Upscale API

A production Upscale API that lifts a photo 2× or 4×, tightens detail, and reduces compression artifacts. One HTTP call. $0.009 per image (9 credits). 5,000 free credits (24-hour trial), no credit card.

Quick start — Upscale API

POST a photo, get a 4× file back. Default scale=4. Use image for a file or image_url for a URL. Poll until completed.

curl -X POST https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/upscale \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "image=@photo.jpg" \
  -F "scale=4"

curl https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/GENERATION_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

import requests
r = requests.post(
    "https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/upscale",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
    files={"image": open("photo.jpg", "rb")},
    data={"scale": "4"},
)
job = r.json()

import fs from "fs";
const form = new FormData();
form.append("image", fs.createReadStream("photo.jpg"));
form.append("scale", "4");
const res = await fetch("https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/upscale", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Authorization: "Bearer " + process.env.PIXELAPI_KEY },
  body: form,
});

$ch = curl_init("https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/image/upscale");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
  CURLOPT_POST => true,
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ["Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"],
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
    "image" => new CURLFile("photo.jpg"),
    "scale" => "4",
  ],
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
]);
$job = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);

What the Upscale API is for

Marketplaces reject soft phone photos. Print shops need more pixels than a social download contains. AI-generated stills look fine at 1024 px and fall apart on a poster. The Upscale API is a production REST upscaler: 2× or 4× super-resolution, optional exact output box, JPEG mush reduced, edges tightened.

Live price is $0.009 per image (9 credits). Some generated API descriptions still say 20 credits / $0.02 — that is stale. Bill against /v1/pricing/live. A longer-standing marketing page also lives at image-upscaler-api.html; this Upscale API URL is the canonical the crawler and ads should use for “upscale API” queries.

Pricing comparison

5,000 free credits (24-hour trial), no card. Compare also vs Topaz Gigapixel and open-source alternative notes.

Production notes

• Multipart POST to /v1/image/upscale. Provide image or image_url.
• Poll GET /v1/image/{generation_id} (this route also has a dedicated GET on /v1/image/upscale/{generation_id}).
• Run cleanup first when the source has a watermark or a person you do not want enlarged: Remove Text API, Remove Object API.
• Face-heavy archives that are scratched or faded often want restore-face or photo-restore before or after 4× — upscale alone will sharpen damage as well as detail.
• Web UI: image upscale tool.

Use cases and related pages

Ecommerce teams upscale user-phone SKU shots to the marketplace minimum. Real-estate sites push listing photos to zoom. Print-on-demand takes a 1K still to a 4K file. Thumbnail pipelines reverse the usual compress-to-death path.

How-tos: product photo, headshot, real estate, old scan, art, screenshot. Alternatives: IMG Upscaler, Upscale Media. Also restore old photos and the AI Image Editor API. Hubs: use cases, alternatives, howto.

Frequently asked questions