#1 · Best overall4 credits
Crystal Upscaler · Clarity AI
Sharpest result on badly damaged photos while keeping faces, text and products the same. On one 320-pixel room it chose a plausible leaf shape for a plant that had no detail left.
Benchmark · tested September 27, 2026
AI Image Upscaler Benchmark: 8 Models, Same Photos
Crystal, Ultimate, SeedVR2, VOSR2, Recraft Crisp, Phota and Clarity Pro, side by side on the same five images. We checked the two things that matter: does it get sharper, and does it stay the same picture?
The short version
#2 · Best value1 credit
Ultimate Image Upscaler · WaveSpeed AI
Faithful everywhere and clean on text and products. A step softer than Crystal on the most damaged face and room.
#3 · Best budget1 credit
SeedVR2 · Open model, hosted by WaveSpeed
Never changed what was in the picture. Close to the leaders on a clean input, visibly soft on heavily compressed ones.
#4 · Faithful, soft1 credit
VOSR2 · Open model, hosted by WaveSpeed
Faithful and quick, but the softest of the faithful group: the neon sign and the damaged face stayed blurry.
#5 · Faithful, soft1 credit
Image Upscaler · WaveSpeed AI
The engine GoCrazyAI used until this test. Keeps everything the same and handles text well, but damaged faces and rooms stay soft.
#6 · Budget, fixed size1 credit
Crisp Upscale · Recraft
Faithful and only 1 credit, but the output is always about 4 MP, so it cannot reach 4K or 8K.
#7 · Regenerates3 credits
Phota Enhance · Phota
Very crisp, but it regenerates rather than upscales: it changed eye colour, added a tread pattern to a plain sole, and replaced letterbox bars with invented buildings and street.
#8 · Changes content8 credits
Pro Upscaler · Clarity AI
The most expensive and slowest, and it changed something in every test: a different face, the sign "RAMEN" rewritten as "PAVEN", shredded shoelaces with an invented label.
GoCrazyAI runs the model that won this test (Crystal) in its Image Upscaler. We switched to it because of these results; the engine we used before is in the table too.
Compare any two, side by side
Pick a test image and two models, then drag the slider. Start with the input against a model to see what it adds.
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Test 1 · 320 × 200 px, heavy JPEG compression
Damaged portrait: Is it still the same person?
The test that matters most. The input is a tiny, blocky thumbnail. A good upscaler makes it sharp without inventing a new face.
Test 2 · 320 × 200 px, medium JPEG compression
Text on a neon sign: Does the text still say the same thing?
Upscalers that "imagine" detail tend to imagine letters too. The sign reads RAMEN.
Phota regenerated the whole frame
The input was a letterboxed shot with black bars. Phota removed the bars and invented what was never there: buildings and an extra sign above, a wet street and reflections below, and a different aspect ratio. That is image generation, not upscaling.
Test 3 · 256 × 320 px, medium JPEG compression
Product photo: Is it still the same shoe?
For a shop listing, a changed product is worse than a soft one. Watch the laces, the stitching and the sole.
Test 4 · 320 × 200 px, heavy JPEG compression
Interior: Is it still the same room?
Large soft areas, fine textures and a plant with almost no detail left. The hardest input in the set.
Test 5 · 512 × 320 px, light JPEG compression
Clean, small portrait: What if the input is already decent?
Most real uploads are small but not wrecked. Here the gap closes: the 1-credit models get close to the leaders.
Scoreboard
What each model did to each test image, plus cost in credits, speed and the largest output it offers.
| Model | Damaged portrait | Text on a neon sign | Product photo | Interior | Clean, small portrait | Credits / image | Median time | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal UpscalerClarity AI | Same + sharp | Same + sharp | Same + sharp | Same + sharp | Same | 4 credits | 29 s | 4K (16 MP), up to 1,500 MP |
| Ultimate Image UpscalerWaveSpeed AI | Same | Same + sharp | Same + sharp | Same, soft | Same | 1 credit | 42 s | 4K (16.8 MP), up to 8K |
| SeedVR2Open model, hosted by WaveSpeed | Same, soft | Same | Same, soft | Same, soft | Same | 1 credit | 46 s | 4K (16.8 MP), up to 8K |
| VOSR2Open model, hosted by WaveSpeed | Same, soft | Same, soft | Same, soft | Same, soft | Same | 1 credit | 28 s | 4K (16 MP) maximum |
| Image UpscalerWaveSpeed AI | Same, soft | Same | Same | Same, soft | Same | 1 credit | 30 s | 4K (16.8 MP), up to 8K |
| Crisp UpscaleRecraft | Same | Same | Same | Same | Same | 1 credit | 25 s | About 4 MP, fixed |
| Phota EnhancePhota | Changed | Changed | Changed | Changed | Changed | 3 credits | 33 s | About 4.3 MP, fixed, aspect ratio changes |
| Pro UpscalerClarity AI | Changed | Changed | Changed | Changed | Changed | 8 credits | 73 s | 4K (16 MP), up to 64 MP |
Upscale with the winner
The GoCrazyAI Image Upscaler runs Crystal: 2K for 1 credit, 4K for 4, 8K for 13, with a before/after slider and no watermark.
How we tested
- Five AI-generated images we own, so the full-quality original is known: a portrait, a neon street sign, a sneaker, an interior and the same portrait at a milder size.
- Each was shrunk on purpose (to 320, 256 or 512 pixels wide) and re-saved as JPEG, then sent unchanged to every model through the WaveSpeed API on 27 September 2026.
- Every model ran at its 4K setting (16 to 17 megapixels) where it has one; Recraft Crisp and Phota only offer a fixed size of about 4 megapixels.
- Each tile is the same region of the frame, scaled to the same display size. The input tile is the small image plainly enlarged, which is what you would get without AI.
- Tags describe what we saw: "same" means nothing in the picture changed, "changed" means a face, a letter, an object or the framing is different from the input.
- Costs are in GoCrazyAI credits per image, worked out from each model's API list price with the same rule we use for every tool. Times are wall-clock medians across the five images, including queue and download.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI image upscaler in 2026?+
In our test, Crystal Upscaler by Clarity AI gave the sharpest results on damaged photos while keeping faces, text and products the same. WaveSpeed's Ultimate Image Upscaler was a close, cheaper second, and SeedVR2 was the best 1-credit option on inputs that were not badly compressed.
Which AI upscaler keeps faces the same?+
Crystal, Ultimate, SeedVR2, VOSR2, Recraft Crisp and WaveSpeed's Image Upscaler all kept the same face in every portrait we tested. Clarity Pro produced a different face each time, and Phota changed eye colour and makeup.
Why do some AI upscalers change the picture?+
Upscalers that are tuned to "imagine" detail fill in whatever looks plausible, and on a small image that can mean new eyes, new letters or a new object. Faithful upscalers only add detail that is consistent with the pixels that are there. For photos of real people, products and text, faithful is what you want.
Do AI upscalers get text right?+
Most did in our test. The neon sign read RAMEN after Crystal, Ultimate, SeedVR2, Recraft Crisp and WaveSpeed's Image Upscaler. Clarity Pro rewrote it as PAVEN, and VOSR2 left it blurry.
How much does it cost to upscale an image to 4K?+
In GoCrazyAI credits per 4K image: 1 credit for SeedVR2, VOSR2, Ultimate, Recraft Crisp or WaveSpeed's Image Upscaler, 3 for Phota, 4 for Crystal and 8 for Clarity Pro. On GoCrazyAI the Image Upscaler runs Crystal: 2K costs 1 credit, 4K costs 4 and 8K costs 13.
Is an expensive upscaler always better?+
No. The most expensive model in the test, Clarity Pro, changed the content of every image we gave it, and so did the second most expensive, Phota. On a clean input, the 1-credit models came within a small margin of the leaders; the extra credits only pay off on badly damaged photos.
Who can use these images?+
Every test image is AI-generated by us and shows an adult or an object, so no real person's likeness is involved. GoCrazyAI is for adults (18+), and uploads to its upscaler are checked automatically before processing.