Local Windows utility
AI Enhance
The two AI features people actually use, running on your own CPU instead of someone's API. Upscale a small photo to something printable, or cut the subject out of its background — with no account, no credits, no per-image charge and nothing sent anywhere.
Enhanced copies land beside your originals, which are never modified.
What it's for
Real jobs — AI Enhance
Not feature bullets — the actual situations people open this for.
- Rescuing a small profile photo or an old scan that looks soft at full size.
- Making a product shot big enough to print without it going to mush.
- Cutting a subject out for a listing, a slide or a thumbnail.
- Getting a transparent PNG of a logo off a flat background.
What it does
Everything AI Enhance handles
Everything below runs on your own machine, on as many files as you give it.
2x and 4x upscaling
Real-ESRGAN reconstructs detail rather than stretching pixels, so edges stay edges instead of turning into staircases.
One-click background removal
The subject is cut out and written to a transparent PNG. The model ships inside the app — there is nothing to download and nothing to sign up for.
No account and no credits
Every comparable tool online meters this by the image. Here it runs on your CPU, as many times as you like, for nothing.
An honest time estimate
CPU upscaling is slow. PhotoTray shows you what a batch will take before you commit to it, rather than leaving you watching a bar.
Verified before it runs
The upscaler model downloads once, over a resumable transfer, and its SHA-256 checksum is verified before it is ever executed.
Batch, like everything else
Both features run across a folder, not just one file at a time — with the caveat that upscaling a folder is an overnight job, not a coffee-break one.
How it works
From drop to done
- 1
Drop in a photo
Or a folder, if you have the time to spare. Any raster format PhotoTray reads.
- 2
Pick upscale or background removal
For upscaling, choose 2x or 4x. PhotoTray defaults to 2x because 4x on a large photo takes a long time on a CPU.
- 3
Let it run
The first upscale downloads the model, once. After that it works with no connection at all.
Under the hood
The engines, named
The models, named — and where they run.
- Upscaler
- Real-ESRGAN (ONNX weights) on onnxruntime — CPU
- Background removal
- @imgly/background-removal-node — model bundled in the app
- Image I/O
- sharp (libvips)
- Model download
- once, resumable, SHA-256 verified before use
- Platform
- Windows 10/11 (x64) — CPU only, no GPU required
CPU-only is a deliberate trade, not an oversight: it means no GPU requirement, no driver problems and no machine where the feature simply refuses. The cost is speed — a 4x upscale of a 12-megapixel photo takes minutes, not seconds. The upscaler model is the one thing PhotoTray downloads after install, and only if you ask for an upscale.
The rest of the belt
It ships with five more
Questions
AI Enhance, answered
Get the whole tray — AI Enhance
AI Enhance comes with PhotoTray — free for Windows 10 and 11, with the other five alongside it.