on any portrait or product photo after the fact with realistic shadow and colour temperature adjustment
- Background removal — AI subject isolation producing clean transparent cutouts with accurate edge detection
- Object cleanup — Erase unwanted elements from photos with context-aware inpainting that fills the removed area naturally
- Image upscaler — Increase resolution of low-quality images with AI-enhanced detail reconstruction
- Uncrop — Extend the canvas and borders of any image with AI-generated content matching the original
- Stable Diffusion XL generation — Text-to-image generation via the SDXL model available inside the Clipdrop ecosystem
- Stable Doodle — Convert rough sketches into realistic or stylised images using Stable Diffusion
- API access — Per-operation API for developers integrating specific tools like background removal and upscaling into custom workflows
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Relight for adding or shifting light sources post-capture is a genuinely distinctive capability that most competing tools in the category do not offer
- Single-purpose tool structure means each operation has a focused interface with no unnecessary complexity surrounding the specific task
- API with per-operation pricing allows developers to integrate specific capabilities like background removal at granular cost control
- Upscaler quality powered by Stability AI research produces consistently strong detail enhancement on low-resolution inputs
- Pro at $9 per month unlocks the full toolkit at a lower price than most comparable multi-tool image editing subscriptions
Cons
- Ownership transition from Stability AI to Jasper AI has shifted roadmap focus toward enterprise marketing with some consumer tools seeing less active development
- Individual tool navigation across separate web apps is less workflow-efficient than editors that provide all tools in one unified interface
- Stable Diffusion image generation quality trails dedicated generators like Midjourney and Flux for high-quality artistic or photorealistic output
- Free tier watermarks outputs which limits practical evaluation for any image intended for real use