How to Upscale an Image 2× or 4× With AI, Right in Your Browser
Say a relative sends a 640-pixel-wide photo of your grandparents, scanned years ago and squashed by WhatsApp a few times, and asks for a print for their anniversary. Stretch it to print size in a normal editor and you get a blurry mess. Upscale image uses an AI model to rebuild detail while it enlarges, which is the difference between "blurry" and "surprisingly decent".
What's different about AI upscaling
Traditional resizing just spreads the existing pixels over a bigger area and blends them, so edges go soft. Real-ESRGAN, the model this page uses, was trained on lots of image pairs to predict what fine detail probably looked like. It sharpens edges, firms up textures and cleans compression blockiness as it enlarges.
That "probably" matters. The model invents plausible detail; it doesn't recover information that was never captured. Faces, text and fine patterns can come out slightly different from reality. For a family print, that's usually fine. For evidence, ID documents or anything where accuracy matters, it isn't.
Steps
- Add a JPG, PNG or WebP.
- Choose 2× or 4×, and a smoothing level.
- Press Enlarge. A progress line shows how far along it is, along with the final size.
- Download as PNG or JPG.
2× or 4×?
2× finishes faster and keeps the file smaller. 4× gives a much larger image. If you're printing a small photo at postcard size, 2× is often enough. For a bigger print from a tiny image, 4×.
There's a practical ceiling: a small photo gets a true 2× or 4×, but a very large photo is fitted to a size your device can realistically finish, and the page shows you that size before you download.
Smoothing
- Keep detail leaves the image as the model produced it.
- Light and Strong soften noise, which helps grainy night shots and old scans. Strong uses a second model, downloaded the first time you pick it.
Start with Keep detail. Only add smoothing if you see grain or crunchy artefacts.
First run is slower, and why
The first enlargement downloads the model (about 2.3 MB) and sets up the on-device runtime. The browser keeps both, so later images start almost immediately. If you're on a slow mobile connection, do your first run on Wi-Fi.
Practical uses
- Old family photos for printing or framing.
- Product photos from a supplier that arrive too small for your online shop.
- Thumbnails or screenshots you need to use at a larger size in a presentation.
- Profile pictures that look soft on modern high-resolution screens.
Tips
- A computer is faster than a phone. When a graphics chip is available, the page uses it.
- Crop first. Upscaling only the part you need is quicker and gives the model more of your device's budget.
- Don't upscale twice. Running 2× on a 2× result compounds the model's guesses. Go straight to 4× from the original.
- For print, a rough guide is 300 pixels per inch: a 6×4 inch print wants about 1800×1200 pixels.
Privacy and network use
The page downloads the model and runtime once and keeps them in the browser. Your photo itself, per the page, stays in the browser and the result goes straight to your downloads. As with every page on the site, there are Google ads.
FAQ
Does my photo leave my device? No, the page says the enlargement runs in the browser.
Why was the first enlargement slow? The model was downloading and initialising. After that, it's cached.
Will a big photo get a full 4×? Not always. Very large images are fitted to what the device can handle.
Which browsers work? Current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari.
Have a small photo worth saving? Give Upscale image a try.
— Alok Kumar Singh