FLUX Upscale prices video by the megapixel-second, and charges only for what comes out

A clip generated at HD is not finished. Broadcast, campaign and cinema formats want more pixels, and a general-purpose upscaler tends to smear faces and leave a grid over water and grass. Black Forest Labs released FLUX Upscale on August 20 to do that step in the same place the video was made.

Two modes, and the difference is not only speed

Precise runs four steps at $0.07 per megapixel-second. Creative runs eight at $0.10 and pushes repair and detail further, but the lab states plainly that it can change or replace identity, so reference consistency drops. That is an unusually direct warning to put next to your own more expensive option.

• upscale_factor accepts 1.5x, 2x and 3x, which from an HD input lands at roughly 1080p, 2K and 4K.
• Input can start as low as 480p.
• The model reads FLUX 3 output natively, which is where the fixes for smudged faces and gridded textures come from.

The charge follows the output

The pricing page states that charges are based on output only, and that input resolution, upscale factor and optional prompts are not billed separately. Read that the other way around and it is the whole cost model: the resolution you ask for is the resolution you pay for, and nothing else moves the number.

Work it through on a 10-second clip at 4K. That is 8.2944 megapixels per frame, so 82.944 megapixel-seconds, which comes to $5.81 on Precise and $8.29 on Creative. The rate is stated per megapixel per frame divided by 24, so the arithmetic holds at 24 frames per second.

Where it sits

FLUX Upscale is reachable through the BFL API and the playground, with the terms on the pricing page under video tools. For anyone already generating with FLUX 3, it removes the step where finished footage leaves for a separate upscaler and comes back with different faces.