You want your photo turned into anime. Here is how the five most popular anime photo editor apps compare on the things that actually matter, and which one fits what you want to make.
How we compare them
Every app below is judged on the same five criteria: anime style quality (does the result look like real anime or a cheap filter), ease of use (can a beginner get a good result in under a minute), free vs paid (what you get without paying), ads and privacy (how pushy the app is and what it asks for), and output quality (whether the result is sharp enough for a profile picture or a print). Prices and free tiers change often, so treat any pricing note as a snapshot and check the app store listing before you pay.
AI Mirror: the anime specialist
AI Mirror is built around one job: turning photos into anime and AI art styles. Its anime filters are among the most convincing in this list, with proper attention to eyes, hair, and the clean line work that makes anime look like anime. The trade-off is that it is a specialist, so if you want general photo editing you will need another app. The free tier lets you try the core styles; the full style library and higher-resolution output sit behind a subscription.
Verdict: the best pick if the anime look itself is the whole point.
ToonMe: quick cartoon and anime portraits
ToonMe has been around for years and does one thing fast: face-forward cartoon and anime-style portraits. Upload a selfie, pick a style, and you have a result in seconds. The anime styles are more stylized-cartoon than authentic anime, which suits profile pictures but not full scenes. Expect a watermark on free exports and regular prompts to subscribe. It asks for the usual photo permissions; nothing unusual, but review what you grant any app that uploads your face.
Verdict: the fastest route to a fun anime-style profile picture.
Meitu: anime filters inside a full editor
Meitu is a complete photo and beauty editor that happens to include solid anime filters. That makes it the practical choice if you want to retouch, adjust lighting, and then apply the anime style in one app. The anime effects lean toward the polished, glossy look popular in East Asian apps. The interface is busy and the app nudges you toward its premium tier, but the free version is genuinely usable.
Verdict: best if you want editing plus anime in a single app.
Prisma: anime art styles with painterly quality
Prisma converts photos into artistic styles, and several of its AI styles produce anime-adjacent results with a hand-drawn quality the one-tap apps cannot match. It is slower and more deliberate: you pick a style, wait for processing, and fine-tune the intensity. The results look less like a filter and more like illustration, which suits wallpapers and prints. The free tier is limited in daily processing, with a subscription unlocking the full library.
Verdict: best for artistic, print-worthy anime-style images rather than quick selfies.
TikTok’s AI manga filter: free, but it lives inside TikTok
TikTok‘s built-in AI manga effect turns your camera feed into manga-style art in real time, and it costs nothing beyond having the app. The style is distinctly manga: high contrast, screen-tone shading, dramatic lines. The catch is the ecosystem. You need a TikTok account, the output is sized for TikTok video, and saving a clean still takes an extra step. If you already use TikTok, it is the cheapest way to play with the style. If you do not, downloading the app just for this is a heavier trade than it looks.
Verdict: the best free option, with the biggest strings attached.
Head to head: the five apps at a glance
| App | Anime style quality | Ease of use | Free tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Mirror | Excellent | Very easy | Core styles free | Authentic anime look |
| ToonMe | Good | Easiest | Free with watermark | Quick profile pictures |
| Meitu | Good | Moderate | Usable free version | Editing plus anime |
| Prisma | Very good | Moderate | Limited daily processing | Artistic prints |
| TikTok manga filter | Good | Easy | Free in-app | Zero-cost experimenting |
Final recommendation: which app should you get?
For most people, the choice is simple. Get AI Mirror if you want the most convincing anime result and do not mind a subscription for the full experience. Get ToonMe if you want a profile picture in the next sixty seconds and can live with a watermark or a one-time unlock. Use TikTok’s manga filter if you want to spend nothing and already have the app. Pick Meitu if you will edit the photo anyway, and Prisma if you want something frame-worthy rather than something fast.
Our take
Start free, always. Every app here lets you see its anime style before you pay, and the differences between them are obvious within two or three test photos. Pay only when you have found a style you actually like and a use for the result, whether that is a profile picture, a gift print, or just fun. If you enjoy transforming photos generally, our photo-to-cartoon apps guide and AI art generator roundup cover the wider territory. And if the anime bug bites deeper, the best anime on Netflix is a fine place to study what real anime art looks like.
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