# Upsample Guidance: Scale Up Diffusion Models without Training

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01709 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01709/

## Key facts

- Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Diffusion foundations and sampling, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 27 of its 36 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Apr 2024.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Diffusion foundations and sampling](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/diffusion-foundations-and-sampling/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.01952/) (2023)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10196/) (2017)
- [Stable Video Diffusion: Scaling Latent Video Diffusion Models to Large Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15127/) (2023)
- [Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03458/) (2022)
- [Align your Latents: High-Resolution Video Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08818/) (2023)
- [IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06721/) (2023)
- [AnimateDiff: Animate Your Personalized Text-to-Image Diffusion Models without Specific Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.04725/) (2023)
- [Cascaded Diffusion Models for High Fidelity Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.15282/) (2021)
- [eDiff-I: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with an Ensemble of Expert Denoisers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01324/) (2022)
- [Latent Consistency Models: Synthesizing High-Resolution Images with Few-Step Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04378/) (2023)
- [Pseudo Numerical Methods for Diffusion Models on Manifolds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09778/) (2022)
- [MultiDiffusion: Fusing Diffusion Paths for Controlled Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08113/) (2023)
- [Simple diffusion: End-to-end diffusion for high resolution images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.11093/) (2023)
- [Towards Robust Blind Face Restoration with Codebook Lookup Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11253/) (2022)
- [Matryoshka Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15111/) (2023)
- [Any-Size-Diffusion: Toward Efficient Text-Driven Synthesis for Any-Size HD Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16582/) (2023)
- [Resolution Chromatography of Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10247/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Lumina-T2X: Transforming Text into Any Modality, Resolution, and Duration via Flow-based Large Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05945/) (2024)
- [DiM: Diffusion Mamba for Efficient High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14224/) (2024)
- [DiG: Scalable and Efficient Diffusion Models with Gated Linear Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.18428/) (2024)
- [FreeScale: Unleashing the Resolution of Diffusion Models via Tuning-Free Scale Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09626/) (2024)
- [I-Max: Maximize the Resolution Potential of Pre-trained Rectified Flow Transformers with Projected Flow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07536/) (2024)
- [ToMA: Token Merge with Attention for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10918/) (2025)
- [Is One GPU Enough? Pushing Image Generation at Higher-Resolutions with Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07251/) (2024)
- [DyPE: Dynamic Position Extrapolation for Ultra High Resolution Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20766/) (2025)
- [RepLDM: Reprogramming Pretrained Latent Diffusion Models for High-Quality, High-Efficiency, High-Resolution Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06055/) (2024)
- [ScaleDiff: Higher-Resolution Image Synthesis via Efficient and Model-Agnostic Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25818/) (2025)
- [LightMotion: A Light and Tuning-free Method for Simulating Camera Motion in Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06508/) (2025)
- [A Diffusion-Based Framework for Occluded Object Movement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01873/) (2025)
- [AccDiffusion v2: Towards More Accurate Higher-Resolution Diffusion Extrapolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02099/) (2024)
- [Exploring Position Encoding in Diffusion U-Net for Training-free High-resolution Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09830/) (2025)
- [UPLiFT: Efficient Pixel-Dense Feature Upsampling with Local Attenders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17950/) (2026)
- [ASGDiffusion: Parallel High-Resolution Generation with Asynchronous Structure Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06163/) (2024)
- [RectifiedHR: Enable Efficient High-Resolution Synthesis via Energy Rectification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.02537/) (2025)
- [InfoScale: Unleashing Training-free Variable-scaled Image Generation via Effective Utilization of Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01421/) (2025)
- [Tuning-Free Latent Diffusion Models for Ultrahigh-Resolution Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.06136/) (2026)
- [AReA: Adaptive Receptive-Field Attention for Efficient High-Resolution Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.17227/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion models have demonstrated superior performance across various generative tasks including images, videos, and audio. However, they encounter difficulties in directly generating high-resolution samples. Previously proposed solutions to this issue involve modifying the architecture, further training, or partitioning the sampling process into multiple stages. These methods have the limitation of not being able to directly utilize pre-trained models as-is, requiring additional work. In this paper, we introduce upsample guidance, a technique that adapts pretrained diffusion model (e.g., 5122) to generate higher-resolution images (e.g., 15362) by adding only a single term in the sampling process. Remarkably, this technique does not necessitate any additional training or relying on external models. We demonstrate that upsample guidance can be applied to various models, such as pixel-space, latent space, and video diffusion models. We also observed that the proper selection of guidance scale can improve image quality, fidelity, and prompt alignment.