How uploaded images are handled — and when they are deleted

If you are about to drop a client shoot or a product packshot into a browser tab, the first question is not “how good is the erase?” — it is “where does my file go?” This page answers that in plain language. The legal detail lives in the Privacy Policy; here is the product behaviour you can hold us to.

Why the file is uploaded at all

Erase needs the pixels. Detection finds the lettering; the erase pass rebuilds what sat underneath. That work runs on our side for the interactive editor and the API, so the image has to leave your device for the job. We use the upload to fulfil that request — not to fill a public gallery or a marketing reel.

Default retention: deleted after one hour

On the standard web product, uploads are deleted after one hour. That is the same number we quote on the site and in JSON-LD: short enough that a forgotten tab does not leave your file sitting around, long enough to download the result and retry a mask without re-uploading every time.

• Accepted formats today: JPG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC.
• Size caps: 25 MB, up to 8000 × 8000 px.
• Enterprise plans can arrange longer retention or region options when a security review needs them — ask; do not assume the consumer default.

What we do not do with your photos

We do not sell your uploads. We do not publish them. We do not use them as a public before/after without your say-so. If you need a written DPA or a longer retention window for a catalogue pipeline, that is an enterprise conversation — the free upload tab is built around short-lived processing, not archival storage.

What you can do on your side

• Prefer a crop that excludes faces or IDs you do not need in the frame.
• Download the clean plate promptly; do not treat our servers as backup.
• For regulated batches, use the API with the retention terms you signed — not a personal browser session.

Still unsure?

Read the Privacy Policy linked from the upload form, or contact us before you send anything sensitive. Trust is not a slogan here — it is a retention clock you can check against this page.