Restore Old Photos With AI
Import the scanned or photographed picture of your grandmother, your wedding or your childhood: the AI revives faded tones, softens grain, sharpens the image and gives faces back their detail. You can colorize it too. The photo never leaves your device.
- Faces restored by AI
- Optional colorization
- Full resolution
- Nothing is uploaded
100% private — Everything is processed directly in your browser: your files, voice, and image are never sent to Chatzam's servers.
How do you restore an old photo?
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Import the photo
Scan the print, or photograph it lying flat with your phone, with no glare, then drag the image into the box. Tick “Also colorize” if you want it in color.
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Start the restoration
Tap “Restore photo”. The first time, the AI models are downloaded once; the processing then takes from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on your device and the number of faces.
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Compare and download
Drag the slider to see the before and after, adjust the color strength if you colorized, then save the photo as a JPG or a PNG.
Complete photo restoration, in your browser
Restored faces
The AI spots every face, even a small one in a group photo, and redraws sharp eyes, mouth and skin, then blends them into the photo with no visible seam.
Contrast, grain and sharpness
Washed-out tones get their blacks and whites back, scan grain and noise are softened and edges are made crisper across the whole image.
Optional color
One checkbox puts the restored photo in color, with a slider to set how strong the colors are.
Private and unlimited
The work happens on your device: no family photo is sent to a server, no account, no watermark, as many photos as you like.
Restore an old photo online, for free
Old photos don't age well: prints fade and turn gray, the grain of the paper and film shows up, and faces get blurry, especially in small group photos or enlarged portraits. This tool does in one go what used to take hours of old photo restoration in specialist software. It first stretches the tones to bring back true blacks and whites, without changing the original sepia or black-and-white tint. It then softens the grain while preserving edges, and boosts sharpness. Finally, the AI detects faces and restores them one by one: eyes, nose, mouth and skin become precise again. The result keeps the size of your file, up to about 16 million pixels.
A blurry or damaged photo: what the AI can fix
The AI works best on faces: a blurry portrait, or a class or wedding photo where everyone is only a few millimeters tall, gains a great deal in clarity. Faded, gray or grainy photos get their depth back too. The tool does not, however, rebuild big tears, deep creases, stains or missing pieces: for those, run the photo through the “Remove Objects From Photos” tool afterwards and paint over the flaw. Keep in mind too that the AI redraws plausible features: on a tiny or very blurry face, the result can drift slightly from the real person. Always compare with the original using the before/after slider.
Digitize the photo well before restoring it
The quality of the result depends a lot on the starting image. The ideal is a scanner, set to 600 dpi for a small print or 300 dpi for a large photo. With a phone, lay the photo flat near a window, with no flash, shoot it straight on to avoid glare and distortion, then crop the edges. Avoid a screenshot of a photo that was already sent through a messaging app: it has lost a lot of detail. Then save as a PNG to keep full quality, or as a JPG for a lighter file to share or have printed. If the photo is small and you want to print it large, enlarge it with AI afterwards.
Restore and colorize a black-and-white photo
Tick “Also colorize” before starting the restoration: the photo is cleaned up first and its faces restored, then the AI adds natural colors (skin, sky, greenery, clothing). The strength slider lets you go from a light tint to bold colors, or back to black and white. The colors are imagined by the AI from what it recognizes: it can't know that a dress was blue rather than red. The first use downloads the AI models, about 300 MB with colorization, one time only: they then stay in your browser's cache.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I restore an old photo for free?
Import the scanned or photographed picture, tap “Restore photo” and download the result. It's free, with no sign-up or watermark, and the photo isn't sent anywhere.
Can the tool sharpen a blurry photo?
Yes for faces, which the AI redraws sharply, and to a lesser extent for the rest of the image, whose edges are strengthened. A photo with heavy motion blur won't become perfectly sharp.
Are tears and scratches removed?
No: the grain is softened, but tears, creases, stains and scratches stay visible. For those flaws, use the “Remove Objects From Photos” tool afterwards and paint over the damaged area.
Are my family photos sent over the internet?
No. Only the AI models are downloaded, once; the restoration happens entirely in your browser and the photo never leaves your device.
Why does it take a while?
The AI runs on your own device. Expect a few seconds on a recent computer and up to a minute or two on a phone or with a group photo, because each face is restored separately.
Can I also put the photo in color?
Yes: tick “Also colorize” before starting the restoration, then adjust the color strength with the slider before you download.