Colorize Black and White Video

A black and white frame only stores brightness. The AI has learned from a large number of color images what things usually look like, so it recognizes faces, sky, foliage, fabric and buildings and predicts fitting colors for each. It works frame by frame across the whole clip.

The result looks like carefully hand-tinted film: natural and slightly muted rather than bright and saturated. That is on purpose. Muted color looks believable on old footage, and it is easy to boost saturation in any video editor if you want a stronger look.

Keep in mind that AI color is a best guess. The model cannot know the real color of a specific dress or car, so treat the result as a plausible reconstruction, not a historical record.

Because color is added frame by frame, it can shift slightly as the camera moves or the light changes, especially on clothing and backgrounds. For most home movies and archive clips this is barely visible, and it is part of the hand-tinted look.

The colorizer keeps the original picture, framing and motion. It does not add frames, change the speed or remove grain, so the colorized clip still feels like the original film, just in color.

• Use the best scan you have. A clean, sharp digital transfer colorizes better than a phone recording of a screen.
• Trim to 30 seconds. Pick the most important scenes, or split a longer film into 30 second parts and colorize each.
• Crop out black borders and burned-in timestamps where you can, so the model focuses on the picture.
• Finish with an upscale. Old footage is often low resolution. Colorize first, then run the result through the AI Video Upscaler (clips up to 10 seconds) for a sharper 1080p version.
• Add ambience to silent film. Many old home movies have no sound. Video to Audio AI can add matching background sound.

Footage with good contrast colorizes best. Very dark or washed-out scans give the AI less information, so if your editor has a simple brightness and contrast control, a small adjustment before uploading can help. Avoid heavy sharpening, which can add halos that get colored too.

Colorizing costs $0.01 per second of video, with a $0.05 minimum, so a full 30 second clip is $0.30. Signed-in users get one free generation a day on runs priced at $0.10 or less, which here means clips of up to 10 seconds. After that, it is pay per use from your balance, with no subscription.

If a colorization fails, the charge is refunded automatically, or your free generation is given back. There is no watermark, and your videos are saved in My creations for 30 days. You can delete them at any time.

A ten-minute family film, colorized in 30 second parts, costs $6. Only upload footage you have the right to use, and if it shows other people, check that they or their families are happy for it to be shared.

Paid runs come from a pay as you go balance. Credit packs start at $10, and larger packs include bonus credit, so a family archive project can be done without any subscription.