Pros
- ✓ Incredible detail hallucination
- ✓ Great for AI art finishing
- ✓ Creative control
Cons
- ✗ Expensive
- ✗ Can look plastic
- ✗ Slow generation
The most powerful creative upscaler on the market, provided you can afford the entry fee.
Most upscalers (like Topaz Gigapixel) try to be faithful to the original image. They sharpen edges and remove noise. Magnific AI does something radically different: it hallucinates.
It uses a process called “latent upscaling” to dream up new details—pores on skin, threads in fabric, leaves on trees—that weren’t in the source file. It’s not restoring your photo; it’s re-imagining it at a higher resolution.
After two weeks of testing the Pro plan ($39/mo), here is our verdict.
Updated November 2025: Magnific released Precision v2 with content-aware adjustments for photographic, commercial, and archival images.
The “Creativity” Slider
The heart of Magnific is the Creativity slider, which ranges from 0 to 10.
- Creativity 0-2: Functions like a standard, very high-quality upscaler. It cleans up artifacts but keeps the image identical.
- Creativity 3-5: The “sweet spot.” It adds texture and realism. A blurry render becomes a 4K photo.
- Creativity 6-10: Pure chaos/magic. It might turn a blurry blob in the background into a detailed alien spaceship. Use with caution.
Key Features
1. Style Transfer
You can prompt Magnific. If you upload a sketch and prompt “hyperrealistic photograph, 8k,” it will attempt to upscale the sketch into a photo. It’s effectively Image-to-Image generation at a massive scale.
2. Fractality
A unique parameter that controls how “dense” the new details are. High fractality is great for intricate jewelry or sci-fi landscapes; low fractality is better for portraits (unless you want to see every single skin cell).
The Cons
❌ Price: It is expensive. The plans start at roughly $39/mo, which is steep compared to Midjourney ($10/mo Basic plan, $30/mo Standard) or Krea AI (Free tier with 50 daily generations + $10/mo Basic plan).
❌ The “Plastic” Look: If you push the settings too high, images can take on a distinctively “AI, over-sharpened” look. It requires finesse to get natural results.
❌ Speed: It is slow. A 2x upscale can take 2-3 minutes depending on server load.
Comparison vs. Competitors
| Feature | Magnific AI | Topaz Photo AI | Krea AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technology | Generative Hallucination | Discriminative Restoration | Real-time Latent |
| Best For | AI Art, Creative Upscaling | Photography Restoration | Speed, Web Use |
| Adds Detail? | ✅ Yes (Massive) | ❌ No (Faithful) | ✅ Yes (Moderate) |
| Price | $$$ ($39+) | $$ ($199/year (subscription)) | $ (Free tier with 50 daily generations + $10/mo Basic plan) |
Verdict: Who is it for?
Magnific AI is essential for:
- AI Artists: If you generate with Midjourney or Flux, Magnific is the final polish that makes your work look “pro.”
- Print Designers: If you need to print an AI image on a billboard, this is the only tool that creates believable density at that scale.
Skip it if:
- You are a Photographer: Stick to Topaz. Magnific will alter your subject’s face too much.
- You are on a budget: Krea AI is a fantastic “Magnific Lite” alternative for a fraction of the cost.
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ One of the most powerful creative upscaling tools available, provided you can afford the entry fee.