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Automatic cropping for product photos

Smart Cropping API

Photoroom crops each product photo around its main subject, to the size and aspect ratio you set, with the padding you choose, so every product in your catalog is framed the same way.
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Photo of a table lamp by a window with a square 1:1 crop and a portrait 4:5 crop marked around the lamp
Trusted by leading companies

Smart Cropping API results by industry

However the photo was taken, the product comes back centred and filling the frame, ready to list.
Cognac penny loafers on a limestone plinth in a sunlit studio set with a linen jacket, before smart cropping
Cognac penny loafers smart cropped to a square from a wide studio campaign shot
Seller photo of a pale knit sweater on a tiled floor next to a shelf, before smart cropping
Pale knit sweater smart cropped to a square from a seller's floor photo
Styled living room with two round rattan mirrors on the wall, before smart cropping
Two round rattan wall mirrors smart cropped to a square from a styled living room
Original photo of a steak salad bowl among other dishes, before smart cropping
Photo of a steak salad bowl smart cropped to a square around the dish
Pink body-butter jar on travertine in a styled studio set with linen and dried flowers, before smart cropping
Pink body-butter jar smart cropped to a square from a wide studio campaign shot

Smart Cropping plus 20+ edits in one API

Crop to 1:1 for marketplace listings, 4:5 for feeds or any size you set. Remove backgrounds, add shadows and more with the same API key.

Photoroom MCP

Connect the Photoroom MCP to the LLM where you work an automate your product listing visuals.

Background Removal

The AI background removal API detects complex edges, handles transparency, and delivers clean cutouts at scale - ideal for product catalogs and marketplace listings.

Virtual Model

Place apparel and accessories on AI-generated models that match your brand aesthetic. On-model imagery via the Virtual Model API: no casting, no studio, no production timelines.

Flat Lay

Generate consistent, editorial-quality flat lay product photography at enterprise scale. Maintain visual identity across thousands of SKUs through the Flat Lay API.

Ghost Mannequin

Produce ghost mannequin apparel shots with perfect shape retention through an AI-powered Ghost Mannequin API endpoint. Scale invisible mannequin photography without a studio.

Product Staging

Place your product into realistic lifestyle scenes - held, worn, or displayed - with the natural lighting and composition of a high-end photoshoot.

Edit With AI

Describe any change in plain language and our AI makes it - swap colors, remove or add objects, restage the scene, or shift the camera angle.

Product Beautifier

Enhance low-quality product and food images automatically with the Beautifier API. No retouchers, no studios. Our AI restores detail, corrects color, and improves overall quality at scale.

Add Shadows

Add realistic shadows to the main subject of your image, with complete control over the softness, intensity and position of the shadow.

Generate Backgrounds

Dynamically create new backgrounds with our first-class generative AI, perfectly matching the subject of the original picture.

Relighting

Fix badly lit photos automatically. Our AI rebalances over- and under-exposed images, with modes that keep product colors accurate or optimize for portraits.

Text Removal

Remove watermarks, labels, and real-world signage from your images automatically - choose what goes and what stays.

Expand

Resize any image to any format without cropping. Our AI generates the extra background to match the original, filling every empty pixel seamlessly.

Uncrop

Recover subjects clipped by the frame. Our AI reconstructs the missing parts from the visible portion, automatically.

Ironing

Make every garment look freshly pressed. Our AI smooths creases and wrinkles out of clothing photos automatically - no steamer, no reshoot.

Create Any Image

Generate images from a text description alone - no source photo needed. Describe the scene, pick a format, and get original content back.

Uncertainty Score

Know when a cutout needs a second look. Every response returns a confidence score from 0 to 1, so you can auto-flag ambiguous images for review at scale.

Perspective Correction

Straighten angled shots of flat, rectangular products - cards, books, games - into clean, straight-on views. No generative AI, so hallucinations are impossible by design.

Positioning

Control exactly where the subject sits in the result - scaling, alignment, padding, and margins - so every image in a catalog comes out consistently framed.

Smart Cropping

Reframe images around the subject automatically - prompt it to focus on a specific element, or crop faces out for marketplace compliance.

Upscale

Turn small, low-res images into sharp ones at 4× the size - with a fast mode for volume and a slow mode for maximum quality.

Three bag photos framed differently, smart cropped into three matching square listing images

Frame every product the same way

Seller and studio photos arrive with the product off-center, small in the frame or surrounded by space. The Photoroom Smart Cropping API finds the main subject and crops around it, with the padding you set, so every product fills the frame the same way.

One vase photo smart cropped three ways: a square, a 4:5 portrait and a 16:9 banner

Any size and aspect ratio your channels need

Each channel wants its own frame: a square listing, a tall feed post, a wide banner. Set the output size and aspect ratio once, add padding around the product, and the Photoroom API crops every photo to fit.

Wide photo of a black sofa in a room, smart cropped tight with the wall, plant and floor kept

Keep the setting, lose the empty space

A cut-out throws away the room, the table or the street. A smart crop keeps the original background and only tightens the frame, so lifestyle and in-context shots stay real and still match the rest of your catalog.

Numbers from Photoroom API customers

4x

faster market rollouts

89%

lower image processing costs

56%

higher conversion on listings

236%

increase in average order value

Exclusive to Enterprise plans

Smart Cropping for catalogs that can’t ship a bad crop

For high-volume teams, Enterprise plans add checks on every output, a guarantee that you pay only for what passes, and dedicated capacity, all built around your own brief.
Enterprise
Custom models, dedicated capacity, custom endpoints, and SLA-backed uptime. SOC 2 Type 2.
Contact Sales
Three images of a woman in a yellow blazer, each with a completion score: 83%, 92%, and 100% labeled as "Best fidelity."
Visual QA
Even the best AI models get it wrong, so Visual QA scores every output for fidelity, catches the misses, and corrects the details before they reach your customers.
Learn more
Collage of a woman in a white halter dress, a bowl of vibrant poke, and a woman holding a mustard handbag with hoop earrings.
Enterprise Guarantee
Pay only for the outputs that pass. Set your product-fidelity criteria upfront. Every output is checked against your brief by our proprietary fidelity model. Anything that misses is credited back or regenerated for you.
Learn more
Four fashion items with play icons: a brown handbag, sage green mule, person in a gray shirt and cardigan, and white sneakers with orange accents.
Image to Video API
The Image to Video API turns static product photography into short-form video automatically. Submit a product image and receive a polished video with natural camera motion, animation, or configured effects.
Learn more
Photoroom API

Crop every product photo to fit

Get your free API key and start building, so every product in your catalog is framed the same way, at the size your channels need.

Get free API key
See API pricing
A busy café table with several lattes, then smart cropped to a 4:5 frame around the front cup and saucer

Frequently asked questions

What is the Smart Cropping API?

Photoroom's Smart Cropping API automatically crops an image to put the focus on its main subject. You set removeBackground to false, choose the output size and aspect ratio, and add padding for some breathing room around the subject.

What's the difference between Smart Cropping, AI Expand and Uncrop?

Smart Cropping tightens the frame around the product. AI Expand does the opposite: it keeps the whole photo and generates matching background to fill a larger or wider frame. Uncrop rebuilds a product that's cut off at the frame edge. Use Smart Cropping when the product is small or off-center, and AI Expand when a new format would cut into it.

How much does the Smart Cropping API cost?

Smart Cropping is included in the Plus API plan, at $100 a month ($0.10 an image), and in Enterprise plans with custom pricing: talk to sales. It isn't on the Basic API plan. Details are on the pricing page.

How do I call the Smart Cropping API?

Get your API key, then send your image with removeBackground set to false, the output size you need and some padding. This example crops a photo to a 2000 x 2000 square around the product:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2/edit \
  --header 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
  --form imageFile=@/path/to/image.png \
  --form removeBackground=false \
  --form outputSize=2000x2000 \
  --form padding=10% \
  --form segmentation.prompt=product \
  --output result-smart-crop.png

Every parameter is in the Smart Cropping docs.

Can I crop around one element of the photo?

Yes. Set the optional segmentation.prompt to the element you want to focus on, such as product, and the crop focuses on that element.

Can the API crop a model's face out of a fashion photo?

Yes. Some marketplaces require on-model photos to be anonymized, with the face cropped out just below the nose. Set removeBackground to false, referenceBox to subjectBox and segmentation.mode to ignoreSalientObject, then set segmentation.prompt to the parts to keep and segmentation.negativePrompt to the parts to exclude. The Smart Cropping docs have the full example.

Which file formats and sizes can I send?

Send PNG, JPEG, WEBP or AVIF files up to 30 MB and up to 5,000 px on the widest side. Output is PNG, JPEG, WEBP or AVIF.

How do I crop a whole catalog with the Photoroom API?

Run calls in parallel, one image per call, up to 60 images a minute by default. For higher limits on high-volume catalogs, talk to sales.

Can I use Photoroom from Claude?

Yes. Photoroom has an MCP server for AI assistants such as Claude, where you can call the Smart Cropping API directly: see Photoroom MCP for more details.

What should I do if I need help with the API?

Having trouble with the API? Join our API community to get help from our engineers, or check the troubleshooting page for common issues.

For anything billing-related or with sensitive information, please DM Photoroom directly in the community. We're always happy to help.

Enterprise teams can also contact sales.

You might also be interested in

AI Image Editing API for product catalogs | PhotoroomAdd Shadows APIAI Beautifier APIAPI to generate backgroundsUncrop APIBackground removal APIAI Upscale APIProduct Staging API

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