Best Upscaling Software in 2026: 10 Tools Compared

#1

Topaz Gigapixel

Best for: Serious photo enlargement

Visit topazlabs.com

Gigapixel does one thing and does it better than anything else on the market: making photos bigger without them falling apart. Topaz trains its models specifically on the enlargement problem, teaching the software what edges, textures, and fine detail should look like when reconstructed at higher resolution. The result is visibly cleaner than what you get from basic bicubic resizing or the upscaling tucked into general photo editors.

It handles batch processing well, which matters for photographers working through hundreds of images, and the interface stays focused because there is no enhancement clutter. The downside is narrowness: Gigapixel enlarges and sharpens, but it will not fix exposure, remove noise, or do anything else. If enlargement is your main job, this is the tool. If you need broader enhancement, look at Photo AI next.

#2

Topaz Photo AI

Best for: All-in-one photo enhancement

Visit topazlabs.com

Photo AI is Topaz's answer to photographers who do not want three separate apps. It combines denoising, sharpening, and upscaling in one workflow, with an autopilot mode that analyzes each image and applies what it thinks is needed. Used as a plugin inside Lightroom or Photoshop, it slots into a professional workflow without friction.

The autopilot is genuinely useful for batch work, though it occasionally applies more sharpening than a careful editor would choose, so review its decisions on important images. At $39 per month it costs more than Gigapixel, but it replaces several tools at once. For photographers who enhance and enlarge in the same session, it is the more practical Topaz purchase.

#3

Topaz Video AI

Best for: Professional video upscaling

Visit topazlabs.com

Video AI is the product that made AI video upscaling a serious category. It offers separate models for different jobs: enhancing old footage, deinterlacing, denoising, stabilizing, and interpolating frames for smooth slow motion. Editors working with archival material, client footage shot on weak cameras, or drone video that needs a resolution bump will find it transformative.

The honest cost is hardware. Serious enhancement runs slowly on integrated graphics and even on mid-range GPUs; this is a tool that rewards a strong machine. At $59 per month it is also the priciest option here. But for professionals whose income depends on footage quality, it remains the benchmark everything else is measured against.

#4

HitPaw FotorPea

Best for: Easy photo enhancement

Visit hitpaw.com

FotorPea, formerly HitPaw Photo Enhancer, is the friendly face of photo upscaling. The interface is simple, the AI models are tuned for common jobs like portrait enhancement and old photo restoration, and you can get a result in a couple of clicks without learning anything. For casual users who want better-looking photos without a learning curve, that simplicity is the whole pitch.

The trade-off is control and ceiling. Where Topaz lets you tune models and settings, FotorPea mostly asks you to trust it, and on genuinely difficult images the results show it. Pricing includes one-time purchase options alongside subscriptions, which many buyers prefer. Choose it for ease and value; choose Topaz when quality is the priority.

#5

HitPaw VikPea

Best for: Video enhancement for beginners

Visit hitpaw.com

VikPea, formerly HitPaw Video Enhancer, brings the same beginner-friendly philosophy to video. Drop in a clip, pick an enhancement model, and let it work. It handles the common cases well: old family videos, compressed social clips, and footage that needs denoising and sharpening before it looks presentable.

It does not match Topaz Video AI on the hardest jobs, and renders can be slow, but it costs less and asks nothing of you technically. For content creators enhancing older uploads or marketers polishing phone footage, it hits a sweet spot between the free options and the professional tier.

#6

AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI

Best for: AI video restoration

Visit avclabs.com

AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI focuses on restoration: taking old, noisy, low-resolution video and making it watchable. Its face refinement model does a credible job on talking-head footage, which is where many enhancers fail, and it handles the usual upscaling, denoising, and colorization tasks competently. The interface will not win design awards, but every control is where you expect it.

It sits in the middle of the market on price and capability: more serious than the beginner tools, less refined than Topaz. For archivists, family historians, and anyone digitizing old tapes, it is a strong specialist pick.

#7

ON1 Resize AI

Best for: Print-size photo enlargement

Visit on1.com

ON1 Resize AI, formerly Perfect Resize, exists for one specific job: making photos big enough to print large. It uses tiling to handle enormous output dimensions that would choke other tools, and it includes print-focused features like gallery wrap for canvas prints. If you sell prints or decorate offices with large-format photography, this is purpose-built for you.

For screen and web work it is overkill; Gigapixel or Photo AI will serve you better at lower cost. But in the print niche it has loyal users for good reason, and it integrates with the broader ON1 Photo RAW editor if you want an all-in-one alternative to the Adobe subscription.

#8

Let's Enhance

Best for: Browser-based batch upscaling

Visit letsenhance.io

Let's Enhance runs entirely in the browser, which makes it the easiest upscaler to try: upload images, pick settings, download results. It offers a free starting tier, and its batch processing and API make it popular with e-commerce teams enhancing product photos at scale and with real estate marketers processing listing images.

The credit system means heavy users should do the math against a subscription tool. And as with any cloud service, think twice before uploading sensitive client material. For quick jobs, trials, and automated pipelines, though, it is the most convenient option here.

#9

Magnific AI

Best for: Creative high-detail upscaling

Visit magnific.ai

Magnific AI takes a different philosophical stance from every other tool here. Where Topaz tries to reconstruct what was actually in the image, Magnific leans into generation, producing richly detailed results that look spectacular even at large sizes. Digital artists and designers love it for concept work and creative projects where visual impact matters more than fidelity.

That is also its weakness. The detail it adds is plausible, not real; it can invent textures, sharpen features, and subtly change faces. For creative work that is a feature. For documentary, archival, or forensic purposes it is disqualifying. It is also expensive with no free tier, so it is a tool you buy with eyes open.

#10

Upscayl

Best for: Free open-source upscaling

Visit upscayl.org

Upscayl is the proof that good upscaling does not have to cost anything. It is free and open source, runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, processes images locally so nothing uploads anywhere, and imposes no watermarks or limits. It bundles several respected open-source AI models and lets you compare them.

The interface is functional rather than polished, and beginners may find the model choices confusing. On the hardest images it trails the commercial leaders. But for a free tool it is remarkably capable, and for privacy-sensitive work the local processing is a genuine advantage no cloud tool can match.