free ai video upscaler reddit

reddit.com › r › software › comments › 1ix3p0j › free_ai_video_upscaler

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/ Answer from sam_bha on reddit.com

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

7

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/

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

9

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

2 of 7

1

Topaz 100%

Videos

reddit.com

r/StableDiffusion on Reddit: One-step 4K video upscaling and beyond ...

July 11, 2025

reddit.com

r/PostAI on Reddit: WinXVideo AI : Upscale your Videos upto 8K ...

September 21, 2024

17:21

YouTube

Best Magnific Ai Alternative (No Subscription) | AI Image Upscaler ...

August 6, 2024

2.88K

reddit.com

r/upscaling on Reddit: The 5 Best AI Video Upscaling Software (2024)

November 5, 2023

reddit.com

r/tutorials on Reddit: [VIDEO] Create REALISTIC VFX using AI for FREE

July 14, 2022

View all

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 16, 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

1

Not currently working, checked latest version of chrome.

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

3

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

2

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

reddit.com › r/stablediffusion › are there any free or local ai video upscalers out there??

r/StableDiffusion on Reddit: Are there any free or local AI Video Upscalers out there??

August 2, 2025 -

Are there any free or local AI Video Upscalers out there??

Top answer

1 of 3

4

You can check out: SeedVR2

2 of 3

2

I don't know about free upscalers but there are many local ones. I'm using this one from Nero AI

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 25, 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

16

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

14

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/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/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

6

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

4

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 ;-)

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

reddit.com › r › aiupscaling

AI Video Upscaling

June 9, 2020 - And in that case, is there any free or inexpensive software that runs on Windows and is highly recommended for this purpose? ... I made ports of this Good & User Friendly upscaler for Videos & Images, so that it has more accessibility for everyone's usage! https://github.com/Nick088Official/Real-ESRGAN_Pytorch/, there's also the Hugging Face Space that currently runs on Zero GPU (A100), basically flash! Revolutionize Your Videos with These Mind-Blowing AI Video Enhancers[Desktop]

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

1

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

2 of 5

1

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/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

3

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

3

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)

Upscaler

free.upscaler.video

Free AI Video & Image Upscaler - No Signup, 100% Client-Side & Private

This tool, in contrast, is designed to be quick, fast, free, simple and easy to use. It is based on my WebSR project, which is an open-source WebSDK for applying real-time super resolution to videos on the web. It works by porting several open source AI Upscaling algorithms like Anime4K and RealESRGAN into WebGPU.

reddit.com › r/stablediffusion › how to upscale videos with ai for free (stable diffusion tutorial)

r/StableDiffusion on Reddit: How To Upscale Videos with AI for FREE (Stable Diffusion Tutorial)

November 5, 2023 - Open-source single-pass video upscaling that preserves temporal consistency - A free Topaz/ESRGAN alternative that doesn't flicker ... I just found one of my first attempts with "AI Video" from 2022 on a USB stick (I think this was made with Deforum)

reddit.com › r/software › looking for ai video upscaler that works well on old home videos

r/software on Reddit: Looking for AI Video Upscaler That Works Well on Old Home Videos

August 14, 2025 -

Hey everyone, I’m trying to help my dad find a good tool for some old home videos. He recently retired and started going through a bunch of old footage we have at home—most of it’s in 480p or 720p from years ago—and we’d love to make it look better, maybe even upscale it to 4K if possible.

I know it’s not gonna turn into real 4K, but if we can make it sharper and nicer to watch together, that’d be great. I’m happy to pay for something if it actually works and keeps the videos looking natural.

I’ve seen options like Topaz and other, but I’m not sure what’s best for older footage with mixed lighting and a bit of motion blur. Any recommendations would be really appreciated.

Top answer

1 of 2

4

Topaz Video AI is the best option. If you are on Windows, with a Nvidia GPU with over 8GB RAM, make sure you try Starlight Mini. It's impressive.

2 of 2

1

If you’re looking to upscale old home videos with AI, check out Media io. It’s browser-based, user-friendly, and works well for bringing older clips up to higher quality with less fuss. Upload the video, choose the upscaling settings, and you’re all set to breathe new life into your footage.

Imgupscaler

imgupscaler.ai › video-enhancer

Free AI Video Enhancer – Enhance Video Quality Online

Instantly enhance video quality and upscale footage to 4K. No settings, sliders, or filters—just automatic optimization. The AI adjusts based on video type for the best possible output. Delivers studio-level clarity suitable for films, marketing, and social content. Get top-tier video enhancement at a price that won’t break the bank, with a free ...

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

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

October 9, 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

18

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

12

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.

reddit.com › r/vr180film › best ai software to upscale/remaster old vr180 videos?

r/VR180Film on Reddit: Best AI software to upscale/remaster old VR180 videos?

December 3, 2024 -

I know Topaz is a high profile AI software but are there others? Which is the best?

I'm looking at upscaling video recorded from 2015-2018, so going from 3K to 6K, maybe higher. I'm not expecting miracles but I've seen some adult VR remasters done at this level and some look great.

Is anyone involved in this already or have good knowledge about the process?

Top answer

1 of 6

3

What’s wrong with using Topaz?

2 of 6

3

UpscaleVideo.ai - I'm the lead developer, AMA

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/sideproject › i created a free ai image upscaler

r/SideProject on Reddit: I created a free AI image upscaler

September 3, 2024 -

because most of them that already exist are about like this:

you have to navigate through 5 different extremly slow loading pages to sign up (so that they can spam your email). Once you finally submitted your image to be upscaled, they will ask you to pay monthly to download the image. and many do not even support large images.

So I created this free alternative. It is slow because it is free. But the results are great! And you do not need to sign up, no hidden newsletter & no subscriptions.

I launched it today on producthunt - it would be nice if you leave a review & upvote if you like it: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/free-ai-image-upscaling