Transparent Video Background
Not a colour. No background at all.
A transparent video keeps the subject and removes everything behind it, frame by frame, so it can sit over anything.
Three free frame previews a day, no sign-in needed 2 credits per second of video No watermark on paid downloads See pricing
Where it is going → Format
- A web page
- Transparent WebM (VP9)
- An editing timeline
- ProRes 4444 MOV
- Not sure which download is real
- Either, compared side by side
See it on your own clip before choosing a format
Try an example
How to get a transparent video background
Upload a clip, choose the format for where it is going, and the background is gone in the alpha channel.
1Upload your clip
Click Upload video or drop an MP4, MOV or WebM up to 30 seconds and 100 MB.
2Choose subject and format
Pick People or Objects & pets and one of four downloads. The credit cost shows before you start.
3Download the result
About 5 minutes for a 30-second clip. You can leave the page while it runs.
Pick the file for where it is going
The same cut-out, over nothing
The original clip and its cut-out play in sync under one divider. Drag it across, then compare the stills below.
AI-generated sample clip. The cut-out is real, unedited output from the People model.
Download this example (WebM with alpha)Still frames
Person
Video model output
Glass
Free frame previewThe outline is clean, but what you could see through the glass came with it: the bottle still has the garden inside it.
Two people
Free frame preview
Transparent video background in detail
What "transparent background" means for a video
A still image can carry transparency as a PNG. A video needs the same idea applied to every frame: an alpha channel that says, pixel by pixel, how much of what is behind should show through. Most video formats do not have one at all.
Pick the format by where the video is going
Same alpha channel, different container. This is the short version; each page covers its format in full.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Where it is going | Format | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| A web page | Transparent WebM (VP9) | Transparent WebM |
| An editing timeline | ProRes 4444 MOV | Transparent video maker |
| Not sure which download is real | Either, compared side by side | Make video background transparent |
| An app with no alpha support | Green screen MP4, keyed afterwards | Green screen video |
| A sticker or a quick share | Transparent GIF | Remove background from GIF |
Why a screen recording or a flat colour is not enough
A screen recording captures whatever is on screen, background included, because there is nothing in a screen recording that marks part of the frame as "nothing". Recording an app window with a solid colour behind the subject gets you most of the way, but that colour is still there in the file: it has to be keyed out afterwards, and it shows through wherever the subject overlaps it.
A transparent-background video removes that step. The alpha channel marks the background as absent rather than a colour to remove later, so the clip drops straight onto a stream overlay, a slide, or another video track with nothing behind it and nothing left to key.
Where a transparent video actually gets used
A product or a person composited into a scene on an editing timeline, without a separate colour-key pass. A talking-head clip dropped onto a web page background that changes with the site theme. A livestream overlay in a broadcaster such as OBS, which lists both file types as media it plays -- whether it keeps their alpha is untested, so transparent WebM covers what to check first. In each case the video is one layer among several, and a background of any colour would sit on top of the layers underneath instead of letting them show through.
What the file looks like once it exists
The same clip, transparent, in the two formats that actually carry alpha.
- Transparent WebM
- About 23 MB
- VP9 video with an alpha channel
- ProRes 4444 MOV
- About 975 MB
- About 260 Mbit/s, alpha channel included
- Frame size and frame rate
- 1080x1920 at 30 fps
- Unchanged in every download, duration included
File sizes are locally measured, September 2026: the same ffmpeg arguments the container runs, against one 1080x1920 clip at 30 fps, 30 seconds of it unless a tile says otherwise. Wait times are from provider runs. These are what that clip produced, not a figure for yours.
Previews are processed at up to 720p. Paid downloads keep the original frame size. Uploads are deleted after 24 hours, finished downloads after 7 days.
Frequently asked questions
That the video file itself has no background at all, frame by frame, stored as an alpha channel the way a transparent PNG stores it for a still image. It is different from a video with a black or green background: those are colours in the file, and a transparent one has nothing there to render.
No. The usual MP4 holds H.264 video, and H.264 has no alpha channel, so there is nowhere in the file to store transparency. Transparent WebM and ProRes 4444 MOV both carry one; an MP4 with an apparently transparent background is either green-screen footage waiting to be keyed, or is being misread.
WebM for a web page, ProRes 4444 MOV for an editing timeline in Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, per their own import-format lists. Green screen MP4 if the destination app has no alpha support and needs an ordinary video to key. Make video background transparent compares all four downloads side by side if none of those match your case exactly.
A green screen file still has a background: it is filled with one flat colour so an editor's chroma key can remove it afterwards. A transparent video has no background to key out in the first place, because the alpha channel already marks it as absent. Use green screen video only where the destination cannot read alpha at all.
To see the transparency, yes: Chrome and Firefox play a transparent WebM as intended, Safari plays the same file without its transparency, and an editor has to be one that reads alpha, such as Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve for the ProRes 4444 MOV. A plain media player or a phone gallery is not a reliable way to check either file.
Unscreen has closed, per Canva's own help centre. Unscreen alternative covers what carries over from it, what does not, and what happens to videos you already exported there -- read that page first if you are switching rather than starting fresh.
You can check the result for free: up to three watermarked frame previews a day with no account, or up to 20 a day and one 5-second video preview a day once signed in, processed at up to 720p. A full clean file without a watermark costs 2 credits per second of video, shown before you start, at your original frame size.