Use case · designer / freelancer / Cricut maker
Same Recraft V3 SVG engine that Vectorizer.ai uses internally. Free for 5 conversions per day, no watermark on the first try, no $9.95/month subscription.
Vectorizer.ai is the smoothest tool in this space — clean UI, fast API, results that hold up under scrutiny. The downside is the pricing wall: free tier caps at 2 conversions per day with watermarks, and the unlimited plan is $9.95/month, which is fine if you vectorize 50+ images per month but excessive for occasional users.
The technology underneath Vectorizer.ai is broadly known: a diffusion model fine-tuned on logo-and-flat-art datasets, post-processed with classical path simplification (Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm, plus color quantization). Recraft AI released their own V3 SVG model in 2024 with similar quality and free public access via Replicate. Pixelift wraps Recraft V3 SVG behind a familiar drop-zone UI with 5 free conversions per day, no watermark on the first one, no signup required.
The use case is identical to Vectorizer.ai: convert a JPG logo, screenshot, or pixel art into clean SVG vectors that scale infinitely. Use it for laser cutting, embroidery digitization, large-format printing, Cricut/Silhouette cutting machines, or just because you need a scalable version of a logo your client lost the master file for. Pixelift outputs are commercially licensed — you can use them in client work without attribution requirements.
Drop the raster image (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP)
Works on photos, logos, illustrations, screenshots, scanned drawings. Up to 20MB.
Look for: Hero dropzone
Pick output style
Logo = clean shapes, limited colors. Illustration = preserves complexity. Pixel art = sharp pixel-perfect tracing.
Look for: Style selector buttons
Adjust color count if needed
Fewer colors = simpler SVG (good for Cricut). More colors = more faithful to original.
Look for: Color slider (4-16 range)
Click Vectorize, wait ~12 seconds
Recraft V3 SVG runs on cloud GPU. Slightly slower than Vectorizer.ai but quality is comparable.
Look for: Purple gradient button
Download SVG, PNG, or PDF
SVG = primary output for editing/scaling. PDF = print-ready. PNG = for documentation.
Look for: Three download buttons on the result panel
Why Pixelift
Vectorizer.ai is $9.95/month for unlimited. Pixelift Plus is $39/month covering vectorize + 46 other AI tools (upscale, colorize, background removal, etc). If you need just vectorize, free tier of 5/day beats Vectorizer.ai 2/day with watermarks.
For logos and flat-art icons: visually indistinguishable. For complex illustrations: Vectorizer.ai has slight edge in path simplification (cleaner anchor points). For photo vectorization: both produce posterized results — photo-to-vector is fundamentally limited and you'd usually want different approach anyway.
Yes. Output is standard SVG with named layers (one per color). Imports cleanly into Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity Designer, Figma, Sketch. CorelDRAW also works.
Yes — these are exactly the use cases Recraft V3 SVG was optimized for. Output has closed paths, single color per region, no orphan points. Imports directly into Cricut Design Space, Silhouette Studio, LightBurn (laser), Easel (CNC).
5 free vectorizations per day, refreshing at midnight UTC. First conversion per session has no watermark. Subsequent conversions have a small "pixelift.pl" watermark in the SVG metadata (not visible in the vectors themselves — only in the file source). Plus tier ($39/mo) removes that and adds 200 conversions/month with priority queue.
Yes — Pixelift's terms grant commercial use of all outputs. You can sell the vectorized logo as part of a client deliverable, use it in print products, embed in commercial designs. The only restriction: you cannot resell access to the conversion API itself as a competing service.
PDF output uses native PDF vector graphics (not embedded raster). Resizing to billboard scale stays crisp. Same applies to SVG. Only PNG is rasterized (use it for documentation/preview, not for further design work).
No signup required for the first try. 5 free credits at registration + 3 daily.
Open Vectorize