You can separate an image into layers for free in two ways. By hand, in a free editor such as Photopea in the browser or GIMP and Krita on the desktop: select each element, put it on a new layer, then repaint the gap it left. Or with the free allowance of an AI tool: the Qwen-Image-Layered demo on Hugging Face, Canva Magic Layers within the Free plan’s AI allowance, or LayerGrab’s free split. The manual route has no limit but costs time on every element; the AI routes take a minute but are capped. None of them gives unlimited AI splits with the background filled in for free.
Checked 2026-11-13
Photopea · Free in the browser
GIMP · Free, open source
Krita · Free, open source
Qwen-Image-Layered demo · Daily GPU-time quota
Canva Magic Layers · Monthly AI allowance, smallest on Free
LayerGrab · One free split per account
Read on each product's own pages on 13 November 2026. Free allowances change; check before you rely on one.
Photopea is a free photo editor that runs in the browser and opens and saves layered PSD files. It has the selection tools you need (Magic Wand, Quick Selection, Select › Subject and Magic Cut) and a content-aware fill under Edit › Fill. That makes it the best free place to do the job by hand. Its one-click Remove BG is an AI feature with a usage allowance, so do not plan a whole project on it.
1
Go to photopea.com and drop the JPG or PNG onto the page. Nothing to install, no account.
2
Try Select › Subject for the main subject, or the Magic Wand and Quick Selection tools for flat shapes and text. Refine the edge until the selection hugs the element.
3
Press Ctrl/Cmd+J. The element now sits on a new layer above the picture.
4
Back on the original layer, keep the selection, expand it by a few pixels and use Edit › Fill › Content Aware. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for every element.
5
File › Save as PSD keeps every layer, ready for Photoshop, Procreate, Krita or another Photopea session.
GIMP is free and open source. Its Foreground Select tool extracts a subject from a layer, which you then copy to a new layer; the gap behind it you repaint with the clone tools. It suits photos with one clear subject.
Krita is a free, open-source painting program. It is the comfortable choice for illustrations, because repainting the hidden parts is painting, and it opens and saves PSD files with raster layers and groups (its own docs note the PSD support is not complete).
Qwen-Image-Layered is an open model from the Qwen team, released under Apache 2.0, that decomposes one image into several RGBA layers. Its official demo runs on Hugging Face Spaces on shared GPUs with a daily GPU-time quota: a few minutes a day without an account, more with a free Hugging Face account, much more on a paid one. That is enough for a handful of images. You can also run it on your own machine with the official ComfyUI workflow, if you have a GPU with plenty of video memory. More on what the model does in What is Qwen-Image-Layered?
Magic Layers (in beta) splits a single-page PNG or JPG into layers you can move inside a Canva design, and it lets you edit the text directly, which file-based splitters cannot. It is on every Canva plan, but each use counts against a monthly AI allowance that is smallest on Canva Free. If you finish your designs in Canva anyway, start here. If you need the layers outside Canva, see the Canva Magic Layers alternatives.
Every account gets one free One layer split: name one element of your image and it comes back on its own layer, with the gap behind it filled in. In the Photoshop, Figma, Sketch and Chrome plugins, your first full split is free too. The split comes back with the background filled in behind what was taken out, and you can download it as PNG, ZIP or a layered PSD. Sign-in is with Google; after the free split, layers are paid for with credits. Disclosure: LayerGrab is the author's product.
Procreate has no command that splits a flattened layer. You can select a part, cut it to a new layer and paint the gap, like the Photopea routine above. Or split the drawing with one of the tools on this page, save a layered PSD, and import it from Procreate's Gallery: the Procreate Handbook notes that a PSD imported this way keeps its layers, while one added to an open canvas arrives flattened.
You split images every week. Free allowances run out, and doing ten elements by hand on every poster is hours. Compare the paid options in the best image to layers AI tools.
You only need the background removed. A free background remover does that in one click; you do not need layers at all.
You need the hidden parts painted. Manual cut-outs keep holes where elements overlapped, and filling each one convincingly is the slow part. That is what the AI routes are for.
There are free allowances, not free unlimited tools. The Qwen-Image-Layered demo on Hugging Face runs on a daily GPU-time quota, Canva Magic Layers counts against a monthly AI allowance that is smallest on the Free plan, and LayerGrab gives every account one free split. Running Qwen-Image-Layered on your own GPU is free apart from the hardware, which needs a lot of video memory.
Partly. Select › Subject and Magic Cut pick out a main subject in one click, and Edit › Fill › Content Aware repaints the gap. Every other element still needs its own selection, copy to layer and fill, so a ten-element poster is ten rounds of the same steps.
Photopea, GIMP and Krita need no account. The Qwen-Image-Layered demo works without logging in on a smaller daily quota. Canva needs a Canva account, and LayerGrab asks you to sign in with Google before the free split.
Procreate cannot split a flattened layer for you; you select each part and move it to a new layer by hand. The faster route is to split the drawing elsewhere, save a layered PSD and import it from Procreate’s Gallery, which keeps the layers. Adding a PSD to an already open canvas flattens it.
Every account gets one free One layer split: name one element of your image and it comes back on its own layer, with the gap behind it filled in. In the Photoshop, Figma, Sketch and Chrome plugins, your first full split is free too. Downloads are included, as PNG, ZIP or a layered PSD.