# PiD Super-Resolution Decode

**PiD** (Pixel Diffusion Decoder) is an alternative way to turn a model’s latents into an image. Instead of the usual VAE decode, it runs a short pixel-space diffusion that produces a **4× super-resolved** result in a single, few-step pass — so a 512×512 generation comes out as a detailed 2048×2048 image.

Because it decodes in pixel space and is conditioned on your prompt, PiD often recovers finer texture and edge detail than a plain VAE decode followed by an upscaler.

## Supported models

PiD works with these base models:

| Base model | PiD decoder to install |
| --- | --- |
| FLUX.1 | PiD Decoder FLUX |
| FLUX.2 Klein (4B / 9B) | PiD Decoder FLUX.2 |
| Stable Diffusion 3 | PiD Decoder SD3 |
| SDXL | PiD Decoder SDXL |
| Z-Image / Z-Image Turbo | **PiD Decoder FLUX** (Z-Image shares FLUX.1’s VAE) |
| Qwen-Image | PiD Decoder Qwen-Image |

## What you need to install

PiD needs two extra models, both available in **Model Manager → Starter Models**:

1. A **PiD Decoder** for your base model (e.g. _PiD Decoder FLUX (2K)_). Some bases offer a _2K_ and a _2K-to-4K_ preset; SDXL and Qwen-Image ship only the _2K-to-4K_ preset.
2. The **Gemma 2 2B (PiD caption encoder)** — PiD uses it to condition the decode on your prompt. It installs automatically as a dependency of any PiD decoder, and is shared across all of them.

Each PiD decoder is roughly 5 GB and the shared Gemma-2 encoder is roughly 5 GB.

## Enabling PiD

Open the **Generation** settings for a supported model and expand the advanced options. You’ll find a **PiD** control with three modes:

- [Off](/content/features/pid-decode/#tab-panel-143/index.html)
- [Fit](/content/features/pid-decode/#tab-panel-144/index.html)
- [Native](/content/features/pid-decode/#tab-panel-145/index.html)

Standard VAE decode. No PiD models required.

Generate at the requested size, decode 4× with PiD, then downscale the result back to the requested size. This is the safe default and works everywhere — the output matches your bounding box exactly, so it composites cleanly on the Canvas.

Treat the requested dimensions as the **4× target**: the image is generated at target ÷ 4 and PiD’s full 4× output is used directly (no downscale), preserving all of the added detail. Great when you want a large, highly-detailed result.

When PiD mode is not _Off_, pick your **PiD Decoder** and **Gemma-2 Encoder** below the mode selector. The **PiD Steps** control (default 4) sets how many decode steps run — the released checkpoints are trained for 4.

PiD is available in both the **Generate** tab (text-to-image) and on the **Canvas** (image-to-image), in both Fit and Native modes.

## Tips & limitations

- **Turn off “Scale Before Processing”** on the Canvas when using PiD — PiD already decodes at 4×, so pre-scaling would inflate the work and is blocked.
- **Inpaint / Outpaint** are not supported with PiD yet; use text-to-image or image-to-image.
- **SDXL Refiner** cannot be combined with PiD — disable one of them.
- PiD’s memory use scales with the _output_ resolution. A 2048px output needs only a little more headroom than a normal decode, but Native mode at large target sizes (e.g. a 4096px result) is significantly heavier.
- Turbo variants (e.g. Z-Image Turbo) work as usual — the low step count / no-CFG only affects generation; PiD’s own step count is separate.