Krea AI (Krea Enhance) · Image upscaling
Free compute can enhance textures, but login, repeated onboarding promotions and a long queue add friction; rewritten small text limits fidelity-sensitive work.
US-West (California, AS2914)
No native export attached; page screenshot evidence only
Subsequent pricing and service checks are shown separately without altering historical scores.
One run does not establish all complex scenes, untested paid maxima or long-term uptime.
Plans & historical pricing
Individual web plans and default Business 80k volume; excludes API and other business volumes · 2026-10-20
Observed first-year promotion USD 63; then USD 84/year until cancelled
Rules [1]Observed first-year promotion USD 252; then USD 336/year until cancelled
Rules [1]Observed first-year promotion USD 756; then USD 1008/year until cancelled
Rules [1]Observed first-year promotion USD 504; then USD 672/year until cancelled
Rules [1]Observed first-year promotion USD 972; then USD 1296/year until cancelled
Rules [1]Observed first-year promotion USD 1188; then USD 1584/year until cancelled
Rules [1]16 plan / billing-period records, all listed; — means that period is not recorded.
All 10 previously missing amounts are confirmed in USD checkout summaries. Individual annual offers separate first-year and renewal charges; Business 80k is $1,920/year. Max monthly purchase paths show additional annual offers whose checkout totals were not independently confirmed; these are not merged with the default annual offer. Per-removal compute cost and extra top-up pricing are not separately specified in the verified plans/checkouts. Other Business volumes are outside scope.
Verification has gaps; unknown prices and quotas are not inferred.
Cancellation, sources & verification record
Self-serve cancellation in account settings
Official plans and usage terms ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗
USD checkout summaries reached from official pricing ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ · Capture 2 ↗ · Capture 3 ↗ · Capture 4 ↗ · Capture 5 ↗ · Capture 6 ↗ · Capture 7 ↗ · Capture 8 ↗ · Capture 9 ↗ · Capture 10 ↗
Additional annual offers on monthly purchase paths ↗ · 2026-10-20 Capture 1 ↗ · Capture 2 ↗ · Capture 3 ↗
Pricing recorded on the test date · 2026-10-16
Basic $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually) · Pro $35/mo ($28/mo annually; $21/mo onboarding offer)
50 free daily credits + Basic/Pro/Max compute subscriptions
Historical context only; not current purchase guidance.
Delivery & access
- Free delivery record
- 1024×1024 (PNG · 2.0x Generative Enhance)
- Watermark
- 100% Watermark-Free
- Free allowance
- 50 free daily compute credits (~6–7 free 2x enhancements/day); free tier is capped at 1 concurrent job with queue wait, and 8x/16x require a paid subscription
- Account requirements
- Clicking Generate on the landing page requires Google / Apple / Email sign-in
- Maximum specification record
- 1024×1024 (2.0x · Free tier unlocks 2x/4x; 8x/16x require paid plan)
May include advertised capabilities; this does not establish a tested paid tier.
- Batch & API
- Paid plans unlock multi-job concurrency and up to 16x upscaling; free tier is limited to 1 concurrent job
- Manual refinement
- Not recorded or not verified
Tested result & sample
PSNR=23.64dB · SSIM=0.7771 (2x 1024×1024 unwatermarked PNG); high hf_ratio=0.6486 makes the 'REALTEST 2026' wooden sign and brass robot look ultra-detailed, but because Krea uses a generative diffusion model (realisticv51, denoising=0.4), the small bottom-right calibration plate text 'REALTEST 2048px GT' is hallucinated into 'AFAL I SOT 20110pss OT' (plate_psnr=14.30dB).
- Fixture
- anchor_upscale_v1
- Recorded environment
- US-West (California, AS2914)
- Network-observed server wait
- 8.61 s
- End-to-end reference
- 87.81 s
Network wait includes round trips, queuing and polling error, not pure inference time. Local timings depend on the device; repetition counts are not standardized in legacy records.
No native export is attached. Screenshots show the visible page, but do not independently establish export properties or file validity.
Experience, rules & trust
- Disclosure
- Prompts signup upon clicking Generate and clearly marks 8x/16x as 'For paid users only' inside the workspace
- Interaction
- Post-signup `/onboarding` triggers two consecutive discount retention modals when clicking 'Skip': first a 1-hour countdown modal ('Take Pro at 40% off instead... Offer ends in 0h:59m:57s'), followed by a 'Final chance — Are you sure you don't want this offer?' modal when dismissing the bottom bar (Screenshot ④); once inside `/enhancer`, the workspace is clean.
- Entity record
- Krea AI Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA)
- Origin
- San Francisco, USA
- Domain history record
- 2022–Present
- Third-party tracking record
- Not recorded or not verified
- External information
- Not recorded or not verified
- Processing
- Cloud Generative Diffusion Upscaler (8.61s GPU server time, 77.31s free queue wait)
- Retention statement
- Generated assets are stored in the user's cloud history (gen.krea.ai) and can be deleted from the workspace
A recorded statement does not verify deletion or all data-processing behavior.
Verifiable audit trail & evidence
Four SHA-256-verified stages link the benchmark fixture, same-run interface screenshots, native exported artifact and archived pricing sources.
anchor_upscale_v1 · Inspect fixture & file inspector →
Captures entry rules, result view and export disclosure.
Page screenshot evidence only
Official plans and usage terms (snapshot ↗) · USD checkout summaries reached from official pricing (snapshot ↗) · Additional annual offers on monthly purchase paths (snapshot ↗)
Screenshots, native output and official claims support different conclusions. Evidence grades are not product safety certifications.
Evaluation basis & full scores · Overall 70.9/100
Overall = honesty & reputation × 30% + capability × 70%. Component maxima follow this report’s rubric. List scores are rounded for display; original precision is retained here.
Scoring version 2.3.1 · Test fixture anchor_upscale_v1
Honesty & reputation · 74/100 · 30%
| Criterion | Score | Rationale | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | 24 / 35 | Landing page `/apps/enhance` (Screenshot ①) provides an upload box and 1x/2x/4x/8x buttons, prompting 'Sign up for 50 free credits daily' when clicking Generate; after free Google sign-in, Krea grants daily free compute credits and exports 100% watermark-free 1024×1024 (2x) PNGs (8x and 16x are clearly labeled 'For paid users only'). | Evidence A → |
| Interaction restraint | 18 / 30 | Post-signup `/onboarding` triggers two consecutive discount retention modals when clicking 'Skip': first a 1-hour countdown modal ('Take Pro at 40% off instead... Offer ends in 0h:59m:57s'), followed by a 'Final chance — Are you sure you don't want this offer?' modal when dismissing the bottom bar (Screenshot ④); once inside `/enhancer`, the workspace is clean. | Evidence A → |
| Background & reputation | 19 / 20 | Developed by Krea AI Inc. (San Francisco, CA, founded by Victor Perez & Diego Rodriguez, backed by Andreessen Horowitz & Bain Capital Ventures). | Evidence A → |
| Engineering & privacy | 13 / 15 | Uses an async GPU job queue (`/api/job-status` reports exact `time_in_gen_server: 8.61s` and `t_inference: 4.57s`) with encrypted CDN delivery (`gen.krea.ai`). | Evidence A → |
Capability · 69.5/100 · 70%
| Criterion | Score | Rationale | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task quality | 45 / 65 | PSNR vs 2048px GT: 23.64 dB · SSIM: 0.7771 · Edge Gradient Correlation: 0.4812 · High-Freq Sharpness Ratio: 0.6486 · Calibration Plate PSNR: 14.3 dB | Evidence B → |
| Deliverable specifications | 15 / 20 | No free unwatermarked export (0/8); Free scale factor: 2x (1024×1024 (2.0x · Free tier unlocks 2x/4x; 8x/16x require paid plan)) | Evidence B → |
| Processing speed | 9.5 / 15 | Network-observed server wait: 8.61s (API mode: async_poll; end-to-end 87.81s shown for reference only, never penalized) | Evidence B → |
Legacy scores may include advertised maximum capabilities. Read tested output separately from paid capabilities. Records without matching tiers and scope are not ranked together.
Revisions & corrections
- 2026-10-16
Initial real-machine evaluation on Mode A ground-truth anchor (anchor_upscale_v1: 512px -> 2048px GT).