Photo upscaler apps compared: privacy, price, and platforms

The short version

If your priority is keeping a photo on your own device and paying once, Local Photo Upscaler, Photomator, and Pixelmator Pro all upscale on device. Local Photo Upscaler is the narrowest and cheapest of the three: four enhancement modes and nothing else. If you want the most powerful results and do not mind uploads or subscriptions, Remini (faces) and Topaz (professional prints) are stronger tools.

Remini

Processing: Cloud. Photos are uploaded for enhancement; its privacy policy says uploaded and enhanced images are deleted after one day.

Price: Free download. App Store in-app purchase list includes Remini Pro Weekly $9.99, Remini Lite Weekly $4.99 to $7.99, and 1 Month $9.99.

Choose Remini instead if you want the strongest face enhancement on very blurry faces, AI photo generation, or video enhancement, and uploading is fine.

Sources: Remini on the U.S. App Store; Remini privacy policy (Bending Spoons).

Upscale.media

Processing: Online service. On the web you upload the image to be processed; it also offers an API.

Price: Web: 3 free credits a month, $69.99 a year, or credit packs from $5.99 for 60 credits. iOS app in-app purchases range from $5.00 to $39.00 credit plans.

Choose Upscale.media instead if you upscale occasional non-sensitive images from any browser, or need batch processing through an API.

Sources: Upscale.media pricing; Upscale: AI Photo Enhancer on the U.S. App Store.

Topaz Gigapixel / Topaz Photo

Processing: Desktop apps render locally; Topaz also sells web and cloud rendering.

Price: Gigapixel $29 a month or $149 a year; Topaz Photo $39 a month or $199 a year; Topaz Studio bundle $69 a month or $399 a year. No perpetual licenses.

Choose Topaz Gigapixel / Topaz Photo instead if you are a photographer or studio that needs big prints, batch jobs, RAW files, and the most model choices.

Sources: Topaz Labs pricing.

Pixelmator Pro

Processing: On device. Super Resolution is part of a full image editor.

Price: $49.99 one-time on the Mac App Store, or Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 a month or $129 a year (includes the iPad version).

Choose Pixelmator Pro instead if you want a complete layer-based editor on Mac or iPad and upscaling is one tool among many.

Sources: Apple: Pixelmator Pro; MacStories: Pixelmator Photo adds ML Super Resolution on the Neural Engine.

Photomator

Processing: On device. ML Super Resolution comes from Pixelmator’s Neural Engine work.

Price: Free download. In-app purchases: $7.99 a month, $29.99 a year, or $119.99 lifetime.

Choose Photomator instead if you want a full photo editor with RAW support and color tools, with upscaling included.

Sources: Photomator on the U.S. App Store; MacStories: Pixelmator Photo adds ML Super Resolution on the Neural Engine.

Picsart

Processing: Cloud AI tools inside a social and template editor.

Price: Free download. In-app purchases include Gold $12.99 a month or $57.00 a year and Pro $13.99 a month or $83.99 a year.

Choose Picsart instead if you mainly make social posts, collages, and templated designs.

Sources: Picsart on the U.S. App Store.

Local Photo Upscaler

Processing: on device with bundled models; the App Store privacy label says Data Not Collected.

Price: $9.99 once, no in-app purchases, Family Sharing included.

Choose it if you enhance personal photos occasionally, want them to stay on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and would rather not subscribe. Skip it if you need batch processing, RAW files, video, colorization, or large prints from already-large photos (output is capped at about 17 megapixels).