I have a box of old photos from the late 90s and early 2000s. This includes faded film prints and blurry digital photos from the era of digital point-and-shoot cameras, which captured memories but with a quality that was far from what even the cheapest smartphones achieve today. Thankfully, there are free tools that can perfectly restore ruined photos. These images aren't unsalvageable; you just need the right tool. In this case, Upscayl.
If you've been curious about AI upscaling but winced at the price tags of tools like Topaz Gigapixel AI or cloud-based subscription services, Upscayl is about to change your perspective. This free, open-source image upscaler does something that seems like dark magic when I tried it, taking grainy, pixelated, and low-resolution photos and making them surprisingly useful.
What actually is Upscayl Free, open-source, and fully local AI image upscaling made easy
As mentioned before, Upscayl is a free, open-source image upscaler that uses AI running locally on your machine to upscale just about any image you throw its way. Instead of just stretching a photo out to a higher resolution, the tool analyzes the image and fills in what should theoretically be there. The result is a sharper, clearer, and more detailed image than the one you originally had.
There's also a $24.99 per month subscription that gives you 300 credits per month for features like higher upscaling resolution, AI image generation, and cloud storage capabilities. However, unlike other services, Upscayl doesn't limit the number of times you can use a free account or any settings in it.
It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, which makes it immediately appealing to anyone who bounces between OSes. Since it's free, you only need to download it once, and it's yours forever. No subscriptions creeping up on you and no watermarks stamped on your final photos. There are a lot of ways to upscale an image without losing quality, but none of them are as easy or cost-effective.
But more than that, the big difference that using Upscayl makes is the fact that your photos never leave your device. Most big-name upscaling services work in the cloud. You upload your photo to their servers, they process it, and you download the final result. This is obviously more convenient, but it also has a privacy trade-off. If you're uploading personal photos, it's unsettling to send them to someone else's servers, no matter the security promises a service makes.
Since Upscayl processes everything locally on your computer, your photos never leave your drive. I was already sold on the tool after using it as an experiment, but knowing I could securely upscale any image, whether it's from my family photo collection or captured on an old digital camera, is what really sealed it.
How Upscayl improves old photos A couple of clicks can salvage an old photo in no time
I tested Upscayl on a range of old family photos taken on point-and-shoot film cameras, as well as my old Sony Cybershot DSC-W630. The interface is also quite modern, clean, and clearly describes what each option does.
Upscayl uses the Real-ESRGAN AI model and Vulkan architecture to do the heavy lifting and creates natural-looking results. Faces come out clear and distinct, and textures in clothing or backgrounds don't appear artificially morphed as they do at times with aggressive upscaling in other image editing tools you might have previously used.
The AI is actually thoughtful about what it's doing rather than just blindly sharpening everything it sees. The app also lets you choose between different AI models for different image types for the best results. Some models are better at handling noise, while others excel at preserving details.
You can even use the Double Upscayl feature if you want to push an image through the algorithm twice for even better enhancements. Although it does add significantly more processing time, and can also cause performance issues if you're upscaling more than four times the quality of the original image.
Upscaling photos in Upscayl is a simple four-step process:
Upload your photo or use enable the Batch Upscayl option for uploading multiple photos. Select your AI model of choice and enable the Double Upscayl option if required. Choose a folder to save your output file in. It'll be saved in the image's directory by default. Click the Upscyl button to start the upscaling process.
The tool lets you adjust the quality of the final image to anywhere from the original resolution to upscaling an image as high as 16 times its original resolution, although anything beyond four times the original resolution doesn't get AI upscaling. And if you've got a stack of photos to process, there's a batch upscaling feature that lets you add multiple images and have Upscayl run through them without the need for manual intervention.
It's not a one-size-fits-all solution Upscayl is a good tool, but you need to manage your expectations
Upscayl isn't perfect, and there are some glaring disadvantages you need to be aware of. For starters, since the program runs its AI models locally on your computer, you need the hardware to support it. And if your computer doesn't have a decent GPU, processing is going to take a while. A single high-quality upscale might take several minutes to upscale on older hardware. That's unfortunately the trade-off for keeping your data local. Cloud services are faster because they have enormous server farms behind them, but you'll still be sending your photos to someone else's server.
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Also, there's only so much the AI can do. Upscayl won't be able to turn a 640 x 480 pixel photo into sharp, detailed 4K images. According to the official GitHub repository FAQ, the tool can enhance low-resolution images and images that are pixilated, but it can't deblur or adjust the focus on your image. In fact, if your image is out of focus or totally blurred, Upscayl is not the right tool for it at all.
Give your old photos a new life Those old photos aren't fully lost yet
I've restored dozens of old photos since I discovered Upscayl without paying a cent. No subscriptions, no trial credits that disappear before you've even started testing the tool.
You can also combine with basic touch-ups in other tools. A simple upscale and some color correction can make old photos look surprisingly modern without any weird artefacting. You can even prepare photos for printing without much effort.
So if you've got old photos collecting dust, or you regularly need to work with low-resolution images, Upscayl is well worth the 30 seconds it takes to download and install. It won't necessarily be faster or better than paid alternatives, and it won't produce any miracles. But for anyone who values privacy, hates subscriptions, and just wants to restore some old photos, Upscayl is exactly what you're looking for.
