AI Photo Restoration: Old Photo Restore Online
AI photo restoration makes old photo restore simple: it repairs scratches, cracks, small tears, stains and fading in a scanned or photographed print. Upload one old photo, switch on colorize if you want color, add an optional note, then compare the restored copy with your original and download it.
Each restoration uses credits, and the generate button shows the cost before you start. New accounts receive free sign-up credits. Only upload photos you have the right to edit.
Restore and enhance old or damaged photos with improved clarity, color, and detail preservation
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Supported types: PNG, JPEG, JPG, WEBP, HEIC, URL
Content generated on this platform is produced by artificial intelligence models and does not represent the platform's position. [Disclaimer]. [Privacy Policy].
Old Photo Restore Examples: Before and After
Each example shows the damaged original next to the restored result.
Spots, scratches and haze
A hazy landscape, a portrait covered in spots and a scratched black-and-white street scene, each cleaned up.
Black and white to color
A faded black-and-white beach photo colorized, with new colors for the sky, sea and sand.
Cracked group portrait
A sepia group portrait with deep cracks across it, repaired while keeping the people, clothing and building behind them.
How to Restore Old Photo Online Free in 3 Steps
- 1
Scan the print, or photograph it flat and straight, then upload one image in PNG, JPEG, WEBP or HEIC format. Running a restoration needs a free ViNano AI account.
- 2
Switch on “Colorize black-and-white photos” if you want color, and optionally type what matters most in the prompt box, for example “remove the crease across the face”. Leave both alone and the tool repairs scratches, tears, stains and fading on its own.
- 3
Generate the restored copy. When it is ready, drag the before-and-after slider to check faces and small details against your original, then open the result to download it. The button shows the credit cost before you start, and free sign-up and daily check-in credits count toward it.
Tips
- •Upload one photo at a time and crop away the album page, frame or border around it.
- •If a face comes back looking unlike the person, run it again with “keep the faces unchanged” in the prompt.
- •Keep your original scan: every restoration is a new AI-generated image, not an edit of the file you uploaded.
What This AI Photo Fixer Can Repair
Most old family prints show the same few kinds of damage, and the tool is set up to repair them in one pass: scratches and dust spots, cracks and creases from folding, small tears and missing corners, stains and water marks, and the yellow or sepia cast that prints pick up over time. It also brings back contrast in faded photos and sharpens soft detail, so faces, clothing and backgrounds read clearly again.
Black-and-white photos stay black and white unless you switch on “Colorize black-and-white photos”. With it on, the AI adds natural-looking colors. Treat those colors as an informed guess: the model cannot know what color a dress or a car really was, so check with relatives if accuracy matters.
Some damage can only be filled in by guesswork. Large missing areas, faces that are mostly torn away or blurred beyond recognition, and heavily overexposed prints come back with invented detail, so look closely at those parts. A very small or low-resolution scan also limits how much real detail the result can show.
How AI Photo Restoration Works
AI photo restoration on ViNano AI sends your photo and a detailed restoration instruction to an image model. Nano Banana is selected by default, and you can pick another model in the tool. The model redraws the photo as a cleaner copy: it fills scratches and cracks from the surrounding detail, evens out stains and fading, and sharpens soft areas, while the instruction tells it to keep the composition and the look of the era.
Because the model generates a new image instead of editing pixels one by one, an AI photo fixer is fast but not exact. Small details such as eyes, hands or lettering can come out slightly different, which is why the before-and-after slider and your original scan matter.
How to Scan or Photograph Old Photos for Better Results
The restored image can only be as good as the copy you upload, and a flatbed scanner usually gives the cleanest copy. The U.S. National Archives' guide to digitizing family papers and photographs advises making sure the whole print fits on the scanner glass, because the lid can crush and crease anything that hangs over the edge, and keeping fragile or bent originals out of automatic-feed scanners.
With a phone, take the print out of its frame or sleeve, lay it flat in soft, even daylight, switch off the flash and hold the camera parallel to the photo so the edges stay square. Handle prints with clean, dry hands or clean gloves, and do not mend tears with tape: the Northeast Document Conservation Center's guide to the care of photographs explains how pressure-sensitive tape, rubber cement and self-stick album pages damage prints over time.
Keep the original print and your first scan after you restore it. The National Archives recommends keeping originals after digitizing, because digital files can be lost too, and backing files up with the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different kinds of media, with one copy stored off-site.
Bring a Restored Old Photo to Life with AI Video
Once a restored portrait looks right, you can animate it. Upload it as the reference image in the AI video generator and describe a small, natural movement such as a slow smile, a blink or a slight turn of the head. The photo revive example shows the kind of subtle motion this produces, with the full prompt and settings. Video generation is a separate step and uses its own credits.
Is Old Photo Restoration Free? Credits, Limits and Privacy
Running a restoration needs a free account, and each run uses credits. New accounts receive free sign-up credits and free accounts can claim daily check-in credits (limits apply), so you can try old photo restoration without paying. The generate button shows the exact cost before you start, and the pricing page lists credit packs and plans if you want to restore a whole album. Paid accounts use fewer credits per image on most image models.
Your upload is used to create the restoration you ask for, and this page does not show your uploads as examples. Generation history is cleared on a schedule, by default after 48 hours for free accounts and 7 days for paid plans, and you can change the retention setting in your profile, so download the restored photos you want to keep. Storage and deletion are explained in our Privacy Policy.
Who Uses Old Photo Restoration
People restore old photos for many reasons: to digitize a family album before the prints fade further, to fix a damaged picture of grandparents for a family history or genealogy project, to prepare a portrait for a memorial service or an anniversary gift, or to clean up scanned prints for a local history archive or a reunion slideshow.
Old Photo Restore FAQ
Quick answers to keep your workflow moving.
What is AI photo restoration?
AI photo restoration uses an image model to repair damage in old photos, such as scratches, cracks, stains, fading and blur, and it can add color to black-and-white prints. Instead of retouching by hand, you upload a scan and get a restored copy to compare with the original and download.
Can I restore old photo online free?
You can try it without paying. Restoring needs a free account and uses credits; new accounts receive free sign-up credits and free accounts can claim daily check-in credits. The generate button shows the cost before you start, and there is nothing to install.
What kind of damage can this AI photo fixer repair?
Scratches, dust spots, cracks, creases, small tears, stains, water marks, yellowing and fading, plus soft or blurry detail. Large missing areas or faces that are mostly gone can only be filled in by guesswork, so check those parts closely.
Will restoring change how people's faces look?
It can. The AI redraws detail, so eyes, teeth or the shape of a face may come out slightly different from the original. Compare the result with your scan, and if a face looks wrong, run it again with “keep the faces unchanged” in the prompt.
Can it colorize black-and-white photos?
Yes. Switch on “Colorize black-and-white photos” before you generate; leave it off to keep the photo in black and white. Added colors are the model's estimate, not a record of the original colors.
Is my uploaded photo private?
Your upload is used to create the restoration you ask for, and this page does not show your uploads as examples. Generation history is cleared on a schedule you can change in your profile, and our Privacy Policy explains storage, retention and deletion.
Need another workflow?
Browse the complete gallery of ViNano AI generation modes to find the perfect fit for your project.