is there an ai that can clean up photos?

If you have a recent iPhone

Apple Photos Clean Up is an Apple Intelligence tool in the Photos app. It sits in the Photos editor under Tools, and you tap, brush or circle whatever you want gone, with some items highlighted for you automatically.

The catch is the device list. Apple says it needs an iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max or an iPhone 16 model or later, an iPad with A17 Pro or M1 or later, or a Mac with M1 or later. The standard iPhone 15 is not on that list. Apple's pages name no price for it. It also does not currently work on devices bought in mainland China, and Apple Intelligence is not available in all languages or regions.

If your iPhone cannot run Apple's Clean Up

Google Photos Magic Eraser is the fallback. Google's iPhone help page lists it in the Actions tab of the Google Photos editor, and you get Move and Refine tools to adjust the selection. It runs on Android as well as iPhone.

What you give up is some certainty about your device. Google says most editing features need at least 3 GB RAM and Android 8.0 or iOS 18, some features are only on Pixel, and some tools must be downloaded before you can use them. Google's help pages name no price.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone

Samsung Object Eraser is built into the Galaxy photo editor. You tap or draw around the thing you want removed, a border is drawn for you, and Samsung says it can remove objects or even people.

It is not switched on by default. You turn it on under Labs in the editor. Samsung also says it may not be available depending on the provider or model, so check your phone has it before you plan around it. Samsung's page names no price.

If you want it free in a browser

Cleanup.pictures is a web app that removes objects, people, text, date stamps and defects from a picture. The free plan allows unlimited images, and because it runs in a browser it does not depend on which phone you carry.

The limit is resolution: free exports stop at 720p. That suits sharing on a screen more than anything larger. The site also looks dated. Its footer reads 2022, and its upgrade button leads to Clipdrop's pricing page, which showed us no price, so check the current offer before you rely on it.

If you already edit in Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom Generative Remove makes sense if Lightroom is already where your photos are edited. It sits alongside presets, background blur and batch edits, so you can remove a distraction without leaving the editor.

Removing a distraction is only one slice of what these tools can do, and there's a whole other pile of edits worth knowing about. Our guide to AI photo editing covers what Google Photos gives everyone for free, Magic Eraser included, plus 10 Magic Editor saves a month. It also explains why Photoshop's Generative Fill needs a paid Adobe plan or trial.

The cost is unclear. The UK App Store and Google Play list Lightroom as free with in-app purchases, but neither listing says whether Generative Remove needs a paid plan. Adobe's own site blocked us, so we have only checked the iOS and Android apps. The in-app purchases run from £1.99 to £48.99, with one listed as Photo enhancer and erase objects at £43.99. We could not verify which of them covers this feature, so treat that as a question to answer before you pay.

When paying is worth it

The phone erasers are built into their photo apps, and Cleanup.pictures is free at 720p, so for everyday tidying you may not need to pay at all. The clear case for paying is full-resolution exports, for example for printing. Cleanup.pictures' own FAQ says $5 per month or $36 per year for any resolution, but its checkout runs through Clipdrop, whose pricing page showed us no price, so we could not confirm what you would actually pay.

Each free route has its own limit. Apple's tool depends on your device and region, Google's depends on RAM, operating system version and sometimes on owning a Pixel, Samsung's depends on your model and provider, and Cleanup.pictures caps free exports at 720p.

Cleanup.pictures says watermarks usually mean an image has restrictive copyright, and that you should remove them only from images you have an explicit licence for. An eraser does not change who owns a picture.

Samsung's Object Eraser is off by default and may not be available depending on the provider or model. If you cannot find it under Labs, that may be why.

Apple says usage limits may apply to Apple Intelligence features. It does not spell out what those limits are, so if Clean Up stops working partway through a batch of photos, that is one possible reason.

If you change your mind after saving on iPhone, Apple says you can open the photo again, go to Tools and tap Reset to undo Clean Up changes.