Best AI Video Upscalers in 2026: 8 Tools Compared

Table of contents

• Quick picks
• How AI video upscaling works
• 1. Topaz Labs, best overall AI video upscaler
• 2. Runway, best for upscaling any clip in the cloud
• 3. Adobe Firefly, best for Adobe and Premiere users
• 4. KREA AI, best free daily allowance
• 5. CapCut, best free editor with an upscaler
• 6. Kapwing, best browser editor for upscaling
• 7. Canva, best for short social clips
• 8. DomoAI, best for anime video
• Comparison table
• How to choose an AI video upscaler
• FAQ

Upscaling used to mean stretching pixels and living with the blur. An AI video upscaler does something different: it predicts fine detail the source never recorded, frame by frame, so a 480p home video or a soft clip from an AI video generator can come out sharp at 4K. That is why editors, design apps and AI video platforms now all ship an upscaler of their own.

The catch is that "upscaler" now covers very different products. One is a desktop app that renders on your own graphics card. Several are cloud tools that charge credits per second of video. Some are a button inside a free editor, and one is a third-party app inside a design tool that is free for clips up to 10 seconds. This guide sorts eight of them by the job they do best, with the limits each vendor actually documents, so you know before you upload whether your clip will even fit.

Every tool below has a full review on ToolChase, and scores come from our 8-parameter methodology. We checked each upscaler on the vendor's own site in September 2026. Prices are as shown on each linked review, verified on the vendor's pricing page in September 2026 except CapCut and KREA AI, last verified in July 2026. We did not run a side-by-side quality benchmark for this guide, so the order reflects documented capability, limits and value, not a frame-by-frame shootout.

Quick picks

• Best overall: Topaz Labs, desktop and browser apps, 1080p or 4K in the browser and up to 8K on the desktop, with frame interpolation
• Best for upscaling any clip in the cloud: Runway, an Upscale Video app that outputs 4K at 2 credits per second from the Standard plan
• Best inside Adobe: Adobe Firefly, Topaz Astra upscaling to 1080p or 4K for 5 to 20 second clips, then on to Premiere
• Best free daily allowance: KREA AI, 4 free upscales every 24 hours for signed-in users, at 1x to 8x
• Best free editor: CapCut, Enhance quality to HD, UHD or 4K inside the desktop editor
• Best browser editor: Kapwing, up to 4x or 4K from uploads of up to 1440p, then edit in the same tab
• Best for 10-second social clips: Canva, a Video Upscaler app that is free for MP4 clips up to 10 seconds and 10MB
• Best for anime: DomoAI, 1080p, 2K or 4K output built around anime-style video

How AI video upscaling works

An AI video upscaler does three jobs, and the tools in this guide differ in how far they take each one.

1. Resolution. A classic resize, the kind every editor performs when you export 1080p footage at 4K, only spreads the existing pixels over a bigger frame. An AI upscaler instead predicts plausible fine detail, such as edges, textures and lettering, from patterns it learned in training. That is why a 4K export setting is not the same thing as a 4K upscaler: most editors offer the first, fewer offer the second.

2. Consistency over time. Video is a stack of frames, and detail invented separately on each frame tends to shimmer or flicker. Good video upscalers look at neighbouring frames together, so textures stay put as the camera moves. Clean, stable footage upscales best; heavy compression, motion blur and noise are where results vary most.

3. Faithful or creative. Restoration models try to reconstruct what the camera actually saw. Creative models add richer, partly invented detail, which suits AI-generated clips but can change faces, text or small objects. Adobe Firefly exposes the choice directly as Precise and Creative modes. If your footage is archival, evidential or full of faces, stay on the faithful side and check the output closely.

Most upscalers also bundle related fixes: denoising, deblurring, colour correction and frame interpolation, which adds in-between frames for smoother motion or slow motion. Topaz's browser app has an optional frame boost, and Runway includes AI frame interpolation for slow motion. When a vendor sells a "video enhancer", it usually means this bundle with upscaling at its core.

1. Topaz Labs, best overall AI video upscaler

Topaz Labs is the specialist. Its Topaz Video desktop app for Mac and PC enhances video from SD to HD, HD to 4K or 4K to 8K, according to our review, and adds frame interpolation (24fps to 60fps or 120fps), interlacing removal and artifact reduction. Rendering runs locally on your own machine, so your files never have to leave it.

There is also a browser route. Topaz for Web - Video upscales clips to 1080p or 4K with six presets (Film & TV, Sports, Gaming, Old Video, Art & CG and Standard) and an optional frame boost, with nothing to install. Topaz has been subscription-only since September 2025: Topaz Video is $299 a year ($59 a month), Topaz for Web - Video is $199 a year (regular price $299), and the Topaz Studio suite at $399 a year includes all six Topaz apps, unlimited local rendering and 300 video cloud credits a month.

Watch out for: the desktop app needs a powerful GPU (NVIDIA recommended), and processing video at high resolutions can take a long time. There is no free plan, and cloud video credits expire at the end of each month.

ToolChase Score: 4.6/5 · Read the full Topaz Labs review

2. Runway, best for upscaling any clip in the cloud

Runway is best known for generating video, but its Upscale Video app works on any clip you upload, including older footage, compressed files and low-resolution video, and outputs 4K. It costs 2 credits per second of video and is available on the Standard plan and above.

That makes the maths simple. Standard at $15 a month ($12 billed annually) includes 625 credits, which covers about five minutes of upscaling if you spend them on nothing else. Pro at $35 a month ($28 annually) and Max at $95 a month ($76 annually) list unlimited 4K video upscaling plus Topaz AI Upscale. The free plan's 125 one-time credits are for trying the generative models; upscaling starts on Standard.

Watch out for: upscaling and generation draw on the same credits, and our review notes they burn fast. On Standard, 625 credits cover about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 video or about five minutes of upscaling, so budget for one or the other. The app page does not state input length or resolution limits.

ToolChase Score: 4.6/5 · Read the full Runway review

3. Adobe Firefly, best for Adobe and Premiere users

Adobe Firefly has a Video Upscaler powered by Topaz Astra, a partner model from Topaz Labs. It upscales clips to 1080p or 4K in the Firefly web app, in Firefly Boards or in the Edit Video workspace, and you can send the result straight to Premiere or the Firefly video editor.

Two settings matter. Precise mode aims at accurate restoration of the original footage, while Creative mode adds richer detail, and you can favour speed or quality. The limits are tight: clips must be 5 to 20 seconds long, under 200MB, and MP4 or MOV files.

Partner models like Astra draw down Firefly's generative credits. Firefly Standard is $9.99 a month with 2,000 credits, Pro is $19.99 with 4,000 and Pro Plus is $49.99 with 10,000. Adobe's feature page does not say how many credits one upscale costs, and Adobe does not publish the free tier's daily limits.

Watch out for: the 20-second cap makes it a tool for shots and AI clips, not whole videos, and our review found the credit system confusing, with standard and premium credits consumed at different rates.

ToolChase Score: 4.6/5 · Read the full Adobe Firefly review

4. KREA AI, best free daily allowance

KREA AI has the most generous free allowance we found. Its Video Upscaler takes an MP4, reads the input resolution and offers 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x factors depending on the source and your plan, and signed-in free users can enhance up to 4 videos every 24 hours.

The upscaler sits inside Krea's wider creative suite, which also covers image and video generation and an image upscaler, so it suits creators who already make AI video there. The free tier includes 100 compute units a day; paid plans start with Basic at $9 a month, and Pro at $35 a month unlocks every video model.

Watch out for: Krea does not publish a maximum clip length or output resolution for the upscaler, and our review notes that output quality varies. Prices last verified July 2026.

ToolChase Score: 4.6/5 · Read the full KREA AI review

5. CapCut, best free editor with an upscaler

CapCut puts upscaling where many creators already edit. In CapCut Desktop, open the Video tab, choose Enhance quality under Basic and pick HD, UHD or 4K; CapCut says the feature sharpens, deblurs and adds detail to each frame.

The editor itself is free, with 1080p export on the free plan. Standard is $9.99 a month and Pro $19.99 a month, and our review lists 4K export among the Pro features, so plan on Pro if 4K files are the point. It is the easiest way to upscale a clip and then caption, cut and publish it in the same app.

Watch out for: ByteDance ownership raises data privacy questions our review covers in detail, including an active BIPA lawsuit over biometric data in the US, and CapCut does not publish length or file limits for the upscaler. Prices last verified July 2026.

ToolChase Score: 4.4/5 · Read the full CapCut review

6. Kapwing, best browser editor for upscaling

Kapwing runs its upscaler in the browser: upload a clip to Kapwing AI and it raises the resolution by up to 4x, to 1080p or 4K, from uploads of up to 1440p. The result lands in Kapwing's editor, so you can adjust colour, add subtitles or resize for another platform without switching tools.

Kapwing's AI tools run on credits. Our review lists 10 AI credits and 720p exports on the free plan, and Pro at $16 a month billed annually ($24 monthly) with 1,000 credits a month, 4K exports and no watermark. It is the natural pick for teams, since several people can review the same project in real time.

Watch out for: it will not take 4K sources, because uploads for upscaling top out at 1440p, and browser performance slows on long projects.

ToolChase Score: 4.3/5 · Read the full Kapwing review

7. Canva, best for short social clips

Canva offers upscaling through the Video Upscaler app by A1D.AI, a third-party app you open from the Apps panel in the editor, on the web or in the mobile app. You pick a resolution and one of three enhancement styles, for overall clarity, vibrant colours, or skin tones and faces, and the result drops into your design.

It is free for MP4 clips up to 10 seconds long and 10MB in size, which is enough for a social hook, a product shot or a short intro. Canva itself has a free plan, and Pro is $18 a month.

Watch out for: the free limits rule out anything longer than a short clip, Canva's page does not state the maximum output resolution, and the app is made by a third party rather than by Canva.

ToolChase Score: 4.7/5 · Read the full Canva review

8. DomoAI, best for anime video

DomoAI is built for anime and stylized video. Its Video Upscaler outputs 1080p, 2K or 4K and is aimed at anime character clips, VTuber videos, music edits and anime product videos, the kind of footage DomoAI's own restyling and generation tools produce.

DomoAI sells credit-based plans: Basic is $9 a month for 600 credits, Standard $29 for 2,200 and Pro $99 for 8,000. Standard and Pro add Relax Mode, which runs unlimited generations without spending credits in exchange for a longer queue.

Watch out for: the upscaler page does not state a credit cost or input limits, DomoAI's pricing page lists no free tier while its homepage refers to a free plan, and the page says nothing about real-world footage.

ToolChase Score: 3.8/5 · Read the full DomoAI review

Comparison table

"Not stated" means neither the vendor's upscaler page nor our review publishes a figure, so we do not guess one. Paid prices are the entry plan as shown on each linked review, except Topaz, where we list the browser video app because it is the cheapest way to its upscaler.

How to choose an AI video upscaler

You are restoring old family or archive footage. Topaz Labs is built for this, with an Old Video preset in the browser app and interlacing removal and frame interpolation on the desktop, rendered locally. Keep creative modes for AI clips, not for faces you need to recognise.

You make AI video. Clips from AI generators are short and often soft. Runway upscales them to 4K at 2 credits per second, Adobe Firefly runs Topaz Astra on 5 to 20 second clips, and KREA AI lets you try it for free four times a day.

You edit social video on a budget. CapCut upscales inside a free editor, Canva handles 10-second clips for free, and Kapwing upscales and edits in the same browser tab.

Your footage is private. Topaz's desktop apps render on your own machine. The browser and cloud tools in this guide, Runway, Firefly, Krea, Kapwing and Canva, process your video on the vendor's servers.

Your clips are long. Check the caps before you upload: Firefly stops at 20 seconds and Canva's free app at 10, while Runway charges by the second. Topaz Studio includes unlimited local rendering, so long videos cost time rather than credits.

You make anime. DomoAI aims its upscaler at anime-style clips and pairs it with anime restyling of your existing footage.