How to fix a pixelated image

Zoom in and check which of these you see:

• Too few pixels, shown large: crisp square pixels and stair-stepped edges, because a small image is being displayed or printed much bigger than its size.
• A bad enlargement: the same squares, but baked into a large file, because someone enlarged a small image with a nearest-neighbour resize.
• JPEG compression blocks: a faint grid of 8 × 8 squares in smooth areas such as sky and skin, often with halos around edges. Typical for images saved many times or shared through apps.
• A deliberate mosaic: large uniform squares over a face, a plate or text, added on purpose to hide it.

If the image is simply small, a normal resize turns the squares into blur. An AI upscaler rebuilds edges and texture instead. Use Upscale 4× for images up to 5 MP, or Upscale 8× for thumbnails and images up to 1.25 MP. A 300 × 300 avatar becomes 2400 × 2400 with Upscale 8×.

Work out how large you need the image first; how to increase image resolution lists common targets.

When a small image was enlarged with hard square pixels, each original pixel became a block of identical pixels. The large file contains no more information than the small one, and an upscaler would treat the blocks as real detail and enlarge them again.

Find the original small copy, or reduce the large file back to its true size: count how many screen pixels one square covers and shrink by that factor. Then upscale that small, honest version with AI. This one step makes a bigger difference than any filter.

Compression blocks are damage, not detail. Enhance removes them at the same size while keeping real edges. If you also need a bigger image, enhance first and upscale the clean result; upscaling first would enlarge the blocks. The JPEG artifacts guide explains why apps keep adding them.

A pixelation filter replaces each block with one average colour. Everything inside the block, such as the shape of a letter or the features of a face, is gone. Tools that claim to depixelate a censored face or a blurred number produce a guess, not the original. PhotoRescue does not attempt it.

A few habits prevent most pixelation:

• Keep and share the original file, not a screenshot of it.
• Send photos as documents in chat apps when quality matters.
• Upload images at the size the platform displays, so it does not enlarge them.
• Save edits as PNG or high-quality JPEG, and avoid saving the same JPEG again and again.

You get 3 free credits a day, with no sign-up and no card. One photo with one tool uses 1 credit; Upscale 8× uses 2. Free uploads can be JPG, PNG or WebP up to 3 MB and 8 MP, and free results carry a watermark. Pro ($9.99 a month, 200 credits) and Pro+ ($19.99 a month, 500 credits) remove the watermark and accept uploads up to 20 MB and 30 MP. Uploads and results are deleted within 24 hours and are never used to train AI.