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Open-source alternatives to Topaz Gigapixel

Topaz Gigapixel does 6 jobs: photo upscaling up to 16x, face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, upscaling art, batch upscaling of many images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin. Most projects replace one or two of them, so pick the job you actually need.

Quick answer

Facts checked 16 Oct 2026

Open-source alternatives to Topaz Gigapixel that run locally, allow commercial use and need no paid API include waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan (photo upscaling up to 16x, recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, upscaling art and batch upscaling of many images; MIT; runs on CPU), Real-ESRGAN (photo upscaling up to 16x, face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, upscaling art and batch upscaling of many images; BSD-3-Clause) and SeedVR2 Video Upscaler (ComfyUI) (photo upscaling up to 16x, recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images and batch upscaling of many images; Apache-2.0; GPU, ~8GB+). None of the 9 projects we track covers all 6 Topaz Gigapixel jobs, so most people combine two or more.

Your requirements

Where will it run?
Can I use it commercially?

Checks code and model licences. Includes projects with conditions, such as share-alike or revenue limits, marked amber. Unknowns are hidden.

Paid services needed?
What hardware do you have?
Operating system

9 projects

chaiNNer

chaiNNer-org/chaiNNer
★ 6.1k active 5d ago

Node-based image processing app built for AI upscaling, running PyTorch, NCNN, ONNX and TensorRT models on GPU or CPU.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Face recovery on blurry or low-res faces + Upscaling art + Batch upscaling of many images (partly) Not: recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Partial: Conditions · GPL-3.0
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: CPU works
Setup
Confirmed: Easy
8 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

CodeFormer

sczhou/CodeFormer
★ 18k active 11mo ago

Face restoration model from NTU S-Lab with a fidelity slider, video input and face colorization; non-commercial licence.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Face recovery on blurry or low-res faces (partly) Not: recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, upscaling art, batch upscaling of many images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
No: No · Custom licence
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: See details
Setup
Confirmed: Medium
8 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

Final2x

EutropicAI/Final2x
★ 7.4k active 9d ago

Cross-platform desktop image super-resolution app with built-in models and support for loading your own.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x (partly) Not: face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, upscaling art, batch upscaling of many images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Unknown: Unknown
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Unknown: Unknown
Setup
Confirmed: Easy
5 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

GFPGAN

TencentARC/GFPGAN
★ 38k active 2y ago

Tencent ARC face restoration model that repairs blurry, low-res faces in old photos, with optional Real-ESRGAN background upscaling.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Face recovery on blurry or low-res faces (partly) Not: recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, upscaling art, batch upscaling of many images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Partial: Conditions · Apache-2.0
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: See details
Setup
Confirmed: Medium
7 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

QualityScaler

Djdefrag/QualityScaler
★ 3.2k active 7w ago

Windows app that upscales and denoises photos and videos with ONNX models on any DirectX 12 GPU.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images + Batch upscaling of many images (partly) Not: face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, upscaling art, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Unknown: Unknown
Paid services
Partial: Optional only
Hardware
Confirmed: GPU, ~4GB+
Setup
Confirmed: Medium
6 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

Real-ESRGAN

xinntao/Real-ESRGAN
★ 37k active 2y ago

Reference AI super-resolution model for real-world photos and anime, with a Python script and portable Vulkan executables.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Face recovery on blurry or low-res faces + Upscaling art + Batch upscaling of many images (partly) Not: recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Confirmed: Yes · BSD-3-Clause
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: See details
Setup
Confirmed: Easy
8 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

SeedVR2 Video Upscaler (ComfyUI)

numz/ComfyUI-SeedVR2_VideoUpscaler
★ 2.9k active 9mo ago

ComfyUI nodes and standalone CLI for ByteDance's SeedVR2, a one-step diffusion upscaler for images and video.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images + Batch upscaling of many images (partly) Not: face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, upscaling art, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Confirmed: Yes · Apache-2.0
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: GPU, ~8GB+
Setup
Confirmed: Medium
8 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

Upscayl

upscayl/upscayl
★ 51k active 10d ago

Desktop AI image upscaler for Windows, macOS and Linux, built on Real-ESRGAN models running through ncnn and Vulkan.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Upscaling art + Batch upscaling of many images (partly) Not: face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Partial: Conditions · AGPL-3.0
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: GPU needed
Setup
Confirmed: Easy
8 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan

nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan
★ 3.5k active 6mo ago

Portable command-line waifu2x upscaler and denoiser that runs on Intel, AMD, Nvidia and Apple Silicon GPUs via Vulkan.

Replaces Photo upscaling up to 16x + Recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images + Upscaling art + Batch upscaling of many images (partly) Not: face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, Photoshop and Lightroom plugin
Runs locally
Confirmed: Yes
Commercial use
Confirmed: Yes · MIT
Paid services
Confirmed: None required
Hardware
Confirmed: CPU works
Setup
Confirmed: Easy
8 of 8 facts sourced · checked today GitHub ↗ View details

Common questions about Topaz Gigapixel alternatives

Is there a free, open-source alternative to Topaz Gigapixel?

Yes. chaiNNer, Upscayl, waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan, Real-ESRGAN and QualityScaler are free to download and run on your own computer without paid API keys. Each covers only part of what Topaz Gigapixel does, so check which job you need.

Can I do photo upscaling up to 16x locally without a Topaz Gigapixel subscription?

Yes, with Upscayl (AGPL-3.0), chaiNNer (GPL-3.0) and waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan (MIT). Check the hardware notes and licence conditions on each page before you start.

Can I do face recovery on blurry or low-res faces locally without a Topaz Gigapixel subscription?

Yes, with chaiNNer (GPL-3.0), Real-ESRGAN (BSD-3-Clause) and GFPGAN (Apache-2.0). Check the hardware notes and licence conditions on each page before you start.

Which Topaz Gigapixel alternatives can I use commercially?

Confirmed: Real-ESRGAN, SeedVR2 Video Upscaler (ComfyUI) and waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan. With conditions: chaiNNer, GFPGAN and Upscayl. Not for commercial use: CodeFormer, usually because the model weights are non-commercial. This is not legal advice; read each licence.

Does any open-source project replace all of Topaz Gigapixel?

Not as of 2026-10-16. Photo upscaling up to 16x, face recovery on blurry or low-res faces, recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, upscaling art, batch upscaling of many images and Photoshop and Lightroom plugin are covered by different projects.

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