Free · Images · 5 of 8 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Free AI tools to upscale & restore images
Upscayl is the strongest tool to upscale & restore images you can use without paying, at 77/100. What you get for nothing: free. 5 of the 8 tools tracked for this job have a free tier, an open-source licence, or are free outright. It is also the top-ranked tool for this job overall, free or not.
Same evidence score as the ranking — GitHub stars, Hacker News mentions, release activity, free access — recomputed nightly, never sold. See all 8 tools to upscale & restore images.
Top 3
evidence / 100
+ Completely free, runs offline on almost any GPU and batch-processes folders.
− Only deterministic upscaling, so it cannot add believable detail like Magnific or Gigapixel.
+ Lightweight, scriptable and the de facto upscaler inside ComfyUI, A1111 and Upscayl.
− Command-line only with no official GUI, and the models have not been updated in years.
+ One subscription gives access to Flux, Veo, Kling, Wan and others plus a strong enhancer, so you rarely need another tool.
− It is an aggregator, so model availability and pricing shift often and credits drain quickly on video.
All 5, side by side
| Tool | Score | Pricing | What you get free | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upscayl | 77 | Open source | free | windows, mac, linux |
| Real-ESRGAN | 75 | Open source | free | cli, windows, mac, linux |
| Krea | 28 | Free tier | from $10/mo | web |
 Clipdrop | 11 | Free tier | no limits published | web, api, ios, android |
 Freepik AI Suite | 10 | Free tier | from about $10/mo | web, ios, android |
A free tier counts, and so does an open-source licence you can self-host — both are in the table, so a tool that is only free for a trial is not here.
Head to head: Upscayl vs Real-ESRGAN Upscayl vs Krea Real-ESRGAN vs Krea