Topaz Labs Video Upscale (BudgetPixel)

Topaz is the name people benchmark video upscaling against - the paid default the whole open-source upscaler scene measures itself by, and the one whose subscription cost gets dropped the moment an open alternative is good enough. This node hands you that benchmark-grade AI video upscaling without the subscription, as a pay-per-second hosted call. Feed it a video, pick a target - 1080p or 4K at 30 or 60 fps - and it comes back upscaled, no local GPU grind and no Topaz install. For anyone who has ever queued a 4K render overnight, the appeal is immediate.

What it costs

This is per-second pricing with real tiers, on the input video's duration: 1080p30 = 15, 1080p60 = 30, 4K30 = 60, 4K60 = 120 credits per second. The input is capped at 20 seconds and ≤100MB. So a 20-second clip to 4K60 is 2,400 credits - the most expensive single job in the pack, which makes it the node to use on the shortest clip that still needs it. The good news is the mechanics are simple: target_resolution (1080p/4k) and target_fps (30/60), nothing else to tune.

The inputs that matter

• video - required. The clip to upscale (up to 20 seconds, MP4/MOV/WebM, ≤100MB). Videos go through the API's temp storage by URL.
• target_resolution - 1080p or 4k; sets the per-second rate with fps.
• target_fps - 30 or 60; 60 fps doubles the per-second rate.

Output is a single video (VIDEO) - the upscaled clip, ready for Save Video. Needs 2025+ ComfyUI for the core video type.

How it works

Standard BudgetPixel mechanics: the clip uploads, a job is created, the node polls until the upscale finishes, and the result downloads back into the graph. The poll timeout here is the pack's longest - upscale jobs are slow, and a 20-second 4K60 render can take a while. The progress bar moving slowly is normal; it's not hung.

Install and key setup

ComfyUI Manager → BudgetPixel, or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/budgetpixel-ai/comfyui-budgetpixel.git
pip install -r comfyui-budgetpixel/requirements.txt

Only requests as a dependency - no Topaz software, no models. API key from a paid plan via BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY or a budgetpixel.json in the pack folder; keys never land in workflow JSON.

Where people get burned

Do the tier math before you run, not after. 1080p30 at 15 credits/second is a reasonable tool; 4K60 at 120 credits/second is a 8× jump for what is often an indistinguishable deliverable on screen. And because you're billed on input duration, a 20-second clip costs 4× a 5-second one even though both are one job. When in doubt, upscale the shortest clip you can cut and let the rest of the pack's video models generate at the resolution you need in the first place. The standard gotchas apply: force_rerun to beat ComfyUI's cache (and re-bill), and the API needs a paid plan.