AI Image Upscaler 4x — Real-ESRGAN Photo & Anime Enhancer

Upscale images 2x to 8x and make them sharper, cleaner and print-ready. This tool runs Real-ESRGAN, a well-known open-source super-resolution model, so you get real AI detail recovery, not just stretched pixels.

• Two models: Photo for real-world photos and Anime for anime, cartoons, illustrations and line art
• Up to 16 MP output (4096 × 4096). Good for print, e-commerce zoom and 4K wallpapers
• Denoise slider. Keep the film grain, or remove noise and JPEG artifacts
• Batch processing. Paste one URL or thousands
• Transparency kept. PNGs with alpha stay transparent
• PNG, JPEG or WebP output at any quality
• Pay only for successful images. Failed images are never charged

What can I use it for?

Use case	Example
E-commerce	Make small supplier product photos sharp enough for zoom and marketplaces
AI-generated art	Turn 1024 px Midjourney / Stable Diffusion / Flux images into 4K
Print	Get old or small photos ready for posters and canvas
Anime & illustration	Clean, crisp line art at 4x
Real estate & listings	Improve low-resolution listing photos
AI agents & automations	Call it from n8n, Make, Zapier, LangChain or an MCP client as an upscaling step

How to use

1. Add one or more image URLs
2. Pick Photo or Anime
3. Pick a scale (2–8x) or an exact target width
4. Click Start. Each upscaled image appears in the results table with a download link

Input example

{
  "imageUrls": [{ "url": "https://example.com/photo.jpg" }],
  "model": "photo",
  "scale": 4,
  "denoiseStrength": "0.5",
  "outputFormat": "png"
}

Output example

{
  "inputUrl": "https://example.com/photo.jpg",
  "outputUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/upscaled-0000-1a2b3c4d5e.png",
  "status": "success",
  "model": "photo",
  "inputWidth": 640,
  "inputHeight": 480,
  "outputWidth": 2560,
  "outputHeight": 1920,
  "format": "png",
  "seconds": 6.1
}

The outputUrl is a direct link to the upscaled file. You can download it or pass it to your next step.

Pricing

Pay per result, with no subscription:

• $0.005 per upscaled image, plus
• $0.001 per output megapixel

Output size	Approx. cost
1920 × 1080 (Full HD)	$0.007
2048 × 2048	$0.009
3840 × 2160 (4K)	$0.013
4096 × 4096 (max)	$0.022

You can set a maximum cost per run in the run options. The tool stops when it reaches that limit.

Use it from code or an AI agent

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("tidewater-data/ai-image-upscaler").call(run_input={
    "imageUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com/photo.jpg"}],
    "scale": 4,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["outputUrl"])

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('tidewater-data/ai-image-upscaler').call({
    imageUrls: [{ url: 'https://example.com/photo.jpg' }],
    model: 'anime',
    scale: 4,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.map((i) => i.outputUrl));

No-code: use the Apify app in Make, Zapier or n8n to upscale every new image from a form, a Google Drive folder or a product feed.

It also works as a tool in the Apify MCP server, so Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients can upscale images directly.

Limits & tips

• Inputs up to 30 MB and 12 MP. Output is capped at about 16 MP. If you ask for more, the scale is reduced to fit and the aspect ratio is kept
• Processing takes a few seconds to about a minute per image, depending on size
• For faces in very low-quality photos, results are good but not miraculous. Real-ESRGAN restores general detail, not identity
• Choose JPEG/WebP when file size matters, and PNG when you need lossless output or transparency

FAQ

Is this better than resizing in Photoshop? Yes. Normal resizing (bicubic/Lanczos) only interpolates pixels. Real-ESRGAN is a neural network trained to rebuild edges, textures and fine detail.

Can I use the results commercially? The Real-ESRGAN models are released under the BSD-3-Clause license. You are responsible for having the rights to the images you upload.

Do you keep my images? Images are only stored in your own run storage, under your Apify data-retention settings.

How do I increase image resolution without losing quality? Use an AI upscaler instead of normal resizing. Pick the Photo model, set the scale to 4x, and the model rebuilds sharp edges and texture instead of blurring them.

Is it cheaper than desktop upscaler apps or enhancer subscriptions? For batch work, usually yes. There is no subscription: a Full HD result costs under one cent, a 4K result about one cent, and failed images are free.

Can I upscale Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or Flux images? Yes. Upscale a 1024 × 1024 image 4x to get a 4096 × 4096 file for print, posters or 4K wallpapers. Use Anime for illustration styles and Photo for photorealistic ones.

Does it fix blurry, grainy or pixelated photos? It helps a lot with small, soft, noisy and JPEG-compressed images. Raise the denoise setting to clean grain and artifacts, or lower it to keep natural texture. It cannot recover detail that is completely missing, such as a face that is only a few pixels wide.

Can I process thousands of images? Yes. Add as many URLs as you need in one run, schedule runs, or trigger them from the API.

Credits

The models are from Real-ESRGAN by Xintao Wang et al. (BSD-3-Clause).