# waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan

> A fast ncnn/Vulkan port of waifu2x, the classic upscaler for anime-style art, bundled with CUNet, anime-art and photo models. It upscales 2x to 32x, removes JPEG noise at four levels, and accepts a whole directory as input. Portable builds for Windows, Linux and macOS need no CUDA; a CPU mode exists. Code and bundled waifu2x models are MIT. It is command-line only (GUIs such as Waifu2x-Extension-GUI wrap it), and on real photos it is weaker than GAN models like Real-ESRGAN. Last release Sep 2025.

- Repository: https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan
- Official docs: https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan#readme
- Checked: 2026-10-16

## What it replaces
- Topaz Gigapixel: Photo upscaling up to 16x, Recover and redefine low-quality or compressed images, Upscaling art, Batch upscaling of many images (partial). Strongest on anime and illustrations; JPEG denoise and folder batches from the command line; no GUI or face recovery.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Yes, portable binary | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan#download | 2026-10-16 |
| Code licence | Confirmed | MIT | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan/blob/master/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Model weights licence | Confirmed | MIT; bundled models come from the original waifu2x project, which is MIT | https://github.com/nagadomi/waifu2x/blob/master/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Commercial use | Confirmed | Yes, MIT code and models | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan/blob/master/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Paid services needed? | Confirmed | None required | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan#readme | 2026-10-16 |
| Hardware | Confirmed | Vulkan GPU (Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Apple Silicon); CPU mode with -g -1; smaller tiles cut GPU memory use | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan#full-usages | 2026-10-16 |
| Operating systems | Confirmed | Windows, Linux, macOS | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan#download | 2026-10-16 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Easy, unzip and run from the command line | https://github.com/nihui/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan#example-command | 2026-10-16 |

GitHub: 3485 stars, 240 forks, last push 2026-04-13, archived: no.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/waifu2x-ncnn-vulkan). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.