Image
Restore old and damaged photos
Upload an old or damaged photo and restore it to a clean, sharp version.
For the best results: Upload your old or damaged photo and the AI will repair scratches, fading, and discoloration. For best results, scan the original rather than re-photographing it.
What is Photo Restoration?
Photo Restoration is a free AI image generation tool that repairs old or damaged photos, restoring scratches, fading, and blur to a clean, sharp result. Behind the box, your prompt is matched to a capable image model automatically, returning a repaired, cleaned-up version of your old or damaged photo with scratches, creases, spotting and fading reduced and missing areas plausibly rebuilt, returned sharp enough to print or add to a family album in seconds. Nothing is gated behind a sign-up, and the prompts and uploads you provide are used for your result and then dropped when the session ends.
- ✦Generate without creating an account, open the page and describe
- ✦Requests route automatically to a capable image model
- ✦Uploads and prompts are not stored once your session ends
Models: It runs on leading image models including the FLUX and Gemini image families, chosen automatically for your request. The exact model used is shown after every response.
See it in action
A family is preparing photos for a grandparent's anniversary slideshow.
What you type
[Uploads a creased, faded 1950s wedding portrait] Repair the creases and fading, keep the skin tones natural.
What you get
Returns a cleaned-up version: the deep crease across the middle smoothed away, faded areas brought back to an even tone, faces sharper and skin looking natural, close enough to print for an album without looking artificial.
Tip: If only part of the photo matters, a face, the couple in the middle, crop to that before restoring, so the tool spends its effort on the detail you actually care about rather than a large damaged border.
Examples
What you can make
Who uses Photo Restoration?
Family historians
reviving creased, faded grandparents' portraits so they print cleanly for an anniversary album or memorial slideshow
Genealogy researchers
sharpening a barely legible old photograph enough to make out faces and details while building a family tree
Local museums
cleaning up water-stained archival prints for an exhibition panel or heritage display without sending them to a specialist
How it works
- 1Describe the visual you want, or upload a photo to work from.
- 2An image model matched to your request generates the picture.
- 3Download the result, or refine the description and generate again.
Example prompts to try
Restore this 1950s wedding portrait, repair creases, natural skin tones, soft studio lighting
Clean up this faded holiday snapshot, remove scratches, revive gentle warm colors
Repair this torn family photo, rebuild missing corner, keep faces true and sharp
Colorize this black-and-white school portrait, believable tones, preserve the original expression
Fix this water-stained print, reduce spotting, recover background detail, keep it authentic
Tips for the best results
- Scan or photograph the old print in bright, even light and fill the frame, since the tool can only restore detail it can actually see.
- Lay the photo flat and avoid glare or finger shadows across the surface, which restoration can mistake for damage.
- Ask for colorization separately when you want it, and treat the added colors as a tasteful guess rather than the true originals.
- For a badly torn photo, expect a believable reconstruction of missing areas rather than a perfect recovery of lost faces.
- Restore first, then run the result through the Image Upscaler if you need it larger for framing or printing.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What's the best way to get my old photo into the tool?
Scan it if you can; photograph it if you can't. Either way: flat, evenly lit, no glare, filling as much of the frame as possible. The restoration can only work with what your capture shows it, a skewed, shadowed phone photo of a print bakes those problems in before the restoration even starts.
Can it repair tears and missing pieces?
Small tears, scratches and creases restore convincingly because there's surrounding detail to work from. A missing corner or a large stain is different, the AI fills the gap with its best inference of what was probably there, which is reconstruction, not recovery. Fine for a background; think carefully if the missing area contained a face.
Will restoration change how people in the photo look?
It can, subtly. Rebuilding a heavily faded or blurred face means the model infers detail, and inferred detail sometimes drifts, a slightly different nose, softened wrinkles. Compare the result against the original side by side, and for treasured photos consider a lighter restoration that keeps a little grain over one that reinvents grandma's face.
What condition is too far gone to restore?
When the subject itself is mostly lost (severe mold across faces, an emulsion peel through the middle of a group shot, near-total fade) restoration becomes invention, and the result is a plausible photo rather than your photo. It's still worth an attempt, since the outcome may surprise you; just be clear-eyed about how much of it the AI supplied.
I'm nervous uploading irreplaceable family photos, where do they go?
Your scan is processed for the session by a third-party AI provider under their terms, isn't stored by the site once the tab closes, and isn't used for training. Nothing touches the physical original, obviously, and that's the real safeguard: keep the print and your raw scan archived regardless of how good the restoration looks.
Can it colorize an old black-and-white photo?
Yes, it can add natural-looking color to a black-and-white or sepia photo, estimating skin tones, clothing and surroundings from the shades in the original. The colors are a plausible reconstruction rather than a record of the real ones, so treat a colorized family photo as a warm interpretation, not documentary fact.
Is the photo restoration free, and do I need to sign up?
It is free to use and you do not need to create an account or pay before restoring a photo. Upload the damaged image, let the tool clean it up, and download the result. No card is required and no email is captured first, which makes it easy to try on a single photo.
Will I still have my original photo after restoring it?
Yes, your original is never altered. The tool works from the copy you upload and gives you back a separate restored version, so the file on your device stays exactly as it was. It is still wise to keep a safe backup of any irreplaceable photo before scanning or editing it anywhere.
What are the usage limits?
Image generation is free with fair-use limits, because every image costs real compute to render. Normal creative use fits comfortably; the limits exist to stop bulk scripted generation from slowing everyone down. Paid plans with higher limits and priority model access are coming soon.
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