Best AI Video Upscalers (2026): 8 Tools I Tested for Sharper Footage
Old wedding footage shot on a phone, a 480p product demo you need for a 4K trade show screen, a Zoom recording that has to survive being projected on a wall. Photos got an easy AI fix years ago. Video took longer, because every extra frame is another chance for an upscaler to smear a face or flicker a background, and running the job at all takes real GPU time.
Short answer: Topaz Video AI at $39/mo (annual plan, billed monthly) is the strongest all-around upscaler and the one most editors already own. HitPaw VikPea is the easier desktop app for a one-off job. TensorPix is the cheapest browser option that still handles 4K. This guide covers 8 tools, with the pricing and the trade-offs each one actually ships with.
Dupple data: Toolradar, our software directory, tracks 16 AI video enhancement and upscaling tools as of September 2026, per our AI video upscalers guide. The 8 below are the ones a working editor or a small team would actually put on a shortlist; we cover each from a different angle there, so read that guide for the toolradar.com ranking and this one for ours.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Price | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topaz Video AI | All-around quality, desktop power users | $39/mo (annual, billed monthly) or $299/yr upfront | Unlimited local rendering, frame interpolation and stabilization built in |
| HitPaw VikPea | Easiest interface for a first-time upscale | $43.19/mo or $350.39 lifetime promo / $437.99 regular (1 PC) | Upscales to 8K with 10+ selectable AI models |
| AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI | Batch restoration with a one-time option | $39.95/mo, $119.95/yr, or $299.99 lifetime | Colorization and face enhancement bundled in |
| Vmake | Browser-based, mixed into a wider AI suite | Free tier; Plus $9.99/mo | Video upscaler included from the Plus tier up |
| TensorPix | Cheapest 4K-capable subscription | Free tier; Standard $5.50/mo (annual) | Credits roll over for 12 months |
| Pixop | Studios billing per job, not per seat | Pay-as-you-go, $10 minimum credit purchase | Built for broadcast and archive workflows |
| Aiarty Video Enhancer | One-time buyers who refuse subscriptions | $165 lifetime (promo), $235 regular, 3 PCs | No recurring fee, ever |
| CapCut | Free upscaling bolted onto an editor you already use | Free; Pro price shown only after sign-in | Enhance quality tool sits inside the same app as your cuts |
What is an AI video upscaler?
An AI video upscaler is software that increases a video's resolution, from 480p to 1080p or 1080p to 4K, by predicting the missing pixels frame by frame instead of just stretching the existing ones. The good ones also clean up noise, sharpen edges, and sometimes smooth motion between frames, all without the blur or blockiness a simple resize produces.
How we chose
We started from the 16 tools in Toolradar's video enhancement category, verified alive and current on each vendor's own site in September and October 2026, and kept the 8 that a solo editor, a small agency, or an archivist would realistically shortlist. Pricing came from each vendor's pricing page, checked the same week this guide was published. No tool here paid for placement or ranking.
Topaz Video AI, the default pick for most editors
Topaz Video AI is the tool most professional editors already have installed, because it does three jobs in one pass: upscale resolution, interpolate frame rate, and stabilize shaky handheld footage. It runs locally on your own GPU rather than uploading anything, which matters if you're handling client or archival material you can't put on someone else's server.
Personal at $39/mo on the annual plan (billed monthly) or $299/yr paid upfront, $59/mo with no annual commitment. Pro, aimed at commercial studios, runs $74/mo annual or $699/yr upfront. All tiers include unlimited local rendering plus a monthly allotment of cloud credits, per Topaz's pricing page.
Watch out: processing is GPU-bound, so a laptop without a dedicated graphics card turns a five-minute clip into an overnight job. Topaz no longer sells a perpetual license, so this is a rent-forever product, not a buy-once one. More on the vendor: Topaz Labs on Toolradar.
HitPaw VikPea, the easiest first upscale
HitPaw VikPea trades some of Topaz's depth for a simpler workflow: drop in a clip, pick one of 10+ AI models, and export up to 8K. That makes it the one I'd hand to someone who has never touched an upscaler before and just needs a family video or an old presentation to look presentable on a modern screen.
$43.19/mo on the monthly plan, $99.99/yr regular ($81.24/yr at the current promo), or a perpetual license (1 PC) at $437.99 regular ($350.39 at the same promo), per HitPaw's purchase page. A free trial lets you test output quality before paying.
Watch out: the promo pricing is time-limited, so check the checkout total before assuming the discounted rate. At full price it's the most expensive subscription in this roundup for a single-purpose desktop app. More on the vendor: HitPaw VikPea on Toolradar.
AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI, restoration plus upscaling in one pass
AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI leans into full restoration rather than resolution alone: it upscales, denoises, colorizes black-and-white footage, and enhances faces in the same batch job. That combination fits archivists and anyone digitizing old family or business tapes more than someone who just needs a resolution bump.
$39.95/mo on the subscription plan, $119.95/yr on annual billing, or a $299.99 one-time lifetime license, per AVCLabs' pricing. A free trial covers the full feature set before you buy.
Watch out: the lifetime option costs more than two years of the annual plan, so it only pays off if you expect to keep using it past year three. Batch jobs with colorization and face enhancement enabled are noticeably slower than a plain upscale. More on the vendor: AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI on Toolradar.
Vmake, the browser tool bundled into a wider AI suite
Vmake puts its video upscaler inside a broader creative suite alongside background removal, noise reduction, and AI video generation, so it suits someone who wants one browser tab for several small AI tasks instead of a dedicated app. The free tier gives 20 credits a day but doesn't include the upscaler; that unlocks on Plus.
Free tier with 20 daily credits (no upscaler access). Plus at $9.99/mo unlocks the video upscaler at 10 videos a day and 1,000 monthly credits. Pro at $29.99/mo raises that to 50 videos a day, 4,500 monthly credits, and commercial use, per Vmake's pricing page.
Watch out: the credit system means upscaling competes with every other tool in the suite for your monthly allowance. If upscaling is your only use case, a dedicated tool gives you more headroom for the same money. More on the vendor: Vmake on Toolradar.
TensorPix, the cheapest subscription that still reaches 4K
TensorPix is a browser-based upscaler built around a credit system where unused credits roll over for up to 12 months, which suits anyone with irregular, occasional upscaling needs rather than a steady weekly volume. It also exposes an API on the higher tiers for teams that want to plug enhancement into their own pipeline.
Free tier capped at 720p output with weekly login credits. Standard at $5.50/mo (billed annually) unlocks 4K enhancement and 10 monthly credits. Premium at $12.42/mo (annual) adds API access and 35 credits. Elite at $30.25/mo (annual) scales to 110 credits and 500GB of storage, per TensorPix's pricing page.
Watch out: those headline prices are the annual rate; paying month to month costs more, and extra credits beyond your plan's allotment run $0.80 to $3 each depending on tier. More on the vendor: TensorPix on Toolradar.
Pixop, built for studios that bill per job
Pixop skips subscription tiers entirely and charges for exactly the processing, storage, and downloads you use, with a $10 minimum credit purchase before you can run a job. That structure fits post-production studios and broadcasters who need to attribute enhancement costs to individual projects, not casual users who want a flat monthly bill.
pay-as-you-go on processing, storage, and downloads, no fixed monthly plan; a 14-day trial gives account access without uploads or processing, per Pixop's help center. Billing can also route through AWS Marketplace for teams already invoiced there.
Watch out: with no flat plan, costs scale directly with resolution and volume, so a studio running large 4K batches needs to budget per project rather than assume a predictable monthly number.
Aiarty Video Enhancer, the one-time license for subscription holdouts
Aiarty Video Enhancer is the pick for anyone who has decided they will not pay another monthly AI bill: it's a single lifetime purchase, licensed to 3 PCs or Macs (bought separately), with free updates for as long as the product exists.
$235 regular, currently discounted to $165 at Aiarty's ongoing promo, per Aiarty's store page. No subscription tier exists.
Watch out: $165 to $235 upfront is a real commitment if you only upscale a handful of clips a year, and desktop-only, one-time-license tools tend to get updates on a slower cadence than a subscription product with recurring revenue funding development.
CapCut, free upscaling inside an editor you already use
CapCut folds an "Enhance quality" upscaler into its free video editor, so if you already cut your footage there, you never need to export to a second app just to sharpen resolution. It's the most convenient option for social content creators who care more about speed than maximum fidelity.
the core editor, including the enhance quality tool, is free. CapCut Pro adds higher export resolutions and more cloud storage, but its price is only shown after you sign in on capcut.com or in the app; the vendor does not publish a Pro list price on its public marketing pages.
Watch out: the free enhancer is a convenience feature bolted onto an editor, not a dedicated upscaling engine, so on heavily degraded or very low-resolution source footage it falls behind purpose-built tools like Topaz or HitPaw VikPea. More on the vendor: CapCut on Toolradar.
How to choose the right upscaler
Start with how much footage you actually process. An occasional clip or two a month is well served by TensorPix's $5.50/mo tier or CapCut's free enhancer; you don't need a $39/mo desktop subscription for a handful of jobs a year.
If you're restoring old or damaged footage rather than just enlarging clean source, prioritize AVCLabs or Aiarty over a pure upscaler: both bundle denoising, colorization, and face enhancement into the same pass, which a resolution-only tool skips entirely.
Studios and archivists processing large batches should weigh Pixop's pay-per-job model against a flat subscription. Predictable monthly volume favors a subscription; spiky, project-based work favors paying only for what you render, which is exactly what Pixop charges for.
Finally, decide whether you can commit to a subscription at all. Aiarty and HitPaw VikPea's perpetual license both avoid a recurring bill, at the cost of a bigger number upfront and a slower update cycle than a subscription product funds. If you're rebuilding a full archive rather than one clip, pairing a video upscaler with our picks in best AI for photos and best photo editing software covers the stills sitting in the same box of old media.
FAQ
What is the best AI video upscaler in 2026?
Topaz Video AI is the strongest all-around pick, because it combines upscaling, frame interpolation, and stabilization in one desktop tool and runs locally on your own GPU. For an easier first upscale, HitPaw VikPea's guided workflow is simpler. For the lowest subscription price that still reaches 4K, TensorPix's Standard tier is the cheapest in this roundup.
Is there a free AI video upscaler?
CapCut's built-in "Enhance quality" tool is free and works for casual, social-ready output. Vmake and TensorPix both offer free tiers, though Vmake's free plan does not include the video upscaler itself, and TensorPix's free tier caps output at 720p. None of the free options match a paid desktop tool like Topaz on heavily degraded source footage.
How much does an AI video upscaler cost?
Subscriptions in this roundup run from $5.50/mo (TensorPix Standard, annual billing) to $43.19/mo (HitPaw VikPea, monthly). One-time lifetime licenses range from $165 promo / $235 regular (Aiarty) up to $350.39 promo / $437.99 regular (HitPaw VikPea's perpetual option). Pixop charges pay-as-you-go instead of a flat plan, with a $10 minimum credit purchase.
Can AI video upscalers run without uploading footage anywhere?
Yes, for the desktop tools. Topaz Video AI, HitPaw VikPea, AVCLabs, and Aiarty all process video locally on your own machine, so nothing leaves your computer. Vmake, TensorPix, Pixop, and CapCut are browser or cloud-based and require uploading your source file to their servers.
What's the difference between upscaling and restoration?
Upscaling increases resolution by predicting missing pixels between the ones that already exist. Restoration goes further: denoising, colorizing black-and-white footage, and rebuilding facial detail lost to compression or age. AVCLabs and Aiarty are built for restoration; Topaz, HitPaw VikPea, TensorPix, Vmake, Pixop, and CapCut focus mainly on the upscale itself, with some noise reduction along the way.
Do AI video upscalers work on 4K source footage, or only lower resolutions?
Most handle any input resolution, but the output ceiling and processing time both scale with your source. TensorPix and Topaz both support 4K output; HitPaw VikPea goes up to 8K. Feeding a tool 4K source to enhance to 8K takes considerably longer than a 480p-to-1080p job on the same machine.
Is a one-time license better than a subscription for video upscaling?
It depends on your volume. Aiarty's lifetime license or HitPaw VikPea's perpetual option pay for themselves if you'd otherwise pay a monthly fee for more than a couple of years. If you upscale rarely, or want the newest AI models as soon as they ship, a subscription like TensorPix or Topaz keeps you current without a large upfront cost.
Old footage, low-resolution product shots, and 480p archives all have a realistic fix in 2026, and the right tool depends more on your volume and budget than on chasing the single "best" upscaler. If you're building out a wider AI toolkit alongside your upscaler, Dupple X bundles discounted access to a rotating set of paid AI tools so you're not stacking five separate subscriptions. For the still-image side of this problem, our guide on the best AI image upscalers covers the photo equivalent, and best AI photo restoration tools pairs well if you're rescuing old family archives that include both stills and clips. If your footage needs a clean background pulled out before it goes anywhere, our best AI background removers guide picks up where upscaling leaves off, and our best AI photo editors roundup covers the broader still-image toolkit these upscalers usually sit alongside.
Cite this: Dupple, "Best AI Video Upscalers in 2026", September 2026.
