AI Image Upscaler 4x: Upscale Images to 4K & 8K in Bulk

AI image upscaler and photo enhancer: upscale images 4x — four times the width and four times the height, 16x the pixels — straight from image links, one picture or thousands. JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF and TIFF in; PNG, JPG or WebP out, up to 8192 px on a side. Transparent PNGs stay transparent. No GPU, no AI provider key, nothing to install.

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What does AI Image Upscaler 4x do?

Paste links to images and the Actor downloads each one, checks it, and runs it through an AI super-resolution model that enlarges it 4x and redraws the detail a plain resize cannot: sharper edges, cleaner texture, less blur and fewer compression artefacts. Every upscaled image is saved to your Apify storage and comes back as a download link, with its new size and what was billed.

It works as an image upscaling API too: send links, get back upscaled files as structured data.

Why use it?

• True 4x AI upscaling — 1024 x 768 becomes 4096 x 3072; 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) becomes 7680 x 4320 (8K).
• Bulk — paste a list of URLs or feed the output of another Actor; images run in parallel.
• Every common format — JPG/JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF and TIFF, up to 25 MB per file.
• Transparency kept — logos, stickers and product cut-outs stay transparent in PNG and WebP output.
• Phone photos come out upright — the camera's rotation tag is applied before upscaling.
• Damaged files are caught, not billed — every image is fully decoded before anything is spent.
• Priced at cost — about $0.004 for a 1-megapixel photo, about $0.01 for the largest (JPG or WebP; PNG a little more).

What data can you get?

Data	Details
🖼️ Upscaled image	A download link (upscaledImageUrl) to the file in your run's key-value store.
📐 New size	outputWidth, outputHeight and file size in MB.
🗂️ Format	JPG, WebP or PNG — your choice.
🔎 Original	Format, width and height of the picture you linked.
✂️ What was adjusted	Whether it was scaled down to fit, kept its transparency, or was an animation (first frame used).
💵 Billing	The 100,000-pixel units billed for the image.

How to upscale an image

1. Paste one or more links into Image URLs — each link must open the picture itself.
2. Pick an Output format: JPG (default, small files for photos), WebP (small files, keeps transparency) or PNG (lossless, keeps transparency, larger files and a small surcharge).
3. Click Start. When the run finishes, open the Upscaled images view and click any link to download, or export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it from the Apify API.

Formats and sizes

	Supported
Input formats	JPG / JPEG, PNG (with transparency), WebP, BMP, GIF (first frame of an animation), TIFF
Output formats	PNG, JPG, WebP
Input file size	up to 25 MB and 40 megapixels (16 MP for transparent images)
Scale	always 4x width and 4x height
Largest output	8192 px on a side, about 58.7 megapixels (for example 8192 x 7168)
Largest input upscaled as it is	2048 px on a side and 3.67 megapixels; transparent images 2.1 MP (PNG output) or 0.7 MP (WebP output)
Larger inputs	first scaled down to fit, keeping their proportions, then upscaled 4x — the row says downscaledToFit: true
Smallest input	16 px on a side; pictures under 128 px are upscaled too

You send	You get
256 x 256 icon	1024 x 1024
640 x 480 photo	2560 x 1920
1024 x 768	4096 x 3072
1280 x 720 (HD)	5120 x 2880 (5K)
1920 x 1080 (Full HD)	7680 x 4320 (8K)
2048 x 1536	8192 x 6144
4000 x 3000 camera photo	scaled to 2048 x 1536 first → 8192 x 6144

Which links work

Link	Works
https://example.com/photo.jpg (or .png, .webp, .bmp, .gif, .tif)	✅ direct image link
Image CDNs with resizing parameters, e.g. ...photo.jpg?w=1200	✅
Web pages that show an image, share pages, galleries	❌ use the direct link of the image itself
Images behind a login	❌ the link must be public
SVG, HEIC, AVIF, RAW, PDF	❌ convert to JPG or PNG first

How fast is it?

A typical photo is ready in 10–30 seconds; the largest pictures take one to two minutes. Several images run in parallel.

Input

Field	Type	Description
imageUrls	array of URLs (strings or {"url": ...})	Direct links to the images. Required.
outputFormat	jpg · webp · png	Format of the upscaled files. Default jpg. PNG adds a per-pixel surcharge.
maxConcurrency	integer 1–10	Images processed at the same time. Default 5. No effect on price.

{
    "imageUrls": ["https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA12235/PIA12235~small.jpg"],
    "outputFormat": "png"
}

Output

{
    "url": "https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA12235/PIA12235~small.jpg",
    "status": "success",
    "upscaledImageUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/0001-PIA12235-small-4x.png",
    "kvsKey": "0001-PIA12235-small-4x.png",
    "outputFormat": "png",
    "outputWidth": 2560,
    "outputHeight": 1792,
    "outputMB": 2.45,
    "inputFormat": "JPEG",
    "inputWidth": 640,
    "inputHeight": 448,
    "upscaledFromWidth": 640,
    "upscaledFromHeight": 448,
    "scale": 4,
    "downscaledToFit": false,
    "transparencyKept": false,
    "transparencyFlattened": false,
    "firstFrameOnly": false,
    "billedPixelUnits": 3,
    "billedPngUnits": 3,
    "error": null
}

Every link you submit gets a row. Images that could not be upscaled have status: "failed" and an error explaining why; images left out by a run cost limit or a free-plan allowance, and repeats of a link already in the input, have status: "skipped". Neither is charged.

How much does it cost?

$0.00124 per image + $0.00024 per started 100,000 pixels of the picture sent for upscaling — your original, after any scaling down to fit, not the 16x larger result. PNG output adds $0.00016 per 100,000 pixels, because a lossless 4x PNG is about six times the size of a JPG to store.

The price follows the size of the picture, because the cost of AI upscaling does: a small thumbnail costs a fraction of a cent, a picture at the 3.67-megapixel maximum about a cent. Pixels are counted on the picture as it is upscaled, after any scaling down to fit — so a 12-megapixel 4000 x 3000 photo costs the same as the 2048 x 1536 (3.1 MP) version it is upscaled from. Pictures under 128 px on a side are padded to 128 px for upscaling and billed at that size. JPG and WebP cost the same.

You send	You get	JPG / WebP	PNG
512 x 512	2048 x 2048	$0.0020	$0.0024
800 x 600	3200 x 2400	$0.0024	$0.0032
1024 x 768	4096 x 3072	$0.0032	$0.0044
1024 x 1024	4096 x 4096	$0.0039	$0.0056
1920 x 1080	7680 x 4320	$0.0063	$0.0096
4000 x 3000 (scaled to 2048 x 1536)	8192 x 6144	$0.0089	$0.0140
2048 x 1792	8192 x 7168	$0.0101	$0.0160
100 product photos of 1000 x 1000	4000 x 4000 each	$0.36	$0.52

Images that fail — unreachable, not an image, damaged, too large — are never charged, and neither are images skipped by a run cost limit or a free-plan allowance.

Set maximum cost per run to cap your spend: the Actor checks each image before it upscales it and skips anything the remaining budget cannot cover.

Free plan: 10 images per run and 20 per calendar month (resets at 00:00 UTC on the 1st), within a daily capacity shared by all free users. Any paid Apify plan removes the free-plan limits.

Use cases

Use case	Why upscale
E-commerce product photos	Marketplace zoom generally needs 1000 px or more on the longest side; 4x gets small supplier images well past that.
Print and print-on-demand	Posters, canvas and merchandise need far more pixels than a web image has.
Real estate and listings	Sharper listing photos from old or compressed originals.
AI-generated images	Take a 1024 x 1024 generation to 4096 x 4096 for print or wallpapers.
Old photos and scans	Bring small scans and archive pictures up to a usable size.
Web design and marketing	Hero images, banners and backgrounds for 4K and retina screens.
Datasets and pipelines	Upscale the image URLs another scraper collected, in the same workflow.

Tutorial: upscale images with the API

1. One image in the Console

Open the Actor, keep the prefilled NASA image (640 x 448) and click Start. In about fifteen seconds the Upscaled images view shows the 2560 x 1792 result with a preview; click the link to download the JPG.

2. A batch for an online shop

Paste your product image URLs into Image URLs, one per line, set Output format to WebP and start. Every row has the new width and height and a download link; export the view as CSV to map the new files back to your products.

3. From Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("deapi/image-upscaler-4x").call(run_input={
    "imageUrls": [
        "https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA12235/PIA12235~small.jpg",
    ],
    "outputFormat": "png",
})
store = client.key_value_store(run["defaultKeyValueStoreId"])
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if row["status"] == "success":
        record = store.get_record(row["kvsKey"])
        with open(row["kvsKey"], "wb") as handle:
            handle.write(record["value"])
        print(row["kvsKey"], row["outputWidth"], "x", row["outputHeight"])

4. From JavaScript or cURL

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('deapi/image-upscaler-4x').call({
    imageUrls: ['https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA12235/PIA12235~small.jpg'],
    outputFormat: 'webp',
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].upscaledImageUrl);

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/deapi~image-upscaler-4x/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"imageUrls": ["https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA12235/PIA12235~small.jpg"], "outputFormat": "jpg"}'

The synchronous endpoint waits at most 5 minutes. For large batches, start the run with POST /v2/acts/deapi~image-upscaler-4x/runs and read the dataset when it finishes, or use the Python and JavaScript clients above, which wait for you.

5. Upscale what another Actor scraped

Chain it after a product or image scraper with an Apify integration: pass the scraped image URLs into imageUrls (plain strings or objects with a url field both work), then send the results on with a webhook, Make, Zapier, n8n or Google Drive.

Image upscaling API and integrations

Every Apify Actor has a REST API, a scheduler, webhooks and official JavaScript and Python clients. It also runs from Make, Zapier, n8n and as a tool for AI agents through the Apify MCP server.

FAQ

How do I upscale an image to 4K?

A 4K picture is 3840 x 2160. Any image of 960 x 540 or more becomes 4K or larger with this Actor, because it is enlarged 4x: 960 x 540 becomes 3840 x 2160, 1280 x 720 becomes 5120 x 2880.

Can I upscale an image to 8K?

Yes. 1920 x 1080 becomes 7680 x 4320 — 8K UHD. The largest output is 8192 px on a side.

Is there an image upscaling API? Do I need an API key?

The Actor is the API: call it with your Apify token from Python, JavaScript, cURL or any HTTP client, as in the tutorial above. You do not need an account or a key with any AI provider.

Can I upscale images in bulk?

Yes — paste as many links as you like, or pass a list from another Actor. Images run in parallel (5 at a time by default, up to 10) and each one gets its own row and file.

Which image formats are supported?

JPG/JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF and TIFF in; PNG, JPG and WebP out. For an animated GIF the first frame is upscaled. SVG is a vector format and needs no upscaling; HEIC, AVIF and RAW files must be converted to JPG or PNG first.

Does it keep transparent backgrounds?

Yes, with PNG or WebP output: the transparent areas are kept and enlarged with the picture. With JPG output, which cannot store transparency, transparent areas become white.

What is the largest image I can upscale?

Any image up to 25 MB and 40 megapixels (16 MP if transparent) is accepted. Pictures up to 2048 px on a side and 3.67 megapixels are upscaled exactly as they are; larger ones are scaled down to that size first and then upscaled 4x, so the result is at most 8192 px on a side. Images that are already very large usually gain less from 4x AI upscaling.

Why is my result smaller than four times my original?

Because the original was larger than 2048 px on a side or 3.67 megapixels, so it was scaled down to fit before upscaling. The row shows downscaledToFit: true and the size it was upscaled from in upscaledFromWidth and upscaledFromHeight.

Can I upscale 2x or 8x?

Every result is 4x. For 2x, scale the 4x result down by half — still sharper than enlarging the original 2x. For 8x, run the 4x result through again only if it is at most 2048 px on a side; larger pictures are scaled down to fit first.

Can it fix blurry or low-resolution photos?

It sharpens soft, small and compressed pictures as it enlarges them and removes much of the blockiness of heavy JPEG compression. It cannot recover detail lost to strong motion blur or a missed focus.

How do I increase image resolution for print?

Print size is pixels divided by DPI. At 300 DPI a 1920 x 1080 image prints at about 16 x 9 cm; upscaled to 7680 x 4320 it prints at about 65 x 37 cm (25.6 x 14.4 in).

Is it free to try?

Yes. On the Apify free plan you can upscale 10 images per run and 20 per calendar month, charged against the free monthly platform credit.

Does it work on illustrations, anime and AI art?

Yes, it upscales photos, illustrations, digital art, renders and screenshots alike. It is a general-purpose upscaler: it sharpens and redraws detail, but it does not restore damaged faces or colourise old photos.

Can I upload an image from my computer?

The Actor needs a link. Put the image anywhere that gives a direct public link — your website, a cloud bucket, or an Apify key-value store record — and paste that link.

How long are the upscaled files kept?

They are stored in the run's key-value store in your own Apify account, under your plan's data retention. Download them, or copy them to your own storage with an integration, if you need them for longer.

Why did an image fail?

Usually because the link opens a web page rather than the image itself, the image is behind a login, the file is damaged or incomplete, or it is in a format that is not supported. Failures are never charged; the reason is in the row's error field.

Support / feedback

Found a bug, hit an image that will not upscale, or want a feature? Open a ticket in this Actor's Issues tab on its Apify Store page and include the image URL and run ID where you can.