Best Video Upscaling Software in 2026: 9 Tools Compared

#1

Topaz Video AI

Best for: Professional restoration and archival work

Visit topazlabs.com

Topaz Video AI is the tool editors name first when a project actually matters. Its model library covers the hard cases: noisy low-light footage, soft faces, interlaced old video, and clips that need frame-rate conversion on top of upscaling. The Proteus, Iris and Rhea models each target different damage, and the newer Starlight models push quality further at the cost of much longer renders.

The honest catch is the business model change. In October 2025 Topaz retired perpetual licenses, so new buyers rent access at $299 per year for Personal or $699 for Pro, and stopping payment ends access entirely. Cloud rendering for the newest generative models also burns credits on top of the subscription. For a working editor with a stack of client footage, the quality justifies it. For a one-off project, the monthly route or a cheaper tool makes more sense.

#2

HitPaw VikPea

Best for: One-click enhancement for creators

Visit hitpaw.com

HitPaw VikPea takes the opposite approach: pick a model, press start, done. Instead of exposing dozens of parameters, it ships task-specific models for portraits, noise, animation and old film, plus tools for colorization, stabilization and frame interpolation in the same window. Creators who receive imperfect footage, wedding videographers digitizing tapes, and sellers polishing product clips all fit the target audience.

The pricing structure rewards commitment. Month to month costs $43.19, the annual plan drops to $99.99 per year, and a perpetual license runs $350.39 with updates limited to the current major version. The trial lets you preview results on your own footage but not export them, so budget a month of testing before you rely on it for a deadline.

#3

AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI

Best for: Affordable upscaling with a lifetime option

Visit avclabs.com

AVCLabs sits in the gap between Topaz pricing and free tools that disappoint. The upscaler reaches 4x resolution with multi-frame models, and the face refinement feature specifically targets blurry faces in old home video. It also bundles colorization, deinterlacing and blur tools, so one purchase covers several restoration jobs. Batch processing helps when an archive contains dozens of clips.

Where AVCLabs wins is the lifetime plan, often discounted to around $199.90, which includes all current models and free updates. The subscription tiers auto-renew with a short money-back window, so mark your calendar if you buy monthly for a single project. Realistic hardware expectations matter here: without a dedicated NVIDIA card, 4K upscales take a long time.

#4

UniFab Video Upscaler AI

Best for: Upscaling up to 16K on Windows and Mac

Visit unifab.ai

If you buy DVDs and Blu-rays, you already know the company behind UniFab. It grew out of the DVDFab line, and the upscaler fits the same audience: people with large personal media libraries who want old discs and downloads to look better on modern screens. The headline feature is a 16K local output ceiling, far above the 4K or 8K limits of most rivals, though few viewers will ever need it.

Pricing is sold per module or as bundles: the Video Upscaler AI runs about $99.99 per year or $139.99 lifetime, while the All-In-One suite bundles 14 plus tools. The trial is unusually generous, three full watermark-free uses, so you can judge quality on your own files before paying. Check exactly which module a price covers before checkout, because the product names overlap.

#5

Nero AI Video Upscaler

Best for: Simple 4K and 8K upscaling on Windows

Visit ai.nero.com

The Nero name goes back decades, and its AI upscaler keeps the same practical streak. It does one thing, resolution enhancement up to 8K, with six focused models including animation and face enhancement, plus frame interpolation that reaches 120fps. There is no timeline to learn and no stack of unrelated features competing for attention.

The trial is the most generous on this list: seven days, no credit card, and exports without a watermark, so you can finish a real short project before spending anything. The standard price is $84.95 per year for one PC. The limitation is scope. If you also need conversion, compression or editing, you will buy a second tool, while cheaper all-in-one options bundle those jobs.

#6

VideoProc Converter AI

Best for: Upscaling plus conversion and editing

Visit videoproc.com

VideoProc Converter AI is the pick when upscaling is one job among many. Its AI Super Resolution upscales to 4K alongside frame interpolation, stabilization and face restoration, and the same app converts between hundreds of formats, compresses oversized files, trims clips and records screens. For a creator who also needs to shrink a 4K drone file for upload, that combination is hard to beat at the price.

The Premium 365 plan costs $34.95 per year and covers three computers, with lifetime licenses around $54.95 for one PC. Be honest about the trade: independent tests rate its upscaling as good but not class-leading, and the free trial caps export length. Buy it for the bundle value, and treat upscaling as a strong bonus rather than the headline.

#7

Winxvideo AI

Best for: Fast GPU-accelerated upscaling

Visit winxdvd.com

Winxvideo AI comes from the same company as VideoProc, with speed as its pitch. Level-3 hardware acceleration across NVIDIA, AMD and Intel keeps renders moving on hardware that would choke Topaz, and the Super Resolution models handle everyday footage, phone clips, screen recordings and downloads, with natural-looking results. It also converts, compresses and records, so it can replace two or three utilities at once.

Pricing mirrors VideoProc: $34.95 for the first year on three PCs, $54.95 for a lifetime license on one. The honest limits are a Windows-only build, no cloud fallback for weak machines, and quality that falls short on severely degraded sources where Topaz or AVCLabs earn their keep. For clean-ish footage on a mid-range PC, it is one of the fastest ways to get to 4K.

#8

Pixop

Best for: Pay-per-use cloud enhancement

Visit pixop.com

Pixop does not sell software the way the rest of this list does. It is a cloud platform: you upload footage, its machine-learning pipeline handles deinterlacing, denoising, super-resolution and frame-rate conversion, and you download the result. That removes the biggest barrier in this category, the expensive GPU, and puts broadcast-grade processing within reach of anyone with a browser.

The pricing is usage-based, roughly $0.10 per processed second on the starter tier, with volume plans for 40 or 100 minutes of footage. A five-minute clip costs a few dozen dollars, which beats buying a $300 subscription for a single archive project but loses badly if you upscale weekly. Pixop also licenses its pipeline to broadcasters and offers an API, which explains the enterprise-leaning support and documentation.

#9

DaVinci Resolve

Best for: Free upscaling inside a full editor

Visit blackmagicdesign.com

The free option is not a toy. DaVinci Resolve is a professional editor used on real productions, and its free version includes Super Scale, which upscales footage to 2x or 4x with noticeably better results than a plain resize. If you already edit in Resolve, upscaling a soft clip is a right-click away, with no extra purchase and no export watermark.

Set expectations correctly. Super Scale is a solid traditional upscaler, not a generative AI model, so it will not invent detail or rescue faces the way Topaz or AVCLabs attempt to. The Studio version at $295 one-time adds neural-engine features, but the free tier covers the upscaling use case on its own. For creators on a zero budget, this is where to start before spending on anything above.