Remove background from images in PHP with the LassoCut API

Quickstart

Every request needs your key in the X-Api-Key header and exactly one image source. This example uses size=preview, which is covered by your account's 50 free previews a month (up to 10 a day). The PHP curl extension is the only requirement.

$ch = curl_init("https://api.lassocut.com/v1.0/removebg");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ["X-Api-Key: " . getenv("LASSOCUT_API_KEY")],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => ["image_file" => new CURLFile("photo.jpg"), "size" => "preview"],
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
]);
$png = curl_exec($ch);
file_put_contents("no-bg.png", $png);
echo curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE), "\n";

Tested against the production API on 27 September 2026 with this exact request; it returned a valid PNG.

The same call with Guzzle

Guzzle builds the multipart body from an array. http_errors => false lets you read the JSON error instead of catching a ClientException.

<?php
// composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Utils;

$client = new Client(['base_uri' => 'https://api.lassocut.com/v1.0/', 'timeout' => 120]);

$res = $client->post('removebg', [
    'headers' => ['X-Api-Key' => getenv('LASSOCUT_API_KEY')],
    'multipart' => [
        ['name' => 'image_file', 'contents' => Utils::tryFopen('photo.jpg', 'r'), 'filename' => 'photo.jpg'],
        ['name' => 'size', 'contents' => 'full'],
        ['name' => 'format', 'contents' => 'png'],
    ],
    'http_errors' => false,   // read the JSON error body instead of catching an exception
]);

if ($res->getStatusCode() === 200) {
    file_put_contents('no-bg.png', (string) $res->getBody());
    echo 'credits charged: ', $res->getHeaderLine('X-Credits-Charged'), PHP_EOL;
} else {
    $error = json_decode((string) $res->getBody(), true);
    echo $res->getStatusCode(), ' ', $error['errors'][0]['title'] ?? 'unknown error', PHP_EOL;
}

A relative removebg against a base_uri ending in /v1.0/ resolves to /v1.0/removebg, so keep the trailing slash. Utils::tryFopen comes with guzzlehttp/psr7, installed alongside Guzzle.

Using it from Laravel

Laravel's Http client (Laravel 10 or later) wraps Guzzle. Keep the key in config/services.php rather than calling env() in your code, so it still works once the config is cached:

// config/services.php:  'lassocut' => ['key' => env('LASSOCUT_API_KEY')],
use Illuminate\Http\Client\RequestException;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

$response = Http::withHeaders(['X-Api-Key' => config('services.lassocut.key')])
    ->timeout(120)
    ->retry(3, 2000, fn ($e) => $e instanceof RequestException
        && in_array($e->response->status(), [429, 503]), throw: false)
    ->attach('image_file', Storage::get($path), basename($path))
    ->post('https://api.lassocut.com/v1.0/removebg', ['size' => 'full', 'format' => 'png']);

if ($response->successful()) {
    Storage::put('cutouts/' . pathinfo($path, PATHINFO_FILENAME) . '.png', $response->body());
} else {
    logger()->warning('LassoCut', $response->json('errors.0', []));
}

• With attach(), the array passed to post() is sent as multipart fields next to the file.
• retry() here retries only 429 and 503, with a fixed 2-second pause; it does not read Retry-After. With throw: false, the last response is returned instead of an exception.
• For more than a handful of images, dispatch one queued job per image instead of looping inside a web request: a full-size call can take several seconds, longer on the first call after a quiet period. Limits: 22 MB per upload, 500 megapixel-images per minute per account.

Point an existing PHP client at LassoCut

Already using the mtownsend/remove-bg package (Composer) to call remove.bg? Its endpoint is a public property you can set after constructing the client:

$removebg = new \Mtownsend\RemoveBg\RemoveBg(getenv("LASSOCUT_API_KEY"));
$removebg->endpoint = 'https://api.lassocut.com/v1.0/removebg';
$removebg->file('photo.jpg')->save('no-bg.png');

Verified from the package's source on GitHub (mtownsend5512/remove-bg), read on 27 September 2026. It is a third-party, community-maintained package: not produced by LassoCut and not affiliated with remove.bg. For any other HTTP client, set its base URL to https://api.lassocut.com/v1.0 and keep the same X-Api-Key header.

Useful options

Full list, including framing, shadows and background images: API reference.

Marketplace preset and shadow

A marketplace preset frames the cut-out on the canvas, white background and file size that marketplace expects, and shadow_type=cast adds a cast shadow. The response header X-Compliance says whether the result meets the rules LassoCut checks. With a preset, crop, crop_margin, scale and position are ignored. See marketplace presets.

$ch = curl_init("https://api.lassocut.com/v1.0/removebg");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ["X-Api-Key: " . getenv("LASSOCUT_API_KEY")],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
        "image_file" => new CURLFile("product.jpg"),
        "preset" => "amazon",
        "shadow_type" => "cast",
        "shadow_angle" => 45,
    ],
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HEADER => true,
]);
$raw = curl_exec($ch);
$size = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_SIZE);
preg_match('/^x-compliance:\s*(.+)$/mi', substr($raw, 0, $size), $m);
echo "compliance: ", trim($m[1] ?? "n/a"), "
";
file_put_contents("amazon.jpg", substr($raw, $size));

Common errors

Errors return JSON: {"errors": [{"code": "…", "title": "…"}]}. A non-2xx response still returns a body; check curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE) and decode it with json_decode($png, true) when it isn't 200. Nothing is charged on an error.

Full list: API reference.

Next steps

Read the full API reference for every parameter and header, or the migration guide if you're moving code that already calls remove.bg. No key yet? Create a free account, or try LassoCut on your image first, no key required.