Whether you love or despise artificial intelligence, it’s here to stay. While AI photo generators still have a long way to go to produce realistic images, AI photo editors offer a more subtle way to improve your photos.
AI technology can be used to delete flaws, detect patterns and textures, and improve your lighting to make your subjects stand out. There are a few new AI photo editors out there, and even long-standing photo editing software and apps are taking advantage of AI technology to make editing your photos more intuitive.
What does an AI photo editor do?
AI photo editors can help streamline your photo editing flow with minor tweaks or perform huge tasks like removing a photo’s background. Here are some of the AI photo editing tasks that are worth exploring:
- Use AI to change facial features. Not only can you make your subject’s skin appear smooth and flawless, but with AI technology, you can change the direction your subject is looking, make faces appear fuller or thinner, and even change the way a person’s head is tilted.
- Automatically suggest edits based on a scan of your photo.
- Repair and colorize damaged black-and-white photos.
- Remove objects and replace them with a realistic background.
- Make images sharper and less blurry.
Declutter your photos to save space
When you start editing your photos with AI, you’ll likely save a lot of copies that you don’t need. You can make the editing process faster and easier with CleanMy®Phone, which categorizes your photos using an advanced AI model, so you can quickly find the ones you don’t want, like duplicates and blurry images.
The best AI photo editors for every purpose
There are dozens of AI photo editors out there, but we’ve found that the best are timeless photo editors that use AI to improve an already great product. Here are our favorite AI photo editors for use on your iPhone, computer, or internet browser:
| AI Editor | Best for | Price |
| Google Snapseed | Free and easy photo edits | Free |
| Pixlr Express | Quick online AI photo editor within a browser | Free for some features. Premium features start at $0.99 per month |
| Adobe Photoshop | Complete set of tools for professional photo editing on desktop | $22.99 per month |
| Adobe Photoshop Express | Free tool for making quick professional edits on mobile | Free |
| Canva | Use across mobile and desktop for design with AI features | Free, with premium features for $120 per year |
Best Free AI photo editor for mobile: Google Snapseed
Google Snapseed is an entirely free photo editing app for both Android and iOS devices. This is a great all-around editor and my favorite editing app for making quick adjustments to a photo before I share it on social media.
In addition to its range of traditional editing tools, Snapseed’s AI features include an auto-adjust feature that quickly analyzes a photo and optimizes color, exposure, and contrast, and an expand feature that expands the background of an image using advanced AI technology. The HDR feature uses AI technology to brighten dark areas of your photo and give your whole image an HDR effect.
As much as I love Snapseed, I would not use it professionally because some of the AI edits reduce the overall quality of the image. It’s a great tool for social media shares, though.
Pros: completely free with no ads or premium upgrades, HDR tool can save underexposed images
Cons: Saved photos are sometimes different than in-app photos, and saved images are sometimes blurry compared to the originals
Best AI photo editor for editing online: Pixlr Express
Pixlr Express can be your choice if you are looking for an AI photo editor online free of charge. It uses AI technology to creatively manipulate images. With Pixlr, you can expand upon backgrounds, remove objects, and swap out faces with celebrities. You can even use AI generative fill to create objects using detailed prompts.
While the AI tools in Pixlr are fun to play with, the platform also includes basic editing tools that are easy and intuitive to use. The browser does include ads, and some of the AI features require you to create an account or pay the premium subscription fee.
With Pixlr Express, it’s easy to overdo the AI technology in ways that will make your photo stand out as an AI image. If that is your intention, great, but if not, you can easily tone down any of the effects for a more natural result.
Pros: Great for quick fixes to photos without downloading an app or additional software
Cons: Free tools are limited
Best AI photo editor for desktop: Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop has been the editing software of choice for professional photographers for many years, and the AI tools in Photoshop are a perfect example of software that utilizes the power of AI technology without going overboard.
Photoshop’s AI tools include generative fill to add new content to your images, generate a new background using a written prompt, enhance details to make them sharper, remove items with a simple brush tool, change the sky, and blend it perfectly into your existing image.
If you already have a Photoshop subscription, AI technology is an interesting and useful addition. If you are new to photo editing, the $22.99 a month might be too steep for simple experimentation.
Pros: The industry standard for professionals
Cons: Expensive
Best photo editor for mobile: Adobe Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express is Adobe’s free editing app for mobile users. While it doesn’t include all of the professional tools available on desktop, this is a great app for creating professional results on your mobile device.
AI tools for face retouching are expansive, and while some of the features (makeup and eye replacement) are too over-the-top for most users, you can use Photoshop Express to erase fine lines, change the direction a face is tilted, and make subtle changes to a face’s shape.
Generative AI uses prompt technology to add new objects to a photo with mixed results. As with most generative fill tools, these can be fun to experiment with and will likely improve over time.
Photoshop Express is a fantastic all-around editor, and the AI tools are just icing on the cake.
Pros: Free to use with professional results, especially for retouching portraits
Cons: Can sometimes be slow
Best AI editor across devices: Canva
Canva began as an easy-to-use graphic design tool for browsers. With the introduction of a mobile app, it became the go-to tool for creating simple graphics. You can use Canva to create flyers, ads, and social media posts.
Canva recently introduced Magic Design, which is driven by AI technology. To use Magic Design, simply open the feature in the Canva app and type in a few words describing your idea, such as ‘Pinterest pin for best beach vacations.’
Magic Design will auto-populate ideas and templates that you can further customize to fit your needs. In addition to Magic Design and custom tools for creating graphics, the Canva AI photo editor provides basic tools to improve your photography within your designs. It’s one of the easiest tools to use for creating custom graphics with all sorts of uses.
Pros: Great graphic design tool for small businesses or individuals
Cons: AI tools are a work in progress
AI photo editors are taking photo editing to the next level, and while some of the technology is a work in progress, the tools give us a glimpse into what the future holds for photo editing.
