Plenty of free image editors online do wondrous things like remove backgrounds from photos or upscale picture sizes. But usually, these have some restrictions. You'll find limitations like only editing five images in the free account or exporting images at a really low resolution.

So we set out to find free online image editors with no restrictions or limitations that don't affect a normal user. With these tools, you'll be able to remove backgrounds or watermarks, clear out one object from a photo, upscale images to a higher resolution with no loss, and even batch-edit multiple photos.

1. Adobe Express Background Remover (Web): Remove Backgrounds Using Photoshop Tech

Adobe Photoshop started the trend of removing backgrounds from images with its incredible one-click tool years ago. It worked like magic, and now you can access that technology for free, without Photoshop or buying an Adobe Creative Cloud license.

In the free online Adobe Express suite, Adobe has included a background removal tool that anyone can access. You don't even need to be an Adobe user; you can log in via other IDs like Google or Apple. Once you're in, upload an image from your hard drive (you can't link to URLs). Adobe Express Background Remover accepts a maximum size of 6000x6000 pixels, the largest we've seen so far.

Unlike many other websites to remove image backgrounds, Adobe Express has pay-to-download tiers or a limited number of tries based on "credits. Plus, you can use Adobe Creative Cloud's suite to edit the image further online if you want.

2. Watermark Remover (Web): Remove Watermarks From Any Image

Watermark Remover is made by the folks behind Erase.bg, one of the most mind-boggling AI photo editors online. And if that app impressed you, you'll be amazed by what Watermark Remover can do.

We really put the web app through the grind, throwing images from stock photo sites with their watermarks, our own watermarked creations, and even screenshots of watermarked PDFs. Watermark Remover was able to handle each case with aplomb. It's truly shocking what the AI can do while requiring zero input from you.

The app supports JPEG, PNG, and WebP formats, with image resolutions up to 2400x2400 pixels. However, don't let that resolution stop you from using it because the same suite of apps also offers an upscaler, as you'll see in the next section.

3. Upscale.Media (Web, Android, iOS): Use AI to Make Images Upto 4x Bigger

Often we have small-size images, especially from the past, that we want to blow up for our bigger, high-resolution screens today. But if you increase the size, you'll see pixelated and unclear photos. Upscale.Media uses AI to blow up images without losing quality.

Upload a picture or share a URL link to an image with a maximum resolution of 1500x1500 pixels. Upscale.Media will then work on it for a bit and let you upscale it to twice or four times the size of the original image. The results will also show a comparison of normal upscaling versus AI-assisted upscaling.

Upscale.Media also offers image enhancement. This tool will remove artifacts in the image, balance sharpness and softness, and preserve the natural aspect — all valuable edits when you have blown up a picture. Nonetheless, you can choose whether to toggle image enhancement on or off in case you want to retain the original image.

Download: Upscale.Media for Android | iOS (Free)

4. Shrink.Media (Web): Compress Images and Reduce File Size Without Losing Quality

A sister app to Upscale.Media, Shrink.Media does exactly the opposite. You can take any high-resolution image (up to 5000x5000 pixels) and compress it into a much smaller and lighter image without losing quality.

Shrink.Media gives you two bars to play with: photo quality and dimensions. You will see a live preview of the final output image as you adjust these parameters and a calculation of how much you have shrunk the image.

Download: Shrink.Media for Android | iOS (Free)

5. ZMO Remover (Web): Remove Any Object From Photos Without Photoshop SKills

When it first launched, Cleanup.Pictures took the internet by storm with its ability to remove any object in a photo without requiring any Photoshop skills. Unfortunately, the app only exports 720p images. Well, you don't have to put up with that anymore, thanks to ZMO Remover.

This free app (which requires no sign-up) is as simple as it gets. First, upload an image from your hard drive (you can't add URLs directly) and let ZMO Remover process it. Then, draw on the image using the brush tool to indicate which object you want to remove. The AI will then analyze the image and your desired removal, and in a few seconds, you'll get the final image.

ZMO Remover lets you compare the original and final image, and download it when you're happy with the result. It recommends doing multiple repeated erases for better performance, as the AI learns with each try. You can use it to remove unwanted objects or people, bad reflections, and touch up your shots.

6. ImgTools (Web): Batch Edit Images to Compress, Resize, Crop, and More

ImgTools offers a suite of free online image editing tools with the option of applying those effects on multiple images at once. This batch editing is usually a paid service, but here, you can upload up to 100 images at a time and edit them together.

ImgTools supports PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, WebP, TIFF, and PSD file formats. You can upload from your hard drive, or also through Google Drive or Dropbox. Currently, ImgTools offers 12 types of image editing options: compress, convert, extract faces, hide faces, crop, resize, rounded corners, rename, blur or pixelate, rotate, password-protect, and extract frames from animated GIFs.

All services are free and without any restrictions. Once the batch edit is finished, you'll get to download the new images as a zipped file.

Replace Photoshop With These Alternatives

These AI-powered free image editors make it easy for anyone to edit images in a way that looks professional without needing Photoshop skills. Using them in conjunction is almost like getting a free Photoshop replacement.

For example, you can remove the background in one app, take the result in another to remove an object, and then export the final to an image upscaler to increase the size. And with several such images, you can add batch edits in seconds. Brilliant, isn't it?