# Photoroom API (slim)

> Photoroom's API edits product photos over HTTP. One call removes a background, adds a shadow or generated background, relights, expands, resizes or fills a template, and returns the image. A hosted MCP server wraps the same API.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photoroom.md (~8,300 tokens) · this version ~1,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photoroom.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photoroom
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-10

**C · 56/100 · rank #642 of 950 · #5 in Programmatic asset production · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: A call costs $0.02 for background removal or $0.10 for any combination of edits, and a sandbox key gives 1,000 free watermarked calls a month without a card. No status page or official SDK was found, and Photoroom's privacy policy and security page disagree on whether API images train its models.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: Photoroom · category: Programmatic asset production · legal entity: Photoroom SAS · provenance 78/100
- Endpoint: `https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP)
- Auth: OAuth or key · pricing: Freemium · x402: no · licence: Proprietary service under the Photoroom Terms and Conditions. The sample code repository is MIT
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Access: Self-serve. Create an account, activate the API in the dashboard and copy a key. Enterprise plans by sales from 200,000 images a year
- Edits: Background removal, colour, image or generated backgrounds, shadows, relighting, blur, outline, text removal, expand, uncrop, upscale (preview), positioning, cropping, prompt edits, image from a prompt, and clothing edits (ironing, flat lay, ghost mannequin, virtual model, virtual try-on)
- Templates: Preview. A template made in the Photoroom editor is called with `templateId`, and text and image layers are replaced by their unique IDs. The template must be shared by public link
- Input: One image a call. Image Editing takes PNG, JPEG or WEBP up to 30 MB and 5,000 px on the widest side, as a file or a public URL. Remove Background takes PNG, JPEG, WEBP or HEIC up to 50 MB and 6,000 px
- Render formats: PNG by default, JPEG, WEBP or AVIF from the Image Editing API, returned as the response body. `export.dpi` from 72 to 1200
- MCP server: Hosted at https://mcp.photoroom.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, OAuth with PKCE and dynamic client registration). One tool, per Photoroom. Not in the official MCP registry
- Free tier: Sandbox mode, 1,000 watermarked Image Editing calls a month and 100 a day, plus 10 free production background removals on a new account. No card
- Rate limits: 60 images a minute by default, higher on Enterprise plans. 429 at the limit
- Data handling: Images are discarded when the response returns, operational logs after 15 days and API access logs after one year, per the security page. Hosting is in the United States
- Support: Discourse community at photoroom.discourse.group. The docs say there is no email support for integration questions
- Prices: Remove Background API $0.02 per image; Image Editing API $0.10 per image; Basic plan, 1,000 images $20 per month (plan)

- Scores: Reliability 46, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 86, Agent ergonomics 64, Security & auth 54, Payments & pricing 40, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 23, Transparency & trust 68 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Read with the hosted lines. · Schema & documentation, A public OpenAPI 3.1.0 description at image-api.photoroom.com/openapi, read as embedded on the docs reference page, with four operations (25… · Agent ergonomics, The response body is the image itself, so an agent saves a file and reads nothing into context. · Security & auth, A team can hold several API keys and revoke each in the dashboard, with no scopes found. · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, the OpenAPI description or the pricing pages (0). · Maintenance & community, The last dated changelog entry is 21 April 2026, 171 days before the check (10). · Transparency & trust, Closed hosted service under the Photoroom Terms and Conditions effective 29 July 2026, which name the application programming interface.
- Sources: 26, open questions: 11, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: image.edit, design.templates, image.generate, image.upscale
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photoroom.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/photoroom.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photoroom from a page on photoroom.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/PhotoRoom/api-code-samples, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header. Prefix it with `sandbox_` while testing, because calls with the plain key consume paid images
2. Save the response body as a file. A 200 returns image bytes, PNG by default, and any other status returns JSON with `error.message` or `detail`
3. Send model selectors such as `pr-ai-shadows-model-version: 2026-04-15` as HTTP headers, not form fields. They are not in the OpenAPI file
4. Stay under 60 images a minute. On 429 back off with an exponential delay, and set a client timeout of at least 60 seconds for AI edits
5. Use `POST /v2/edit` with `imageFile` for local files and `GET /v2/edit` with `imageUrl` for hosted ones. Each call takes one image

## Connect

```bash
curl --request POST \
  --url https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2/edit \
  --header 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  --form imageFile=@/absolute/path/to/image.jpg \
  --form removeBackground=true \
  --form background.color=FFFFFF \
  --form padding=0.15 \
  --form shadow.mode=ai.soft \
  --output result.png
```

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http Photoroom https://mcp.photoroom.com/mcp
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/photoroom

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## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)