Figma Image to Vector Plugins: 11 Tracers Compared (2026)

To trace an image into vectors in Figma you have two routes: Figma’s own Vectorize, an AI feature limited to Full seats on paid plans, or a Community plugin. I read the Community page and the declared network access of 22 tracing plugins on 2026-10-09; the eleven most used are compared below, with the three questions that actually separate them: does it keep colours, does your image leave Figma, and how is it paid.

Disclosure: I build Tracepen for Figma, which is listed last. The other plugins were compared from what their own pages, manifests and pricing pages state, not by running each one on the same image.

Figma’s built-in Vectorize, and who cannot use it

Figma launched Vectorize on 4 February 2026 (Figma blog): drop a raster file into Figma Design or Draw, pick Vectorize, and the result becomes editable vectors; a Recolor slider reduces the artwork to a smaller set of colours. The same post limits it to Full-seat users on Professional, Organization and Enterprise plans with AI enabled, and says AI actions use credits.

That leaves out everyone on the free Starter plan, every Dev, Collab or View seat, and teams whose admin has switched AI off. For them, and for anyone who wants a trace that does not go through an AI model, the job falls to plugins.

The plugins side by side

Users, versions and network access read from each plugin’s Community page on 2026-10-09; prices from the plugin page or the payment page it links to on the same day. They change, so check before you buy.

Question 1: colour, or black and white?

The split is sharper than the plugin names suggest. Trace Image says outright that it makes monochrome vectors (a threshold and an invert switch), and Thierry’s Tracer runs Potrace, a black-and-white tracer by design. They are the right pick for a signature, a line drawing or a one-colour logo, and the wrong one for anything with a palette.

For colour artwork the useful question is what the colours become. “Full-colour result” on a plugin page tells you the SVG keeps its colours, not how the layers are organised. A trace that gives one shape per colour can be recoloured by selecting one layer; a trace that gives hundreds of loose shapes per colour cannot. Figmastic’s Tracer is explicit (one layer in simple mode, two in detailed), Tracepen writes one path per colour with holes cut out, and the rest do not say, so trace a test logo and look at the Layers panel before you commit a file to one of them.

Question 2: does your image leave Figma?

Figma makes a plugin list the domains it may reach in its manifest, blocks requests to any other domain, and prints that list on the plugin’s Community page (Figma plugin manifest docs). That line is a better guide than a description, because Figma enforces it and the description is marketing. The 22 plugins fall into four groups:

• No network at all: Trace Image, Thierry’s Tracer and a handful of small newer plugins declare none, so the trace cannot leave your machine.
• Licence check only: Image Tracer and Vectorized reach Gumroad (plus analytics for Vectorized), so the tracing itself runs locally.
• Upload to a server: Vectorizer, Trace Images, Storyship’s AI Vectorizer and Free Vectorizer’s AI mode send the image to their own backends. Storyship says files are deleted right after processing; the others’ pages do not say.
• Not declared: Photopea’s and Liam McCabe’s plugins predate the field, and Photopea’s page reads “Unknown network access”. Unknown is not the same as uploads; it means Figma cannot tell you.

One case shows why the manifest line matters: Image Tracer by UX Mate (2.3k users) says “no uploads” in its description while its manifest allows two outside domains. For client work under an NDA, read the network line, not the pitch.

Question 3: how are you paying?

Most of the field is free or a small one-time licence. Image Tracer, the most used tracer by a wide margin, sells a $10 lifetime licence on Gumroad; HurryFlash’s Vectorized is $5 once; Figmastic’s Tracer asks you to take a pay-what-you-want key from Gumroad, from zero. The credit-based AI plugins cost per file instead: Storyship’s $8 buys 400 credits, an SVG export costs 10, so about 40 conversions, and the credits expire after six months. Credits make sense for a one-off job and get expensive for a library of icons.

Notes on each plugin

• Image Tracer: the default choice by user count, colour and B/W modes, local tracing behind a lifetime licence. Last release February 2025.
• Vectorize Bitmap (Photopea): free, multi-colour with transparency, from the developer of the Photopea editor. Unchanged since 2022 and silent on network access.
• Vectorized (HurryFlash): $5 licence, actively updated (v14, December 2025). A separate Vectorized Pro listing sells a subscription.
• Vectorize (Liam McCabe): free, still on its first version from March 2022.
• Vectorizer (Design is Blank): paid and server-side; useful if you already trust its backend, otherwise the local plugins cover the same ground.
• Tracer (Figmastic): free with a Gumroad key, unlimited traces, simple and detailed modes.
• Trace Images: free full-colour tracing on its own server, frequently updated (v22).
• Trace Image: free, no network, monochrome; the cleanest privacy story for line art.
• Vectorized (AI Vectorizer): AI tracing billed by credits, with a watermark-free SVG at 10 credits.
• Free Vectorizer: a free mode that its page says runs entirely locally, plus a paid AI mode that uses its server.
• Tracer (Thierry): the only one that names its engine (Potrace, GPL-2.0) and publishes its source; black and white only.

Where Tracepen fits

I built Tracepen for colour artwork that has to stay editable: logos, icons, flat illustrations. Each colour comes out as one vector path, curves are kept as Beziers and holes are cut out of the shape, so recolouring a trace is one click per colour. It is a deterministic tracer, not an AI model: the same image and settings give the same paths every time. In Figma you can trace a file you open or the layer you have selected (Use selection), set the colour count, noise filter, minimum region size and corner smoothing, and Add to design drops the result at the centre of your view as vector nodes.

The image is traced inside the plugin panel. Tracepen’s manifest allows 3dshouse.com, for sign-in and the free-plan count, and tracepen.3dshouse.com, for the sample images; neither request carries your image. The trade-offs: a free 3dshouse account is required, the free plan allows a few exports a day (each Add to design counts), and a large photo takes a while because the trace runs in the panel itself. Tracepen Pro removes the limit with one purchase that also covers the web app, SketchUp and Blender. For how image tracers compare outside Figma, see the Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Vector Magic and Tracepen comparison.

Get Tracepen on Figma Community →

Which one to pick

• Full seat on a paid plan, AI is fine: try Figma’s Vectorize first; it costs no install.
• Black-and-white line art, nothing may leave the machine: Trace Image or Thierry’s Tracer.
• Colour logos and icons you will recolour: a local tracer that keeps colours as layers: Image Tracer, or Tracepen if you want one path per colour.
• A photo-like image, one job: an AI plugin on credits, accepting that the file goes to its server.