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Real-ESRGAN vs Icons8 Smart Upscaler: catalog facts
Real-ESRGAN	Icons8 Smart Upscaler
Free Free and open source under the BSD-3-Clause license.	Freemium Pricing is not detailed in the research; an API is offered alongside the web tool.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	macOS, Web
Dedicated model variants tuned for anime versus photo content BSD-licensed and widely reused inside other tools and GUIs	Up to 8x enlargement Batch processing
Core project is a command-line library rather than a polished GUI app No repository update reflected since mid-2024	No Windows or mobile app mentioned Images are processed on Icons8 servers in the web version
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Downloadable app, Web application
Open source	Closed source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.