GIMP Upscale Plugin – AI Image Upscaler (RealESRGAN) for GIMP 2.10 & 3.0
GIMP Upscale is an open-source plugin that brings advanced AI-powered image upscaling to GIMP. Using RealESRGAN technology, this plugin lets you enhance image resolution, improve photo quality, and upscale anime artwork with ease, supporting custom ESRGAN models and both Windows and Linux platforms.



Features
- Works with GIMP 2.10 and GIMP 3.0
- Choose between 6 built-in models:
realesr-animevideov3-x4
RealESRGAN_General_x4_v3
realesrgan-x4plus
realesrgan-x4plus-anime
UltraSharp-4x
AnimeSharp-4x
- Upscale the entire image/layer, or only the selection.
- Scale the output to any factor from 0.1x to 8x.
- Cleanly upscale transparent alpha channels.
- Use custom 4x ESRGAN models (NCNN:
.param + .bin).
Add custom ESRGAN models to the plug-in...
Upscale Examples
Expand to see example images...




💾 Install
Vulkan-compatible GPU required.


- Download the latest release:
gimp2_upscale.zip for GIMP 2.10
gimp3_upscale.zip for GIMP 3.0
- Extract the plug-in folder into your GIMP plug-ins directory.
- Restart GIMP.
Linux note: After extracting to your GIMP plug-ins folder, you must mark the script as executable so GIMP can detect it:
chmod +x gimp2_upscale.py
chmod +x gimp3_upscale.py
📝 Usage
- Open an image in GIMP.
- Go to
Filters > Enhance > AI Upscale....
- Adjust options as needed.
- Click Run/OK and wait for processing.
Find your GIMP plug-in directory...
- Find your plug-in folder via:
GIMP > Edit > Preferences > Folders > Plug-ins
- Default Windows directories:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\3.0\plug-ins
C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\3.0\plug-ins
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\2.10\plug-ins
C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins
- Default Linux directories:
~/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins
~/.config/GIMP/3.0/plug-ins
Example directory structure...
plug-ins/
|
├── gimp2_upscale/
│ ├── gimp2_upscale.py
│ └── resrgan/
│ ├── realesrgan-ncnn-vulkan(.exe)
│ └── models/
│ ├── model.param
│ └── model.bin
|
└── gimp3_upscale/
├── gimp3_upscale.py
└── resrgan/
├── realesrgan-ncnn-vulkan(.exe)
└── models/
├── model.param
└── model.bin
🌟 Projects Using gimp_upscale
Here are some projects that use gimp_upscale:
| Creator |
Description |
Project Link |
| @typokiow |
HQ Oblivion in-game map — Replace the world map making it sharper and more legible without altering the original aesthetic. |
Nexus Mods page |
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