Buy Studio or buy one app: the sum nobody does
Most people arrive at Topaz wanting one app, usually Gigapixel for upscaling or Photo for noise. Most of them should buy all three.
The arithmetic is short. Topaz Photo costs $199 for a year and Topaz Gigapixel $149, which together come to $348. Topaz Studio, which contains both plus Topaz Video, costs $399. That is $51 for a video app sold on its own at $299.
So the decision is narrower than the pricing page makes it look. If you need exactly one photo app and never touch video, buy that app. If you want two of anything, buy Studio.
All four annual prices are on the Topaz pricing page, behind the annual toggle. The page still does not add them up for you, and none of the reviews we read before writing this one did either.
Topaz scores 7.5 under how we rate. The models carry it. The terms hold it back.
The monthly price is the most expensive way to own it
Studio paid month to month is $69 a month. Twelve of those is $828.
Studio Pro, the plan with full commercial rights, extra seats and the pro-only models, costs $799 for a year. The monthly Individual plan costs $29 more than the top plan and buys less.
Between the two sits a third price: $45 a month, billed every month for twelve months. That is $540 for the same year you could buy for $399 upfront, so the instalments cost $141. It is the right choice only if $399 at once is the problem.
Month to month makes sense for one job: a single restoration project you can finish in four weeks. For anything longer, pay the year upfront. And note that the year really is a year. Topaz states that annual plans cannot be cancelled or refunded during the term without an additional fee, and does not publish what the fee is.
"Limited commercial use" is a revenue test
Every Individual plan on the pricing page carries the line "Limited commercial use". It reads like a licence restriction on what you may do with the output. It is a test of how big you are.
The documentation is specific: Individual subscriptions "cover commercial use for anyone or entity making less than $1 million USD in revenue a year." Pro is "required for anyone or entity making $1 million USD or more in revenue a year."
A wedding photographer is covered. A retoucher working inside an agency that bills $1.2 million a year is not, and needs Studio Pro at $799 rather than Studio at $399. None of the reviews we read ahead of this one mentioned the threshold.
One seat, no trial, two days to change your mind
A seat, in Topaz terms, is "the number of computers you can use simultaneously." You can install the apps on a laptop and a desktop and run them on one at a time. A second person needs a second subscription, or Pro, which adds up to four extra seats under one account.
There is no trial. Topaz staff wrote in April 2026 that "we do not offer a trial for the Topaz Studio Desktop Collection" and pointed buyers to the refund window instead. That window is two days. The trial page in the Topaz docs still describes free trials, for apps called Photo AI and Video AI, which is what they were named before the subscription switch. It reads current and is not.
Two days is enough to run your own worst files through it. Have them ready before you pay.
What Adobe buying Topaz changes, and what it does not say
Adobe completed its acquisition of Topaz Labs on 23 September 2026. Its announcement says Topaz "will continue as a standalone brand" and that the apps "will continue to be available as standalone products." Topaz models already run inside Photoshop and Firefly.
It says nothing about prices. That is not a reason to avoid Topaz. It is a reason to prefer the annual plan you can see over a promise about one you cannot, and to expect this page to change.
Owners of the old perpetual licences, sold until 3 October 2025, got no specific word in the announcement either. Adobe's own licensing approach is visible in our Adobe Stock review, where unused credits are forfeited on cancellation.
What happens to the files you send to the cloud
Every plan renders locally without a limit. Studio adds 300 cloud video credits a month, and those "expire at the end of each month and do not roll over."
What happens to a file once it is uploaded is the gap we could not close. The Topaz privacy policy was last updated on 3 October 2024, and it does not mention uploaded images, uploaded video, retention periods for files or model training. If your work is under an NDA, render locally. On every plan that costs you nothing but time.
Where Photoshop or Lightroom is enough
If you already pay for Photoshop, you have an upscaler, and Adobe says Topaz technology already runs inside it. For a few enlargements a year that is enough, and Studio is a second subscription for a job you do twice.
Lightroom's built-in denoise covers most raw files from a modern camera. Topaz Photo earns its place on the files Lightroom gives up on, such as very high ISO and old scans. If your library is mostly clean raw files, start with what Adobe already gives you.
For video restoration neither app is a substitute, and Topaz Video is the strongest single argument for Studio over Gigapixel alone.
Who should pay
Buy Studio on the annual plan if you upscale or restore something most weeks, or if you want any two of the three apps. Buy Gigapixel alone if enlargement is the whole job. Buy Studio Pro if your business earns more than $1M a year, because the Individual plan does not cover you. Do not buy anything monthly unless the project ends inside the month.
If you are not a designer and only need images to look clean on social posts, the tools in our design tools for non-designers comparison, including Adobe Express, already sharpen and resize well enough.
Prices, plan contents, the commercial-use threshold, seat rules and the refund policy on this page were read from the Topaz pricing page and documentation on . We compared the published terms and did not test the apps.