Magnific vs Upscayl

Magnific and Upscayl side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.

At a glance

Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.

Key differences

Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.

Magnific has the lower starting price ($14.50/mo against $24.99/mo for Upscayl). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.

Both are in our Image Generation category.

About each tool

M

Magnific

AI creative platform (formerly Freepik) for image, video, audio and 3D generation, upscaling and editing, with a stock library. Premium is $14.50 a month billed annually ($20 monthly).

Who it is for

Individual creatives, design and marketing teams, and enterprises that want AI generation and stock content in one place. The company describes it as a place where creative teams build, edit, upscale and refine visual content.

Strengths

• Magnific lists image, video, audio and 3D generation, plus upscaling, background removal and image and video editors
• It lists Spaces (shared workspaces), Brand Kit, an API, an MCP connection, plugins, a ComfyUI integration and a desktop app
• The Business plan covers 2 to 100 seats with shared credits, Admin, Editor and Viewer roles and central billing
• Magnific lists an Enterprise tier with SSO and custom terms
• Paid plans from Premium include a commercial license without attribution

Limitations

• Credits are metered per action, and Magnific says it may change credit costs at any time without notice. Its docs give approximate costs, for example image generation from about 5 credits and short video clips about 200 credits or more
• Extra credit packs need Premium+, Pro or Business. They expire 3 years after purchase and are forfeited if the subscription is cancelled
• Magnific's pages disagree on credit expiry and on whether Premium has unlimited generation, so we do not state either

Magnific profileVisit site ↗

U

Upscayl

AI image upscaler: free open-source desktop app plus Upscayl Cloud, priced by credits. Cloud Pro lists $24.99 for 300 credits a month (billing basis not stated).

Who it is for

The desktop app suits people who want to upscale images on their own computer and have a Vulkan-compatible GPU. Upscayl Cloud suits people who want to upscale from a browser, phone or tablet without that hardware and accept paying by credits.

Strengths

• The GitHub page lists the desktop app as free and open source under AGPL-3.0, for Linux, macOS 12+ and Windows 10+.
• The site says the desktop app upscales up to 16x, with multiple AI models, batch processing and a Double Upscayl mode that upscales an image twice; GitHub also lists custom models and a command-line tool (upscayl-ncnn).
• The privacy policy says images are not used to train AI models, and the terms say you retain full ownership of your content.
• The pricing page lists Pro with 300 credits a month, credit rollover while subscribed, priority support, upscaling up to 256MP, AI image generation and free access to new features and models.
• The credit selector offers 100, 300, 500, 1,000, 2,500 and 5,000 credits a month, so the subscription size can be changed.
• The terms list refund eligibility for duplicate or incorrect charges and for verified technical issues that blocked use of purchased credits, with requests typically reviewed in 3 to 5 business days.

Limitations

• The Cloud free trial is 10 credits and requires filling out a trial application; no trial length is listed, and the pricing page gives no per-image credit costs.
• The pricing page shows Pro at $24.99 without saying whether that is the monthly or annual rate, and it marks the Annual toggle 'Up to 40% Off' without listing annual prices. Business (up to 512MP) shows no price and is marked 'Not available for 300 credits'.
• The terms say subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel in account settings, and that unused credits after you cancel or renew, promotional or free credits, and dissatisfaction with output are not refundable. The pricing page says credits are lost on cancellation and history is lost after 1 month.
• Storage wording differs across pages: the homepage says 'unlimited' cloud storage, the pricing page says '6 months unlimited storage' for Pro, and the privacy policy says uploads are kept up to 1 day and outputs 180 days (AWS S3). The pricing FAQ answers did not load, and neither the terms nor the other pages read address commercial use of outputs.

Upscayl profileVisit site ↗

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