Get Started
← Creator toolkit · Mission 4 of 13

Make small, blurry images 4x bigger and sharper for free

A 256-pixel photo of Einstein became a sharp 1024-pixel image in 8 seconds. Upscayl does that to old family photos, tiny thumbnails and AI art on your own laptop: no upscaler credits, no uploads, and no gaming graphics card needed.

18 minBeginnerTools: FreeStep 1 free
Tested 7 Oct 2026 · Upscayl 2.15.0 (portable zip), 4 models compared, Intel Arc integrated graphics, 16GB laptop, Windows 11
Upscayl set upa free, open-source app that makes images 4x bigger with AI
A point-and-click app plus a one-line command for whole folders
Real side-by-sides on a photo, a screenshot and a cartoon, so you know which model to use for what
  • Which model to pick, and which ones you can't use for paid work
Before you start
  • A graphics chip that supports Vulkan. Most laptops from the last few years do, including Intel's built-in graphics. No separate graphics card needed.
  • About 900MB of free disk space (300MB download, 583MB once unzipped)
  • 8GB of RAM is plenty
01/05Download and unzip Upscayl0 done
STEP 01 of 05~3 min

Download and unzip Upscayl

The zip version needs no admin rights and deletes cleanly, so it can't mess up your PC.

  1. Upscayl is free and open source (github.com/upscayl/upscayl ↗, AGPL-3.0 licence). Its AI models run on your own graphics chip, so your images never leave your laptop.

  2. Paste these two lines into PowerShell. The first downloads the official zip from GitHub (about 300MB). The second unzips it into a folder called Apps in your user folder:

    Windows
    curl.exe -L -o "$HOME\Downloads\upscayl-2.15.0-win.zip" https://github.com/upscayl/upscayl/releases/download/v2.15.0/upscayl-2.15.0-win.zip
Expand-Archive "$HOME\Downloads\upscayl-2.15.0-win.zip" "$HOME\Apps\Upscayl"

  3. Prefer clicking? Download upscayl-2.15.0-win.zip from the Releases page ↗, right-click it, choose Extract All, and put it somewhere you'll find again.

  4. Now open the app:

    Terminal
    & "$HOME\Apps\Upscayl\Upscayl.exe"

  5. A welcome box asks a few questions. Switch Help improve Upscayl off if you'd rather not send usage stats (like your graphics chip model), and leave everything else as it is.

    Mac (with Homebrew)
    brew install --cask upscayl

  6. No Homebrew? Download upscayl-2.15.0-mac.dmg from the Releases page ↗, open it and drag Upscayl into Applications. On Linux, download upscayl-2.15.0-linux.AppImage from the same page, then make it runnable with chmod +x upscayl-2.15.0-linux.AppImage and double-click it.

✓
CheckpointThe Upscayl window opens with Step 1: Select Image on the left.
If it breaksYou used winget install Upscayl.Upscayl and it was cancelled + 1 more
You used winget install Upscayl.Upscayl and it was cancelled
The winget installer asks for admin rights, and the install is cancelled if the Windows prompt isn't answered in time. Watch for the prompt and click Yes, or use the zip above, which needs no admin rights.
'Failed to create file ... while expanding the archive file'
You've unzipped it before. Delete the old Apps\Upscayl folder first, or skip that line and just open the app.
Still stuck? Ask the community
Next mission · Creator toolkitCopy the text out of any screenshot, even a photo of a sign
→