Topaz Photo Review 2026: An Honest Look from a Long-Time User

I’ve been using Topaz Labs software since the days when DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI were three separate standalone applications. Back then, they were industry-leading tools. Nobody came close to what Topaz was doing with noise reduction. I recommended them without hesitation and used them regularly as core parts of my editing workflow.

A lot has changed since then.

This review is an honest account of where Topaz Photo stands today, based on my testing with the current 2026 version. I’ll walk through each of the main tools, explain what’s changed over the years, and tell you what I honestly recommend instead for landscape photography.

The short version: for noise reduction and sharpening, I think DxO PureRAW is now the better tool, and it’s what I use in my own workflow. I’ll explain why. But I also want to be fair to Topaz Photo, because there are specific situations where it still earns its place.

I should be transparent: I’m an affiliate for both Topaz and DxO, and have been for years. That means I earn a small commission if you purchase either product through my links, at no extra cost to you. I mention this because what follows is a recommendation of one over the other, and you deserve to know that I have no financial incentive to favor either side.

What is Topaz Photo AI? 

Topaz Photo is an AI-powered image enhancement tool built around three core functions: noise reduction, image sharpening, and upscaling. It’s designed to be used alongside your main photo editor, whether that’s Lightroom, Luminar, or something else. You bring an image into Topaz Photo to maximize its technical quality, then continue your editing in your usual workflow.

Beyond the three core tools, the software also includes options to adjust lighting, remove objects, recover faces, fix dust and scratches, and more. But it’s not a full photo editor. You won’t be doing your main exposure work or creative color adjustments here. For most photographers, noise reduction, sharpening, and upscaling are the reasons they’re here.

Note: If you’ve used Topaz Photo AI before, this is the same software under a new name. The “AI” was dropped from the product name, but the core function continues.

Topaz Labs also offers Topaz Studio at $69/month, a higher-tier bundle that includes Topaz Photo and other applications, such as Topaz Video. Topaz Photo itself is a standalone product at a lower price point. 

Recommended Reading: Post-Processing for Landscape Photography: The Complete Guide

What’s New in Topaz Photo in 2026

The most significant technical development in recent months is NeuroStream, Topaz’s proprietary VRAM optimization technology. It reduces GPU memory requirements by up to 95%, meaning their most powerful AI models now run locally on consumer hardware. In practice, this has contributed to improved export performance compared to previous versions.

New AI models are also available, including Wonder, Standard MAX, and Starlight Sharp, targeting different image types and use cases. Because Topaz Photo is subscription-based, these model updates are delivered continuously.

Autopilot: Should You Use It?

When you first install Topaz Photo, you’ll be asked whether to enable Autopilot. This feature analyzes each image you import and suggests adjustments based on what it detects. It doesn’t apply anything automatically; it makes suggestions that you can accept, modify, or ignore entirely. Think of it as an AI assistant offering a starting point rather than a system making decisions for you.

I turn Autopilot off. I know what I want from my images, and I prefer to start from scratch with my own settings rather than evaluate and override suggestions. If you’re new to this type of software and want a reference point to work from, leaving it on is a reasonable approach.

One thing worth knowing: Autopilot doesn’t always read your intentions correctly. Import a file where you only want noise reduction, and it may suggest upscaling because it detects low resolution. For night photography, it tends to suggest aggressive noise reduction that goes further than you’d want. In those situations, ignore the suggestions and work manually.

You can toggle Autopilot on or off at any time in the settings.

Noise Reduction in Topaz Photo

This is where my honest opinion most diverges from what you’ll find in many other reviews, and it’s the most important section if you’re considering Topaz Photo for landscape photography.

Topaz Photo does remove noise. Technically, it does the job. The problem is how it does it.

The default settings are far too aggressive. Using the autopilot or the default denoise values, the software removes noise by also removing significant detail. Images come back softer than they should be, and fine texture in rocks, foliage, and water gets smoothed over in a way that looks unnatural. At its worst, it produces results that look more like a painting than a photograph. The kind of result where you zoom in and immediately know something is wrong.

Luckily, you can pull this back. Turn the AI models off, work manually with the sliders, and keep the values lower than what feels intuitive. With some patience and careful adjustment, you can get reasonable results. Minor Deblur at low values is useful, adding a touch of clarity without overdoing it.

But here’s the honest question: why spend that effort when better tools exist?

Lightroom’s AI Denoise (found in the Detail tab) produces better results in my experience. It preserves fine detail more naturally while still removing noise effectively. It’s also part of a subscription you might already have.

DxO PureRAW is, in my opinion, currently the best noise reduction tool available. DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD remove noise while retaining texture and fine detail in a way that Topaz Photo doesn’t match, even when carefully adjusted. PureRAW is also what I personally use as the first step of every edit.

The preview rebuild time adds to the frustration. Every time you adjust a slider in Topaz Photo, the software rebuilds the preview from scratch. In my testing, that’s 5 to 10 seconds every time. When you’re fine-tuning multiple settings, the waiting adds up and makes the whole process feel laborious. In PureRAW, adjustments and previews are instant.

Recommended Reading: Noise Reduction in Photography: In Field & Post-Processing

Sharpening in Topaz Photo

The story with sharpening is similar to noise reduction: technically capable in places, but prone to going too far.

The AI sharpening models are aggressive. I tested several of them and found that even at what felt like conservative settings, the results were oversharpened to the point of looking unnatural. At its worst, fine details start to look like illustrations rather than photographs. It’s a distinctive look, and not a good one.

The standard model is the one to use, and even then, keep the values low. Build up gradually, zoom in and check the full image before exporting, and be particularly careful around areas with fine texture. Oversharpening can be subtle in one part of the frame and obvious in another.

Where Topaz sharpening does ok is in recovering “problem images“: slight camera shake, minor focus miss, blur from subject movement. For images that would otherwise be unusable, the blur and focus correction tools are among the better options available.

It’s also worth noting that the Lens Sharpness Optimization in PureRAW is excellent for sharpening soft files. For most images, it does the job better and with less risk of oversharpening.

Upscaling in Topaz Photo AI

Upscaling is the area where Topaz Photo still has an advantage, and it’s the strongest reason to consider the software in 2026.

The AI-powered upscaling generates new pixels intelligently rather than simply interpolating, which means enlarging an image 2x or 4x produces a result that looks natural. For print, large format output, or recovering usable resolution from an older file, it works well.

That said, if upscaling is your primary reason for considering Topaz Photo, I’d recommend looking at Topaz Gigapixel as a dedicated standalone application. It’s the more specialized tool, built specifically for this purpose, and offers more control and model options for this specific task. It’s a separate subscription, but if upscaling is important to your workflow, it’s a better investment.

Recommended Reading: 8 Crucial Steps to Prepare Images for Printing

File Size and Storage: What to Expect

Something worth planning for that doesn’t get mentioned enough: the output files from Topaz Photo are significantly larger than the originals.

In my testing, a Nikon Z6II RAW file at 29.5MB came back at 70.8MB after processing. A Nikon Z7 file at 59.5MB came back at 143.9MB. Roughly two and a half times the original size in both cases.

For a single image, this is irrelevant. For a full shoot with hundreds of files, or a large archive project, this becomes a real storage consideration. Plan accordingly before running files through Topaz Photo in bulk.

Topaz Photo vs DxO PureRAW

It’s worth making a direct comparison since PureRAW is what I now recommend for landscape photographers.

Noise reduction: PureRAW is better, clearly and consistently. DeepPRIME preserves fine detail while removing noise in a way that Topaz Photo doesn’t match. For landscape RAW files where texture matters, this is the most important difference.

Sharpening and lens correction: PureRAW’s Lens Sharpness Optimization is excellent and, in most cases, outperforms Topaz’s sharpening tools for standard landscape use. Topaz is better at blur and focus correction on problem images.

Preview speed: PureRAW is instant. Topaz Photo rebuilds previews after every adjustment, taking 5 to 10 seconds each time.

Upscaling: Topaz wins. PureRAW doesn’t offer upscaling.

Pricing: PureRAW 6 is $139 as a one-time purchase, with optional discounted annual upgrades. Topaz Photo is $17- $39/month. Over a year, that’s $199 to $468 for Topaz versus $139 once for PureRAW. For a tool that, in my experience, delivers worse results for the most common use case, that’s a hard price to justify.

Workflow integration: Both integrate cleanly with Lightroom and Photoshop.

For landscape photographers, PureRAW is the better choice for noise reduction and sharpening. If you also need upscaling, you can combine PureRAW for RAW processing with Topaz Gigapixel when needed.

Recommended Reading: DxO PureRAW 6 Review: Is It Better Than Lightroom or Topaz?

Topaz Photo Pricing: Is the Subscription Worth It?

Topaz Photo is $17 to $39/month, depending on whether you pay annually or monthly. Annualized, that’s $199 to $468 per year for a subscription.

For context: the Adobe Photography Plan, which includes both Lightroom and Photoshop, costs less. DxO PureRAW 6 is $139 as a one-time perpetual purchase. Topaz Gigapixel, if upscaling is your main interest, is a separate subscription on top of that.

I find the price difficult to justify, and I want to be direct about that. The core use case most photographers have for this type of software is noise reduction, and Topaz Photo is no longer the best tool for that job. Paying a premium monthly subscription fee for a tool that performs worse than the main competitors in its primary function is hard to recommend.

The subscription makes more sense for:

• Photographers who need the dust and scratch removal tools for scanning film or restoring old images
• Those who regularly work with problem images requiring blur or focus correction
• Photographers who use a wide range of Topaz tools and find value across the full feature set

For most landscape photographers, I think the money is better spent on a PureRAW license, which offers better noise reduction at a lower total cost.

A Brief History: What Happened to Topaz?

It’s worth saying this clearly, because it’s the context that makes sense of everything above.

When Topaz DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI were standalone products, they were the best in their category. Genuinely. The noise reduction in DeNoise AI was ahead of everything else available, and I used it regularly as a core part of my workflow before starting an edit in Lightroom.

When Topaz Photo AI combined the three tools into one application, quality dropped. It was still decent, but it was no longer the obvious option.

With the current Topaz Photo, the trajectory has continued in the wrong direction. The software appears to have adopted an approach where more aggressive processing equals better processing: stronger noise reduction, more prominent sharpening, higher default values across the board. But most photographers don’t want zero noise and extreme sharpening. They want natural-looking results. Details where details should be, with minimal grain. Overdone noise reduction makes everything look soft and painted. Overdone sharpening makes images look artificially constructed.

The irony is that Topaz’s own older standalone products understood this better than the current version does.

I genuinely hope Topaz course-corrects, because they clearly have the technical capability to build great tools. But based on the current version, I can no longer recommend Topaz Photo as the go-to noise reduction tool for landscape photographers.

Conclusion

Topaz Photo is not a bad piece of software in absolute terms. The upscaling is good, the dust and scratch removal is useful for specific workflows, and the focus and blur correction tools work for problem images.

But for the core use case most landscape photographers have, noise reduction, it’s no longer the best option. Lightroom’s built-in AI Denoise and DxO PureRAW both deliver more natural, detail-preserving results. And at $17 to $39/month, the price doesn’t reflect the current performance.

If you’re specifically interested in upscaling or need the film restoration tools, Topaz Photo is worth considering. For everything else, I’d point you toward DxO PureRAW, where you’ll also find an exclusive discount code for CaptureLandscapes readers.

If you do want to try Topaz Photo, you can find it at topazlabs.com. Purchasing through this link supports CaptureLandscapes at no extra cost to you.

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