How to restore old photos with AI: we tested it against the originals
Upload a scan, pick Restore or Restore and colorize, get a repaired photo. We aged four photos ourselves and checked every result against the real original.
To restore an old photo with AI, scan the print or photograph it flat in even light, add it to our photo restoration tool, pick Restore or Restore and colorize, and you get a repaired version in a minute or two. We aged four photos ourselves, so every result below can be checked against the real original.
A note before the comparison: we make one of these tools, and it is the only one we tested ourselves. For the others, every claim below comes from their own pages, linked where it appears and checked the day this guide went live.
We took four colour portraits of adults (a woman with long straight hair, a woman with coily hair, a man with wavy hair and stubble, a man in a denim jacket), turned two sepia and two black and white, and added scratches, dust, light leaks and a folded corner. Each photo got both looks, and the two photos of the first woman and the man with wavy hair got both looks a second time: 12 runs, one picture each, 21 to 98 seconds. Every scratch, spot and light leak was gone in 12 of 12. Ten kept the face; in the first run of the woman with long straight hair both pictures came out with a different-looking face and her colorized picture got a new background, while her second run kept her face. Restore and colorize gave full colour in 6 of 6, after we rewrote that prompt to ask for colour everywhere with no sepia left. Restore kept the sepia of a sepia print in 1 of 3 runs and turned the other two neutral grey.
Can AI really restore old photos?
How do you restore old photos with AI?
Can AI colorize a black and white photo?
How accurate is AI photo restoration?
Which prompt works for AI photo restoration?
Which AI photo restoration tools can you try?
| Service | Free | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| N33 | No, part of Pro | Restore, or Restore and colorize, on Flux Kontext Max; the photo is deleted when the run ends |
| MyHeritage | Several photos free; more need a Complete subscription | Photo Repair, inside a family history site |
| PicWish | A few free uses, then credits | Removes scratches and creases, and colorizes |
Our row is from our own test; the others are as each service describes itself, linked here.
How do you get the best result from an old photo?
To try it, open our photo restoration tool. For a family photo turned into a different decade instead, see our guide to AI yearbook photos, and to see someone older, read how realistic an AI age filter is.
Questions and answers
Is there a free way to restore old photos with AI?
MyHeritage repairs several photos free and PicWish gives a few free uses. Ours is part of Pro.
Will AI change the faces in my old photo?
It can. Our prompt tells the model to keep every face exactly as it is, yet in our test two pictures of twelve came back with a different-looking face. Compare with the print and run it again.
Are the colours in a colorized photo real?
No, they are a likely guess. Skin and hair usually come out close; clothes and backgrounds can differ from the real ones.
Can I restore a photo of a child?
Not on ours. Every face goes through an age check, and a photo that shows a child or a teenager is refused, family photos included.
What happens to the photo I upload?
On ours, it is used only for the run and deleted when the run ends; the restored pictures stay in your Generations until you delete them.
Arthur Down is a journalist with more than 12 years of experience writing about technology, personal finance, health and everyday consumer topics. He studied Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Sheffield, started as a reporter at a regional newspaper and has worked freelance since 2014. At N33 he writes and edits the blog's practical guides to AI tools.
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