To retouch a photo with AI, you upload the picture and describe each fix in words: the blemish on your chin, the stray hairs across your forehead, the lint on your sweater. The editor returns the same photo with those things gone and everything else, ideally, untouched. In Toybox AI that editor is Smart Editor, on Pro and higher plans. This page covers what an AI retouch handles well, three levels of retouching with wording for each, the free manual route, and the limits to check before you post.
What you can fix with an AI photo retouch
AI retouching works best on temporary things the camera caught that aren't really you. Fixes that change who you are, like your face shape, a scar or your freckles, are a different kind of edit, and this page leaves them alone.
- Blemishes and breakouts. A pimple, a shaving nick or a red patch that will be gone next week. Name each one by position: "the blemish on my chin, left of center".
- Stray hairs and flyaways. Loose strands across the forehead, frizz above the head outline, a hair stuck to the cheek. With a healing brush, every strand that crosses skin is a separate fix. With AI, one sentence can name them all.
- Lint, pet hair and dust. White fuzz on a navy sweater, dog hair on black trousers, dust on a dark jacket shoulder.
- Under-eye shadows. Dark circles after a short night. Lighten them partway so the eyes look rested but still yours.
- Shine. A bright spot on the forehead, nose or chin from a flash or overhead light, reduced to the look of light powder.
- Small distractions around the face. A crumb on the lip, a smudge on glasses, a loose thread at the collar.
The same wording works for an AI retouch of any image, such as dust specks on a product shot or a scuff on a white wall behind a portrait.
Choose how much to retouch
Pick a level before you write the instruction, because the level decides what goes in the "keep" list. None of these levels changes face shape, body shape or features.
| Level | What changes | What stays | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | Temporary spots only: blemishes, lint, one or two stray hairs | Freckles, moles, scars, pores, lines, shadows | Profile photos, dating photos, anything people compare with you in person |
| Medium | Light fixes plus softer under-eye shadows, less shine, tidier flyaways | Skin texture, pores, laugh lines, freckles | Headshots, event portraits, team pages |
| Full | Medium fixes plus evened-out redness and small discolorations | Pores and texture, so skin still looks like skin | A printed portrait or a formal photo where one polished frame matters |
Light retouch wording
Remove the pimple on my chin and the small red spot on my left cheek. Keep my freckles, the mole above my lip, my pores, skin texture and every other detail of my face exactly the same.Remove the white lint and dog hair on my navy sweater. Keep the knit texture, the collar and the folds of the sweater, and keep my face, hair and the background exactly as they are.Medium retouch wording
Remove the loose strands of hair crossing my forehead and the frizzy flyaways above my head on the right, so the outline of my hair is neat but still natural. Keep my hairstyle, hair color, face and the background the same.Lighten the dark circles under my eyes by about half so I look rested, not airbrushed. Reduce the shine on my forehead and nose to a light matte finish. Keep my fine lines, pores, eye shape, eyelashes and skin tone exactly the same.Full retouch wording
Do a natural portrait retouch: remove the two blemishes on my chin, even out the redness around my nose, lighten the under-eye shadows slightly, and remove the flyaways on the left. Keep my pores, freckles, laugh lines, face shape and every feature exactly as they are.Tips for better AI retouching results
- Start from a sharp photo. A retouch can't fix focus. If the eyes are soft, retake the photo or sharpen it first, then retouch.
- Name each fix by position. "The blemish below the right corner of my mouth" beats "clear my skin", which invites the editor to smooth everything.
- Put the keep list in every instruction. Name the freckles, moles, scars and pores you want kept, so a general cleanup doesn't smooth them away with the blemishes.
- Avoid beauty words. "Flawless", "perfect skin" and "glowing" ask for a new face. "Remove", "lighten by half" and "reduce the shine" ask for a fix.
- Do big jobs in two passes. Hair first, then skin. OpenAI's guide to editing images in ChatGPT recommends small, targeted revisions, one change per pass, so the rest of the picture stays put.
- Check at the size people will see. Look at full size for leftovers, then at phone size for the overall look, before you post.
For a headshot, the light and background matter as much as the skin. The guide to making a photo look professional covers both, and teeth get their own wording in the guide to whitening teeth in photos.
Retouch a photo for free by hand
A healing brush fixes only the pixels you paint over, which makes it the safest choice for a face you don't want changed. It takes longer than a sentence, and it struggles with hair crossing skin.
- Photopea (browser, free). Pick the Spot Healing Brush and paint over a blemish or a stray hair. Photopea replaces the painted area with content that matches what surrounds it, and its guide names healing skin and removing scratches from old photos as uses. Photopea also says it runs on your own device and your files never leave it, which matters if you'd rather not upload a close-up of your face.
- Snapseed (iPhone and Android, free). Snapseed's Healing tool removes unwanted things from a photo, and its Portrait tools adjust lighting on faces. The app has no ads or purchases.
- Typed editors. Google Photos' Ask Photos (only in some countries) and the Gemini app accept written edits from adult users. Google Photos also lets you check the AI info on photos edited that way.
Limits to know
Every edit is a full repaint. Smart Editor has no brush or mask, so details you didn't mention, like an earring or a pattern on a shirt, can shift. Name what stays in every instruction. When you only need two or three tiny spots gone, a healing brush changes nothing else.
Faces can drift. Watch for skin that looks smoother than you asked for, a slightly different nose or eyes, or teeth that look new. If that happens, switch "Editing" to "Original photo" and try again with fewer fixes. More face-protecting instructions are in the guide to photo editors that keep your face the same.
It's a redraw, not an upscale. The 4K setting returns up to about 8.3 megapixels whatever size your photo is, so a small photo comes back bigger, but the new detail is drawn by the AI, not recovered.
A new headshot is a different job. If the photo itself is the problem, such as a car selfie with harsh light, Portrait Pro turns a selfie into a professional-style headshot in looks like Corporate, LinkedIn and Studio, on the Free plan (currently 85 credits in HD). It restyles the whole photo rather than fixing spots. The guide to a professional headshot at home shows how to take a better photo to start from.
How to retouch a photo in Smart Editor
- Sign in on a Pro plan or higher and open Smart Editor. Add your photo under "Your image" (JPG or PNG; convert HEIC photos first).
- Pick your level from the table and paste its wording into "What should change?". Edit the positions and the keep list so they describe your photo.
- Under "More options", choose "Quality": HD is currently 85 credits and 4K is 110. Keep "Shape" on "Original".
- Tap "Apply edit". Smart Editor usually needs about 30 seconds.
- Zoom in on each spot you named, then check the eyes, teeth and skin texture against your original.
- To fix a leftover, keep "Editing" on "Latest result" and type only that fix. If the face drifted, switch to "Original photo" and start again with fewer fixes.
- Keep the finished retouch as a PNG download or a gallery save; results you don't save stay available for 24 hours.
Plan and top-up prices are listed on the pricing page, and a failed edit returns its credits automatically.