If you’re a creative mind, you’ve probably heard of Topaz Labs in some capacity. This company is known for its powerful suite of photo editing software, and now they’re using artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline video editing too.
Whether you’re searching for a way to improve your videos without reshooting clips or are just browsing around for a new software tool to use, Topaz Video AI is one of the best options on the market.
But is it the right software for you and your videos? I took a deep dive into the software to find out if the software was worth it and had all the best features. Here’s my honest Topaz Video AI review.
Verdict: 4/5. The undisputed king of video upscaling and restoration, with results nothing else matches. Slow renders and subscription pricing are the price of admission. Best for: restoring old footage and upscaling to 4K.
2026 Update: Two Renames and a New Pricing Model
A quick orientation before the review, because this product has changed names twice and changed its pricing model completely since launch.
The name: the software launched as Video Enhance AI, became Topaz Video AI in 2022, and since 2025 Topaz officially calls it simply Topaz Video. Same product line, same team, progressively shorter names. I’ll call it Topaz Video AI throughout this review, since that’s the name most people search for and most tutorials use.
The pricing: the old deal ($299 once, with a year of updates) was discontinued in October 2025 when Topaz Labs ended perpetual licenses across all its apps. Topaz Video is now subscription only, sold standalone or as part of the Topaz Studio bundle at $399 per year alongside Topaz Photo and Gigapixel. If you bought a perpetual license before the cutoff, it keeps working forever but is frozen at your last entitled version; new AI models require a subscription. Full details in the pricing section below.
What is Topaz Video AI?
What exactly is Topaz Video AI? It’s a software application that comes from the minds at Topaz Labs. The program uses AI technology to enhance and upscale the quality of video files.
The program is built with advanced AI algorithms that help analyze and understand everything that’s already in the video before applying enhancements that make sense based on the content.
Some of the enhancements that the software might apply to videos include adjusting the resolution, details, sharpness, and overall quality of the video so that it looks better to viewers.
Topaz Video AI and Its Impact on Videography Workflow
Topaz Video AI’s impact on videography workflow is substantial.
It’s helped artists streamline their workflow by spending less time editing and more time shooting and getting the products to their clients or ready for publishing.
It’s helped photographers and videographers enhance the details of the video without spending hours on end adjusting various aspects one by one.
Overall, this software’s impact on the video world is significant, and it may only continue to make a difference for those who use the program for their work.
Topaz Video AI Specifications: Minimum and Recommended
When you’re considering adding any new editing software to your computer, ensuring that you have the proper hardware for it to run well can mean the difference between a terrible experience and a great one. Fair warning: video AI models are dramatically hungrier than their photo equivalents, and this software will use every bit of hardware you can throw at it.
Minimum Requirements for Mac
On the Mac side, the practical minimum in 2026 is an Apple Silicon machine (M1 or newer) with 16 GB of unified memory. Older Intel Macs can technically run it, but render times become genuinely painful. The good news is that Topaz Video is extremely well optimized for Apple Silicon, and even a base M-series MacBook punches above its weight here.
Minimum Requirements for Windows
On Windows, you’ll want Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and, non-negotiably, a dedicated GPU. An NVIDIA RTX-class card with at least 6 to 8 GB of VRAM is the realistic floor; the software runs on less, but renders slow to a crawl. Topaz updates its published minimums as models evolve, so check the current requirements on the Topaz site before buying, especially for older machines.
Recommended Hardware for Optimal Performance
The minimums will run the software, but video AI rewards horsepower more than almost any other creative tool. For comfortable render times you want:
- Operating System: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) or current macOS
- Processor: Intel Core i7 / AMD Ryzen 7 or higher, or Apple Silicon (M1 Pro and up shine here)
- RAM: 16 GB minimum, 32 GB recommended
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX series with 8 GB or more of VRAM, or a recent AMD equivalent
- Disk Space: a fast SSD with plenty of headroom; upscaled video files get big quickly
It’s important to note that you will need a strong internet connection to download the software onto your computer. Remember, even with the recommended specifications, how well the software will run on your computer might be different from someone else’s. If your machine is due for an upgrade anyway, our guide to the best computers for photo editing covers hardware that handles AI video work too. And if your hardware simply can’t keep up, Topaz now offers cloud rendering that runs the heavy models on their servers instead.
Topaz Video AI: The Pros and Cons
As someone who’s played around with the Topaz Video AI software, there were a lot of things to love about it, but nothing is perfect, so there were some shortcomings. Here are what I would deem the pros and cons of the Topaz Video AI software to help you decide if it’s something you think is worth trying.
What Topaz Video AI Excels At
Everyone will have their own opinion on what they think the software did well at what it didn’t, but these are the things I believe Topaz Video AI excelled at:
- Detail Enhancement: Topaz Video AI goes frame by frame to analyze the video for where improvement in detail enhancement can be made. It did a pretty good job with this; nothing it suggested looked weird or unnatural.
- Restoration of Low-Quality and Old Videos: The AI algorithm of this tool is built to enhance the resolution of low-quality videos and older ones. It can help you bring older videos back to life without deteriorating the images.
- Upscaling and Resolution Enhancement: This is the main thing the tool excels at, in my opinion. It can quickly increase the resolution of the video without compromising on the visual quality. It creates new pixels and other enhancement details with ease.
- Noise Reduction: The denoising capabilities of Topaz Video AI stood out as some of the best. It was easy to do and compressed artifacts easily without distorting other parts of the video.
- Preserves Natural Motion: Unlike other video editing software, this one did an excellent job protecting the natural motion the video already has. The temporal techniques allowed for original flow, and it doesn’t turn out to look overly AI or unlike the original video.
- It’s User-Friendly: The interface that Topaz released for this video editing software was one of the most user-friendly ones I’ve used. Importing videos, applying enhancements, and choosing from preset customizations was easy.
The Shortcomings of Topaz Video AI
As many things as there are to love about the Topaz Video AI, there were a few things that I think could use improvements or are generally just not worth it. The shortcomings of this software include the following:
- Hardware Requirements: While I didn’t struggle with the hardware requirements, I think they’re pretty tricky for many people to have. Even the minimum requirements that aren’t difficult to meet won’t run as well as higher specifications.
- Processing Time: I found the processing time to be overly time-consuming. While running it through the AI detection process didn’t take too long, the changes it would suggest took a lot longer than you would think it would work for a high-quality AI editing tool.
- User Control: Despite the user-friendly interface, it did take a little bit of getting used to when working with the platform. It requires a bit of trial and error, which, if you have the time, you might not have an issue with this.
- Over Enhancement: While the enhancement tool is one of the best things about the software, it sometimes tried to over-enhance the video to the point it looked weird and unnatural. You’ll have to tweak the settings to adjust this.
- Quality Limitations: The software does a pretty good job of enhancing the quality of videos, but it still has its limitations. It can’t magically create a perfectly clear video from a blurry one, so setting realistic expectations for the software is important.
- Source Content Limitations: I found the software works best with standard video footage. In my opinion, it didn’t do nearly as well with more artistic styles of videos, heavily edited video clips, or computer-generated images, but you might disagree.
Is Topaz Video AI for You?
With so many video editing software on the market, knowing which one to purchase and use for your videos can feel challenging.
That’s why it helps to read reviews from people who’ve tried the software to see if you can determine if it’s right for you. Remember that your experience with a specific software won’t always be the same as everyone else’s. You have to read reviews and often try the software yourself.
Why You Should Consider Topaz Video AI
There are many reasons why you should consider using Topaz Video AI for your video editing process. The main explanations you might want to consider implementing this software into your editing repertoire include the following:
- It has a user-friendly interface.
- Produces high-quality videos
- It can save you a lot of time.
- It can restore older video footage.
- You have more flexibility and customization options.
- Topaz offers regular software updates with new features.
- You have ongoing support from Topaz Labs’ customer service.
Why Topaz Video AI May Not Be Your Best Choice
Despite having some excellent features, there are some reasons why you might not want to invest your money and time into working with Topaz Video AI. Besides the shortcomings I mentioned earlier, these are the main reasons this won’t be your best choice.
Topaz Video AI has very specific computer requirements that allow the software to not only run but run smoothly on your computer. For those with an outdated computer or one that doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, this software won’t be worth it.
Not meeting the minimum requirements will cause the software to either not work at all on your computer, or if you manage to get it downloaded, it will malfunction when you try to use it. You’ll want to put off trying this software until you get a more updated computer or a new one with the recommended hardware specifications.
While Topaz Video AI is an excellent tool for people to enhance their video footage, if you consider yourself someone with a lot of experience in Adobe Premiere Pro, then you might not find this software useful.
It has some great features, but Premiere Pro is more comprehensive, and if you have the skillset and know how to work with Adobe well, then spending your money on this additional software isn’t worth it for you.
For anyone with more editing experience, going with a tool other than Premiere might seem like a downgrade. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it, though. In fact, as of 2026 you no longer have to choose: Topaz ships a plugin that runs its models directly inside Premiere Pro, which we cover in the integrations section below.
Last but not least, if you consider yourself a purist, then there’s n