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AI Image Upscaler

Upload a small or compressed photo, pick 2x or 4x, and download a bigger PNG with the blocks and soft edges cleaned up.

Scale:

Drop an image to upscale

Drag image here or pick from your device

Max file size: 50MB

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How to

How to upscale an image

Choose the scale before you upload, because dropping the image in starts the job straight away.

  1. 1

    Pick 2x or 4x

    The two scale buttons sit above the upload box: 2x doubles the width and height of the image, while 4x quadruples them. The buttons disappear once an image is in, so if you change your mind, close the result panel and start again with the other scale.

  2. 2

    Upload the image

    Drag it anywhere on the page or click Browse image and pick it from your device. The upload starts the job immediately, and the panel shows Upscaling while the AI works on the image.

  3. 3

    Compare and download

    The view switches to the Upscaled tab when the result is ready, and the Original tab stays available for comparison. Click Download, which on a desktop also shows the new size in pixels, and save the file soon, because the link stops working after 30 minutes.

The three steps: choose 2x or 4x and upload, a blurry 400 x 300 picture being upscaled, then a clearer 1600 x 1200 result to download

Guide

Upscaling an image with AI: what gets better and what doesn't

Resizing a small image upward in a normal editor only stretches the pixels it already has, so edges go soft and JPG blocks grow along with everything else. An AI upscaler works differently. A model trained on pairs of small and large photos guesses the detail a bigger version would have had and paints it in, which is why a photo a few hundred pixels wide can come back four times the size and still look like a photo.

A zoomed-in diagonal edge drawn as stair-stepped pixels on the left and as a smooth line on the right, beside a list that marks JPG blocks and soft edges as fixed, and out-of-focus blur and tiny faces as left as they are

That guessing is also the limit. The model can only sharpen what it can make out, and anything it invents is a plausible fill rather than a recording of the scene. Treat the result as a cleaner, bigger copy, and look closely at the parts that matter before you print or publish it.

Pick 2x unless the picture is tiny

In our tests the 2x and 4x results looked alike at the same zoom; 4x has four times the pixels and a file about three times larger, but no extra detail. 2x is the right choice for any photo over about 1,000 px wide. Keep 4x for thumbnails, icons and WhatsApp-sized photos that you want to print or crop in on.

Big photos are shrunk before they're upscaled

The model runs on a GPU with a fixed memory ceiling, so our server scales any image over 2 megapixels down to that size before sending it. A 12 megapixel phone photo at 2x therefore comes back at about 8 megapixels, bigger than the original but not 48, and a 1,920 x 1,080 screenshot at 2x lands just under 4K at 3,770 x 2,120 px. For photos that size, the pass is more of a clean-up than an enlargement.

4x on a big photo can fail

A 4x run multiplies the pixel count by sixteen, and in our test a 3,200 px wide photo at 4x came back with an out-of-memory error from the GPU instead of an image. If that happens, close the panel, pick 2x, which asks the GPU for a quarter of the pixels, and upload the photo again, or resize it to under 1,000 px first and run 4x on that.

Blur and noise mostly stay as they are

The upscaler is built for images that are small or heavily compressed but otherwise sharp. In our test it removed the JPG blocks and smoothed the skin, while fine scratches on a jacket came back sharper, since the model treats them as detail worth keeping. A photo that's out of focus or shaken comes back bigger and still blurry, and a face that's only a few pixels wide won't turn into a real face. For a worn scan with soft faces, Restore Old Photos is the better tool.

Upscaling for print

Printers want about 300 pixels per inch for a sharp print. A 600 x 400 px web photo covers only 2 x 1.3 inches at that density; at 4x it becomes 2,400 x 1,600 px, enough for an 8 x 5 inch print. The AI can't add detail that the camera never captured, so view the result at full size before you order a large print.

Transparent PNGs and logos

A PNG with a transparent background keeps its transparency, which we checked with a small logo at 2x. The edge of the shape comes back slightly soft, so if the logo exists as an SVG or a bigger PNG, that source will beat an upscale. Very large transparent PNGs lose their transparency, because they're flattened when they're shrunk for the GPU.

Last updated: 21 October 2026 · ChangeMyFile

Tested: 21 October 2026, four runs. A 480 x 259 px JPG (23 KB) of a family photo at 2x: done in 12.2 seconds, back as a 960 x 518 px PNG of 821 KB, with the JPG blocks gone and the faces smoother. The same file at 4x: 13.5 seconds, 1,920 x 1,036 px, 2.7 MB, no more detail than the 2x at the same zoom, and the fine scratches on the man's jacket sharpened rather than removed. A 3,200 x 1,805 px JPG at 4x: failed after 17.9 seconds with a GPU out-of-memory error from the model. A 320 x 240 px PNG logo with a transparent background at 2x: 10.9 seconds, 640 x 480 px, transparency kept, edge slightly soft. The model reported for every run was nightmareai/real-esrgan.

FAQ

Image upscaler questions

At a glance

Images you can upload
JPG, PNG, WebP
Upload limit
50 MB
Images at a time
One
Scale
2x or 4x
Result
PNG
Biggest result
About 8 megapixels at 2x
Time
11 to 14 seconds in our tests
Model
Real-ESRGAN
Where it runs
Our server and Replicate's AI service
Files deleted
Within 24 hours
Account
Not needed
Watermark
None

Can't find your answer? Visit our Help center.

Is it free to upscale an image here?
Yes. There's no account to create and no watermark on the result, and the PNG you download is yours to use however you like.
Can I upscale an image to 4K?
Almost. 4K is 3,840 x 2,160 px, and the tool shrinks anything over 2 megapixels before it upscales, so a 1080p frame at 2x comes back at 3,770 x 2,120 px, a whisker under 4K. 4x on a 960 x 540 px image would land on 4K exactly, but we haven't tested a result that large. In our test a 4x result of 32 megapixels failed, so 8K is out of reach.
Can I upscale an image to 2K?
Yes. 2K can mean 2,048 x 1,080 px (the film standard) or 2,560 x 1,440 px (what most monitors and phones call 2K). A 1,280 x 720 px image at 2x lands on 2,560 x 1,440 exactly, and a 640 x 360 px image at 4x does the same. A photo over 2 megapixels is shrunk first, so a 1080p frame at 2x comes back at about 3,770 x 2,120 px, larger than 2K.
Does upscaling fix a blurry photo?
It fixes the kind of blur that comes from an image being small or heavily compressed, since the model redraws edges and removes JPG blocks as it enlarges. A photo that was out of focus or shaken when it was taken comes back bigger and just as blurry, because there's no sharp detail underneath for the model to recover.
Why isn't my upscaled photo twice the size of the original?
Because photos over 2 megapixels are shrunk to that size before upscaling. A 4,000 x 3,000 px phone photo at 2x comes back at about 3,260 x 2,450 px, not 8,000 x 6,000, and the same photo at 4x can fail outright. Upscaling makes the most difference on images that are small to begin with.
What happens if the upscale fails?
The panel shows the error message and a Try Again button, and your original file is untouched. In our tests the one failure was a large photo at 4x running out of GPU memory, so for anything over about 1,000 px wide, close the panel and switch to 2x before uploading again. The page also gives up and shows an error if no result has arrived after 3 minutes.
Does it keep a transparent background?
Yes, for PNGs under 2 megapixels, which covers most logos and cut-outs. The transparent area comes back transparent and the edge of the shape is slightly softer than the original. Larger PNGs are flattened before upscaling, so their transparency is lost.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Tap Browse image and pick the photo from your camera roll. It has to be a JPG, PNG or WebP, so an iPhone photo saved as HEIC needs converting to JPG first, which the HEIC to JPG converter on this site does.
Can I upscale several images at once?
Only one at a time. When the first result is downloaded, close the panel and drop the next image onto the upload box to start another.
What happens to my image after I upload it?
Your image goes to our server and then to Replicate, the service that runs the Real-ESRGAN model. Our copy of the upload is deleted as soon as the result arrives, the download link stops working after 30 minutes, and everything else is removed within 24 hours.
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