Give shopper-uploaded photos a creative twist with AI filters and effects.
With the Image Effects toolbox, you can automatically enhance, restyle, or completely transform uploaded images — from removing backgrounds to turning portraits into cartoons or 3D art.
Whether you want to clean up a photo or apply a trending AI style, everything happens automatically when shoppers upload their image.
How It Works
AI filters and effects are applied through the Image Effects toolbox in your design to user uploaded images on image placeholders.
You can stack multiple filters together, reorder them to control the final look, and combine free and third-party effects in a single placeholder.
In this article:
How to Apply AI Filters and Effects
- Select the image placeholder
- Expand the Image Effects toolbox
- Click Add Image Effect
- Browse or search for an effect
- Click an effect to apply
- The applied effect will be displayed in the effects toolbox. Effects are stackable — you can add several and reorder them at any time.
For example, remove a background first, then apply a cartoon or painting style.
Tip
You can mix image effects with other placeholder settings such as:
Pencil Effect + Single Color tracing (for engraving-style designs)
Watercolor + Masks (to create shaped portraits)
Face cutouts + Outline strokes (for stickers and cutouts)
For more about these options, see Image Placeholders.
Available AI Filters and Effects
Customily offers a wide variety of image effects — from quick tools to advanced AI-powered filters. To make it easier to explore them, effects are organized into three main categories: tools, style modifiers, custom prompts. You can also search or filter them by provider (Customily, Gemini, OpenAI, OpenRouter), and see which ones are free or require a third-party API connection.
🧰 Tools
Practical utilities that prepare or improve shopper-uploaded photos, such as background removal, face cutout, and more.
Remove Background
Blur Background
Face Cut Out
Enhance Photo Quality
These are great first-step effects that clean up images that you can leave as is, or use before applying AI styles.
Providers include:
Customily (Free built-in)
Cutout Pro, Remove.bg, OpenAI, Gemini - Nano Banana, OpenRouter (external APIs)
Choosing a provider
Customily AI tools are fast, built-in, and free—perfect for most use cases. Use third-party services only if you require highly specific background or cut-out handling. All third-party services require an account with either of them to be able to use it. For information on their costs visit cutout.pro or remove.bg
🪄 Style Modifiers
AI filters that restyle images with artistic or stylized effects.
Includes built-in Customily filters and integrations with Gemini, OpenAI, and OpenRouter. Some examples"
Pencil Drawing
Watercolor
Sepia or Invert colors
Cartoon, Anime, Cyberpunk, Retro, Whimsical, 3D Art
Renaissance or Pixar-style portraits
Providers include:
Customily (Free built-in)
OpenAI, Gemini - Nano Banana, OpenRouter (external APIs)
You can search or browse to discover dozens of options. Many of these work as pre-made prompts for the most popular filters, letting you quickly apply trending or artistic looks without writing your own descriptions.
If you want something more specific or unique, you can use Custom Prompts (explained below) to create your own AI styles.
💬 Custom Prompts
For full creative control, use Custom Prompts to define your own AI effect.
Just write a short description of the style you want, for example:
“Vintage cartoon style with soft pastel tones and blurred background.”
You can choose your AI provider (Gemini, OpenAI, or OpenRouter) for generation.
This feature replaces the older Meta Filters and provides more flexibility and better control over the results.
Providers and Costs
Customily AI effects are always included and free for all users.
They run directly inside Customily, so you don’t need any setup or external account to use them.
All other providers — Remove.bg, Cutout Pro, Gemini, OpenAI, and OpenRouter — require connecting your own API account. These services have their own usage-based pricing, and you’ll need to link your API key inside Customily to access their filters. Each effect will display a small 🔑 icon if it requires an external provider.
You can freely mix Customily’s free effects with external AI filters in the same design.
To link a provider:
Open Account on the left menu.
Select Integrations tab.
Paste your API key for the provider you want to connect (Gemini, OpenAI, or OpenRouter, etc.).
Click Save.