> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Topaz Labs Review Australia 2026: AI Upscaling That Never Leaves Your Computer - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/review-topaz-labs-australia-2026/ - Published: 2026-06-25T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:36:59.000Z - Description: Topaz's AI upscaling and restoration run entirely on your own computer — the best data-residency story we've reviewed. The catch is USD pricing and a contentious move away from one-time licences. - Author: Adam - Tags: Design & Creative, AI Reviews, #review **18**/25 ★★★★☆ Very Good Topaz Labs Verified 21 Sep 2026 Reviewed 26 Jun 2026 Value for Money**3**/5 Ease of Use**4**/5 Feature Depth**4**/5 Australian Fit**3**/5 Reliability & Support**4**/5 From **A$153**/yr · ex-GST · billed in USD **The gate:** Five stars need 21+ and Australian Fit of at least 4/5. [Skip to the verdict ](#verdict) *Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow \~10% on top (*[*Methodology*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/)*).* > **Verdict (TL;DR):** Topaz Labs makes the best AI image and video enhancement software you can buy — Gigapixel for upscaling, Photo AI for sharpening and denoising, Video AI for restoring and upscaling footage. The output quality is genuinely the benchmark, and it has one feature no cloud rival can match for Australians: it runs **locally on your own computer**, so your photos and footage never leave your machine. For anyone handling client images, sensitive footage or anything bound by the Privacy Act, that's the strongest data story in our whole library. The catches are real, though. Pricing is in US dollars with no AUD line, and Topaz has been steadily moving away from the one-time licences that made it beloved toward annual subscriptions and cloud credits — a shift its own community has pushed back on hard. For a photographer, videographer or small studio that wants best-in-class enhancement with data that stays onshore, it's an easy recommendation. Score: 18/25 — Very Good. > > **Score: 18/25 — ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good** > > *Last reviewed: 26 June 2026 by Adam.* ## What Topaz Labs is Topaz Labs is a Texas software company (founded 2006, based in Addison, in the Dallas area) that makes AI-powered tools for making images and video look better. The three flagship products do distinct jobs. **Gigapixel** upscales images — enlarging a small or low-resolution photo while inventing convincing detail rather than just stretching pixels. **Photo AI** sharpens, denoises and recovers detail in photographs, the everyday rescue tools photographers reach for. **Video AI** does the same for footage: upscaling old or low-res video, removing noise, stabilising and restoring. There's also a newer cloud-and-credits layer (branded around Topaz Studio and the Astra model) for heavier generative work. *(Naming note, 21 September 2026: Topaz has dropped the “AI” suffix on its store — the three apps are now sold as Topaz Gigapixel, Topaz Photo and Topaz Video. They are the same products, and the older names are used elsewhere in this review because that is still what most people call them.)* This is not a generative "make me a picture from a prompt" tool like the rest of the image category. Topaz is an **enhancement** tool: you bring your own photo or video, and it makes it sharper, cleaner and bigger. It competes less with Midjourney or Leonardo and more with the upscaling features inside Photoshop, [Leonardo](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/leonardo-ai-review-australia-2026/) or [Adobe Firefly](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/adobe-firefly-review-australia-2026/) — and it generally beats them on pure enhancement quality, which is why professional photographers and video editors have used it for years. The defining technical fact, and the reason it matters for Australians, is that the core apps **run on your own hardware**. They're desktop applications for Mac and Windows that use your computer's GPU (Topaz has worked with NVIDIA to optimise this), processing your files locally rather than uploading them to a server. We'll come back to why that's the headline of this review. ## What it costs in Australia Topaz bills in **US dollars** with no AUD pricing, and — importantly — its pricing model is **in transition**. For years you bought a perpetual licence (a one-time purchase you owned forever, with optional paid upgrades). Through 2026 Topaz has been shifting toward annual subscriptions and cloud credits. The figures below were read off the live pricing page in a browser on **21 September 2026**. The AUD column is our conversion at **USD→AUD 1.4045** (ECB reference rate, 18 September 2026), shown **ex-GST** — these are not prices Topaz quotes, and a GST-registered business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on the import. | Product / plan | USD (annual) | Approx AUD (1.4045, ex-GST) | What it covers | | ------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Topaz Gigapixel | US$149/yr | ≈ A$209/yr | Image upscaling — the cheapest desktop way in | | Topaz Photo | US$199/yr | ≈ A$280/yr | Photo sharpen / denoise / recover | | Topaz Video | US$299/yr | ≈ A$420/yr | Video upscale / restore | | Bloom | US$229/yr | ≈ A$322/yr | Generative / creative, browser only | | Topaz for Web — Image | US$109/yr *(promo; reverts to US$199)* | ≈ A$153/yr *(≈ A$280 on reversion)* | Browser-only image apps, includes Topaz for Mobile | | Topaz for Web — Video | US$199/yr *(promo; reverts to US$299)* | ≈ A$280/yr *(≈ A$420 on reversion)* | Browser-only video apps | | **Topaz Studio** (all six apps) | **US$399/yr** | ≈ **A$560/yr** | Every app, desktop + browser + iPhone, unlimited local rendering, 300 monthly video cloud credits | | **Topaz Studio Pro** | **US$799/yr** | ≈ **A$1,122/yr** | Commercial rights, seat management, 600 monthly video cloud credits | Per-app **Pro** licences also exist for commercial work — Topaz Photo Pro US$599/yr, Gigapixel Pro US$499/yr, Video Pro US$699/yr, Web Pro US$329/yr *(promo; reverts to US$599)*, Bloom Pro US$490/yr. Topaz says a Pro licence is what you need if your organisation turns over more than US$1M a year. Annual is the cheapest basis; the page also offers annual-billed-monthly and true monthly at a premium. *Read the two-price rows carefully.* The three browser plans display a promotional figure beside a struck-through standing price, and the strike sits on a separate element, so it is easy to miss and easy for an automated check to miss entirely. The reversion figures are the ones to budget from. `(Topaz's exact current plan structure and the future of perpetual licences. Multiple trackers report Topaz is moving subscription-only (one cites a perpetual-licence discontinuation dated 3 October 2026 — a future date as of writing, so treat as unconfirmed). Per-product vs Studio pricing and the monthly/annual split also vary between sources. Confirm the live structure on topazlabs.com/pricing before subscribing.)` The thing to take away: the software itself is excellent value for what it does, but the move away from one-time licences is a genuine sore point for long-time users, and it makes the ongoing cost less predictable than it used to be. If you own an older perpetual licence, you generally keep using that version — you just stop getting new model updates. ## How it works in practice The workflow is refreshingly simple for pro software. You open the app, drag in a photo or video, choose what you want — upscale to 4x, denoise, sharpen, restore — and Topaz processes it on your machine. For a single photo, that's seconds; for a long video upscale, it can be a serious job that runs your GPU hard for a while, which is the trade for not sending gigabytes of footage to a cloud queue. The quality is the reason people stick with it. Gigapixel's upscaling invents detail that holds up under scrutiny — faces, textures, foliage — far better than a generic "enhance" button. Photo AI rescues shots that looked unusable: a noisy low-light photo, a slightly soft portrait, an old scan. Video AI is the standout for anyone restoring old footage or upscaling SD to HD, a job almost nothing else does this well. None of it is magic — push the upscaling too far and you get the tell-tale AI smoothness — but used with judgement, the results are the benchmark. For an Australian photographer shooting weddings, a videographer restoring a client's old family footage, or a small e-commerce studio sharpening product shots, the practical appeal is that the work happens on the laptop in front of you, and the files never go anywhere. ## What it does well - **Best-in-class enhancement quality.** Gigapixel upscaling, Photo AI denoise/sharpen and Video AI restoration are the benchmark the rest of the category is measured against. - **It runs locally — your files never leave your machine.** The single biggest Australian advantage of any tool we've reviewed for anyone privacy- or Privacy Act-conscious. - **Mature and reliable.** Nearly two decades old, stable, well-documented, with a large professional user base. - **Video restoration nothing else matches.** Upscaling and cleaning old or low-res footage is a genuine standout. - **GPU-optimised.** Worked with NVIDIA so the local processing actually performs on capable hardware. ## What it doesn't do well - **Pricing is in flux and USD-only.** No AUD line, no documented GST, and the contentious shift away from perpetual licences toward subscriptions and credits makes ongoing cost less predictable. - **It needs real hardware.** Local processing means a capable GPU; on an underpowered laptop, big video jobs are slow. - **It's enhancement, not generation.** You bring the image or video — it won't create one from a prompt. - **The cloud-credit layer reintroduces the data question.** The newer cloud/generative features do send work off-device, so the "stays local" benefit applies to the desktop apps, not everything. - **No Australian billing or support presence.** USD checkout, US company, no local support hours. ## Australian fit Here's where Topaz scores unusually well for a USD tool, and it's worth being specific about why. The core apps **process your files locally on your own computer** — nothing is uploaded — which means your client photos, sensitive footage or proprietary images **stay in Australia, on your device, by default**. For Privacy Act-conscious work, that's the strongest data-residency position of anything in our library, and it's the opposite of the usual "your data sits on a US server" problem. The rest of the Australian-fit picture is ordinary. Billing is in **US dollars** with no AUD option and no documented GST line (as an offshore software supplier, GST may apply under the imported-services rules — check your invoice). Support is US-based with no AU hours. And the newer **cloud/credits features are the exception to the local-processing rule** — those do send work off-device, so if data residency is your reason for choosing Topaz, stick to the desktop apps and avoid the cloud layer for sensitive material. Net: a genuinely strong onshore-data story on the core product, wrapped in otherwise weak local commercial fit. ## Alternatives - [**Leonardo AI**](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/leonardo-ai-review-australia-2026/) — consider this if you want a Universal Upscaler bundled inside a broader generative image suite rather than dedicated desktop enhancement. - [**Adobe Firefly**](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/adobe-firefly-review-australia-2026/) and Photoshop — consider this if you already live in Creative Cloud and want enhancement integrated with editing, billed in native AUD. - **Cloud upscalers (Magnific, now part of Freepik)** — consider these if you'd rather a browser-based upscaler and don't need local processing — though that means your files do leave your machine. ## Bottom line Topaz Labs is the easy recommendation for an Australian photographer, videographer or small studio that wants the best AI enhancement going and cares where their files end up. The quality is the benchmark, the software is mature, and the local processing means your work never leaves your computer — a privacy and data-residency advantage no cloud tool in this category can match. At 18/25 it's one of the stronger Australian-fit stories we've published, despite billing in US dollars, precisely because of that local-processing edge. The reservations are honest ones. The pricing model is mid-transition and contentious — the move away from perpetual licences has annoyed long-time users and made costs less predictable — and the newer cloud features quietly undo the "stays local" benefit, so read the plan you're buying. If you want generative art from a prompt, this isn't that tool. But if you want to make real photos and video genuinely better, on your own machine, with your data staying put, Topaz remains the standard. We'll revisit once the subscription transition settles and the AUD/GST picture is clearer. ## Score | Criterion | Score | Notes | | --------------------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Value for Money | 3/5 | Excellent software, but the shift from perpetual licences to USD subscriptions and credits hurts predictability and goodwill. | | Ease of Use | 4/5 | Drag in a file, pick an enhancement, done — simple for pro software, though big video jobs demand patience and hardware. | | Feature Depth | 4/5 | Benchmark upscaling, denoise, sharpen and video restoration; narrow to enhancement rather than a full suite. | | Australian Fit | 3/5 | Local on-device processing keeps files onshore — the best data story in our library — offset by USD billing, no GST line and no AU support. | | Reliability & Support | 4/5 | Nearly 20 years old, stable, well-documented, large professional user base. | | **Total** | **18/25** | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good | Update history - **21 Sep 2026 🇦🇺 Currency verified by browser — currency right, price wrong.** Read live on an Australian connection at `topazlabs.com/pricing`. **Currency: USD, confirmed explicitly** — every one of the 82 `priceCurrency` declarations in the page reads `USD`, and `AUD` and `A$` appear nowhere. `aud_native: false` confirmed. **But Gigapixel is US$149/yr, not the US$99/yr this review has been quoting** — a 51% understatement of the cheapest way into Topaz, corrected in the table. The app names have also changed to **Topaz Photo**, **Topaz Gigapixel** and **Topaz Video**, and the range has grown a browser tier and a per-app Pro tier that this review did not list; both are now in the table. The AUD column has been re-cut at **USD→AUD 1.4045** (ECB, 18 September 2026) from the old \~1.40\. One internal contradiction fixed while here: the prose said the AUD figures carried “a 10% GST gross-up” while the table header and the standing footnote both said ex-GST — the figures were ex-GST, and the prose was the leftover. **A trap worth recording:** three of Topaz's browser plans show two prices side by side with the higher one struck through (**Topaz for Web — Image $109 vs $199**, **Web — Video $199 vs $299**, **Web Pro $329 vs $599**), and the strike is on a sibling `div`, not the price container — a scan of the containing element reports `textDecorationLine: none` and you would read the promo price as the standing one. The reversion figures are recorded in the table. **No score change** — Value for Money 3/5 already rested on the subscription shift, and a higher entry price does not improve it. Source: https://www.topazlabs.com/pricing · Wayback: capture pending (archive.org unavailable 21 Sep 2026). - **26 Jun 2026** — First reviewed. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does Topaz Labs upload my photos and videos to the cloud? No — the core desktop apps (Gigapixel, Photo AI, Video AI) process your files locally on your own computer using its GPU, so your files never leave your machine. The exception is the newer cloud/credits features, which do send work off-device; avoid those for sensitive material. ### Does Topaz Labs bill in Australian dollars? No. Topaz bills in US dollars with no AUD pricing or documented GST line. Its model is also in transition from one-time perpetual licences toward annual subscriptions and cloud credits, so confirm the current structure on the live pricing page. ### Is Topaz Labs worth it for Australians? Yes, if you want best-in-class image and video enhancement with your files staying on your own machine — the strongest data-residency story in our library. Less so if you need AUD billing, a clean GST invoice, or generative art from a prompt rather than enhancement of your own files. --- ## Sources 1. Topaz Labs pricing page — [topazlabs.com/pricing](https://www.topazlabs.com/pricing?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — **re-read in a browser from an Australian connection 21 September 2026**: Studio US$399/yr, Studio Pro US$799/yr, Topaz Gigapixel US$149/yr, Topaz Photo US$199/yr, Topaz Video US$299/yr, Bloom US$229/yr, plus promotional browser tiers at US$109 and US$199 with US$199 and US$299 struck through. Every `priceCurrency` on the page is `USD`; no AUD. Wayback: capture pending (archive.org unavailable 21 Sep 2026). Earlier state checked 26 June 2026 (plan structure in transition — confirm live before subscribing). 2. Topaz Gigapixel product page — [topazlabs.com/topaz-gigapixel](https://www.topazlabs.com/topaz-gigapixel?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — checked 26 June 2026\. — [Wayback 3 July 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260703211518/https://www.topazlabs.com/topaz-gigapixel) 3. Company/HQ and local-processing detail — Dallas Innovates (Addison HQ expansion); Topaz Labs company profiles — secondary, for context — checked 26 June 2026. --- *The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our* [*Methodology*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/) *and* [*Affiliate Disclosure*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/affiliate-disclosure/)*.* ---