The number of photos stored on phones, hard drives, clouds, stock photo banks, and personal archives is probably impossible to count. And not all of them are of good quality. Low resolution or size, blurry backgrounds, noise, insufficient sharpness, or scratches on scanned photos are just a small part of the defects that can be corrected.
Previously, only editors in specialized software could do this.
Fortunately for photography enthusiasts, artificial intelligence has learned not only to create deepfakes but also to enhance photos using AI image enhancers for free and online.
Read in our article about the services already available for improving photo quality.
How can AI image enhancers process photos?
Before directly processing images, AI image enhancers analyze vast amounts of data with millions of diverse drawings, snapshots, and frames. For training, developers provide them with explanations regarding photos, their style, color, gamma, and what is depicted on them. This allows AI image enhancers to learn to distinguish a tree from a giraffe. As a result, AI builds algorithms and patterns – so-called neural connections. With such knowledge, the AI image enhancer begins to understand what is required of it:
- generate an image from a description;
- remove defects;
- make the photo colorful;
- change format, resolution, contrast;
- remove unnecessary elements or add necessary ones.
So, as a result, you get a personal designer with built-in Photoshop, which can handle the task in the shortest time possible.
Yes, this description of how AI image enhancers work is very simplified – in reality, it’s much more complex. Nevertheless, there are already many services that allow you to upload the source image that needs improvement and get a superior (but not always) result.
8 Best AI image enhancers that can help improve photo quality
Let’s take a look at examples of AI image enhancers that anyone can use.
Disclaimer:
- Data on the tariffs and functionality of the AI image enhancers are accurate as of May, 2023;
- For each AI image enhancer, there is an example of photo processing before/after. The images were taken from Google with the query “blurry/low-quality/black and white image” to test what AI image enhancers are truly capable of.
Let’s Enhance
We start our top list with the paid AI image enhancer Let’s Enhance. You can improve image quality, resolution, and sharpness “in one click” online using credits.
One credit grants the right to process one image. 10 credits are provided for free – without registration, but with a watermark on the output. 100 credits cost $9 per month if paid annually and $12 if paid monthly. Subscriptions with similar conditions are available for 300 and 500 credits with corresponding price scaling. Unused credits are carried over to the next month if the subscription is renewed. There is also an option to simply purchase a specific number of service uses and pricing plans for companies.
The website lists the following capabilities of the AI image enhancer:
- Image scaling without loss of quality;
- A library of presets for different business niches;
- Enhancement of color, tone, and image quality while maintaining size;
- Comprehensive image processing;
- A special algorithm for portraits and digital paintings.
In addition to this, the service offers image generation based on text descriptions.
Did you know that AI tools can generate new images from the text? Check it out in our article!
BigJPG
Let’s continue with our best AI image enhancer, BigJPG. Its entire functionality is limited to an image upload window and a “Start” button. After adding an image, you will be prompted to select its type (photo or drawing), as well as what you want to do with it:
- Scaling – 2x and 4x can be done for free, while 8x and 16x require a subscription;
- Noise reduction – five levels of cleaning are available, from preserving the original to the highest.
The free version has several limitations: you can process only 20 images per month with a maximum size of 5 MB and low speed. Offline upscaling and processing history are available upon registration – you can confidently close the browser.
The paid subscription has three levels:
- Basic – $6, 2 months, 500 images per month;
- Standard – $12, 6 months, 1000 images per month;
- Premium – $22, 1 year, 2000 images per month.
There are no other differences: all subscribed users gain access to a high-speed server, higher image processing priority, with a maximum image size of 50 MB. Payment can be made through PayPal, WeChat or AliPay.
waifu2x
An AI image enhancer similar in functionality to the previous one, waifu2x, was initially created for the Japanese audience and aimed at improving the quality of anime-style images.
Later, the service added the capability to process regular photos.
The limitations for images that can be either uploaded or added via a link include a maximum size of 5 MB, noise reduction in five levels up to 3000×3000 pixels, and scaling at 1.6x and 4x up to 1500×1500 pixels. For the best result, you should choose the image type as either a drawing or a photo. Registration is not required to use the service, but you will need to deal with a CAPTCHA each time before processing a photo.
You can support the project on Patreon or Fantia.jp.
By the way, if you need to improve the quality of your videos, here is a list of 10 AI Video Enhancers to Improve Video Quality
Neural Love
Another participant in our top list is the Neural Love AI image enhancer, whose users have already generated over 26 million images. As stated on the main website page “no installation of software or a powerful computer is required” for this.
The distinctive feature of the service is the ability to enhance not only images but also videos with audio. There is also a separate button for portraits.
Access is granted through credits: with a subscription, the initial package of 100 credits costs 10 euros, 5000 (plus 1250 as a gift) will cost 500 euros. In addition, credits can be purchased in batches, but the price will be almost twice as high.
If you want something unique, you can generate content in one of the suggested categories: fantasy, anime, cyberpunk, nature, and many others.
Cre8tiveAI
Cre8tive is an AI image enhancer that has “revolutionized photo and video processing” and “is suitable for all creative individuals”, not just designers and photographers who know how to work with specialized software.
The website of the AI image enhancer offers a variety of options for image processing by categories:
- Photo enhancement;
- Portrait enhancement;
- Creating icons with character faces;
- Creating full-body images;
- Adapting images to the style of famous artists;
- Colorization;
- Image size reduction without quality loss.
In addition, they claim to add options such as object removal from photos, HDR conversion, image layer separation, and introducing new AI features.
Unfortunately, all these options are available in full with a subscription, starting at $48 per month. This includes credits for individual services and cloud storage for images. The maximum tariff costs $800. Additionally, there is an option to purchase only the needed options for $4.99 each.
Colorize.cc
An AI image enhancer, Colorize.cc “helps preserve family memories” by coloring videos, restoring photos, removing folds, stains, scratches, noise, and facial blurriness. On the website, you can also recreate a portrait from any photo, even of poor quality.
There are three tariffs (600, 1990, and 7990 rubles), each of which provides storage of content in a secure cloud, enhanced colorization, access to restoration, and the ability to enhance a specific number of photos. In more expensive subscriptions, there are portrait generation and on-demand image scaling.
Vance AI
Another service offering a variety of features is Vance AI. In addition to the usual functionality such as improving photo quality, upscaling them up to 4k, removing backgrounds, and restoring old photos with subsequent colorization, you can also remove artifacts, noise, make portraits sharper, and compress images online without loss of quality.
so in this example, the photos are from the official website of the AI image enhancer.
One interesting feature is the Cartoonizer algorithm, which can turn a regular photo into a sketch or something cartoonishly animated. In addition to this, there is a set of tools for image editing.
The payment system is the same as on other services. 100 credits cost $4.95, and 1000 credits cost $17.95. A subscription eliminates watermarks, allows you to upload “heavy” images and process multiple of them simultaneously, and also provides access to round-the-clock technical support.
The popularity of artificial intelligence is undeniable, as they enable the generation of various types of content, including nude images. So we made an article about 9 AI nudes generators for you.
Al Image Enlarger
The last participant in our top list is the Al Image Enlarger service. On the AI image enhancer’s website, you will find many image processing tools that do their job “safely, quickly and easily”.
Users have access to:
- Image enlargement and scaling in batches by 200%, 400%, and 800%;
- Enhancing cartoon images up to 16k (the best alternative to waifu2x);
- Improving color rendering and white balance;
- Increasing image sharpness;
- Removing noise, artifacts, and blurriness;
- Background removal;
- Portrait enhancement mode;
- Colorization;
- A magic eraser that removes unwanted objects and watermarks.
There is a paid subscription available for both a month and a year. The differences lie in the price, the number of photos that can be processed, and some technical aspects of the output photos, such as maximum resolution and processing speed.
How AI image enhancers are already being used to improve the quality of photos
AI image enhancers are becoming increasingly integrated into our lives. What used to require extensive learning and expensive applications can now be accessed with just two or three clicks by virtually anyone.
Enhancing the quality of photos using AI image enhancers is one of the simplest applications. In addition to this, they assist in object recognition in images (such as extracting text for editing) and classifying photos based on specific parameters. Analyzing X-ray images using AI aids doctors in their work. Satellite photos are also processed by AI image enhancers to locate specific objects, such as areas ideal for solar panel placement.
In everyday settings, AI image enhancers are used for colorizing black and white photos, altering styles (e.g., turning photos into cartoons), generating images based on descriptions (e.g., for unique blog content) or removing backgrounds.
In general, there’s almost an AI image enhancer tailored to each task that can handle it exceptionally well.
