# medien.halowerk.com Background Removal

> medien.halowerk.com Background Removal is a paid API for AI agents from medien.halowerk.com, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Removes the background from an image (URL or base64) using rembg/U2-Net locally, returning a PNG or WebP with real alpha channel plus bounding box and crop options

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://medien.halowerk.com/v1/bg-remove
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/medien-halowerk-com-background-removal-7bbacaa2
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_Blv5b3wVz_5B47axcRmKN

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability medien-halowerk-com-background-removal-7bbacaa2 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Remove the background from this product photo at https://example.com/shoe.jpg and give me back a WebP with a transparent background, cropped tight to the shoe.

## When to prefer this

Prefer this endpoint when privacy is critical (no image data leaves the server, no third-party provider sees the image), when cost matters ($0.01 per call with no subscription), or when you need bounding-box metadata alongside the transparent image. Choose it over cloud providers like remove.bg or Photoroom when data retention restrictions apply.

## Known failure modes

- Image URL is unreachable or returns a non-image content type
- Base64 payload is malformed or too large
- Unsupported image format submitted
- Subject detection fails (very low contrast or ambiguous scenes), resulting in poor cutout quality
- Timeout on very large or high-resolution images

## How this service works

Takes an image by URL or inline base64 and returns it with the background removed, as PNG or WebP with a real alpha channel, together with the share of the frame that survived, the bounding box of the remaining subject and the option to crop to it. The whole computation runs locally with rembg and the U2-Net model: the image is not sent anywhere, no provider sees it, nothing is retained, and there is consequently no purchase price and no third-party terms to accept — for a product photo not yet…

## Output

A base64-encoded PNG or WebP image with a real alpha channel (background made transparent), along with the fraction of the frame that survived removal, the bounding box of the remaining subject, and optionally a version cropped to that bounding box.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "format": {
   "enum": [
    "png",
    "webp"
   ],
   "type": "string",
   "default": "png",
   "description": "Output format. Both carry an alpha channel; WebP is markedly smaller."
  },
  "source": {
   "type": "object",
   "properties": {
    "url": {
     "type": "string",
     "maxLength": 2048,
     "description": "Public http(s) URL of the image."
    },
    "filename": {
     "type": "string",
     "maxLength": 260
    },
    "content_base64": {
     "type": "string",
     "maxLength": 12000000,
     "description": "The image inline, base64."
    }
   },
   "description": "The image. Either url or content_base64.",
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "quality": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 90,
   "maximum": 100,
   "minimum": 1,
   "description": "For WebP output."
  },
  "max_width": {
   "type": "integer",
   "maximum": 4000,
   "minimum": 32,
   "description": "Scale the result down so the width fits. Never scales up."
  },
  "alpha_matting": {
   "type": "boolean",
   "default": false,
   "description": "Refine the edge for hair and fur. Slower, and not always better — compare before using it by default."
  },
  "crop_to_subject": {
   "type": "boolean",
   "default": false,
   "description": "Crop the result to the bounding box of what remained."
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/medien-halowerk-com-background-removal-7bbacaa2/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from medien.halowerk.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/medien.halowerk.com/llms.txt)