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Upscale for 15 credits or regenerate at 4K for 24

One picture taken both ways. The upscale kept the composition, the light and every element; the 4K regeneration made a different picture. When each one wins, and the cheapest order to work in.

September 20, 20265 min readAIKIZI

Part 8 of 11 · ← previous · all parts · next → Voice, sound effects and music

An upscale costs 15 credits and a fresh 4K generation costs 24, and the choice between them is not about money. The upscale keeps the picture you already have. A new 4K makes a different picture. If you love the composition you are looking at, there is only one right answer, and it is the cheaper one.

The test

We took one 1K picture — a brass lamp on a wet step, the one from part 1, 8 credits — and did both things to it. First we upscaled it for 15 credits. Then, separately, we ran the identical prompt again at 4K for 24 credits. Here is the original.

The original 1K picture: brass lamp right of centre, garland coiled tight at its base, a light shaft with dust motes crossing from the upper left — The original. Nano Banana Pro, 1K, 8 credits.

The upscaled version: identical composition and lighting to the original, with the granite grit, the jasmine petals and the brass turning resolved into real texture — Upscaled, 15 credits. Same lamp, same garland, same shaft of light, same dust motes — and the stone grit and jasmine petals now read as texture. Its decode.

The regenerated 4K version: a wider frame, the lamp in a different place, the garland now a ring of marigolds without jasmine, no light shaft, a different background — Regenerated at 4K, 24 credits. A good picture — and not the same one. Its decode.

What changed, and what did not

	Upscale · 15	New 4K · 24
Composition	Identical. Every element in the same place.	Rebuilt. The lamp moved, the frame widened.
The light	The same shaft, the same dust motes in it.	No shaft. Flatter, cooler ambient light.
The garland	The same marigold-and-jasmine coil.	Marigolds only, ringed, no jasmine.
Texture gained	Real: stone grit, petal edges, the turning on the brass.	Also real, and slightly finer.
Risk	None to the picture. You still have the original.	You may not like it, and that is 24 credits.

The upscaler is not generating a picture; it is enlarging one and inventing plausible detail inside the shapes that are already there. That is why nothing moved. The generator, given the same words a second time, is not enlarging anything — it is answering the prompt again from the start.

When the upscale wins

You already love it. This is the whole case. A composition that works is the rare thing; pixels are cheap.
The picture has to match others. If it sits in a set, a regeneration will not match the set.
You are printing something you chose. The one you chose, not its cousin.
The subject is a surface. Stone, metal, fabric, skin: this is where the invented detail lands convincingly.

When it loses

The composition is wrong. An upscale of a badly framed picture is a bigger badly framed picture, for 15 credits. Regenerate.
The picture has a real error. A hand with six fingers, a broken reflection, text that is not words. The upscaler will render the error beautifully. Fix it in the prompt and generate again.
You are still exploring. While you are deciding, 2-credit drafts on Nano Banana 2 Lite are the right spend, not 15.

The cheapest correct order

Draft the idea small — 1K on Nano Banana Pro at 8, or 2 credits on Nano Banana 2 Lite — until the composition is one you would keep.
Look at it honestly for errors: hands, text, reflections, anything with a countable number of parts.
If there is an error, change the words and generate again. Never upscale a mistake.
When it is right, upscale for 15 credits. The composition you approved is the one you keep.

Done this way, a finished large picture costs 23 credits — 8 plus 15 — against 24 for one 4K roll of the dice, and you chose the picture instead of accepting it.

FAQ

Should I upscale or generate again at 4K?

Upscale if you like the picture you have: at 15 credits it keeps the composition, the light and every element exactly where they are. Generate again at 4K, for 24, only if you want a different picture — because that is what you will get.

Does upscaling change my image?

It enlarges it and invents plausible detail inside the shapes already there. In our test nothing moved: same lamp, same garland, same shaft of light and the same dust motes, with the stone grit and petal edges turning into real texture.

How much does an upscale cost on aikizi?

15 credits, using the Leonardo upscaler, on a picture you already have. A fresh 4K generation on Nano Banana Pro is 24, and on Nano Banana 2 it is 12.

Can I upscale a picture with a mistake in it?

You can, and you should not. The upscaler renders the mistake more convincingly — six fingers become six well-textured fingers. Change the prompt and generate again instead.

What is the cheapest way to end up with a large picture I like?

Draft at 1K for 8 credits until the composition is right, then upscale for 15. That is 23 credits for a picture you chose, against 24 for a single 4K attempt you have to accept or repeat.

The upscale button sits on any picture in your library in the Studio. If you have not yet settled on a composition, part 3 is the one to read first.