AI Photo Colorizer

AI Photo Colorizer

Playground

AI Photo Colorizer automatically adds color to black-and-white photos. Upload a grayscale image and get a colorized result. Ready-to-use REST inference API, no coldstarts, affordable pricing.

Features

Bring old black-and-white photos back to life. AI Photo Colorizer analyzes the content of your image and applies realistic, natural-looking color — breathing new life into vintage portraits, historical photographs, and classic film stills.

Upload a black-and-white photo and watch history come alive in full color.

Why You’ll Love It

• Realistic, natural colorization AI intelligently infers colors based on scene content — skin tones, foliage, skies, and fabrics all come out looking believably true to life.

• Works on any black-and-white image Portraits, landscapes, street scenes, archival photos — the model handles a wide range of subjects with impressive accuracy.

• One-click simplicity Upload a photo, hit Run, done. No manual selections, no color picking, no editing skills required.

• Instantly shareable results Download your colorized photo and share it straight away.

How to Use

1. Upload your black-and-white image — a clear, well-preserved photo gives the best results.
2. Hit Run — AI colorizes the image in seconds.
3. Download and share your newly colorized photo.

Pricing

Just $0.05 per image.

Best Use Cases

• Family history — Colorize old portraits of grandparents and ancestors for a deeply personal and emotional result.
• Historical photography — Give archival and documentary images a vivid new perspective.
• Creative projects — Add color to vintage-style art, film stills, or classic editorial photography.
• Restoration work — Complement photo restoration workflows with automatic colorization.

Pro Tips

• High-resolution scans of original photos produce the most detailed and accurate colorization.
• Photos with clear subjects and good contrast colorize better than faded or heavily damaged images.
• For best skin tone results, use portraits with visible facial detail and even lighting.
• Try colorizing the same photo multiple times — subtle variations can appear across runs.

Notes

• Image is the only required field.
• Ensure image URLs are publicly accessible if using a link rather than a direct upload.
• Please ensure your content complies with WaveSpeed AI’s usage policies.

Authentication

For authentication details, please refer to the Authentication Guide.

API Endpoints

Submit Task & Query Result

set -euo pipefail

export WAVESPEED_API_KEY="your-api-key"

REQUEST_BODY=$(cat <<'JSON'
{
  "image": "https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-images/painted-hand-298-332.jpg"
}
JSON
)

# 1. Submit the prediction.
SUBMIT_RESPONSE=$(curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body \
  -X POST "https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/wavespeed-ai/ai-photo-colorizer" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${WAVESPEED_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "${REQUEST_BODY}")

TASK=$(printf '%s' "${SUBMIT_RESPONSE}" | jq 'if type == "object" and has("data") then .data else . end')
PREDICTION_ID=$(printf '%s' "${TASK}" | jq -r '.id // empty')
if [ -z "${PREDICTION_ID}" ]; then
  printf 'Submission response did not contain a prediction id
' >&2
  exit 1
fi
RESULT_URL=$(printf '%s' "${TASK}" | jq -r '.urls.get // empty')
if [ -z "${RESULT_URL}" ]; then RESULT_URL="https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/predictions/${PREDICTION_ID}/result"; fi

# 2. Poll until the prediction finishes.
while true; do
  RESPONSE=$(curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body \
    "${RESULT_URL}" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${WAVESPEED_API_KEY}")
  RESULT=$(printf '%s' "${RESPONSE}" | jq 'if type == "object" and has("data") then .data else . end')
  STATUS=$(printf '%s' "${RESULT}" | jq -r '.status // empty')

  case "${STATUS}" in
    completed) printf '%s\n' "${RESULT}" | jq '.outputs'; break ;;
    failed|cancelled|timeout) printf '%s\n' "${RESULT}" | jq . >&2; exit 1 ;;
    created|processing) sleep 2 ;;
    *) printf 'Unexpected status: %s
' "${STATUS}" >&2; exit 1 ;;
  esac
done

Parameters

Task Submission Parameters

Request Parameters

Response Parameters

Result Request Parameters

Result Response Parameters