How this AI video upscaler works
A normal player or editor upscales a video by interpolating between existing pixels. That makes the frame bigger but not sharper: edges stay soft, and the square blocks left by compression become larger and easier to see. This video upscaler uses Real-ESRGAN, a neural network trained to undo exactly these kinds of damage. For every frame it removes compression noise, rebuilds sharp edges and fills in plausible fine detail at four times the original resolution. The upscaled frame is then resized to the output you picked and encoded into a standard H.264 MP4, with the original audio copied across.
Upscale a video in four steps
- Add your video. Drop it into the box or click to choose a file. MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV work when your browser can decode the codec inside.
- Choose the output. 1080p for phones, social media and most screens; 1440p (2K) for large monitors; 4K for 4K TVs and editing timelines.
- Choose the content type. "Real footage" for camera and phone video, "Anime / cartoon" for drawn content with clean lines.
- Preview, then upscale. The 3-second preview shows a before/after slider and the time the full video will take. Then start the full job and download the MP4.
Which output resolution should you pick?
| Your source | Good target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 240p–360p (old phones, web clips) | 1080p | Biggest visible gain; 4K adds size, not detail |
| 480p (DVD, older cameras) | 1080p | See the 480p to 1080p guide |
| 540p–720p | 1440p or 4K | Enough detail for a real step up |
| 1080p | 4K | For 4K timelines and TVs; see the 4K video upscaler |
Bigger is not always better. Each step up multiplies the number of pixels the model has to produce and the size of the output file. If your video will be watched on a phone, 1080p is plenty and is about four times faster than 4K.
Why use a browser video upscaler instead of a cloud service
Cloud upscalers send your file to a server, make you wait in a queue and usually charge per second of footage or add a watermark to free results. Desktop upscalers are excellent but expensive. This upscaler runs the same kind of model in your browser using WebGPU, which gives web pages direct access to your graphics card. That brings three practical advantages: your footage stays private, there is no per-video cost, and there is no upload or download of large files over the internet. The trade-off is that speed depends on your own hardware, which is why the tool measures it during the preview.
Upscaling speed on real hardware
Measured on an NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti in Chrome, including decoding and encoding:
- 270p → 1080p: about 8 frames per second.
- 360p → 1080p: about 5–6 frames per second, or 5–6 minutes per minute of 30 fps video.
- 540p → 4K: about 2.5 frames per second, or about 12 minutes per minute of video.
Gaming laptops are in a similar range; thin laptops with integrated graphics are several times slower. Browsers without WebGPU fall back to the processor at roughly one frame per second, which is only useful for very short clips.
Limits of AI video upscaling
An upscaler cannot recover information that was never recorded. It is excellent at low resolution, compression artifacts and soft edges. It improves less on heavy motion blur, very dark noisy footage and tiny faces in the distance, where it may produce a smooth, slightly painted look. Fine natural textures such as grass and skin are cleaned up rather than reproduced exactly. For these reasons the preview always shows a real frame from your own clip next to a normal resize, so you can judge before spending time on the full video.
Tips for better upscaling
- Use the original file from the camera or phone; videos saved from chat apps are compressed twice.
- Cut the part you need before upscaling to save time.
- For cartoons, the anime video upscaler keeps lines cleaner.
- For choppy motion, add frames with frame interpolation after upscaling.