Provisional fares. Limited beta. Measured on real GPU runs, and they may change before launch. What this means

Real-ESRGAN x4plus

Image upscaling, 4x. Sold per image up to 1 MP input, pro rata above that, up to 2 MP.

List fare, per image: $0.0010
Launch fare, from 20 images: $0.0010
Minimum, per submission: $0.0075
1,000 images, one batch: $1.00; $1.00 at the launch fare

The minimum stops mattering at 8 images. Below that, a submission pays $0.0075 whatever its size.

Cold start: expect 10 to 30 s, occasionally minutes. This is a queue, and later items in a batch ride on the same start.

Using it.

Output comes back at 4x by default, or 2x if you set scale.
An image with an alpha channel takes a second pass and costs the same.

Table 1 Limits
Model ID	`real-esrgan`
Input types	`image/pngimage/jpegimage/webp`
Largest file	25 MB
Largest item	2 MP
Default `max_units`	2
Smallest `max_units`	1
Licence	BSD-3-Clause

Table 2 Parameters, all optional
Name	Type	Allowed	Default
`scale`	integer	2, 4	4
`output_format`	string	png, jpeg, webp	png

Dry run, which writes nothing

curl -s https://www.y-pad.com/v1/batches \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OFFPEAK_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "real-esrgan",
    "items": [{"file": "FILE_ID", "params": {"scale":4}}],
    "dry_run": true
  }'

The first-run guide covers the upload before this and the rest of the batch after it.

Real output.

From the same worker you would pay for, on a public-domain input, and cached here.

Upscaled 4x

Locomotive in a railroad yard, near Chicago, Ill, as supplied — Before

Both shown zoomed to the centre, so the extra detail is visible. Locomotive in a railroad yard, near Chicago, Ill. Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-fsac-1a34687. Public domain. Library of Congress rights advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Source.

Who charges less.

DeepInfra beats us on a short Whisper job. It charges $0.00045 per minute, so up to 16 audio minutes it costs less than our $0.0075 minimum.
Runware beats us on a lone image. It lists BiRefNet at $0.0006 per image and shows Real-ESRGAN at $0.0013 at 4x, varies with input, while a lone job here pays the $0.0075 minimum.
A lone job here costs more than on Replicate. Ours pays the $0.0075 minimum. Replicate charges $0.002 per image for Real-ESRGAN and about $0.0017 per run for BiRefNet.

Table 3 Real-ESRGAN x4plus, our launch fare first, then lowest first, per 1,000 images
Who	Published price	Per 1,000	Against our fares	Checked	Source
Offpeak, launch fare	$0.0010 per image$0.0075 minimum per submission	$1.00	Ours	2 Nov 2026	Fares
Offpeak, list fare	$0.0010 per image$0.0075 minimum per submission	$1.00	Ours	2 Nov 2026	Fares
Runware	$0.0013 at 4x, varies with inputpublished example, billed by compute	about $1.30	More than both our fares	2 Nov 2026	runware.ai
Replicate	$0.002 per imagepublished flat price	$2.00	More than both our fares	2 Nov 2026	replicate.com