FreeAIPhoto Colorizer
Colorize a black and white photo
Add realistic colour to old photographs.
Drop an image here, or .
Free AI that runs on your device, no sign-up. Nothing is uploaded. Only edit photos you own or have permission to edit; see our Acceptable Use Policy.
Photo Colorizer: how to use it
- Drop in a black and white photo.
- Choose the Colour strength: natural, vivid, or subtle for a vintage look.
- Colorize and download.
Tips
- Skin, sky, grass and water usually come out believable. Clothing, cars and painted walls are a guess: the model cannot know what colour they really were.
- The model downloads once (about 130 MB), so the first run takes longer.
- For faded or grainy scans, the Photo Restorer cleans them up and can colorize in the same step.
Photo Colorizer: what it does and when to use it
The colorizer runs DDColor, an open-source model trained on millions of colour photos to predict what colours belong where: skin tones, skies, foliage, fabrics, wood and brick. It reads the grey tones of your photo and adds colour channels on top, so the brightness and detail of the original are kept exactly and only the colour is new.
The model is about 130 MB and, because it produces a strong colour cast on some graphics cards, it runs on your processor. On a typical laptop a photo takes around ten seconds after the first download. Natural suits most family photos; Vivid gives a bolder, more modern look; Subtle keeps a gently tinted vintage feel.
The colours are an educated guess, not historical fact. Clothing, cars and painted walls could have been any colour, so the model picks something plausible. If a result looks wrong, try a cleaner scan or the Photo Restorer, which clears grain and fading before adding colour. Colorizing works on photos that are already black and white; a faded colour photo needs restoring, not colorizing.
Photo Colorizer: frequently asked questions
Is the Photo Colorizer free, and do I need to sign up?
Yes, the Photo Colorizer is 100% free with no sign-up, no login and no account. The Photo Colorizer runs its AI model on your own device, so it has no credits, no daily limit and no upload, and saves at full resolution with no watermark. See why it is free.
Are the colours accurate?
They are plausible, not historical. The DDColor model has learned what colours things usually are, such as sky, skin, grass and brick, and paints those in; it cannot know that a coat was actually green. The lightness and detail come from your original photo at full resolution.
Should I restore the photo first?
For a damaged print, yes: run the Photo Restorer to clean up grain and fading, then colorize. The restorer can also add colour itself if the scan is black and white.
How do I colorize a black and white photo for free?
Open the photo and press Colorize. The DDColor model predicts colours for skin, sky, clothes and buildings on your own device, and keeps the detail of your original scan. It is free with no sign-up, and the colorized photo downloads at full resolution with no watermark. The model is about 130 MB and downloads once.
Can AI colorize old family photos accurately?
It produces natural, believable colour, but it cannot know the real colour of a dress or a car. Treat the result as a reconstruction. If you know a detail was a particular colour, the Colour Replacer can change that one area afterwards.