Ever disappointed with the level of detail in an image? Topaz Labs have your back. In this Topaz Gigapixel AI review, we show you how to get detail back and make your photos bigger!
You must have been in a couple of situations where you wished that the image you were working with was a tad bit larger. Well, enlarging an image is not an impossible task but the compromise that we need to make renders the effort not so worth it. We lose a massive amount of details and image clarity in the final enlarged image.
Ideal enlargement of images was thus just not possible until Topaz Labs came out with their Topaz Gigapixel AI software. Topaz has designed this software to make impressive use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to accurately and realistically enlarge any image up to six times the original size. And that too while maintaining the details and sharpness.
Verdict: 4/5. Still the gold standard for pure image upscaling, and the newer generative models border on magic. Subscription pricing and overlap with Photo AI’s Upscale tool mean it isn’t for everyone. Best for: photographers who print big and restore old photos.
2026 Update: New Name, New Models, New Pricing
This software has been quietly renamed twice: it launched as AI Gigapixel back in 2018, spent years as Gigapixel AI, and Topaz now officially calls it simply Topaz Gigapixel. Same product, steadily improving.
And it really has improved. The current generation ships with a stable of specialized AI models for different image types, including newer generative models that can reconstruct detail in ways the original versions simply couldn’t. Very small or very damaged source images that used to produce mushy results now come out startlingly clean. There’s even a Gigapixel iOS app now, and a cloud rendering option for the heaviest generative models.
The pricing changed too, and not in buyers’ favor. In October 2025 Topaz Labs discontinued perpetual licenses across all its apps, so the old buy-once price you may remember is gone. Topaz Gigapixel is now subscription only, standalone at around $149 per year, or as part of the Topaz Studio bundle at $399 per year alongside Topaz Photo and Topaz Video. One naming trap to avoid: today’s “Topaz Studio” is that bundle, not the old Topaz Studio 2 editing suite, which was discontinued years ago. If you bought a perpetual Gigapixel license before the cutoff, it keeps working, but new AI models require a subscription.
One honest buying note before you subscribe: Gigapixel’s upscaling engine is the same technology that powers the Upscale tool inside Topaz Photo AI. Gigapixel is the deeper tool for upscaling specialists, with more models and finer control. But if your images also need denoising and sharpening (and most images that need upscaling do), Photo AI or the Studio bundle is usually the better value. Our full Topaz Photo AI review covers that side of the fence.
Topaz Gigapixel AI overview
Topaz Gigapixel AI is a one-stop solution when it comes to enlarging full-sized images either for larger prints or for restoring your older low-resolution images. Most of the traditional upscaling methods work by interpolating the existing information and by increasing edge contrast to make the image appear sharp. But, Topaz claims that Gigapixel works differently. It increases the actual sharpness of the upscaled photo by recovering real detail in the image. This has been possible through training and exposure to millions of test images[1].
As you’ll see further in my review, the results that we get out of the software are stunningly detailed and in some cases even better than the original photo. That’s due to the software recreating the details with the help of its AI feature.
Like with any other software from Topaz Labs, the interface is clean, intuitive, and quite easy to understand and use. And if you have a whole lot of images that you want to enlarge at once, that’s easy too, thanks to the batch processing feature that’s built into this software.
Working with Topaz Gigapixel AI
Gigapixel began life as standalone-only software, but that’s another thing the years have fixed: current versions also install as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, so you can send an image out for upscaling without leaving your editor. I still mostly run it standalone, especially for batch jobs.
Once you launch the software, you will notice that the software provides three different resize modes that you can use to resize any image. The Scale option is quite simple. You simply click on the factor by which you want to increase or decrease the size of the image. By default, the software allows you to multiply the resolution of the image anywhere from 0.5x up to 6x the size of the image. You can either use one of the pre-defined factors or even type in your own.
If you need precisely the width or height of the final image, then I suggest using the resizing by width or height method. When using these methods, you can simply enter the exact width or height that you need the final image to have and the software will scale the image accordingly while maintaining the aspect ratio.
When enlarging an image, a common issue that we come across is how the noise in the original image gets exaggerated while the details get blurred out. Topaz Gigapixel AI does a great job of handling both these issues and allows further refinement with the Suppress Noise and Remove Blur controls.
In my experience, I found that working with the Auto-detect Settings enabled provided a good starting point to fine-tune the image. I would then tweak the noise and blur sliders gradually to find the perfect balance.
Another feature in Topaz Gigapixel that I was really excited about was the Face Refinement feature. Topaz Labs software can recognize faces in the image as small as 16×16 px and upscale with details well preserved. The software did an excellent job of enlarging my 4000 x 6000 px portrait with a 4x scale even with the face refinement option turned off. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t notice any significant benefit of enabling this option. The image came out great whatsoever.
Notice the difference when I enlarged a portrait that already had a resolution of 4000 x 6000px by a scale of 4. The resulting image came out to be way better than expected. However, since the original image itself was 24MP, it took the computer quite a bit of time to complete the processing. But in cases with original files having a low resolution, processing time was never an issue.
By the way, if your quality problems are in footage rather than stills, the same technology exists for video: our Topaz Video AI review covers the moving-picture sibling. And for the wider field of AI editing tools, see our roundup of the best AI photo editors.
Final verdict on Topaz Gigapixel AI
Topaz has never failed to impress me with its fantastic array of software. They deliver what they promise and the results are totally out of this world. It’s as if they use some kind of magic. And Topaz Gigapixel is no exception to that. I don’t know how they do it, but Gigapixel does an outstanding job of recreating details when enlarging an image.
Whether you have a collection of old low-resolution photos that you want to “re-master” or if you want to make larger prints of your photos, you will love what Topaz Gigapixel AI can do for you. If you are interested in using the software, you can try it free in demo mode from the Topaz Labs website before committing to the subscription, which is exactly what I’d recommend: run your own worst photo through it and let the result make the decision.
[1] https://topazlabs.com/gigapixel-ai/
BUONASERA, l applicazione è veramente fantastica grazie.