Best Free Photo Editing Software in 2026: Quick Edits, RAW and Layers

The best free photo editing software depends on what you start with. For quick crops and colour fixes in a browser, Pixlr and Fotor need no install. For raw files from a camera, darktable and RawTherapee are free and open source. For layers and retouching, GIMP and Photopea cover most of what people reach for Photoshop to do.

Picks below are grouped by job, with live licence and pricing data in the table. If you specifically want a Photoshop replacement, start with the free Photoshop alternatives guide; this page is aimed at beginners and hobbyists who just want better-looking photos.

What counts as free photo editing software?

Three kinds of "free" show up in this list, and they behave differently.

• Open source. GIMP, darktable, RawTherapee, Upscayl and Fossify Gallery are free under open-source licences. You install them, they run on your own device, and they do not need a hosted account.
• Free to use, with a paid tier. Pixlr, Fotor, Adobe Express, Remove.bg and Polarr are hosted products with free plans. The paid tiers typically add things like ad-free use, more assets or monthly AI credits.
• Free with something else. Google Photos is a storage service with editing built in, and its free storage allowance comes with a Google account. Photopea is free to use in the browser according to its vendor.

If privacy matters, the first group is the cleanest answer, because those programs run on your own device.

How we picked

Enlisted looked for tools that do a real photo job for free: fixing exposure and colour, cropping, retouching, developing raw files, removing backgrounds or enlarging an image. For open-source tools, the GitHub project had to be showing recent commits, and licences are quoted as listed. For hosted tools, the product had to have a free plan or free use. No editor was scored on the quality of its output. What you read here is what the catalogue entries and vendor pages state, and how Enlisted ranks tools explains the method.

Best for quick edits in the browser

These three run in a browser, so there is nothing to install.

1. Pixlr: best all-round free browser editor for beginners

Pixlr puts two editors in one service: Pixlr Express for quick fixes and templates, and Pixlr Editor for layer-based work. The vendor says the free version needs no account, so you can open a tab and start. AI tools such as background removal, object removal and an upscaler are part of the same product.

Ad-free use and monthly AI credits come with the paid plans. If you want to compare similar editors, see the Pixlr alternatives page.

• Best for: first-time editors who want crop, adjustments and filters in a tab, with room to grow into layers.
• Watch out for: closed source and hosted only, and ad-free use is a paid feature.

2. Fotor: best for enhancing and restoring photos with AI

Fotor is an online photo editor and graphic design maker that pairs basic tools (crop, resize, effects, text and frames) with AI features such as an enhancer, unblur, upscaling, photo restoration, colorizing and background removal. It runs in the browser and also has companion apps.

Enlisted's data shows a free-forever Basic plan, with paid Pro, Pro+ and Max subscriptions that include monthly AI credits. Check which AI tools the free plan covers before you rely on it for something like restoring an old family photo.

• Best for: restoring or brightening old photos and making social graphics from templates.
• Watch out for: the free plan is the entry level, so heavier AI use points to the paid subscriptions.

3. Adobe Express: best free option for templates plus basic photo fixes

Adobe Express is Adobe's browser and mobile design tool for social graphics, flyers and short videos, with photo basics such as crop, resize and background removal. Adobe's site lists a free plan with basic content-creation tools and limited generative AI credits, and a paid Premium plan with more assets and credits.

It is a template-first tool rather than a retouching editor. If your photos are going straight into a post, flyer or slide, that is a feature; if you want to edit a portrait carefully, look at the layered editors below.

• Best for: people who edit a photo and then drop it into a design.
• Watch out for: it is designed around templates, and free AI credits are limited.

Best for editing photos on your phone or where they are already stored

4. Google Photos: best for fixing shots where your phone library lives

Google Photos is Google's service for backing up, organizing, searching and sharing photos and videos, with editing built in. Google highlights AI tools such as Magic Eraser and Unblur and says those editing features are available in the Google Photos app. A Google account includes a free storage allowance, with more available as a paid option.

Editing sits inside the same app as your library and your sharing. Browse other photo tools if you would rather keep your library off Google's servers.

• Best for: people who already back up phone photos and want one-tap fixes.
• Watch out for: it is closed source and keeps your library on a Google account, and Google notes that some advanced AI tools have eligibility conditions.

5. Fossify Gallery: best open-source, ad-free editor for Android

Fossify Gallery is an open-source photo and video gallery app for Android that is described as ad-free and free of unnecessary permissions. Its basic editor can crop, resize, rotate, flip, draw and apply filters. Privacy tools let you strip EXIF metadata such as GPS coordinates before sharing, and you can lock photos behind a PIN, pattern or fingerprint.

The app is released under GPL-3.0 and is part of the wider Fossify family of apps. Check Fossify Gallery's page for recent development activity.

• Best for: Android users who want a private gallery with basic edits and no ads.
• Watch out for: the editor is basic, and the app is Android only.

Best for developing RAW photos

Raw files hold more detail than JPEGs, but they need developing before you can share them. The two free, open-source options are both desktop programs, and neither is a one-click editor.

6. darktable: best free raw developer with a built-in library

darktable is an open-source photography application that works as a virtual lighttable and darkroom: you browse your digital negatives in the lighttable and develop them in the darkroom without altering the original files. It runs on Linux, BSD, Windows and macOS, can export to local or remote storage, and has optional AI features.

The project's README says plainly that darktable is not meant to be a free copy of Adobe Lightroom, so expect its own way of working. darktable's Enlisted page shows its licence (GPL-3.0) and release activity.

• Best for: photographers who shoot raw and want both a library and a developing tool for free.
• Watch out for: it develops raw files rather than doing layered compositing, so pair it with GIMP if you need that.

7. RawTherapee: best for detailed control of raw processing

RawTherapee is a cross-platform raw photo processing program released as free software under GPLv3, with detailed control over demosaicing and development. It reads raw files from a wide range of cameras, along with HDR DNG files and JPEG, TIFF and PNG. Its site describes a non-destructive, floating-point processing engine.

It is aimed at enthusiasts and semi-professional photographers, and Enlisted lists learning how digital imaging works among its use cases. Read more on its RawTherapee page.

• Best for: enthusiasts who want fine control over how a raw file is developed.
• Watch out for: it is aimed at people who like adjusting settings, so beginners who want instant results may prefer Pixlr or Google Photos.

Best for layers and retouching

If you need layers, masks or detailed retouching, two free tools do it without an Adobe subscription. We only give them a short entry here because the free Photoshop alternatives guide compares them in depth alongside Affinity, Krita and others.

8. GIMP: best free desktop editor when you need full control

GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free and open-source raster editor developed in the GNOME project. It handles photo retouching and image composition, and plug-ins and scripts extend it. It is a full editor rather than a one-click tool, so it asks for more learning than the one-click editors above.

• Best for: people who want one free desktop program that can grow with them, on Windows, macOS or Linux.
• Watch out for: it has a lot of tools, so start with a single task such as retouching or cropping.

9. Photopea: best free browser editor when you need layers or PSD files

Photopea runs in a browser tab and gives you layers, masks, adjustment layers and filters, with support for opening and saving PSD files. Its site says nothing is uploaded to the internet, so files stay on your computer. See Photopea alternatives for similar browser editors.

• Best for: layered edits on a computer where you cannot install software.
• Watch out for: it is closed source, so there is no self-hosted version.

Best for one-off jobs and batches

10. Remove.bg: best for cutting out a background in seconds

Remove.bg is a web service that removes image backgrounds automatically and returns a transparent or plain-background image. A Magic Brush lets you touch up the result, and the service also offers desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, an Android app and an API. Background removal can be tried free on the website, and the vendor lists paid plans on its pricing page.

• Best for: product shots, headshots and logos that need a clean cut-out.
• Watch out for: it does one job only, and you should check the pricing page for what the free tier includes.

11. Upscayl: best free way to enlarge small or low-resolution images

Upscayl is a free, open-source desktop app that enlarges and enhances low-resolution images with AI upscaling models. It runs locally on Linux, macOS and Windows, and the project describes a Vulkan-compatible graphics card as a requirement, noting that many integrated GPUs do not work. It is released under AGPL-3.0, and the project also sells a separate cloud service.

• Best for: enlarging an old scan or a small image for print or display.
• Watch out for: it needs a compatible GPU, and it is an upscaler, not an editor.

12. Polarr: best to try for browser-based batch RAW editing

Polarr is a family of photo and video editors for web and mobile, with AI-enabled tools, creator-made filters and, in Polarr Pro, more advanced editing on iOS, Mac, Windows and the web. Polarr Next is described as a browser-based batch RAW editing workflow driven by AI.

Polarr Next is in beta at the time of writing, and Enlisted's data does not list which features sit in the free plan, so treat this as one to try rather than rely on.

• Best for: editing batches of raw files in a browser, and applying creator-made filters on mobile.
• Watch out for: beta software, closed source, and unclear free-plan limits.

Where does free photo editing hit its limits?

Free tools cover most everyday needs, but a few jobs still point you elsewhere.

• Prepress. Free editors differ on print colour modes, so confirm support in the documentation before you send files to a printer.
• Photo libraries at scale. Editing and storing are different jobs. If you are building a long-term library, self-hosted options such as Immich and PhotoPrism manage collections, and the Dropbox alternatives guide covers file storage and sync.
• Heavy compositing. Layered, multi-image work is where GIMP, Photopea and the options in the Photoshop alternatives list come in.

How to choose free photo editing software

Start from the file you have and the result you want.

A simple route for a beginner is to open Pixlr or Google Photos for everyday fixes, add darktable if you shoot raw, and install GIMP only when you hit a job that needs layers. You can compare more tools in the photos and design categories.