App facts
Local Photo Upscaler at a glance
Verified product facts in one place, for anyone comparing photo upscalers or writing about them.
Local Photo Upscaler is an iPhone, iPad, and Mac app that enlarges and cleans up photos on the device instead of uploading them. It is sold for $9.99 once in the U.S. App Store, with no subscription or in-app purchases. It suits people who want to enlarge or tidy personal photos privately, and supports selecting several photos for sequential batch processing. It is not meant for RAW workflows or recovering detail that the source does not contain.
- Name
- Local Photo Upscaler: Enhancer (App Store). The app’s header reads “Local Upscale”.
- App Store subtitle
- AI Unblur, HD Quality, Offline
- What it is
- An on-device AI photo upscaler and enhancer with four modes: Upscale, Denoise, Sharpen, and Faces.
- Developer
- David Balderston, an independent developer. Developer page
- Price
- $9.99 one-time purchase (U.S.). No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads.
- Family Sharing
- Yes, up to six family members
- Current iOS version
- 1.1.11, released October 23, 2026 (UTC)
- First released
- January 28, 2026
- iPhone and iPad
- iOS / iPadOS 18.2 or later
- Mac
- macOS 15.2 or later on a Mac with Apple M1 or later
- Apple Vision Pro
- visionOS 2.2 or later
- iOS download size
- 316.5 MB
- Native Mac release
- Version 1.1.5; 268.9 MB. Mac App Store listing, checked November 8, 2026. Mac page
- One purchase, every device
- Universal purchase: one $9.99 US purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac on the same Apple Account
- Photo + Video bundle
- $14.99 US with Local Video Upscaler. Apple lists it for iPhone, iPad and Mac; on a Mac, Video needs macOS 26.0 or later and Photo needs Apple silicon (M1 or later). Bundle on the Mac App Store, checked November 10, 2026
- Languages
- English and 43 more
- Category and rating
- Photo & Video; rated 4+
- Privacy label
- Data Not Collected
- Processing
- On device with bundled AI models; works offline
- Upscale
- AI 4× enlargement; output capped at about 17 megapixels, so the enlargement depends on the starting image size
- Denoise
- AI noise reduction; normally keeps original dimensions, but very large photos may be processed smaller on lower-memory devices
- Sharpen
- Conservative luminance sharpening (not AI deblur); normally keeps original dimensions, but very large photos may be processed smaller on lower-memory devices
- Faces
- Detects faces and applies AI face restoration; may alter fine facial details
- Input and output
- Pick from Photos (and image files on Mac); select several photos for a batch; process sequentially and save a new copy to Photos
- Not included
- Video, RAW editing, scratch removal, colorization, accounts, cloud sync
- Support
- help@localphotoupscaler.com
- Official links
- App Store · Website · Facts as JSON · llms.txt
Current iOS release
Version 1.1.11 lists Denoise performance and reliability improvements, plus updated processing time estimates. This is Apple’s release note, not a measured speed claim. Read the current App Store listing.
Good fit
- Enlarging small photos, old downloads, and crops for sharing or modest prints
- Cleaning up grainy low-light phone photos
- Private or sensitive images: family photos, documents, client work
- People who would rather pay once than subscribe
Not designed for
- Recovering detail that is not in the source (heavy motion blur, unreadable text, tiny faces)
- Full 4x enlargement of already-large photos (output is capped at about 17 MP; crop first)
- RAW workflows or video
- Scratch and tear removal or colorizing black-and-white photos
- Forensic, legal, or identification use