Free generative fill is possible without Photoshop, but each free route gives something up: a daily cap, a sign-in, or a graphics card you supply yourself. Generative fill is an AI edit that replaces a selected area of a photo with new content that matches its surroundings, such as a wall where a person stood or a vase on an empty table. Generative Fill is also the name of Adobe's Photoshop feature, where you brush a selection and type a prompt. The alternatives below either copy that brush-and-prompt method or skip the brush and take a typed instruction for the whole photo.
Quick comparison
Prices as of September 2026.
| Tool | Starting paid price | Free option | How you edit | Key limits | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photoshop Generative Fill (for reference) | Photography plan, US$19.99 per month with 1,000 generative credits, or Photoshop plan, US$22.99 with 25; both annual billed monthly | 7-day free trial | Select an area, then type a prompt or leave it blank | No free web version; needs Photoshop version 25.0 | Precise, layered edits |
| Adobe Express | Premium, US$9.99 per month with no annual commitment, 250 generative credits a month | Free plan with free daily Insert and Remove Object generations | Insert or remove objects in a photo | The free allowance is daily | Quick object swaps without Photoshop |
| Gemini app | Google AI Plus, $4.99 per month, for higher limits | Free with a Google Account (daily cap) | Upload a photo and type the change | Adults only for edits; 1K downloads on the free tier | Type-only edits on a phone or computer |
| Photopea | Free to use | Free browser editor | Selections, layers and a text-description replace tool | A full layer editor to learn | Photoshop-style work without Photoshop |
| Pixlr Editor | Plus $2.49 per month, 80 AI credits; Premium $9.99 per month, 1,000 AI credits | Free browser editor | AI Generative fill in the Edit menu | AI tools use AI credits | Occasional fills with a small subscription |
| Krita with AI Diffusion | Free, open source | Free download | Selection plus optional prompt, on your own computer | Its maker recommends a graphics card with 6 GB of memory or more for local use | Free edits on your own computer |
| Toybox Smart Editor | Pro plan, currently $9.99 per month for 1,000 credits; 85 credits per HD edit | None | Type one instruction; no brush or mask | Pro plan or higher; each edit redraws the whole image | Several changes described in words |
| Toybox Object Eraser | Currently 80 credits per photo; top-ups from $4.99 for 500 credits | Sign up free and get 20 credits, not enough for one photo | Describe what to remove | Removal only | Removing a person or object in words |
How Photoshop's Generative Fill works
Photoshop's version is the one the name comes from, so its steps show what you're replacing. You select an area with the Selection Brush or any other selection tool, click Generative Fill in the Contextual Task Bar, and type what should appear there. Leave the prompt empty and Photoshop fills the selection from the surrounding pixels. Photoshop then shows several variations as thumbnails and puts the one you pick on a Generative Layer, so your original pixels stay untouched underneath.
On the desktop app you can also add a reference image, such as a photo of the jacket you want, and Adobe lists partner models, including Google's Gemini and FLUX.2 pro, in Photoshop on desktop. You get Generative Fill, plus a limited pool of generative credits, with a Photoshop membership or a free trial. Photoshop on the web has guided tutorials you can follow with no Adobe account; to work on your own photos there, you need a plan or a trial. Adobe's mobile app costs nothing to download, and its premium tools come with a subscription. Generative Fill isn't available to users in China.
Brush and prompt, or type the whole edit
The biggest difference between generative fill tools is how you tell them where the change goes. A brush or selection draws the exact area, which suits jobs like extending a wall or filling one window. A typed instruction names the area in words, which suits jobs like "remove the woman in the red raincoat behind the fountain", where tracing her takes longer than describing her.
- Brush and prompt (Photoshop, Pixlr, Krita): the fill stays inside your selection, and everything outside it is left alone.
- Type-only (the Gemini app, Toybox Smart Editor and Object Eraser): no mask to draw, but the tool decides the exact area.
- Both (ChatGPT): you describe the edit in the chat, and you can also mark one area of the picture and say what it should become. OpenAI's ChatGPT guide advises one small change per revision, so the rest of the picture stays put.
Toybox's photo tools have no mask brush today. Each Smart Editor pass repaints the entire picture, not only the spot you mean, so name the parts that must stay put, such as a face, a sign or a door frame.
Generative fill alternatives compared
If you want a generative fill free online AI tool, the first three options below work in a browser or an app without Photoshop. Each one lists what it costs, what its maker says it does, and the limit most likely to matter.
Adobe Express
Adobe's own free route to generative edits outside Photoshop is Adobe Express. The Free plan needs no payment card and includes free daily generations for inserting and removing objects in photos. As of September 2026, Premium is US$9.99 a month with no annual commitment, adds 250 generative credits a month per user, and starts with a 30-day free trial. That suits a small business owner who wants to swap a coffee cup for a plant in a product photo without learning Photoshop.
The Gemini app
Google's Gemini app takes the edit as a sentence: upload a picture, type the change, and send it. Google's plans page lists image generation and editing on the free tier, which counts edits against a daily quota. Editing is limited to people 18 and over, and free downloads come out at 1K, or 2K with a paid Google AI plan. There is no brush, so describe the area by position and a visible detail. It fits someone on a phone who wants generative fill online for free and doesn't need exact control over the edges.
Photopea
Photopea runs in the browser with Photoshop-style selections and layers, so you can mark an area first and then fill it. Two tools do the filling: an AI replace that takes a text description of the new content, and the Spot Healing Brush, which paints over a spot and rebuilds it from what surrounds it, such as grass over a dropped wrapper in a lawn. Photopea opens and saves PSD files, so a fill made there can be opened later in Photoshop. It fits someone who already knows how layers work and wants a free editor in a browser tab.
Pixlr Editor
Pixlr Editor puts AI Generative fill in its Edit menu, next to the regular Fill command, and AI generative expand in the Image menu for extending a photo past its edges. The editor itself is free, and the AI commands spend AI credits. The cheapest plan with credits is Plus, $2.49 a month or $1.99 a month billed yearly, which includes 80 AI credits and removes ads. Premium, $9.99 a month or $7.99 billed yearly, raises that to 1,000 credits, and credit packs bought on their own never expire. It fits someone who fills a few photos a month and wants a small subscription instead of Photoshop.
Krita with the AI Diffusion plugin
Krita is a free, open-source painting program under the GNU GPL, and the free AI Diffusion plugin adds generative fill to it. You make a selection, add an optional prompt, and the plugin fills, expands, adds or removes content inside it. The plugin can run everything locally on your own hardware. Its maker recommends an NVIDIA card with 6 GB of graphics memory or more, supports AMD and Intel cards on Windows and Linux, and supports Apple Silicon on macOS 14 or later. It needs Krita 5.2.0 or newer, and the plugin also offers cloud generation. It's the generative fill free alternative with no account and no cost per image, if you have the hardware and patience for the setup.
Toybox Smart Editor and Object Eraser
Toybox AI's two tools for this skip the brush. Smart Editor is the general one: upload a photo, type the change into "What should change?", and it adds, swaps or removes what you describe. It's a Pro-plan tool, currently 85 credits for HD and 110 for 4K, and you can keep refining the newest result or return to the original. Object Eraser does removal only, from a description in "What should we remove?", and runs on the Free plan for currently 80 credits. Both download as PNG, and the 20 credits a new account starts with cover neither.
Is there generative fill free with no sign up?
Not from Adobe or Google. Adobe Express and Firefly need an Adobe account. Google's Gemini app requires a Google Account, and editing is limited to ages 18 and up. Photoshop's web version lets you follow its tutorials without signing in, yet your own photos need a plan or a trial. Toybox needs a free account and a verified email before any tool runs.
The route with no sign-up is to run the model yourself. Krita and its AI Diffusion plugin are free downloads, and the plugin can generate locally on your own graphics card. The trade is setup time and hardware: without a card that has 6 GB of memory or more, the plugin's maker warns that generating can take very long or fail.
Which one should you pick
The deciding questions are how exact the edit must be and how often you'll make one.
- A designer who needs pixel-exact fills on layered files. Stay with Photoshop. A selection keeps the fill where you put it, the Generative Layer leaves your original intact, and a PSD file keeps every layer for a print shop or client.
- One free fill this week, in a browser. Try Adobe Express's free daily Insert and Remove Object generations first, then Photopea if you want layers.
- A free edit from your phone with no drawing. Use the Gemini app if you're 18 or older, and describe the area by position.
- Many fills without paying for each one. Set up Krita with the AI Diffusion plugin on a computer with a capable graphics card.
- Several changes to one photo, described in words. Use Smart Editor on a Pro plan, one change per edit.
Fill or remove with a typed instruction in Smart Editor
Smart Editor replaces the brush with a sentence, so the work moves into how you describe the area: where it is, one detail that identifies it, and what belongs there instead. For removals that need the same skill, the guide on how to remove someone from a photo has worked examples.
- On a Pro plan or higher, open Smart Editor and add the photo you would have masked in Photoshop (JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB).
- Write the fill as a location plus the new content in "What should change?", for example "Replace the trash can beside the porch steps with a large potted fern. Keep the door, steps and railing the same."
- In More options, HD is the default and 4K costs more. Leaving Shape on Original keeps the photo's proportions.
- Tap "Apply edit". Image tools usually finish in about 30 seconds.
- Check the filled spot against your original photo, then look over faces, sign lettering and straight edges. If the edit fails, the earlier result returns and the credits come back.
- For a second fill, leave "Editing" on "Latest result". To discard everything, switch it to "Original photo".
Because every pass is a full redraw, a face can shift slightly, and the guide to face-safe AI edits has instruction wording to try. For full layer control instead of typed edits, see the Photoshop alternatives that run in a browser, and check Toybox pricing for plans and top-ups.