The AI Background Remover handbook

Getting started

The AI Background Remover extension includes optimized presets for people, animals and other foreground subjects. You can preview the first frame before applying the effect to your clip. For a first attempt, use a short section of footage so you do not have to wait for a long clip while adjusting the settings.

1. Install the extension. Download it from Adobe Exchange and follow the installation instructions. The new version requires Premiere 25.6.5 or later. Open the panel in Premiere once it is installed.
2. Select a clip on your timeline. Select one video clip. Its source media must be online, and both the clip and its video track must be enabled.
3. Choose Subject. Portrait is intended for close-ups. Use People for wider shots or full bodies, and General foreground for animals, products and objects.
4. Choose your initial settings. Leave Model on From preset. For people, try High · More detail, Auto · GPU preferred and a Soft mask. Choose Remove background as the output.
5. Click Preview first frame. Look at the hair, clothing and any gaps between the arms and body. The preview does not change your timeline.
6. Click Apply Effect. After processing, play the clip in Premiere. Pay attention to head turns, moving hands and the point where the subject enters or leaves the frame.
7. Adjust the finishing controls. You can change the applied feather or blur settings without another full analysis. Use Restore Original if you want to return the clip to its earlier state.

To replace the background, put an image, graphic or another video on a lower track. Adjust its scale and color to fit the original shot.

Choose Subject and Quality

Subject tells the extension what kind of footage you are working with. Leave Model on From preset, then choose the closest match below.

For Portrait and People, Low · Faster is useful for a quick check. Medium · Balanced gives you a middle option, while High · More detail is worth trying for fine hair or clothing edges. Compare the cutout at the size it will appear in your video.

General foreground uses the same high-quality analysis at every Quality setting. Reducing Quality may therefore make only a small difference to the processing time.

For buildings, try General foreground and inspect the roofline, railings and anything crossing the outline. There is no separate building selector. A busy scene or a building that blends into its surroundings can be difficult to separate. The subject selection guide covers more examples.

Keeping hair and fur detail

Use a Soft mask for hair and fur. It keeps partial transparency at the edges, which helps avoid a hard outline around fine strands. Choose Portrait or People for a person, or General foreground for an animal.

• Quality: try High · More detail for people and leave Model on From preset.
• Edge Smoothing: start low. Strong smoothing can remove fine hair along with uneven edges.
• Mask Expansion: shrink the mask slightly if you see a background fringe, or expand it if part of the outline is missing.
• Feather: add a little softness where the cutout meets the new background. Too much can make the subject look out of focus.
• Deflicker: try it if the outline changes between frames. A longer window can also soften fast movement and small details.

Check the cutout over a light background and a dark one. A fringe that is hard to see over black can stand out against a bright replacement. Then play the clip: loose hair may look different as the person moves. See the hair and fur tutorial for more on these adjustments.

Remove the background, blur it or export a matte

Remove background

Choose this mode when you want to put the subject over a different background. Place the replacement image or video on a lower track, then use Premiere’s effects and color controls to match the two layers.

Blur background

Use this to soften a distracting setting while keeping the original scene. Choose Gaussian, Camera or Directional blur and start with a moderate amount. Check the edges around hair and shoulders. The panel preview is an approximation of Premiere’s native effects, so Camera and Directional blur can look different after applying.

Matte only

Choose Matte only if you want to use the mask in your own effects setup. For example, you can grade the person separately or leave the subject in color while making the background black and white.

After applying an effect, you can update Feather, blur amount and directional angle on the last result created by the extension without repeating the AI analysis. The blur type is fixed for that result. To use a different type, select it before applying a new effect.

Adjusting the mask

Soft keeps translucent edges, including fine hair. Binary gives you a solid cutoff controlled by Threshold. Raw shows the model mask without threshold, expansion, feather, edge smoothing or deflicker.

Use Mask Expansion to move the outline inward or outward. Edge Smoothing reduces small bumps in the mask, while Feather softens its edge. Change one setting at a time and preview again so you can see what it does. If a large part of the subject is missing, check the Subject preset before increasing Feather.

Deflicker helps when the outline varies from one frame to the next. Add it gradually and watch moving hands, hair and clothing. A longer temporal window can reduce flicker, but may also blur fine detail during movement.

Changes to Subject, Quality or mask-analysis settings require another analysis. First-frame previews help you adjust those settings; you still need to play the applied clip to check the rest of the shot.

GPU acceleration and local processing

Leave Processing on Auto · GPU preferred to use a compatible GPU with CPU fallback. GPU only requires supported GPU processing. Choose CPU if you need to process without GPU acceleration.

The AI runs on your computer, so you do not need to upload the footage for analysis. Installing the extension and downloading updates through Adobe Exchange can still require an internet connection.

Longer clips and higher resolutions take more work. Your hardware, available memory and selected settings also affect processing time. General foreground is slower than the people presets, so allow more time for animals and objects. The GPU guide explains the processing options.

If something does not look right

The panel cannot read the selected clip

Make sure only one video clip is selected. Check that the source media is online and that the clip and its video track are enabled. The current sequence capture supports up to 4096 pixels in either dimension, with a total pixel count no greater than 4096 × 2160. Use a supported working sequence if yours is larger.

The wrong subject is kept

Check Subject first: Portrait and People are for human subjects; General foreground also handles animals and objects. General foreground can keep more than one thing in a scene. It does not have a picker for selecting an object by name. Try reframing the shot if the subject is small or surrounded by clutter.

The outline flickers or looks too soft

Reduce excessive smoothing or feathering first. If the mask still changes between frames, try a small amount of Deflicker. Check whether the problem is also present in the original footage, such as motion blur or hair against a similar-colored wall.

The applied blur looks different from the preview

The panel approximates the native Premiere effect. Check the applied clip on the timeline, especially with Camera and Directional blur, and adjust the applied controls there.

I want the original clip back

Use Restore Original for the extension’s result. Keep generated matte media with the project when moving or organizing your files. Deleting media that an edit still uses will leave the project with missing files.

Older Premiere versions and After Effects

The new extension requires Premiere 25.6.5 or later. For an earlier Premiere release, including older 2025 versions, use the legacy AI Video Background Remover. This is also the relevant listing for After Effects. Check that listing for the supported application versions.

For the legacy version, open Window → Extensions → AI Background Remover, import your footage and click Apply Effect. You can then adjust analysis quality, mask smoothing and temporal smoothing. The available menus and controls depend on the host and legacy version.

The Subject presets and GPU processing described in this handbook belong to the new Premiere extension. If you are unsure which download you need, see the version comparison.