best free video upscaler reddit

What's the best free AI video upscaler currently available?

reddit.com › r › software › comments › 1lxxb6i › whats_the_best_free_ai_video_upscaler_currently

Video2x or Waifu2x Extension GUI. Both are free and open-source and available on Github. Answer from cherishjoo on reddit.com

reddit.com › r/software › what's the best free ai video upscaler currently available?

r/software on Reddit: What's the best free AI video upscaler currently available?

July 12, 2025 -

Hey everyone, I'm looking for recommendations on the best free AI video upscaling tools out there. Ideally something that works well with low-res or older videos and can upscale to at least 1080p or 4K with decent quality.

Bonus if:

It runs locally (but cloud-based is fine too)

Supports batch processing

Doesn’t add watermarks

Works on Windows/Linux

I’ve tried a couple, but most seem to have limitations unless you pay. Curious to hear what’s worked best for you all!

Thanks in advance!

Top answer

1 of 7

Video2x or Waifu2x Extension GUI. Both are free and open-source and available on Github.

2 of 7

Topaz 100%

reddit.com › r/software › free ai video upscaler?

r/software on Reddit: Free AI Video Upscaler?

February 24, 2025 -

Hey, i'm looking for a good Alternative to apps like Topaz AI. I only want to upscale my 1080p Videos to 4k with Ai. I've seen some people on the internet using CapCut for this as a free tool, but CapCut doesn't work for me, because I always get a error message telling me that something went wrong. So are there any other Free AI tools to Upscale Videos?

Top answer

1 of 1

I'm the guy that wrote https://free.upscaler.video . I get why you're looking for a free upscaler tool, but as an explanation, AI Upscaling requires AI, and that usually requires GPUs, and because of the AI boom, GPUs are at a premium and crazy expensive. Add on top of that the fact that video takes a lot of processing power - if you've ever tried rendering a 1 hour video with Adobe Premeire Pro you'd understand. I would guess that a regular person who just wants a video upscaled would be looking at demos of AI upscaling that are super high quality. To obtain that level of quality, you need to do a lot of AI processing and you either need a GPU yourself and then use something like Topaz, or (2) You can use a cloud service, upload your video and get it upscaled. If I wanted to run a cloud service to upscale a 1080p movie to 4k, it'd cost me several dollars in server costs just for that one video. My free upscaling tool gets ~20,000 visitors a month, and while I don't track information about the videos (you can see exactly what I am tracking, I shared the source code here: https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler/ ). , if each person had an hour long 1080p video, I'd be spending $1M per year out of pocket just so that people can have a free upscaling tool. The idea behind free.upscaler.video was that if you can accept lower upscaling quality, you don't need a GPU, and it'll still do something (it's noticeable for like gaming videos or cartoons) but because it's happening on your computer, it's fast and it's free and I don't ask anyone to sign in. The downside is, the quality isn't very good compared to like Topaz. But again, if I wanted to give good upscaling quality for free, why would I spend hundreds of thousands in my own pocket for nothing. I have a family, and I'm also running my own startup and this was like a side project for me. I'm also likely one of the few people that's actually spent time on low-level AI upscaling processing to make it faster/cheaper/usable without a GPU, but that same skillset has far more valuable applications ( https://medium.com/vectorly/building-a-more-efficient-background-segmentation-model-than-google-74ecd17392d5 ) and I sold my last company during the pandemic because we had ultra-efficient AI software that we were selling to video conferencing companies ( https://medium.com/vectorly/how-vectorly-joined-hopin-93dffdb1acc4 ). There was literally no incentive for me to create free.upscaler.video , I did it to be nice / give back / because I knew people were looking for free upscaling software. I've thought about building a paid service alternative to free.upscaler.video that would cover the server rendering costs enough to get someone fast, good-quality no-frills upscaling, but like it'd have to be a paid service, a free + no-nonsense + good quality system would be uneconomical. As a user you don't normally view it like this because there are plenty of AI tools out there that are free and also use a lot of GPU processing, but it's not dissimilar to the compute needed for say crypto mining. If you wouldn't expect there to be free tools that just give you free crypto, no questions asked, then you can understand the economics of why there aren't that many simple, no-nonsense free AI upscaling tools even though you might feel like there should be. It's in the same category of compute as crypto-mining, but because we're so used to free AI tools, you don't view it in the same category. ----------------- Update - July 27 ----------------------- I don't know why I never checked the logs on this, but apparently the vast majority of uploads on free.upscaler.video are very short videos (under 60 seconds), I assumed most people were uploading like 30 minute or 60 minute videos. None of that changes how expensive large AI networks are computationally, to get better results you'd likey need to wait 10x the duration of your video at the minimum, but the user experience definitely depends on whether you are waiting 2 minutes for a 10 second video, vs 10 hours for a 1 hour video. Sorry if this sounds stupid or obvious, it' s precisely because I don't ask anyone to log in, and don't track anything besides the video metadata (Resolution, length) that I have no idea why people are upscaling or what people are upscaling, I don't have servers that upscale, it's all being done on your computer. My guess is that a lot of that is AI generated footage, and I can 100% understand the desire to upscale that from 720p to 4K. Because those videos are so incredibly short, I think maybe I can build some AI networks that are 100x bigger, and yeah most computers would struggle with that / it'd be pretty slow, but for people with very short videos (the majority) that is probably fine? I will train some much bigger networks and release them in free.upscaler.video , and in the open source repository that powers it https://github.com/sb2702/websr/

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reddit.com › r/stablediffusion › what is the best video upscaler besides topaz?

r/StableDiffusion on Reddit: What is the best video upscaler besides Topaz?

April 26, 2025 -

Based on my research, it seems like Topaz is the best video upscaler currently. Topaz has been around for several years now. I am wondering why there hasn't been a newcomer yet with better quality.

Is your experience the same with video upscaler software, and what is the best OS video upscaler software?

Top answer

1 of 19

Topaz has been around for years, but they haven't just lazed around since the first release. They regularly release minor and major updates. The last major version being released just last month, and that included a big new diffusion based model. That's why it's still considered the top app within the video upscaling space. It's hard for a newcomer to come into the space when Topaz already has all of the momentum and capital flowing into it. As for opensource solutions, there are various open image upscaling models like SRMD, Real-ESRGAN, etc which can be used for videos. You can usually find CLI tools designed to use these models, but it's not all that polished or newbie friendly. One of the only somewhat beginner friendly GUIs I know of for open source upscalers with video support is Waifu2x-Extension-GUI, which despite the name is not Waifu2x centered at this point. Note though that it operates under a freemium model, with some of its features locked behind a patreon unlock.

2 of 19

I just researched 10 different AI upscalers today and tested Real-ESRGAN, Nomos2, and Topaz. Here's what I found. -Topaz is the best overall. Better at not over-smoothing out skin/faces, while still adding enough detail to backgrounds/objects. Good compromise overall. It seems to know not to make blurry things sharp, not to remove detail from faces, and knows what exactly to add more detail to. -Real-ESRGAN is better than Topaz for making everything sharper including objects and backgrounds, except makes skin and faces super smooth that ruins the entire video and makes it unusable unless you want all actors to look like they have crazy Instagram filters on. I used the method of running the exe + the .param and .bin model files using Python to make it run 5 times faster than using the .pth checkpoint file with PyTorch. Using PyTorch/.pth file has a strength setting though, where you could decrease it from 1.0 to less to tone down the smoothness. -Instead of going that route, I switched to Nomos2 using the .pth checkpoint model file with PyTorch. It kept the skin/faces still very detailed and only make it about 10% smoother -- about 1 small notch worse than Topaz. Sharpness/details for background/objects were between Topaz and Real-ESRGAN except Topaz added more detail to hair. It fixed up some of the detail when you zoom all of the way in but isn't quite as smooth/detailed as Real-ESRGAN. It messed up detail with ears by making it more pixily, one small part with hair by adding more grid-like lines, and made an object that was blurry too detailed where it looked weird. All 3 also make the backgrounds and objects that are supposed to be blurry/have bokeh more detailed. Real-ESRGAN did this the most, Nomos2 did 2nd most, and Topaz did it least. This is super annoying from a filmmaking perspective, since distant objects are supposed to be blurry. I would rate them: Topaz 9/10 Nomos2 8/10 Original 6.5/10 Real-ESRGAN 4.5/10 Topaz's API is pretty expensive and Nomos2 is free, so I'm going with Nomos2. When playing back all the Topaz, Namos2, and original videos, all 3 look good to use. Sometimes the 720p original video looks better since I like certain parts to be blurry, but the upscaled ones look sharper when zoomed in or watched on a large TV. Nomos also converted it from 720p to 5k and increased the file size by 2.88x. Topax converted it from 720p to 2k (wouldn't allow 5k) and increased the file size by 2.09x.

reddit.com › r/videoediting › free, open source ai upscaler in the browser

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: Free, Open Source AI Upscaler in the Browser

November 17, 2023 -

I'm building a quick, free, no-nonsense tool for upscaling videos with AI right in the browser. There's no software to install, and no registration or sign up required - just input a video, and all the upscaling work is down on your own computer by the browser:

https://free.upscaler.video/

Demo here: https://youtu.be/wUuFJpo8Hfo

It's 100% open source, you can see the source code yourself: https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler

I couldn't charge if I wanted to, as anyone can take the source code and host it themselves.

It right now does a better on Animated content than "Real Life" video but I'm working on porting more powerful AI models into the tool.

I built it because from previous experience as a casual user who just wants to upscale a few videos you have around, it's surprisingly frustrating. There are paid tools like Topaz Labs which are excellent but also overkill for non-professional work, or open source projects like Video2X which require a bunch of setup & config.

Some new advances in the latest browsers (like Webcodecs and WebGPU) now allow websites to do much more powerful stuff than in the past, so I wouldn't suprised if more, powerful video-editing tools come out soon that are also free & browser based.

Top answer

1 of 1

Not currently working, checked latest version of chrome.

reddit.com › r/videoediting › what are some free or affordable video upscaling softwares that aren't subscription based.

What are some free or affordable video upscaling softwares that aren't subscription based. : r/VideoEditing

December 21, 2023 - Try UpscaleVideo.ai. I am the lead developer, so obviously biased, but AMA. It runs on Windows and Mac, costs less than Topaz (~5x), handles de-noising, de-blurring, 10-bit video, and outputs up to 16K resolution. It's free to download and try with a watermark, no email or signup required.

reddit.com › r/iosapps › 100% free ai photo and video upscaler app on ios called upres

r/iosapps on Reddit: 100% Free AI Photo and Video Upscaler app on iOS called UpRes

February 3, 2025 -

A really good friend of mine released a new app called UpRes that will upscale your photos (up to 16x resolution) and video (up to 4K). It is completely free with no subscription, no ads and no account needed to use. It's literally one of the few apps I've seen that is free with no strings attached. They are looking for productive feedback for improvements and thought this community could help.

It works for iPhone iPad and MacOS.

Link below:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/upres-ai-photo-video-upscaler/id6739590673?platform=iphone

reddit.com › r/asktechnology › what is a good ai upscaler?

r/AskTechnology on Reddit: What is a good ai upscaler?

April 4, 2024 -

What is a good video upscaler, I ask this because I have a movie i want to upscale because of it being 360p. Any recommendations?

Top answer

1 of 5

The one I use is Topaz Video AI . It's the best I've found.

2 of 5

If you are looking for free video upscalers, try Waifu2X Extension GUI or Video2X. They are free and open-source, however, they are only for Windows. One free online video upscaler is CapCut, but only goes up to 2x with max resolution of 4k support. Others, either online or desktop apps, requires money. Online solutions are Pixop, Nerual Love, TensorPix etc. For video upscalers for Windows and macOS, Topaz Video AI is the benchmarking product. AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI and HitPaw Video Enhancer are good alternatives. All of them costs about 300 USD. WinX Video AI/VideoProc Converter AI or Nero AI Video Upscaler is an affordable competitor.

reddit.com › r/videoediting › where i can upscale video up to 25minutes for free?

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: where i can upscale video up to 25minutes for free?

October 13, 2025 -

I need to upscale a video that have 25 minutes but every free ai upscaler has max to 3 minutes where i can upscale 25 minutes for free? i need to really do it...

Top answer

1 of 5

After effects has an effect called detail preserving upscale. It’s great up to 200% upscale. And it’s still pretty good if you go higher than that. If you have an Adobe subscription, it’s free to use. Otherwise you will need to either buy the subscription, or outsource it to someone who does.

2 of 5

Bro i am busy af or else i would have done using CapCut pro, that ai processing thingy takes a long time 😭 u gotta cut it to parts ig

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

reddit.com › r/videoediting › how to upscale videos for free?

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: How to upscale videos for free?

March 12, 2023 -

This is Interstellar on 4K - YouTube

The quality of this video is just something else and i wanted to know is there is any way i could upscale videos for free.

Top answer

1 of 8

If you mean by free software, sure there are options. But you'll spend a lot of time to do that, anyways. u can try https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN or similar tools

2 of 8

Adjust your expectations - AI upscaling isn’t going to compete with a $165m movie than was shot/scanned in 4k (or higher!) But there are free options out there: https://github.com/k4yt3x/video2x Edit: Direct link to the release page: https://github.com/k4yt3x/video2x/releases/tag/4.8.1 Click here to download it: Click here for instructions on how to use it And click here for information on the various AI models (which it calls 'algorithms') - it is important you select the one most appropriate for your content. I see you r/programmerhumor ;-)

reddit.com › r/artificial › what's the best free/open ai for upscaling/de-noise-ing vhs and home video?

r/artificial on Reddit: What's the best free/open AI for upscaling/de-noise-ing VHS and home video?

May 18, 2023 -

Working on a surprise birthday gift for my grandfather... we have lots of photos around the same time to work with.

Top answer

1 of 5

Video2X Waifu2x Extension GUI Both are for Windows. Or try Capcut. It's online free .

2 of 5

Try UpscaleVideo.ai . I am the lead developer, so obviously biased, but AMA. It runs on Windows and Mac, costs less than Topaz (~5x), handles de-noising, de-blurring, 10-bit video, and outputs up to 16K resolution. It's free to download and try with a watermark, no email or signup required.

reddit.com › r/videoediting › fast video upscaler?

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: Fast video upscaler?

December 17, 2024 -

AI upscale that is fast?

I’m using topaz for the first time and its saying 22 days so it’ll take 22 days 😂

I then only enhanced it by 2 and disabled other options it still says 3 days

So is there another software which might produce same results but is faster?

My GPU is fine so buying new one just for this doesn’t seem practical as I only need it for a couple of videos

The duration is 2hrs 40mins as it’s a movie so that might be the reason but still it’s too long

Thanks

Top answer

1 of 2

Yeahhhh that's a massive export. Shouldn't take more than a day though. Is your GPU and CPU running at 100% during the render?

2 of 2

Try to chop it up in parts before uploading to topaz then have two running at the same time

reddit.com › r/videoediting › is there a free online video upscaler to improve a low quality video?

Is there a free online video upscaler to improve a low quality video? : r/VideoEditing

October 23, 2024 - You can download and install Shutter Encoder for free to upscale your video without any limitations.

reddit.com › r/videoediting › best free video upscaler for windows.

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: Best free video upscaler for windows.

November 27, 2024 -

Are there any other decent upscalers, either than Topaz/Video2x? I'm looking for more options, Video2x is good tho. (No watermarks/free trials)

Top answer

1 of 3

There are AI upscalers in https://github.com/huggingface/safetensors format. They are free, no watermarks but you need some skill to get these models operating. You download models from there: https://huggingface.co/spaces/enzostvs/zero-gpu-spaces

2 of 3

You can give a try to Shutter Encoder which is free without any limitations. Choose a video function then from the right panel under 'Scale' choose AI x2 or x4. Paul.

reddit.com › r/software › best ai video upscaler

r/software on Reddit: Best AI video upscaler

October 12, 2024 -

Hi all, I’m wanting to upscale my Blu Ray collection to 4K. I’ve tried finding and simply purchasing titles in 4K but some have never been released in anything higher than BR 1080p.

Happy to pay a reasonable amount for software if it’s a better product. Also aware that the quality is not likely to be at the same level of true 4K releases but just looking to improve on full HD as much as possible.

I was going to try VideoProc but not sure if it is any good? Some recommendations would be appreciated.

Top answer

1 of 2

An AI upscale won't match a native 4K release, a good upscaler can enhance sharpness, details, and reduce compression artifacts. Recommended AI Upscaling Software: Topaz Video AI – One of the best AI upscalers available. It uses machine learning to upscale videos while preserving details. It’s a bit pricey but delivers excellent results. Winxvideo AI – A solid option that is easy to use and can upscale videos to 4K. It's a budget-friendly option. AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI – AI-based upscaler that improves sharpness and reduces noise. It’s a good mid-tier option. DVDFab Video Enhancer AI – Specializes in upscaling DVD and Blu-ray content while using AI to refine details. Neural.love – An online AI upscaler that can improve video resolution, though it might not be the best for long movies.

2 of 2

VideoProc can be used for free and provide nice results. Paid options include Topaz (which is the best in video upscaling, but also the most expensive one), and our own product Nero AI Video Upscaler (much more affordable and provide good results as well)

reddit.com › r/videoupscale › question: what's a good free software to upscale old videos?

r/VideoUpscale on Reddit: Question: What's A Good Free Software To Upscale Old Videos?

October 18, 2022 -

I'll be frank, I've been trying to find a decent free video enhancer for weeks to upscale some old 360/480p videos I have on an old flash drive. But I can't seem to find any that works (or one I can fully understand it's features).

I tried looking things up online, but it's either the high praised programs you need to pay for (Which things are very tight atm) or "free" programs that don't do a thing unless you pay for the full version.

I know there are programs like video2x and I tried those, but despite following a guide I didn't get the best results either.

Anyone know a good free video enhancer that can boost the quality to 1080P or at least a very cheap one?

Top answer

1 of 3

Sorry my answer is a little late/ I see you already got answers but I thought I'd share my thoughts, maybe it might still help :) To upscale videos lately I liked the Waifu2x-Extension-GUI with Real-ESRGAN for real life footage (or then Real-CUGAN for animated sources). You can just choose the "3D Real-life - Enlarge Only - Highest Quality(Slow)" preset which will use the Real-ESRGAN model to upscale. Its a free application so you can just try it out on one of your videos (or a short clip of one of your videos to not loose time) and check the results and see if its in the direction of what you are looking for or not. This post is just meant as a little suggestion/something you could try out. Hm and just to manage expectations since it might be helpful, when upscaling a lot depends on the quality of the input, i found a youtube video here called Can A.I. Tool Turn Old Video into Crispy 4K? that you might watch, he upscales an old video of his with Topaz AI. Just to show what a realistic output looks like of upscaling an older personal video. Hope this might help a bit :)

2 of 3

I ended up buying Topaz Video. Works great. I think there is a discount on black friday, which is soon

reddit.com › r/videoediting › best tools for upscaling videos?

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: Best tools for upscaling videos?

May 17, 2025 -

I'm looking to upscale A LOT of videos to 1080p, on an ongoing basis. What are the best tools to do this affordably ? Either a one time download or a web tool with unlimited upscaling.

Top answer

1 of 9

After effects has an effect called detailed preserving upscale which works great up to about 200-300 percent. I use it all the time to upscale 1080 to 4k. If you need more than that, look into some AI tools.

2 of 9

Hi, I‘m the author of FidelityFuze, a native Final Cut Pro plugin for real-time upscaling – 1080p, 4K, even 8K directly in the timeline. It might be the right tool for you! I just started a pre-launch test. If you’re interested, take a look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/finalcutpro/s/Q2SB85qGPC I‘d be interested in your exact use-case. Would be cool if you could provide more details If you want to try it, drop me a DM. :)

reddit.com › r/artificialinteligence › best video upscaler?

r/ArtificialInteligence on Reddit: Best video upscaler?

December 19, 2023 -

For free and mobile. Everything I used makes the videos look much worse and cartoony. Is AI not there yet?

Welcome to the r/ArtificialIntelligence gateway Question Discussion Guidelines Please use the following guidelines in current and future posts: Post must be greater than 100 characters - the more detail, the better. Your question might already have been answered. Use the search feature if no one is engaging in your post. AI is going to take our jobs - its been asked a lot! Discussion regarding positives and negatives about AI are allowed and encouraged. Just be respectful. Please provide links to back up your arguments. No stupid questions, unless its about AI being the beast who brings the end-times. It's not. Thanks - please let mods know if you have any questions / comments / etc I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

reddit.com › r › aiupscaling

AI Video Upscaling

June 9, 2020 - I will list all the AI video upscaling and enhancing programs that I found. They are the PAID ones. I will list the FREE and Online ones in another post.

reddit.com › r/videoediting › what are my options for upscaling video?

r/VideoEditing on Reddit: What are my options for upscaling video?

April 20, 2023 -

I’m looking to upscale a lot of video. I know Handbrake has an upscaler, but apparently that’s a bad one. I’ve been using Video2x, but even with an RTX 3080 and Ryzen 9 5900x (I’m not sure which it uses), it takes like a day and a half to upscale a 10-minute video, and I was wondering if there were faster ways to do it? Even at lower resolutions Video2x makes it look very well done. With all this ai stuff being exponentially developed, there’s no doubt other consumer-grade software for it now, right?

Edit: I haven’t tried Topaz, apparently that’s the best, but I’ve tried the free trial of other suggestions, and I find Video2x to be by far the best option anyway. If I don’t like the speed I can switch to a faster algorithm. It’s all open source and free, so consumer upscalers really need to up their game.

Top answer

1 of 6

If you want to upscale a lot of content use topaz, it will save you a lot of pain and the previews make it easy to tune. You want to make sure you actually need to upscale all those videos now though since the tech is continuing to improve (look up RTX VSR for example) and it’s only a matter of time before live up scaling will be better than the crushing time sink that deferred scaling is today. You’ll kick yourself if you spend weeks or months upscaling content you aren’t using when a better system comes along

2 of 6

Topaz is supposed to be pretty good but I haven't used it myself.

reddit.com › r/datahoarder › video ai upscaling open source options?

r/DataHoarder on Reddit: Video AI upscaling open source options?

October 10, 2024 -

Are there any open source options for this? I've managed to grab the whole of Voyager (I have the DVDs already) that someone has AI upscaled. I'd like to do the same with the TV series Bottom but unsure how to go. I see DVDFab claim they can do it but that's paid for software. Was looking for an opensource alternative if possible.

Top answer

1 of 9

If you even cant find the open source tools, whole thing is not for you. Learning curve is not easy. I know its harsh reply, but it is what it is. Its very hard to get decent outcome. 99% upscales circulating are made with Topaz and are complete dogshit, denoised to death and oversharpened.

2 of 9

I've seen quite a few releases that are made with ESRGAN that were very good quality. However at this time, it seems rather complicated to set up and use, asides from the necessary trials to reach optimal results. I've personally used Topaz Video AI (not open source/free, but easy to use) for some projects, but came to the conclusion that it's not worth it at this point since the upscaling applications are evolving quite fast and the moment you're done with a project, you can basically start over with a newer model and get better results. I'll leave it to the professionals for now.