Upscayl vs Topaz Gigapixel: free vs paid AI upscaling for game art
Side-by-side from each vendor's own pricing and terms pages, checked 2026-10-15. Prices shown exactly as displayed (promos and billing period noted).
The licence question first
- Upscayl: free tier: commercial use allowed. Paid: n/a (n/a (desktop app has no paid tier)). Details
- Topaz Gigapixel: free tier: n/a. Paid: commercial use allowed with conditions (Pricing page: 'Limited commercial use*: Personal and commercial use for orgs under $1M USD annual revenue'). Details
| Upscayl | Topaz Gigapixel | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Desktop app is free and open source (AGPL-3.0); runs locally | not stated |
| Paid price (as shown) | Free (desktop); Upscayl Cloud is a separate paid service (prices not verified) | Gigapixel Personal $29/mo; Topaz Studio (all apps) $69/mo |
| Credits / cost per asset | not stated | Unlimited local and cloud image rendering |
| Licence: free tier | App licence is GNU AGPL v3.0, which covers the software, not your images; it places no restriction on using images you upscale | n/a (no free tier listed) |
| Licence: paid | n/a (desktop app has no paid tier) | Pricing page: 'Limited commercial use*: Personal and commercial use for orgs under $1M USD annual revenue' |
| Export / engines | Desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux; PNG/JPG/WEBP output | Desktop app; local and cloud rendering |
| Engine integrations | not stated | not stated |
| API / MCP | unverified | API listed in site footer |
| IP indemnity | No vendor IP indemnity found in the terms | Not reviewed yet |
| Affiliate | not stated | not stated |
Sources
- https://upscayl.org
- https://github.com/upscayl/upscayl/blob/main/LICENSE
- https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel
- https://docs.topazlabs.com/sales-account-licensing/before-you-buy/terms
Get the weekly what-changed email
Price changes, licence changes and new AI game-dev tools, pulled from tracked vendor pages every week. Free.
Form not loading? Subscribe on beehiiv.