A pay-once alternative to Topaz for Mac
Prices checked on the vendors' own pages on November 9, 2026. Local Upscale Studio is in development.
In September 2025 Topaz Labs stopped selling perpetual licences. Topaz Video is now $299 a year and Topaz Gigapixel, its photo upscaler, $149 a year. If you upscale both photos and video, that is $448 every year, and each needs a Mac with at least 16 GB of memory.
Topaz makes excellent software, and for professional work it may be worth that. But plenty of people only want to rescue old family videos, sharpen scans, or clean up phone footage a few times a year. For them a subscription is the wrong shape.
Why Studio exists
- Pay once. $49 at launch, rising to $79 when version 1.0 ships. Updates for this version are included.
- Photos and video in one app. Not two products, not two subscriptions.
- Made for the Mac. Built in Swift for Apple silicon by the developer of Local Photo Upscaler and Local Video Upscaler, which already run on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
- Picks a model your Mac can run. A short test on first launch chooses the model for each mode, so a 16 GB MacBook Air isn't handed a model built for a workstation. You can override it.
- Nothing is uploaded. No account, no cloud credits.
How the options compare
The prices people actually pay today. Several vendors show a higher "original" price crossed out next to a permanent sale price; we list the price charged.
| App | How you pay | Price | Photos | Video | Native Mac app |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Upscale Studio | Once | $49 launch, then $79 | Yes | Yes | Yes (in development) |
| Topaz Video | Subscription | $299/year | No | Yes | Yes, M-series, 16 GB minimum |
| Topaz Gigapixel | Subscription | $149/year | Yes | No | Yes, 16 GB minimum |
| Aiarty Video Enhancer | Once | $165 (3 Macs) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Aiarty Image Enhancer | Once | $109 (3 Macs) | Yes | No | Yes |
| VideoProc Converter AI | Once or yearly | $54.95 once (1 Mac) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI | Once, yearly or monthly | $149.90 once | No | Yes | Yes, M-series |
| UniFab Video Upscaler AI | Once | $84.99 (sale; $129.99 list) | No | Yes | Yes |
| HitPaw VikPea | Once, yearly or monthly | About $285–$350 once | No | Yes | Yes |
| Upscayl | Free, open source | Free | Yes | No | Yes |
| Video2X | Free, open source | Free | No | Yes | No (Windows and Linux) |
"Photos" and "Video" mean the app itself upscales that kind of file. Prices are in US dollars for the Mac version, before tax. Vendors change prices often; check their pages before you buy. Studio's column describes what is being built.
Three years of upscaling
- Topaz Video and Gigapixel: $1,344 ($448 a year).
- Topaz Video alone: $897.
- Local Upscale Studio: $49 once at launch.
What we won't claim yet
We haven't published speed or quality comparisons, because the app isn't finished and we haven't measured it on ordinary Macs. When we do, we'll show real before-and-after results and say which Mac each number came from. Topaz has more models and features than Studio will at launch, such as frame interpolation and cloud rendering. If you need those, Topaz is the better choice.
Questions
I already own a perpetual Topaz licence. Does it stop working? No. Topaz's CEO said existing perpetual licences stay valid. You just can't buy new ones.
Are the free tools good enough? Often, yes. Upscayl is a good free photo upscaler. Video2X is free for video but has no Mac app. What Studio adds is photo and video in one Mac app, several models with Fast and Quality modes, and the machine check.
Is this a subscription in disguise? No. You pay once. A future major version may be a paid upgrade, and the version you bought keeps working.
Sources
- Topaz Video pricing and requirements: topazlabs.com/topaz-video, system requirements
- Topaz Gigapixel: topazlabs.com/gigapixel, system requirements
- End of perpetual licences: "Topaz Studio: Message from the CEO", September 2025
- Aiarty: aiarty.com/store.htm
- VideoProc Converter AI: videoproc.com buy page
- AVCLabs: avclabs.com Mac purchase page
- UniFab: unifab.ai/promotion.htm
- HitPaw VikPea: hitpaw.com Mac purchase page
- Upscayl: github.com/upscayl/upscayl; Video2X: github.com/k4yt3x/video2x
Topaz Labs, Topaz Video and Gigapixel are trademarks of Topaz Labs. All other names are trademarks of their owners. Local Upscale Studio is not affiliated with any of them.