Download
Large installer — bundles Real-ESRGAN, GFPGAN and CodeFormer model weights plus PyTorch runtime.
Signed with a code-signing certificate. Installs to Program Files; no admin requirements at runtime.
About
Upscaler is a free desktop application for Windows that restores and enhances old or low-resolution photos using state-of-the-art AI models. It runs entirely on your machine — no cloud uploads, no account, no subscription.
The processing pipeline combines a background upscaling pass (Real-ESRGAN ×4) with a face restoration pass (GFPGAN or CodeFormer). All model combinations run in parallel and the results appear in a comparison grid so you can pick the best output for each photo.
Features
- Real-ESRGAN ×4 upscaling — two models: quality-focused and balanced
- GFPGAN v1.4 face restoration for natural-looking results
- CodeFormer face restoration with adjustable fidelity (0.5 / 0.7 / 0.9)
- Two-pass AI pipeline: background upscale → face detection and restoration
- Up to 8 result variants per image in a single run
- Side-by-side comparison grid — select the best variant per photo
- Fullscreen zoom and pan viewer for detailed inspection
- Batch folder processing with automatic image discovery
- GPU acceleration via CUDA; automatic CPU fallback
- Jpegli encoder for high-quality JPEG output
How it works
Select a folder containing photos. Upscaler discovers all supported images recursively. Choose which background models (RealESRGAN) and face models (GFPGAN, CodeFormer) to use — every selected combination is processed for each image.
Results appear in a 4×2 grid as they complete. Each thumbnail has a checkmark button; clicking it saves that variant as the final output and advances to the next image. Temporary combination folders are cleaned up automatically when processing finishes.
Face detection uses RetinaFace with a lowered score threshold (0.5) for better recall on older or degraded photographs. Faces are aligned to 512×512 px, restored, and blended back into the full-resolution upscaled image.
System Requirements
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) | |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| GPU | Any (CPU mode available) | NVIDIA RTX 2060 or better (6 GB+ VRAM) |
| Disk space | ~3 GB for application and models | |