Generative upscale

Generative upscaling increases image resolution with diffusion models.

It works for any input image, not only generated ones.

Use it for photos, product shots, scans, illustrations, and AI-generated images when you want more texture and more detail than regular upscale can recover.

Generative upscale can slightly change the image. It may add or reinterpret small details. Keep it off when exact source fidelity matters most.

Parameters

Parameter	What it does
generative_upscale	Turns on diffusion-based upscaling. Use true when you want a richer and more detailed result.
upscale_strength	Controls how strongly the generative part affects the image. Lower values stay closer to standard upscale. Higher values push a stronger effect.

If you only set width or height, the other dimension is calculated automatically. For more about sizing rules, see Resize and padding.

upscale_strength levels

Think about upscale_strength as a style dial.

Values 1 to 3 stay closest to standard upscale.

Values 4 to 6 are a more balanced middle ground.

Values 7 to 9 push the strongest generative effect.

Value	In plain words
1	Most conservative option with cleanup. Good when you want a tidier image with minimal reinterpretation.
2	Bicubic resize without generative influence. Simple and conservative.
3	Pure upscale_4 path. Best when you want a safer result.
4	Balanced and cleaner. Useful for older photos, web images, and mild compression artifacts.
5	A solid default when you want detail without going too far.
6	Balanced direct upscale with a lighter generative touch.
7	Strong effect with cleanup. Good for messy or compressed inputs.
8	Starts from bicubic resize, then lets the generative model do heavy lifting.
9	Most AI-driven version of direct 4x upscale. Good when you want extra texture and detail.

Let's check the 320×213 example

Upscaled with strength 1:

and with strength = 9

Upscale any image

This example upscales a regular input image.

{
    "url": "https://deep-image.ai/api-example.png",
    "width": 3000,
    "generative_upscale": true,
    "upscale_strength": 5
}

Use a lower upscale_strength when you want to stay closer to the original image.

Use a higher upscale_strength when you want a stronger stylized result.

Prompt-guided generative upscale

You can also guide the upscale with a prompt.

This is useful when you want the model to push specific textures or visual mood during the upscale.

{
    "url": "https://deep-image.ai/api-example.png",
    "width": 2048,
    "height": 1024,
    "generative_upscale": true,
    "upscale_strength": 4,
    "background": {
        "generate": {
            "adapter_type": "upscale",
            "description": "small cottage and cows eating grass on the green fields. Sunset."
        }
    }
}

For more about prompt-based generation fields, see Image generation.

Example result with generative upscale enabled.