Getting Started with Topaz Labs

Topaz Labs isn't one app. It's a company selling several separate programs for improving pictures and video you already have: Topaz Photo (grain, softness and damage in still photos), Topaz Gigapixel (making a small image much bigger without it going mushy) and Topaz Video (the same idea for footage). There are browser and iPhone versions too, plus Bloom, for tidying up AI-generated art. They're sold separately, with an all-apps bundle called Topaz Studio.

None of them invent a picture from nothing: you bring a file that already exists and the software rebuilds it at higher quality. That's why photographers and video editors run these alongside Photoshop or Premiere rather than instead of them — and what you're paying for over the enhance button in an editor you already own is the choice of which model does the work and how hard it pushes.

Start with your computer, not your credit card. Topaz's published minimums for the desktop apps are 16 GB of RAM (your computer's short-term memory — what runs out when too much is open) and, on Windows, a dedicated graphics card with at least 6 GB of its own memory; the newer models that invent detail want 8 GB. Topaz Video doesn't run on Intel Macs at all, and each app wants roughly 30 to 70 GB of free disk space.

Everything Topaz sells today is a subscription, monthly or yearly, renewing automatically. The buy-it-once-and-own-it-forever licences the company was known for were discontinued in September 2025 — an existing one keeps working, but you can't buy one now. Individual apps and the all-apps bundle are priced by the year, and monthly billing costs noticeably more. Topaz discounts often and deeply, so check the price on the day you buy.

There's no free trial of the current apps, which is unusual for software this dependent on your hardware. Topaz's published refund policy gives a money-back window of about two days from purchase, and its support staff have described that as the deliberate substitute for a trial. Two more things to check before you click: an annual plan can't be cancelled mid-term without a fee, and some plans advertised at a monthly price are still a twelve-month commitment. Topaz does still host its discontinued older apps — Photo AI, Gigapixel AI, Video AI and others — and its documentation says these "function as trial software by default"; the docs don't say what that mode restricts, and posts on Topaz's own forum describe trial output carrying a visible stamp, so expect some limit of that kind. They are no longer developed or supported, so treat them as a look, not a substitute.

If your machine can't meet the specs, the browser version is the way around it. Topaz says it renders "regardless of hardware," with the work done on its servers instead of your graphics card — image plans there are a monthly subscription. Video in the browser is sold with credits (the platform's unit of spend — each thing you make costs some) rather than flat use.

You'll be asked to log in with a Topaz account the first time an app opens — the licence follows your account rather than the machine, which is what lets you move it to a new computer later.

Run your own real files through it the same day you install: one big photo, one genuinely bad photo, and if you bought the video app, a clip the length you actually work with — the money-back window is short, and a full export takes far longer than a preview suggests.