7 Best AI Video Upscalers in 2026

The best AI video upscaler depends on your source. For AI clips and fast 4K exports, use Higgsfield, Adobe Firefly or Runway. For old or noisy footage, use Topaz Video; to upscale inside an edit, DaVinci Resolve Studio. For quick social edits, use CapCut; for home restoration on a desktop, HitPaw VikPea. No upscaler turns 480p into true 4K detail.

Key Takeaways

• Higgsfield gives four video upscale models in one place: FLUX.3 Upscale, Topaz Starlight Precise, ByteDance Upscale (up to 8K) and Topaz Video.
• Topaz Video and Adobe Firefly both offer a Precise mode that restores the original footage and a Creative mode that adds new detail, so check faces and on-screen text after a Creative run.
• Adobe Firefly upscales uploaded MP4 clips of 5 to 20 seconds, and Runway’s Upscale Video app takes uploaded videos of up to 40 seconds.
• A 480p frame has about 0.4 megapixels and a 4K frame has about 8.3 megapixels, so roughly 95% of every upscaled 4K frame is new pixels made by the model.

AI Video Upscalers Compared

Prices checked on November 11, 2026. Prices and plan details may change. “Precise or generative” is taken from each vendor’s documentation; we tested only Higgsfield’s upscaler.

Tools are grouped by task: first the platforms for AI clips and fast 4K exports, then professional post-production tools, then apps for quick social edits and home restoration.

How Do You Choose an AI Video Upscaler?

The right AI video upscaler depends on three factors: how faithful the result must be, whether you need more frames per second, and how low your source resolution is. A precise upscaler keeps the original look, a creative one adds detail, and frame rate is a separate step. Start from your source resolution, not from the highest resolution the tool offers.

Should You Use a Precise or a Generative Upscaler?

Use a precise mode when faces, logos and on-screen text must stay as they were; use a creative mode only when a sharper look matters more than accuracy. Adobe describes the difference directly: “Precise mode focuses on accurate restoration of original footage,” while “Creative mode can add richer detail for more visual impact.”

Because a creative mode adds detail that was not in the source, check faces and text after every run: the face should still look like the same person, and every word on screen should match the source.

When Do You Need 60 fps?

You need 60 fps only when a client or platform asks for it or when you plan to slow the clip down; otherwise keep the source frame rate. Raising the frame rate means the tool creates new in-between frames, which is a separate task from upscaling.

• Topaz Video handles it with separate frame interpolation models (Apollo, Chronos, Aion) and a Slow Motion mode.
• Runway has a separate Enhance Frame Rate tool beneath any generation in Tool mode, and the Runway API offers it too.
• On Higgsfield, ByteDance Upscale exports at 30 or 60 fps, and anything above 30 fps doubles the cost. Topaz Starlight Precise and Topaz Video export at the original frame rate or at 24, 30, 60 or 120 fps.
• HitPaw VikPea lists frame interpolation up to 60 fps.

Why Won’t 480p Become True 4K?

A 480p video does not hold enough detail for real 4K, so the upscaler has to invent most of it. An 854 × 480 frame has about 0.4 megapixels; a 3840 × 2160 frame has about 8.3 megapixels, roughly 20 times more. About 95% of each 4K frame is new pixels.

Higgsfield’s Help Center also warns that “extremely low resolution or heavily compressed source videos may not upscale successfully.” For a 480p source, compare a 4K upscale with a 1080p or 2K one on a short piece before you pay for the full clip.

What We Tested

We upscaled one 480p AI-generated clip on Higgsfield four times, with two ByteDance Upscale presets and both FLUX.3 settings, Precise and Creative, and compared crops of the face and the on-screen text. ByteDance Upscale went to 4K; FLUX.3 Upscale went to 2K, its highest option for a 480p source. We did not run this test in the other six tools; their sections are based on each vendor’s documentation.

All four runs kept the letters on the truck unchanged. The difference was in the face: both ByteDance Upscale presets stayed closest to the source, FLUX.3 Precise turned soft dots of face glitter into sharp colored gems, and FLUX.3 Creative added lashes, skin texture and loose hair strands that the 480p frame did not show.

Source: an 8-second 854 × 480 clip at 24 fps, generated with Seedance 2.5 on Higgsfield. Both ByteDance Upscale outputs checked with ffprobe: 3840 × 2160 at 30 fps, the lowest frame rate ByteDance Upscale offers. Both FLUX.3 Upscale outputs: 2562 × 1440 at 24 fps, the source frame rate. Credits are the regular price shown on the Generate button; your account may show a lower price. Dollar costs use $15 for 200 credits ($0.075 a credit). Test run on November 11, 2026.

The 480p source clip, before any upscaling

The four upscales. Top row: ByteDance Upscale with the AIGC and Common presets. Bottom row: FLUX.3 Upscale set to Precise and Creative.

Higgsfield: Best for AI Clips and Mixed Sources

Higgsfield is a generative platform for creative production, with 35+ frontier models for generating images and turning them into video scenes. Its Upscale tool sits under Video → Edit Video, works on uploads and Higgsfield generations, and has four video models.

Best for: editors and creators who upscale AI clips, phone footage and old recordings in the same workspace.

Higgsfield describes FLUX.3 Upscale as a way to “preserve the original or creatively enhance detail,” with a Precise or Creative setting, an optional prompt and output up to 4K; for our 480p clip, the highest option was 2K. Topaz Starlight Precise is built to recover natural detail in faces, textures and text. ByteDance Upscale goes up to 8K, accepts videos of up to 600 seconds and has five scene presets, including AIGC for AI-generated video and Old Film for vintage footage. Topaz Video adds Topaz presets for low- to medium-quality footage. Double Shots, a Taipei studio, generated music-video shots on Higgsfield and finished selected ones with Topaz upscaling there.

On Higgsfield, credits are billed per upscale, and failed upscales return their credits automatically.

Limits to know: Higgsfield upscaling needs a paid plan, FLUX.3 Upscale takes videos of up to 20 seconds, frame rates above 30 fps on ByteDance Upscale double the cost, and very low-resolution or heavily compressed sources may fail.

Adobe Firefly: Best for Short Clips in an Adobe Workflow

Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s generative AI app for images and video. Its video upscaler, powered by Topaz Astra, works on clips generated in Firefly and on videos you upload, and it is also available on Firefly Boards.

Best for: designers and marketers who already work in Adobe and need a short clip in 1080p or 4K.

You open Video, choose Upscale video, add a file from your device or Adobe cloud storage, and pick a mode. Precise mode comes with Speed or Quality settings, and Creative mode comes with Subtle or Bold detail. Output is 1080p or 4K.

Upscaling uses generative credits, and Adobe shows the cost next to the Generate button instead of listing it. Firefly Standard, the cheapest paid plan, costs $9.99 a month with 2,000 credits.

Limits to know: uploads must be MP4, under 200 MB and 5 to 20 seconds long, so longer videos need to be cut into pieces. Adobe does not list frame rate options for the upscaler.

Runway: Best for Runway Generations and Short Uploads

Runway is a generative video platform with its own models, an editor and a set of apps. Its generations come out in 720p and can be upscaled to 4K from the finished clip, and a separate Upscale Video app handles videos made elsewhere.

Best for: creators who already generate in Runway and want 4K versions of their clips.

Runway’s Help Center says you can “upscale uploaded videos (up to 40 seconds) not generated in Runway” with the Upscale Video app. Exporting a 4K project from the Video Editor does not upscale footage that is not already 4K.

The Standard plan at $15 a month with 625 credits includes 4K upscaling; Pro and Max list unlimited 4K video upscaling. The free plan, with 125 one-time credits, does not list upscaling. For developers, the Runway API offers the Magnific Video Upscaler from $0.007 per frame, with inputs of up to 30 seconds.

Limits to know: the 40-second cap on uploads, and Runway does not say whether the app upscaler is precise or creative. An upscaled video keeps the frame rate of the source.

Topaz Video: Best for Old, Noisy and Compressed Footage

Topaz Video is Topaz Labs’ video enhancement app for Mac and Windows, with a web version, Topaz for Web. It includes models for upscaling, denoising, face recovery and frame interpolation.

Best for: editors restoring old, noisy, interlaced or heavily compressed footage, and anyone upscaling AI video who needs a precise mode. Film editor Eric Hsiao works this way: for one spec ad, he generated his approved takes at 480p and then upscaled them in Topaz Video AI.

The web app shows five modes: Precise Upscale, Creative Upscale, Frame Interpolation, Slow Motion and SDR To HDR. Models include Proteus for noise and compression artifacts, Iris for faces and fine details, Starlight, a diffusion upscaler, and Starlight Precise 2.6, built to upscale AI-generated footage to 4K.

Topaz for Web - Video costs $29 a month with 200 cloud video credits. In our check of the web app on November 10, 2026, a 10-second clip at 4K and 24 fps with Starlight Precise 2.6 cost about 17 credits. The Topaz Video desktop plan costs $59 a month with unlimited local rendering.

Limits to know: the Topaz Video desktop app needs an M-series Mac with 16 GB of RAM or a Windows PC with 6 GB of VRAM, and trial exports carry a watermark.

DaVinci Resolve Studio: Best for Upscaling Inside an Edit

DaVinci Resolve Studio is Blackmagic Design’s paid editing, color and finishing software. Its Super Scale feature runs on the DaVinci Neural Engine and upscales clips inside the Resolve project, so there is no export to a separate app.

Best for: editors and colorists who finish projects in Resolve and need to place HD footage in a 4K or 8K timeline.

Blackmagic describes Super Scale as “high quality image uprezzing so you can create 4K and 8K images from HD sources.” Version 21 adds AI UltraSharpen, which Blackmagic recommends for sharpening upscaled footage. Speed Warp retiming with optical flow creates smooth slow motion.

Blackmagic sells DaVinci Resolve Studio as a license and lists no subscription for it. The free version of DaVinci Resolve does not list Super Scale among its features and works up to Ultra HD at 60 fps; Studio supports up to 32K at 120 fps.

Limits to know: Super Scale is a Studio feature, Blackmagic does not describe it as precise or creative, and it is built into Resolve, so it fits editors who already work there.

CapCut: Best for Quick Social Edits

CapCut is a video editor built for short social videos. Its AI video upscaler sits inside CapCut Desktop, and CapCut says the upscaling runs on the Dreamina Seedance 2.5 model.

Best for: social editors who already cut short videos in CapCut and want a sharper export.

In CapCut Desktop, you select a clip, open Video, then Basic, and turn on Enhance quality. Output options are HD, UHD or 4K. The upscale happens in the same project as the edit, captions and music. For smoother motion, CapCut Desktop also has Optical flow, which generates intermediate frames.

CapCut has a free plan, and CapCut Pro costs $19.99 a month.

Limits to know: Enhance quality and Optical flow are desktop features. In our check of the CapCut web editor on November 11, 2026, neither appeared, and Reduce image noise and Remove flicker were marked as paid. CapCut does not list frame rate options or a clip length limit for the upscaler, or say whether the Seedance 2.5 upscale is precise or creative.

HitPaw VikPea: Best for Home Restoration on a Desktop

HitPaw VikPea is a video enhancement app for Windows and Mac, with online, iOS and Android versions. It bundles restoration models, frame interpolation, stabilization and colorizing, and it also includes an AI video generator.

Best for: home users and small teams who restore family videos and old recordings on a desktop.

HitPaw lists models such as Portrait, General Restoration, UHD Restoration, Video Quality Repair, Low-light Enhancement, Color Enhancement, Frame Interpolation and Stabilize, plus SDR to HDR. Upscaling goes up to 8K, and frame interpolation raises the frame rate up to 60 fps.

The monthly license costs $53.99, and HitPaw also sells yearly and perpetual licenses. Some models allow three free previews.

Limits to know: the free license “only supports preview,” so exporting needs a paid license. HitPaw’s own pages give both 60 fps and 120 fps for frame interpolation. HitPaw does not label which models are precise and which are generative.

Where Else Can You Use Topaz Video Models?

Topaz video models run in three of the seven tools: Topaz Video itself, Higgsfield and Adobe Firefly. Runway’s pricing page also lists a Topaz model, Topaz AI Upscale, on its Pro and Max plans. The model family is the same, but each tool offers a different set of models, different limits and a different way to pay.

Choose Higgsfield if you generate clips there, or if you want to compare a Topaz preset with FLUX.3 Upscale or ByteDance Upscale on the same video without switching apps. Choose the standalone Topaz Video app for high volume, local rendering and the newest Topaz models. Choose Firefly for short clips of up to 20 seconds inside an Adobe workflow.

How to Upscale a Video to 4K

Upscale in five steps: check the source, set the resolution and frame rate, pick a preset, test 5 to 10 seconds, then check faces and text. The test run costs a fraction of the full clip and shows the problems early.

1. Check the source. Note its resolution, frame rate and length, and whether it is old footage, an AI clip or a phone video. Export it as MP4 with H.264 if the tool asks for it.
2. Set resolution and frame rate. Choose 4K only if a client or platform asks for it; for a 480p source, compare against 1080p or 2K. Keep the source frame rate unless you need 60 fps.
3. Pick a preset that matches the source. Use a precise mode for faces and text, for example FLUX.3 Upscale set to Precise on Higgsfield, or Precise mode in Adobe Firefly. For generated clips, use an AI-video option such as Starlight Precise or the AIGC preset in ByteDance Upscale. For archival footage, use an old-film preset such as Old Film in ByteDance Upscale.
4. Run a 5 to 10 second test. Pick the hardest part: a close-up, fast motion or a sign. Check the credit cost before the full run.
5. Check faces and text. Compare crops of the source and the result at 100% zoom. If a face changes or a word is misspelled, switch to a precise mode or lower the target resolution.

What About Old Film?

For scratched, flickering or faded film, upscaling is only one step; restoration also covers denoising, deflickering, stabilization and color. Higgsfield’s ByteDance Upscale has an old film preset, and Topaz Video and HitPaw VikPea include restoration models. For the full process, see our guide to AI video restoration.

Which AI Video Upscaler Fits Your Source?

The AI video upscaler that fits depends on your source and on how faithful the result must be. A precise mode is the safe default for people and text, and a 480p source gains sharpness, but most of its 4K detail is generated.

• AI clips and mixed sources in one place: Higgsfield.
• Short clips in an Adobe workflow: Adobe Firefly.
• Runway generations and uploads up to 40 seconds: Runway.
• Old, noisy or compressed footage: Topaz Video.
• Upscaling inside an edit: DaVinci Resolve Studio.
• Quick social edits: CapCut.
• Home restoration on a desktop: HitPaw VikPea.