What Will I Look Like When I'm Older? (AI Age Progression)

The question "what will I look like when I'm older" has no exact answer, because genes and decades of habits decide it. Age progression is changing a face in a picture to show how it might look years later, and AI can draw one believable older version of your face from a single portrait. In Toybox AI, you upload that portrait to Age Changer, drag the age slider anywhere from 5 to 90, and usually get one photo of yourself at that age in about 30 seconds. This page covers what to make, what really ages a face, a test you can run on a childhood photo, and the limits.

What you can make with AI age progression

• A series of you at 40, 60 and 80. Run the same photo three times and change only the slider, so the age is the one thing that differs between the pictures.
• A milestone birthday card. The guest of honor at 90 on the front of their 50th birthday card, made with their OK.
• An anniversary surprise. Each partner's own portrait aged to 80, placed side by side in a card or a frame.
• A "then and now" post. The slider goes down to 5, so the same tool can show a younger you next to the photo you have today.
• An older version of a character. Age a portrait of yourself, or of a friend who agreed, to picture a character in a story or a game later in life.
• Gray and a beard. Add facial hair to an aged result with Glow Up Studio; the page on trying a beard on your photo shows how to describe a salt-and-pepper or fully gray beard.

To travel back by decade instead of by age, the 80s photo trend prompts restyle your hair, clothes and photo look as if the picture were taken in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

The old-age filter trend and your photos

The old-age filter took off in July 2019, when TechCrunch reported that FaceApp had gone viral on iPhones for a second time, about two years after the first, thanks to edits that make a face look older or younger. The same report noted that FaceApp edited each photo in the cloud rather than on the phone, and didn't make that clear to users.

Before you upload your face to any aging app, check two things in its privacy policy: where the photo is processed (on your phone or on the company's servers) and if the company may use it to train its AI. Age Changer sends your portrait to Toybox's AI providers to make the aged photo.

What will I look like when I'm older, and what decides it?

No photo tool can answer that from one picture, because the biggest factors aren't in the picture. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) splits skin aging into two kinds:

• Intrinsic aging is the natural part, and the AAD says your genes largely control when it happens. With time, all of us get visible lines, lose some fullness in the face, and notice thinner, drier skin.
• Extrinsic aging comes from your environment and habits, and it can make skin age early. The AAD says every tan ages skin prematurely, whether it comes from the sun or a tanning bed, and that smoking greatly speeds up skin aging and leaves skin wrinkled, dull and sallow.
• Repeated expressions turn into permanent lines after many years of the same muscle movements. The AAD suggests sunglasses to cut down on squint lines.
• Diet and alcohol play a part too. The AAD says a diet heavy in sugar and other refined carbohydrates may speed up aging, and that alcohol dries out skin and damages it over time.

Gray hair runs on its own clock. The AAD puts the average start of graying in your 30s or 40s, possibly sooner if your parents went gray early. Each hair makes fresh pigment at the start of every growth cycle, and the AAD says that after 7 to 15 cycles the pigment stops coming back. It adds that stress plays a part, through a hormone called norepinephrine.

So treat an aged photo as one possible version of you. For slowing the early kind of aging, the AAD recommends a water-resistant, broad-spectrum sunscreen rated SPF 30 or higher, every day, on all skin your clothes don't cover.

Test the guess on your own childhood photo

One way to see how far an AI guess can land from the truth is to run one where you already know the answer. Scan or photograph a clear, front-facing picture of yourself at around 10 years old, run it through Age Changer set to your age today, and put the result next to a current selfie.

• Compare one feature at a time. Check the nose, then the jaw, then the cheekbones and eyebrows against your selfie, instead of judging the whole face at once.
• Ignore the clothes and the room. Age Changer's form says it keeps the pose, outfit and background the same, so expect the grown-up you to still wear the old outfit in the old room.
• Try two childhood photos. Run a school portrait and a snapshot from the same year. If they come back as two different-looking adults, that difference is the AI's guesswork.

The same caution applies to a child's photo aged to 30: it's a guess about a face that hasn't finished growing, not a portrait of the adult that child will become.

Age progression for missing children is a different job

Forensic age progression is specialist work, not an app feature. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has forensic artists who make age-progressed images of children missing for two years or more, showing how each child might look now. NCMEC's case managers send those images out through a network of more than 200 photo distribution partners across the country. If a child is missing in the United States, NCMEC says to call your local police right away, then NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). Leave any age-progressed image of a missing person to its forensic artists.

Tips for a believable aged photo

• Face the camera in soft light. A front-facing portrait with even light shows your skin, eyes and hairline. Age Changer's upload box says a clearly visible face gives the best result.
• Skip beauty effects. Use a photo without smoothing, a beauty mode or a face-shape effect, because the tool starts from what's in your photo.
• Take off sunglasses and hats. They hide your eyes, forehead and hairline, which the tool needs to see.
• Use the same photo for every age. A 50, a 70 and a 90 made from one photo compare cleanly. Three different selfies add three different angles and lights.
• Pick the outfit and background you want in the picture. The photo you start with sets the scene, so choose one you'd be happy to see on a card.
• Check the number before you press the button. The slider shows the age as you drag ("65 years old"), so match it to the card or post you're making.

Limits of AI age progression

• It's entertainment, not a prediction. Age Changer can't see your genes, your sun habits or your health. It isn't a medical or forensic forecast.
• Ages 5 to 90, one photo per run. For several ages, run it several times. If you're looking for age progression online for free, this isn't it: each run currently costs 85 credits, on the Free plan.
• The face can drift. The result is made by AI. Compare your eyes, nose shape and ears with your original, and try another photo if it doesn't look like you.
• Real people need to agree. Age your own photo or one you have permission to use, because the Terms require the explicit consent of anyone shown.
• Not for ID or age checks. An aged photo is a made-up image. Don't use it for an account, an ID or any age verification.

For other ways to put yourself in AI pictures, from headshots to fantasy scenes, see how to make AI images of yourself. To try a new cut on the aged photo, the hairstyle try-on guide has wording for bangs, bobs and buzz cuts.

How to make an aged photo in Age Changer

1. Open Age Changer and sign in. No subscription is needed for this one; each aged photo currently costs 85 credits.
2. Add a portrait under "Your photo" (JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB), or snap one with the selfie camera on your phone.
3. Drag the "Age" slider to the age you want, from 5 to 90. It starts at 35.
4. Press "Change age". The aged photo usually arrives in about 30 seconds.
5. Check the eyes, nose, ears and hairline against your original.
6. For another age, move the slider and run it again on the same photo.
7. To fix one detail, such as "make my hair fully white", use "Want to change something?" (Pro plan, 85 credits currently). On the Free plan, run it again at a different age instead.
8. Save the ages worth keeping in your gallery, because unsaved results are deleted after 24 hours. Plan and credit prices are on Pricing.