Free Image Upscaler

Upscaling an image, honestly

Upscaling does not recover detail; it makes a confident guess at what the missing pixels might have been. That is often good enough for a background or a soft texture, and rarely good enough for a face or fine text.

Where upscaling helps and where it does not

1. 1

   Start from the best source you have

   A clean, sharp, low-noise original upscales far better than a blurry JPEG. Noise gets magnified along with everything else.

2. 2

   Judge at 100 percent

   Compare the upscaled result with the original at real size, not zoomed out. The artefacts are the point of the comparison.

3. 3

   Stop at a modest factor

   Two times is usually convincing; four times often shows invented texture that reads as smearing.

Image upscaling questions

Can upscaling add real detail?

No. It interpolates or synthesises plausible pixels. The information was never in the file.

When is upscaling the right call?

For backgrounds, textures and soft gradients. Be sceptical about faces, logos and small text.

Does it cost credits?

The local upscaler here runs in your browser and is free.