GIMP Upscale Plugin – AI Image Upscaler (RealESRGAN) for GIMP 2.10 & 3.0

• Get models:

  • Browse ESRGAN NCNN x4 models on OpenModelDB.
  • You can also find models on GitHub, Hugging Face, and other repositories.

• Where to put models:

  • Place both files side by side in the plug-in models folder.
  • GIMP 2.10: .../plug-ins/gimp2_upscale/resrgan/models
  • GIMP 3.0: .../plug-ins/gimp3_upscale/resrgan/models

    • Example:

      resrgan/
      └── models/
          ├── UltraSharp-4x.param
          └── UltraSharp-4x.bin

• Supported formats:

  • ESRGAN-NCNN format only: .param and .bin files.
  • Only native 4x (x4) models are supported.
  • Filename stems must match (e.g., model.param + model.bin).
  • .pth is not supported.

• Convert to NCNN (if needed):

  • Use ChaiNNer.
  • Or follow this community guide.
  • Output must be a matching .param + .bin pair.

• Verify in GIMP:

  • Open Filters > Enhance > AI Upscale....
  • Check the Model list for your model name (derived from the filename stem).
  • If it doesn’t appear: confirm the folder path, format support, and matching filenames, then restart GIMP.

• Find your plug-in folder via:
  • GIMP > Edit > Preferences > Folders > Plug-ins
• Default Windows directories:
  • C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\3.0\plug-ins
  • C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\3.0\plug-ins
  • C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\2.10\plug-ins
  • C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins
• Default Linux directories:
  • ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins
  • ~/.config/GIMP/3.0/plug-ins

plug-ins/
|
├── gimp2_upscale/
│   ├── gimp2_upscale.py
│   └── resrgan/
│       ├── realesrgan-ncnn-vulkan(.exe)
│       └── models/
│           ├── model.param
│           └── model.bin
|
└── gimp3_upscale/
    ├── gimp3_upscale.py
    └── resrgan/
        ├── realesrgan-ncnn-vulkan(.exe)
        └── models/
            ├── model.param
            └── model.bin