Recraft Crisp Upscale vs Creative Upscale, and Sume's upscale

Recraft Crisp Upscale enlarges an image without redrawing it, at 1 credit per image. Creative Upscale, found under Refine details, regenerates the image and can redraw hands, faces and text. Sume's Image Upscale 1.0 is a single endpoint: send a public HTTPS image_url and an optional upscale_factor (default 2, maximum 4).

Recraft facts are from its upscaling docs; Sume facts are from the OpenAPI schema (see API reference), both read 2026-10-01.

What is the difference between crisp and creative upscaling?

Per Recraft's page, upscaling increases resolution without changing structure or content, so you get the same image at a larger size. It names icons, vector-style illustrations and consistency-critical assets as the fit. Refine details instead regenerates at higher quality, and Creative Upscale, which both refines and enlarges, lives there.

Recraft also notes that upscaling does not support transparent images: a transparent background comes back white.

What does Sume's Image Upscale 1.0 take?

The schema requires image_url (public HTTPS) and accepts upscale_factor from 1 to 4 (default 2), plus output_format of png, jpg or webp (default png). Provider model ids are selected by Sume and are not accepted in the request. Image Upscale 1.0 exposes no separate creative-redraw option, so treat it as the same-image-larger route.

If you want details redrawn, that is a generation or edit step on the Image API with a prompt, not a flag on upscale.

const res = await fetch("https://api.sume.com/v1/image-upscale-1.0/upscale", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: "Bearer " + process.env.SUME_API_KEY,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Idempotency-Key": "upscale-logo-001",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    image_url: "https://example.com/logo.png",
    upscale_factor: 4,
    output_format: "png",
  }),
});
console.log(await res.json());

Which one fits which asset?

For a logo or flat illustration, the faithful route is the one to start with on either platform. For a soft photo where you want sharper hands or text, a redraw step changes content, so review the result. See AI image upscale API for the Sume request in more detail.