It seems that new AI tools for image generation, upscaling, or basic editing pop up every few days. But in Magnific’s case, you’ve probably been using it for far longer than you might think.
That’s because Magnific AI’s previous name was Freepik, which was one of the most famous (and convenient) platforms for royalty-free images and graphics design resources.
But over the course of the past few years, Freepik has pushed its AI features to the forefront, ultimately leading to the full-on rebranding as Magnific AI.
So let’s dive in and see if it’s any good for actual photographers.
What Is Magnific AI?
In short, Magnific is basically what Freepik used to be (and arguably still is) but with a much heavier focus on AI tools and their use.
In fact, one of the first things I noticed when browsing Freepik in the past year is the much higher volume of AI-generated content and images compared to “traditional” human-made designs.
This is no coincidence, as Magnific is essentially the next iteration of AI-supported graphic design and photography.
Notably, the actual Magnific AI was a startup in 2024 that leveraged what were then novel image editing models to provide an image upscaler. Magnific has since been acquired by Freepik as part of the latter’s rebranding efforts, keeping the original structure and mission of the startup intact.
The entire rebranding process has been seamless, with Magnific inheriting the entire user library that Freepik had. If you had a Freepik account (even a free one), you can access Magnific AI with those same credentials.
Remaining Features – Graphic Design Inspiration and Stock Imagery
Due to its past, Magnific’s extensive stock image gallery has been preserved and ported over to the new platform. The UI itself has undergone a few changes, namely, to more easily divide different types of photography or introduce categories so users can more easily find their image.
That library contains vectors, illustrations, icons, 3D objects, video clips, audio, templates, mockups, and fonts. Most importantly, these are all fully licensed for commercial use depending on your subscription tier, allowing you to create seamless designs and templates to present as part of your portfolio or give your clients ideas.
Now, Magnific’s stock library can be particularly useful as a reference. I often use it to search for lighting setups, location references, or compositional ideas, giving me a visual library that’s far more curated than a general Google Image search.
It’s also genuinely useful as a source of assets for photographers who produce their own marketing materials. Rather than licensing separately from multiple sources, the Magnific library gives me a single platform for stock, AI generation, and post-production enhancement.
That said, if you’re evaluating Magnific purely as a stock asset platform in 2026, you’re using it for its legacy rather than its future. The AI tools are what the platform is developing, and where the more interesting photography use cases exist.
AI Features
Creative Upscaling
This is arguably the feature that made Magnific famous before Freepik bought it and it has been redefined as one of the new platform’s flagship tools.
The core mechanic here is a Creativity slider that runs from 0 to 10.
At the low end, it behaves like a higher-quality but still a traditional upscaler. It will clean up compression artifacts and sharpen some edges while keeping the image faithful to the original.
At the high end, it uses generative AI to actively hallucinate new details: texture, lighting, structure, and surface information that weren’t in the original file.
I found that the sweet spot for most use cases will likely be around 0 (but still positive numbers). At that range, a soft or low-resolution image gets a significant detail injection without losing its identity. A blurry AI render becomes a convincing 4K image. A low-res product shot gets enough texture to be usable for print.
There’s also a Resemblance slider that controls how closely the output stays to your source, an HDR slider for tonal punch, and a Fractality control that adjusts the density of the added detail. In my experience, these are more useful for high-detail subjects like jewelry or architecture rather than cleaner portraits.
The resulting image almost always will have more details than the original, usually by having a more vibrant facial expression.
The upscaling supports outputs up to 16x the original resolution, producing files as large as 10,752 by 7,168 pixels, which is enough for billboard printing.
Precision Mode
One caveat I can give you about using the Creative Upscaler is that at higher Creativity values, the AI can hallucinate details of the face or the body. It can add things where they don’t belong or make the subject’s expression completely inappropriate for the scene.
To remedy that, there’s a Precision Mode which curbs how much the AI can invent. What you’ll get is basically just an upscaler, where the AI will clean up some details if needed and boost the image’s resolution by at least 2x so it reads easier on a larger screen.
The tradeoff here is the maximum attainable resolution. Currently, the mode can only increase a resolution of the image twice while the Creative Mode can boost it 16x.
For most photographers, this won’t matter much as you’ll usually start with a relatively high-resolution image. But it does mean that the upscaler technically won’t work if you need to use it for extra-large printing formats.
AI Image Generation
Similar to what Freepik had been trying to do since it introduced AI images into the library, Magnific is a fully-fledged AI image creation suite.
Most importantly, the platform itself is model-agnostic, allowing you to select from a wide array of image generation models even at the most budget-friendly subscription tier.
I thought the most instantly useful part of this suite is the ability to create quick reference material without resorting to purchasing stock imagery. This was particularly important to me since Freepik’s existing image search capabilities are pretty lackluster when it comes to specifics.
As such, if you’re planning a shoot that is a bit unorthodox, the image generator can give you a head start by showing how specific poses might look under specific lighting.
Beyond references, I found that when working on composites or editorial pieces, the generation option allowed me to fill in backgrounds, create environmental elements, or build out scenes that would be impractical or expensive to shoot in real life.
Of course, there’s more than traditional photography that the AI image generator can handle relatively seamlessly. It supports photorealism, digital art, various painting styles, and even illustrations and pixel art.
Since the tool has over 40 different AI models, it’s a great alternative if you want a streamlined image generator and editor while keeping your options open to decide which model works best.
Video Generation
This is the part of the platform that Magnific is most aggressively building toward, as video generation is relatively expensive compared to images and many models are not particularly suited for it.
Currently, you can choose between Google’s Veo 3.1 and ByteDance’s Seeddance 2.0 (as the forerunners in the video generation space) among many other niche generators. Then, Magnific combines this with its own pre-production tools to make consistent characters, props, and scenery across a video project.
Of course, this is a bit of a niche territory for a photographer, since, if you’re like me, you’re unlikely to be using video for your work (and if you do, usually the entire point is to capture human subjects).
Granted, there are some use cases where you can create a promotional video to showcase your portfolio or delve into mixed media for your marketing. But video generation is generally something nice to have and does require a lot of fine-tuning to get right.
Image Editing
There are a few different options when it comes to editing the image.
The bog-standard background remover is here and it works as well as advertised. As usual, try to keep the subject clearly separated from the background so the AI doesn’t pick up extra details that it shouldn’t.
Notably, the tool is great at detecting and delineating hair (which is what most AI background removers struggle with).
The tool also leaves practically no border between the subject and the blank background, which is great if you want to use the result as-is without further edits and just looks cleaner overall.
Alternatively, you can use the AI to provide suggestions on how to change the image.
The result is a combination of inpainting or outpainting where the AI will remove any details you don’t want or change them. The language component tool generally works for most scenarios.
For example, the tool has pretty seamlessly changed the dog to a cat from the previous shot.
While I was testing the tool, it did struggle with more nuanced tasks or trying to fit in objects that usually don’t belong in the scene. In some cases, the additions were too big or small compared to the rest of the scene.
Additional Feature – Collaboration
One of the newer features added after the Freepik-Magnific consolidation is Spaces, which is a node-based collaborative canvas where teams can work together on projects.
In theory, using it is simple, as you just share the project across multiple users. Each user can then access the same files and build on top of the starting image library.
This might not matter as much for solo photographers like me, but you can also technically use it to disseminate your photos to clients and make the feedback process more intuitive and faster for both sides.
Pricing
One of the major downsides of the new Magnific AI is that there’s no free version or trial. Furthermore, the subscription tiers can be expensive if you only want a solid image generator and editor online.
The Premium tier offers you a relatively modest quota of 240,000 credits per year (at $14.50 per month for an individual account), which should be more than enough for amateur and solo photographers working on a big project or two.
A Premium Plus individual account will set you back $33.75 per month for 600,000 credits per year while Pro checks in at $210 per month for a whopping 4,000,000 credits per year. Business and Enterprise accounts are available as well.
This is perhaps my biggest gripe with the switch from Freepik to Magnific AI. The entire focus of the brand has changed from being about images people could access for relatively cheap to being about AI image generation and editing.
Who Is Magnific AI For?
Ultimately, Magnific isn’t really a photographer’s tool. It was built for digital artists, AI creators, content teams, and filmmakers, and that’s still the audience it serves best.
The Creative upscaling mode, in particular, is fundamentally more useful for AI-generated artwork and illustrations than for real photographs. When you let the AI hallucinate details onto a portrait, it will alter the subject’s face. It’s a built-in feature of AI generation.
When trying to apply that to photography – where you need detail and fidelity – this can feel severely limiting. Even the Precision Mode has its faults since you have very few options to change and play with.
That said, I did mention that the tool can be invaluable if you want to test out shoots before committing to the tool. The AI generates shadows and contrast with surprising accuracy, so you can expect to get similar images in the field if you set up your equipment correctly.
Ultimately, the tool will be as good as any other AI generator using the same model. The fact that you can choose between different ones here is a definite plus.
Of course, there’s also the matter of the “legacy” library. Freepik has been one of the most popular options for a reason, and that still remains fully in the new platform.
However, the lack of a free trial means that you do need to have your mind set on using the tool regardless of its cost. For that, I’d suggest starting with the Premium subscription and seeing if you run into many accessibility issues (or the features or the stock library).
