{"id":7717,"date":"2026-06-17T19:09:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crepal.ai\/blog\/?p=7717"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:09:34","slug":"best-ai-video-upscalers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crepal.ai\/blog\/aivideo\/best-ai-video-upscalers\/","title":{"rendered":"Best AI Video Upscalers in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leo. A friend sent me a wedding video shot on a 2014 phone last month and asked if I could “make it 4K.” I laughed, then I tried. Two days, five upscalers, one rented GPU later, I had a clip that was actually watchable. That’s the project that pushed me to write this \u2014 because the answer to “what’s the best ai video upscaling software” is more interesting than the affiliate lists let on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the shortlist I’d give a friend who needs to upscale real footage in 2026. No “top pick” theater. I’ll tell you where Topaz still wins, where it doesn’t justify $299\/year, and which free option I actually use for quick jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One clarification before we start: upscaling and enhancing are different jobs<\/strong>. Upscaling = pushing resolution up (1080p \u2192 4K). Enhancing = fixing exposure, color, noise, stabilization. Some tools do both. Most do one well and the other poorly. The FAQ covers this in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What AI Video Upscaling Does<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Resolution, sharpness, noise, and detail recovery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The naive version of upscaling is what your TV does: stretch pixels with interpolation, accept the blur. AI upscaling is different \u2014 the model has been trained on millions of high\/low-resolution pairs, so when it sees a low-res input it predicts<\/strong> what the high-res version should look like. (For the technical foundation, the super-resolution research literature on arXiv<\/a> is the rabbit hole.) That prediction can be brilliant or plausible-but-wrong, which is where artifacts come from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Four things actually happen during an AI upscale:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resolution lift.<\/strong> The output frame has more pixels. 1080p \u2192 4K is a 4x lift. 720p \u2192 4K is 9x. The further you push, the more the model is guessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness reconstruction.<\/strong> Edges that were blurred get re-drawn cleanly. Hair, fabric, text \u2014 these gain definition when the model recognizes what it’s looking at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noise removal.<\/strong> Grain, compression artifacts, sensor noise. AI denoising is the unsung win in modern upscalers; sometimes the cleanup matters more than the resolution lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detail recovery (or hallucination).<\/strong> The controversial part. The model invents detail it thinks was lost. Done well, a 480p clip looks like genuine 1080p. Done badly, it adds skin texture that wasn’t there and your subject looks plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That last category is where the best ai video upscaling software<\/strong> separates itself from the bad. Anyone can scale pixels. The hard part is making invented detail look natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Top AI Video Upscalers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Best overall quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Topaz Video AI.<\/strong> Yes, still. As of October 2025 Topaz Labs moved to subscription pricing \u2014 around $299\/year on the Personal plan (Topaz Video AI pricing page has current numbers). The perpetual-license days are gone, which has driven a lot of people elsewhere. But on quality alone, Topaz still leads, especially for restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newer model lineup \u2014 Proteus, Iris, Gaia, Rhea, plus the Starlight series for heavily damaged footage \u2014 handles specific content types better than any generalist competitor. For faces (Iris), anime (Gaia), or old film transfers (Starlight), the gap is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honest catches: GPU-hungry (RTX 3070 minimum for sane render times), the subscription stings if you used to own a $299 perpetual license, and on shorter modern clips a cheaper tool gets you 90% of the way there. Topaz earns its money on hard jobs, not easy ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best free or low-cost option<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Upscayl<\/strong> is the answer most affiliate articles won’t give you because there’s no commission to earn. It’s open source, runs locally, and on my RTX 4070 it processes a 30-second 1080p \u2192 4K upscale in under two minutes. The Upscayl GitHub repository<\/a> lists the current model options and platform support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The catch: Upscayl is primarily image-focused with video support layered on top. For sequences of stills or short clips, stunning value. For 10-minute videos with complex motion, you’ll hit limits \u2014 but for the best free video ai upscaler<\/strong> category, nothing else comes close in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For browser-based free tools, CapCut’s built-in upscale<\/a> (free tier) handles 1080p \u2192 4K decently for short clips. Quality is below Upscayl, but the workflow is one button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Learn<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Best for old or low-resolution footage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Topaz Video AI’s Starlight models<\/strong>, specifically. This is the niche where Topaz is genuinely irreplaceable in 2026 \u2014 heavily compressed footage, old VHS rips, sub-480p source, severe noise. The Starlight series is designed for the worst inputs, and on that ground it outperforms every alternative I’ve tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second pick: AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI<\/strong>. Less consistent than Topaz, but on certain types of old footage (low-light interviews, soft-focus archival) it can match Topaz at half the cost. The AVCLabs official site<\/a> lists current pricing and model options \u2014 worth a trial run if you’re restoring on a budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your source is “modern phone footage that just needs a resolution bump,” skip this category. Any general-purpose upscaler handles that case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Topaz Alternatives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When another tool may be easier or cheaper<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’d reach for a Topaz alternative in three scenarios:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Our<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No strong GPU.<\/strong> Topaz wants a beefy modern card. Cloud-based tools (Runway<\/a>, Imagera, various web upscalers) move compute off your machine. You pay per minute of footage instead of upfront, but no hardware investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasional upscaling.<\/strong> $299\/year is rough if you do this twice a year. A per-job cloud tool or one-time-license alternative (HitPaw VikPea, UniFab, Aiarty) makes more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upscaling inside an editing workflow.<\/strong> Wondershare Filmora and similar all-in-one editors have decent built-in AI upscaling now. Quality won’t match Topaz, but if you’d otherwise export to Topaz and re-import to your editor, the integrated workflow saves real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Category to avoid: “lifetime license” tools promising Topaz-quality at a fraction of the price. Some are legitimate budget picks (Aiarty, UniFab on sale). Others wrap older open-source models in aggressive marketing. Try before you buy, and ignore landing-page comparison screenshots \u2014 those are always cherry-picked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comparison Table<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Input quality, speed, controls, export, and best fit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Tool<\/td>Pricing<\/td>Best input<\/td>Speed (RTX 4070)<\/td>Controls<\/td>Best fit<\/td><\/tr>
Topaz Video AI<\/td>~$299\/yr<\/td>Anything, esp. old\/damaged<\/td>Slow but thorough<\/td>High (9+ models)<\/td>Restoration, pro work<\/td><\/tr>
Upscayl<\/td>Free (open source)<\/td>Modern footage, stills<\/td>Fast<\/td>Medium<\/td>Hobbyists, free-tier<\/td><\/tr>
AVCLabs<\/td>~$120\/yr<\/td>Old footage, archival<\/td>Medium<\/td>High<\/td>Budget restoration<\/td><\/tr>
HitPaw VikPea<\/td>~$80\/yr<\/td>General-purpose<\/td>Fast<\/td>Medium<\/td>Casual upscaling<\/td><\/tr>
Runway (cloud)<\/td>~$15\/mo + credits<\/td>Modern, short clips<\/td>Network-bound<\/td>Low<\/td>No-GPU users<\/td><\/tr>
CapCut upscale<\/td>Free<\/td>Short modern clips<\/td>Fast<\/td>Low<\/td>One-button jobs<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pricing in this category shifts often \u2014 verify on vendor pages before subscribing. Speed assumes 30-second 1080p source upscaled to 4K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pattern: the best ai video upscalers split into “restoration-grade” (Topaz, AVCLabs) and “everyday-use” (Upscayl, HitPaw, CapCut), with cloud options sitting between for anyone without strong local hardware.<\/strong> Picking the best video upscaler ai for your use case is a question of source quality and budget \u2014 not raw model quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to Choose an Upscaler<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Match tool choice to source footage and final platform<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Three questions, in order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. How bad is the source?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n