Is AI restoration as good as a professional?

For common damage such as scratches, fading and grain, often close, in a minute and for a few dollars. For heavily damaged or irreplaceable photos, a skilled retoucher still controls the result more precisely.

Is my photo used to train AI?

We do not store your photo or use it for training. The provider that runs the model processes it under its own terms; see the privacy page.

How much does a retoucher cost?

Freelance restoration commonly runs $5–50 per photo for simple jobs and much more for complex ones.

AI Photo Restoration vs Manual Retouching

What AI photo restoration actually does

An image-editing model takes your scan and an instruction (“remove scratches and fading, keep the people unchanged”) and produces a new image. It does not erase marks one by one the way a retoucher does; it regenerates the picture with the damage gone. That is why it is fast, and why it must be checked.

AI vs manual retouching

	AI	Manual retoucher
Cost	About $0.32–$0.50 per photo, one free a day	Commonly $5–50+ per photo
Speed	Under a minute	Hours to days
Control	Low: re-run and compare	High: they can follow your notes
Faces	Usually faithful; check each one	Faithful when reference photos are provided
Heavy damage	Invents content	Can reconstruct from references

When AI is enough

Scratches, dust, fading, grain, small tears: the everyday damage of a shoebox of prints. For those, try the free restore first.

Try it on your photo

When to hire a retoucher

Large missing areas across a face, a photo of someone who can no longer be photographed again and where likeness is critical, or work that will be published or exhibited. Many people use both: AI for the first pass, a person for the final polish.

Privacy: what happens to your photo

The photo is resized in your browser and the location data is removed before anything is sent. It goes to our server and on to the AI service that runs the model, and the result comes back once. We do not keep photos or results. Details are on the privacy page; read them before restoring anything sensitive.

Judging the result

Compare at 100% around eyes, mouth and hands. Look for textures that repeat (a sign of invention), smoothed skin and changed jewelry or text. If it is wrong, run it again; results vary.

What the model is told to do

Each restoration sends the model your photo with an instruction to repair damage while keeping every person unchanged: same identity, expression, age, hair, clothing and framing, and to add no new people, objects or text. When you tick colorize, it is also told to use natural, muted, plausible colors. The instruction reduces drift; it cannot remove it, which is why you get a slider to check.

Common failure modes

Face drift: a slightly different nose or smile on small, blurry faces.
Over-smoothing: skin looks like plastic. Usually a sign the source was very noisy.
Hallucinated detail: repeated brick, leaves or fabric patterns in large repaired areas.
Text changes: signs and writing may be redrawn rather than preserved.

Why one free photo, then packs

Each restoration costs real money to run. One free low-resolution restore a day lets you judge quality on your own photo before paying anything; packs are per photo with no subscription, so you never pay for months you did not use.

Photo restoration with AI