AI Image Upscaler — Real-ESRGAN 2x / 4x

Upscale photos, product images, old pictures and illustrations 2x or 4x with the Real-ESRGAN AI model. Paste image URLs, get sharp high-resolution images back — in bulk, through the API, or from your AI agent.

• Cheap: pay only per successfully upscaled image, priced by output size. Failed URLs are never charged.
• Bulk: hundreds of images in one run. One broken link doesn't stop the batch.
• Real AI super-resolution: recovers edges, texture and text instead of just blowing up pixels.
• Keeps transparency: PNG/WebP logos and cut-outs keep their alpha channel.
• Size-safe: set a maximum output size in megapixels so you never get a 200 MB file.
• No GPU, no subscription, no sign-up to another service. Runs entirely on Apify.

What is it good for?

Use case	Example
E-commerce	Upscale supplier product photos to meet Amazon/Shopify minimum sizes
Print	Turn a 1000 px image into 4000 px for posters and merch
Real estate & listings	Sharpen small, compressed listing photos
Old photos	Enlarge scanned or low-res family pictures
AI art	Upscale Midjourney / Stable Diffusion / DALL·E outputs
Data pipelines	Chain after any scraper to enlarge every image it finds

How to use it

1. Paste one or more image URLs (JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP).
2. Choose 2x or 4x.
3. Choose the output format: PNG (lossless), JPG or WebP (smaller).
4. Click Start. Each result row has a direct link to the upscaled image.

Input example

{
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://example.com/product-small.jpg",
    "https://example.com/logo.png"
  ],
  "scale": "4",
  "outputFormat": "png",
  "maxOutputMegapixels": 16
}

Output example

{
  "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/product-small.jpg",
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "inputWidth": 500,
  "inputHeight": 500,
  "outputWidth": 2000,
  "outputHeight": 2000,
  "outputUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/…/records/upscaled-00001.png",
  "outputKey": "upscaled-00001.png",
  "outputBytes": 1442736
}

Download results as JSON, CSV or Excel from the Output tab, or fetch them through the Apify API.

Pricing

You pay per upscaled image, one unit per started 0.25 megapixels of input — that's what the AI actually processes (see the Pricing tab). A 500×500 web image is one unit; a 1000×1000 photo is four units. 2x and 4x cost the same because the model does the same work; each result row shows billedUnits. Images that fail to download or decode are free. You can set a maximum cost per run in the run options.

Limits

• Input: up to 40 MB and 25 megapixels per image.
• Output: capped by maxOutputMegapixels (default 16 MP ≈ 4000×4000). Larger inputs are shrunk first so the result fits.
• Upscaled files stay in the run's key-value store for your Apify data-retention period — download them if you need them longer.
• Animated GIFs: only the first frame is processed.

Use it from code or AI agents

Call it via the Apify API, the Python/JavaScript clients, Make, Zapier, n8n, or as a tool through the Apify MCP server.

Model & license

Uses realesr-general-x4v3 from Real-ESRGAN (BSD-3-Clause) by Xintao Wang et al. Only process images you have the right to use.

Feedback

Found a bug or need a feature (face restoration, 8x, batch from a dataset)? Open an issue on the Issues tab — it gets answered.