# AI Image Upscaler: Real-ESRGAN 2x, 4x Photo Enhancer (`cprussin/image-upscaler`) Actor Upscale images 2x, 3x or 4x with Real-ESRGAN AI: sharper photos, product shots, scans and AI art. Input: image URLs or Apify key-value store uploads. Output: PNG, JPEG or WebP file links. Runs locally, no API key. $0.01 per started 0.5 MP of input, max $0.04 per image. - **URL**: https://apify.com/cprussin/image-upscaler.md - **Developed by:** [Connor Prussin](https://apify.com/cprussin) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Developer tools, Automation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing $10.00 / 1,000 image upscaled (per 0.5 mp)s This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md. ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run. For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below. Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`). # README ## AI Image Upscaler: Real-ESRGAN 2x, 3x, 4x Photo Enhancer **AI Image Upscaler** makes images **2x, 3x or 4x larger and sharper** with **Real-ESRGAN**, the open-source super-resolution model. It removes blur, JPEG blocks and noise while it enlarges: good for **photos, product shots, old scans, screenshots, thumbnails and AI-generated art**. Paste image links or point it at your own uploads, and get **PNG, JPEG or WebP** files with a link for each. The model runs inside the actor: **no API key, no GPU service, no per-call fees** to anyone else. - ✅ **2x, 3x or 4x** upscaling with Real-ESRGAN (`realesr-general-x4v3`), tile by tile so large images fit in memory. - ✅ **Any common image**: JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF and AVIF. EXIF rotation is applied, transparency and grayscale are kept. - ✅ **PNG, JPEG or WebP output** with adjustable quality, saved in the run's key-value store with a public link. - ✅ **Your own files**: upload images to an Apify key-value store and list them; no hosting needed. - ✅ **Batch-safe**: a 404, a web page, a corrupt file or an over-size image never fails the run. You get an item with the reason, for free. - ✅ **Pay per image**: $0.01 per image up to 0.5 MP (e.g. 800x600), $0.02 up to 1 MP, $0.04 up to 2 MP. Same price at 2x, 3x and 4x. No start fee. ### Start in one minute Click **Start** with the prefilled input: ```json { "urls": [ "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg" ], "scale": 4 } ``` You get: One Apollo 11 photo upscaled 4x (500x503 → 2000x2012 PNG), with `outputUrl`, `outputWidth`, `outputHeight` and `billedUnits`. **Cost:** $0.01: 1 image × $0.01 (the input is 0.25 MP). No start fee. ### Use with an AI assistant Connect the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (`https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cprussin/image-upscaler` loads only this actor), then paste: ```text Use the Apify actor cprussin/image-upscaler to upscale https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg 2x to JPEG, and give me the download link. ``` ### Recipes #### Product photos 2x as JPEG Small product shots made sharper, as compact JPEGs. ```json { "urls": [ "https://example.com/products/shoe-small.jpg", "https://example.com/products/bag-small.png" ], "scale": 2, "outputFormat": "jpg", "quality": 92 } ``` #### Web-ready WebP The smallest output files, for a website. ```json { "urls": [ "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg" ], "scale": 2, "outputFormat": "webp", "quality": 85 } ``` #### Your own uploads Images uploaded to a key-value store in your Apify account. ```json { "keyValueStoreRecords": ["my-user~photos/scan-001.jpg"], "scale": 4 } ``` #### Cap the price per image Skip inputs over 0.5 MP (free error item), so no image costs more than $0.01. ```json { "urls": [ "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg" ], "maxInputMegapixels": "0.5" } ``` ### What can I use an AI image upscaler for? - **E-commerce**: enlarge small supplier or marketplace product photos for zoom views and print. - **Old photos and scans**: sharpen low-resolution family photos, archive scans and document images. - **AI art and design**: upscale Stable Diffusion, Midjourney or DALL-E outputs for prints, wallpapers and thumbnails. - **Web and social content**: turn small logos, screenshots and thumbnails into crisp large images. - **Automation and AI agents**: add an "upscale this image" step to Make, Zapier, n8n or an MCP-enabled agent through the Apify API. ### How does it work? 1. Each image is downloaded (with size and time limits), or read from your key-value store. 2. The format is checked from the file's first bytes; the size is read from its header. Images over **Max input size** are skipped (free). 3. [Real-ESRGAN](https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN) upscales the image 4x on CPU with ONNX Runtime, in overlapping 512 px tiles so seams don't show. For 2x and 3x the 4x result is resized down with Lanczos filtering (sharper than running a 2x model). 4. The result is encoded as PNG, JPEG or WebP and saved to the run's key-value store. The dataset item has the link, input and output sizes and the processing time. ### How do I upscale images? | Field | Description | Default | | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | | `urls` | Direct links to images, one per line | a NASA photo | | `startUrls` | Same, in Apify request-list format (combined with `urls`) | none | | `keyValueStoreRecords` | Uploaded images, as `storeId/recordKey` or `username~store-name/recordKey` | none | | `scale` | `2`, `3` or `4` | `4` | | `outputFormat` | `png` (lossless, transparency), `jpg` (small) or `webp` (smallest) | `png` | | `quality` | JPEG/WebP quality, 1-100 | `90` | | `maxInputMegapixels` | `0.25`, `0.5`, `1` or `2`: larger images are skipped with a free error | `2` | | `maxFileSizeMb` | Larger downloads are skipped with a free error (at most 100) | `25` | | `timeoutSecs` | Max download time per image | `60` | **Upscaling your own files:** upload them to a key-value store in your Apify account (Storage → Key-value stores → your store → upload a record) and list them in `keyValueStoreRecords`, e.g. `my-user~photos/scan-001.jpg`. Private record URLs (`https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/...`) also work in `urls`; the actor reads them with your run's token. **Social-network links (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn) are refused** with a free error item: upscale images you have the rights to. ### What data do you get? One item per image (shortened): ```json { "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg", "sourceType": "url", "fileName": "Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg", "inputFormat": "jpg", "inputWidth": 500, "inputHeight": 503, "inputMegapixels": 0.25, "scale": 4, "outputWidth": 2000, "outputHeight": 2012, "outputFormat": "png", "outputBytes": 5189662, "outputKey": "upscaled-0001-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.png", "outputUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/upscaled-0001-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.png", "model": "realesr-general-x4v3", "billedUnits": 1, "processingSeconds": 8.72, "warning": null, "error": null, "upscaledAt": "2026-10-08T07:00:00.000Z" } ``` - The upscaled files are in the run's key-value store as `upscaled-0001-.`, linked from every item. - Failed images are returned with an `error` and no output, such as `Download failed: HTTP 404.`, `This link is a web page, not an image.`, `The image is 2000x1500 (3 MP), over the 2 MP input limit (maxInputMegapixels).` or `HEIC/HEIF images (iPhone photos) are not supported.` - `warning` notes things like an animated GIF (only the first frame is upscaled) or transparency flattened for JPEG. ### How much does image upscaling cost? Pay per event, by the size of the **input** image. No subscription, no start fee, compute included: | Input size | Example sizes | Price per image | | ------------------------- | ------------------------- | --------------- | | up to 0.5 MP | 640x480, 800x600, 700x700 | **$0.01** | | 0.5 to 1 MP | 1024x768, 1280x720 | **$0.02** | | 1 to 1.5 MP | 1280x1024, 1440x900 | **$0.03** | | 1.5 to 2 MP (the maximum) | 1600x1200, 1920x1040 | **$0.04** | That is one `image-upscaled` event ($0.01) per started 0.5 megapixel of input. The scale and output format don't change the price. Failed and skipped images are free. If you set a **maximum cost per run**, the actor never upscales an image the remaining budget can't pay for: it skips it with a free error item and moves on to smaller images. ### Tips - **Speed**: on the default 4 GB memory (1 CPU core), a 0.5 MP image takes about 15-20 s and a 2 MP image about a minute. More memory gives more cores (4 GB per core) and faster images; the price per image stays the same. - **Output size**: 4x of a 2 MP image is 32 MP (e.g. 6528x4900). As PNG that is often 25 MB or more; use `jpg` or `webp` for smaller files. WebP allows at most 16383 px per side. - **Bigger inputs**: images over 2 MP are already large; downscale them first if you really need to upscale them. - **Faces**: Real-ESRGAN is a general model. It sharpens faces but doesn't reconstruct facial detail like dedicated face-restoration models do. ### FAQ **Which model does it use?** Real-ESRGAN `realesr-general-x4v3` (BSD-3-Clause), a compact general-purpose model trained to remove real-world blur, noise and compression artifacts while upscaling. It runs on CPU with ONNX Runtime. Larger Real-ESRGAN models (x4plus) were measured at about 12x the CPU time for a modest quality gain, so they aren't offered. **Is there a face-enhancement option?** No. The popular face models (GFPGAN, CodeFormer) are under licenses or trained on data that don't allow commercial use, so they aren't included. **Are my images sent to an AI provider?** No. Everything runs inside the actor's container on Apify. **Can AI agents use it?** Yes, through the Apify API, the Apify MCP server or any Apify integration (Make, Zapier, n8n, LangChain). **Disclaimer:** You are responsible for having the right to process the images you submit. ### Open-source software This actor runs [Real-ESRGAN](https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN) model weights (BSD-3-Clause) with [ONNX Runtime](https://github.com/microsoft/onnxruntime) (MIT) and [Pillow](https://python-pillow.org/) (MIT-CMU). See `THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md` in the source for all notices. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Real-ESRGAN authors, Tencent ARC or Microsoft. ### Related actors - [Video Frame Extractor](https://apify.com/cprussin/video-frame-extractor?fpr=to54nm): Thumbnails, scene keyframes, contact sheets and GIFs from video files. - [Website Screenshot API](https://apify.com/cprussin/website-screenshot?fpr=to54nm): Full-page or viewport screenshots and PDFs of any URL. - [PDF to Markdown Converter](https://apify.com/cprussin/document-to-markdown?fpr=to54nm): PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and EPUB to Markdown or RAG chunks. # Actor input Schema ## `urls` (type: `array`): Direct links to JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF or AVIF images, one per line. Apify key-value store record URLs (api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/...) are read with your token. Social-network links (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn) are refused. Failed images are free. ## `startUrls` (type: `array`): Optional alternative to Image URLs, in Apify's request-list format (e.g. a file with one URL per line, or the output of another actor). Combined with Image URLs. ## `keyValueStoreRecords` (type: `array`): Images uploaded to an Apify key-value store, as storeId/recordKey or username~store-name/recordKey, one per line. Use this to upscale your own files without hosting them anywhere. ## `scale` (type: `integer`): 2, 3 or 4: the output is this many times wider and taller. The price is the same for every scale (it depends on the input size only). ## `outputFormat` (type: `string`): PNG: lossless, keeps transparency, large files. JPEG: small files, no transparency (flattened onto white). WebP: smallest files, keeps transparency, at most 16383 px per side. ## `quality` (type: `integer`): 1-100, for JPEG and WebP output. 90 is visually lossless for most images. ## `maxInputMegapixels` (type: `string`): Larger images are skipped with a free error item. 1 MP is about 1155x866 px, 2 MP about 1633x1224 px. The price is per started 0.5 MP of input, so this also caps the cost per image (2 MP = $0.04). ## `maxFileSizeMb` (type: `integer`): Larger downloads are skipped with a free error item. ## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`): Max time to download one image. ## Actor input object example ```json { "urls": [ "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg" ], "scale": 4, "outputFormat": "png", "quality": 90, "maxInputMegapixels": "2", "maxFileSizeMb": 25, "timeoutSecs": 60 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description ## `files` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "urls": [ "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg" ], "scale": 4 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("cprussin/image-upscaler").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "urls": ["https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg"], "scale": 4, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("cprussin/image-upscaler").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}") for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "urls": [ "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg/500px-Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg" ], "scale": 4 }' | apify call cprussin/image-upscaler --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,cprussin/image-upscaler" } } } ``` The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer ` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations). ## OpenAPI specification Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/gsaIDDP8YZXnxfXhv/builds/U2k4tVh5kdWsLeu64/openapi.json