AI Image Upscaler: Upscale Images 2x, 3x, 4x, Real-ESRGAN

Make small or blurry images bigger and sharper. This Actor upscales photos, product images, AI art, screenshots and old pictures 2x, 3x or 4x with Real-ESRGAN (model realesr-general-x4v3), which restores edges and texture and removes JPEG noise instead of just stretching pixels like normal resizing.

• ✅ 2x, 3x or 4x larger in width and height
• ✅ PNG, JPG or WebP output with adjustable quality
• ✅ Keeps transparency (PNG and WebP), keeps grayscale images grayscale, applies EXIF rotation
• ✅ Batch processing: paste hundreds of image URLs; one broken link never stops the others
• ✅ Fair price: you pay per input pixel, so small images cost very little, and images that fail cost nothing
• ✅ Private: your images are processed inside the Actor and stored only in your own Apify storage. No third-party API

What can you use it for?

• E-commerce: enlarge supplier product photos to meet marketplace minimum sizes (Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Etsy)
• AI art and print: upscale Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or DALL-E images for posters and print on demand
• Marketing: make old logos, banners and thumbnails crisp for high-resolution screens
• Photo restoration: improve scans and old low-resolution photos
• Automation: call it from Make, Zapier, n8n or your own code via the Apify API, for example after every image upload

How to use it

1. Paste direct image links into Image URLs (JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF or GIF; for GIFs the first frame is used).
2. Choose the Upscale factor and Output format.
3. Click Start. Each result has a download link in the outputUrl field, and the files are also in the run's key-value store.

Input example

{
    "imageUrls": [
        "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN/master/inputs/0014.jpg",
        "https://example.com/products/shoe.png"
    ],
    "scale": "4",
    "outputFormat": "png"
}

Output example

Real output for the first image above:

{
    "imageUrl": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN/master/inputs/0014.jpg",
    "outputUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/<store-id>/records/upscaled-1-d5fce8d9a7.png?signature=<signature>",
    "outputKey": "upscaled-1-d5fce8d9a7.png",
    "scale": 4,
    "inputWidth": 179,
    "inputHeight": 179,
    "outputWidth": 716,
    "outputHeight": 716,
    "format": "png",
    "outputBytes": 617561,
    "processingSeconds": 0.55,
    "model": "Real-ESRGAN realesr-general-x4v3"
}

The outputUrl is a signed link that works without logging in, so you can pass it straight to another tool. A run summary with the status of every image is saved as OUTPUT in the key-value store.

Pricing

You pay per 100,000 input pixels, rounded up per image (a 512 × 512 image counts as 3 units). The price is the same for 2x, 3x and 4x. Images that fail to download, are not images, or are larger than your Max input size are not charged. Set a run spending limit to cap the cost of a run.

Paid Apify plans pay less: 10% off on Starter, 20% on Scale and 30% on Business and higher plans. Example: a 1000 × 1000 photo counts as 10 units, $0.015 on the Free plan.

Speed and limits

• A 1 megapixel image (for example 1000 × 1000 px) usually takes 8 to 30 seconds with the default 2 GB memory. Small images take about a second.
• Inputs up to 8 megapixels work with the default memory; use 4 GB for up to 16 megapixels.
• WebP output allows at most 16,383 px per side; use PNG or JPG for bigger results.

FAQ

Is this the same as Photoshop's "Super Resolution" or online upscalers? It uses the same kind of AI (a neural network trained to rebuild detail). Real-ESRGAN is one of the most widely used open models for this.

Why does the result look slightly painted on some photos? AI upscalers rebuild texture they cannot see in the small image. For faces and very fine textures, try 2x instead of 4x.

Can I upload files instead of URLs? Use any public or signed link, for example from Google Drive (direct download link), Dropbox (?dl=1), S3, or an Apify key-value store.

What about the license? Real-ESRGAN and the realesr-general-x4v3 weights are published under the BSD-3-Clause license, which allows commercial use. You need the rights to the images you upscale.

Found a problem or need a feature (face enhancement, batch ZIP download)? Open an issue on the Actor page.

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Impressum

Levi Griesinger, Tidelane Data
Besigheimer Straße 18
74369, Löchgau, Deutschland
E-Mail: LeviGriesinger@gmail.com