Royalty free images can be reused without a royalty for each use, within their licence terms. That does not necessarily mean free of charge or free of other rights. Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay are useful starting points, but their terms differ. Below are the licence checks I use, followed by a candid audit of this article’s 62 older resource references.
Royalty free is not copyright free
Royalty free means you pay once, or nothing, and use the image without per-use royalties, within the licence terms. Copyright may still exist; a CC0 dedication or public-domain status is a separate basis for reuse. Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay no longer use CC0: each has its own licence, and each bans selling unaltered copies. Be careful with recognisable people, logos and products in commercial work, and watch for images a site labels editorial use only. For anything that represents your brand, real photos of your team and work beat stock.
I’ve been building on the web since 2005, and the image problem I see most often isn’t piracy. It’s a site that grew over years, with images added by whoever was helping at the time: a contractor here, a staff member there, nobody owning the whole thing. Nobody kept a note of where each photo came from. When a licence question arrives, the complaint goes to the business that published the image, not the person who picked it, and nobody can answer it. That’s why my team asks clients to confirm they hold the rights to every image they supply, and why a one-line source record per image beats anyone’s memory.
What does royalty free mean?
Royalty free means you can use an image repeatedly without paying a royalty for each use, under the terms of its licence. A royalty-free licence usually leaves copyright with its owner; public-domain and CC0 material need separate analysis. Royalty free images can be free, like those on Unsplash or Pexels, or paid, like Adobe Stock or Shutterstock. Always read what the licence allows.
| Term | What it means | Attribution | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty free | Pay once or nothing, no per-use fee, licence terms apply | Depends on licence | Usually yes, within the terms |
| CC0 (public domain dedication) | The creator has waived their copyright as far as the law allows | Not required | Yes |
| Public domain | Copyright has expired or never applied | Not required | Yes, but check local law and other rights |
| Creative Commons (other licences) | Free to use under conditions such as credit or non-commercial | Usually required | Only if the licence allows (not NC) |
| Rights managed | Licensed for a specific use, time and place | As agreed | Only as licensed |
| Site licences (Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay) | Each site’s own free licence | Not required | Yes, with restrictions such as no reselling unaltered copies |
Caption: Licence categories are a starting point. Copyright permission does not automatically clear moral rights, privacy, publicity, trademarks or property interests. Save the actual asset licence, credit requirements and any relevant release evidence.
What are the best free stock photo sites in 2026?
My starting shortlist is Unsplash, Pexels or Pixabay, then check the chosen asset’s terms. Kaboompics and Foodiesfeed offer more specialised styles. Kaboompics marks some images Editorial Use Only, so those cannot go in ads. Paid collections may offer different releases or indemnity, but check the actual plan and licence: “paid” and “free” alone do not tell you what is covered.
| Site | Licence | Attribution required | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsplash | Unsplash License | No | High-quality lifestyle and editorial-style photos |
| Pexels | Pexels License | No | Photos and free stock video |
| Pixabay | Pixabay Content License | No | Photos, illustrations, vectors and video |
| Kaboompics | Kaboompics Standard License (some photos editorial use only) | No, credit optional | Interior, lifestyle and colour-matched photos |
| StockSnap | CC0 | No | Large searchable library |
| Gratisography | Site licence | No | Quirky, distinctive images |
| Foodiesfeed | Site licence | No | Food photography |
| New Old Stock | Public domain archive photos | Check each image | Vintage photos |
| Adobe Stock | Paid royalty free licence | No | Paid work: check applicable releases and indemnity |
| Shutterstock | Paid royalty free licence | No | Very large paid library |
Caption: Selected starting points, not an independent ranking. Current permission clauses for Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, Kaboompics, StockSnap, Gratisography and Foodiesfeed were reviewed on 26 October 2026. New Old Stock needs an original archive rights check; paid-library coverage depends on the selected asset and licence.
Can you use free stock photos for commercial purposes?
Yes, on most major free sites, as long as you follow the licence. Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay all allow commercial use without credit. The common restrictions: do not sell unaltered copies, do not imply that people or brands in the photo endorse you, and do not use the image as your trademark or logo. Recognisable people and products carry extra risk.
Three checks I ask my team to make before any stock image goes on a client site:
- People: would the person in the photo object to how it is used? Avoid sensitive contexts such as health, finance or legal problems.
- Brands: are there visible logos, products or artwork that belong to someone else?
- Source: was it downloaded from the official site, not a copy on another website?
Using royalty free photos in Australia
Most stock photo guides are written for US readers. Australian law adds three things they skip. This is general information, not legal advice.
- No notice doesn’t mean free. Under the Copyright Act 1968, copyright applies automatically. A photo with no © symbol and no watermark still belongs to someone.
- There is no general fair use. Australia has fair dealing, which covers narrow purposes such as research or study, criticism or review, parody or satire, and reporting news. A promotional use is not automatically permitted merely because the image is easy to find; an exception depends on its purpose and circumstances. The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended a fair use exception in its 2014 report, and Australia still relies on fair dealing.
- Creators have moral rights. Part IX of the same Act gives creators the right to be credited and the right to object to treatment of their work that harms their honour or reputation. Copyright licence permissions and moral rights are separate questions. Check the applicable attribution, consent and integrity requirements rather than assuming that a no-credit stock licence resolves every Australian use. The Attorney-General’s copyright guide explains these distinct rights.
Two Australian-founded sources of royalty free stock photos are worth knowing. Sydney-based Canva has free photos you can use commercially, inside a design or on their own, but its content licence bars reselling them or using them in a trade mark or logo (read 26 October 2026). Melbourne-based Envato Elements is a paid subscription library: read how its licence covers each download before you use one on your site.
Should you use AI-generated images instead of stock photos?
AI-generated illustrations can be useful for concepts and backgrounds, but check the provider’s terms and the content itself. The US Copyright Office’s January 2025 position requires sufficient human authorship for copyright protection; that is a US position, not a decision on every Australian use. A realistic-looking output may also suggest a real person, brand or event inaccurately. Do not use a synthetic scene as evidence of work you have done.
Use AI images for concepts and illustrations, real photography for anything that represents your business, and stock for everything in between. When AI assistants and agents describe your business, much of what they use is your page text and alt text, though many models can now read the image itself too. So write honest alt text for every image, and don’t let a stock photo imply something about your business that isn’t true. My list of AI tools for web design covers the image generators my team has tested.
How do you check where an image came from?
Check where an image came from with a reverse image search. TinEye and Google Lens show where else an image appears online, which helps you find the original source and its licence. If a “free” image appears on paid stock sites, or on a photographer’s portfolio with a copyright notice, do not use it without a licence.
To know whether a picture is royalty free, find the licence on the page you downloaded it from. No licence means you treat the image as not free.
To find royalty free pictures in Google Images, search, then open Tools (Filter on a phone), choose Usage rights and pick Creative Commons licences or Commercial or other licences. Google’s own help page warns that the filter relies on licence details supplied by the sites hosting the images. Treat it as a starting point: open the licence details under the image and check the licence on the site hosting it before you use anything. Creative Commons images usually need a credit, and some ban edits or commercial use.
Do stock photos hurt your website?
Stock photos do not hurt rankings on their own, but generic ones weaken trust and conversion. Visitors recognise the same handshake photo on a hundred websites. Large, uncompressed images also slow pages down. Use stock for supporting images, compress every file, and use real photos for your team, work and premises.
Run your key pages through a website speed test after adding images. Oversized hero images are one of the most common causes of a slow Largest Contentful Paint.
Royalty free website images still need work before they go live. Resize each file to the largest size the layout actually shows, then convert it to WebP or AVIF. WordPress has accepted WebP since version 5.8 and AVIF since 6.5, as long as your host’s server supports them. I check the image in the built page too: the dimensions delivered, its file size and when the browser requests it. A smaller format is useful, but it cannot fix an oversized asset or a hero image requested too late.
The full list of free and royalty free image sites
This is an audit of the 62 references retained from the earlier article, not 62 confirmed free commercial-photo libraries. The table distinguishes current permission evidence, paid or mixed licences, changed destinations, tools and references whose permissions remain unverified. Public pages were reviewed on 26 October 2026; blocked requests and JavaScript shells are recorded as unknown, not closed. For a new project, start with a source whose actual asset licence you can save.
| Reference | Role | Permission check and limitation |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pixabay | Free library | Current licence summary allows free use and adaptation, with restrictions on standalone redistribution, branding and other rights. |
| 2. AllTheFreeStock | Aggregator | Follow the image to its original publisher. One licence cannot be assumed to cover everything linked by an aggregator. |
| 3. Pexels | Free photos and video | Current licence allows free use and editing without required credit; restrictions include unaltered resale, stock redistribution and implied endorsement. |
| 4. Adobe Stock | Paid library | Check the actual asset licence, editorial label, seat terms and any applicable indemnity. A paid subscription does not make every use permissible. |
| 5. Shutterstock | Paid library | Check the selected licence and asset restrictions. Current access and rights for a particular download were not established in this review. |
| 6. Unsplash | Free and paid collections | Official help permits most commercial uses of free images without required credit. Unsplash+ has separate terms; check releases and product-resale restrictions. |
| 7. Bigfoto | Attribution-based library | Current copyright page requires a link back in exchange for free use. This is not a no-attribution recommendation. |
| 8. Bigstockphoto | Legacy paid-library reference | A current usable licence was not established. Do not infer availability or permission from this old entry. |
| 9. Freerange Stock | Stock-library reference | Read the current per-image licence and any contributor conditions; this review did not establish a usable permission record. |
| 10. CupCake | Photographer archive | The current home page states CC0 for its photos. Save the asset and permission record; unrelated rights still need checking. |
| 11. Death to stock photo | Subscription-library reference | Check the current subscription and download licence. Old free-email or registration claims have been removed. |
| 12. Every stock photo | Legacy search reference | The current service and image permissions were not established. Use the original image publisher’s record. |
| 13. Stocksy | Paid-library reference | Confirm the selected commercial or editorial licence with the publisher before reuse. |
| 14. Morguefile | Community-library reference | The captured licence page did not expose usable terms in this review. Do not substitute an old no-attribution claim. |
| 15. Negative Space | Free library | Current licence page states CC0 and no required attribution, while placing responsibility for lawful use on the user. |
| 16. Picjumbo | Free and paid collections | Current FAQ permits commercial use, but notes missing releases and prohibits reselling the photos themselves. |
| 17. Life of Pix | Legacy library reference | The captured terms page was an application shell, not readable licence evidence. Confirm permissions before downloading. |
| 18. Dreamstime | Stock-library reference | Free and paid assets can have different conditions. Check the licence attached to the exact file. |
| 19. StockSnap | Free library | Current licence page states CC0; third-party rights and endorsement restrictions still matter. |
| 20. Gratisography | Free library | Current site licence permits personal and commercial use without required credit, with restrictions including redistribution and implied endorsement. |
| 21. Splitshire | Changed legacy reference | The current terms reserve rights and restrict republication. Do not rely on the old free-stock permission summary. |
| 22. Jay Mantri | Changed destination | The current home page is a personal design page. The previous free-photo archive and its licence were not established there. |
| 23. Tookapic | Photography community | The current terms govern a photo community. Do not assume every uploaded image is free stock or CC0. |
| 24. Picography | Free library | Current terms state CC0 for personal and commercial use without required credit; do not claim authorship. |
| 25. Getty Images | Paid and editorial library | Check the exact asset, intended use and rights-managed or royalty-free terms; editorial availability is not advertising permission. |
| 26. Stock free images | Unverified library reference | The captured response was a bot challenge. That establishes neither closure nor a current licence. |
| 27. Stockvault | Mixed-licence library | Current terms distinguish non-commercial, commercial and CC0 files. Read the label on the selected image. |
| 28. RGB Stock | Unverified legacy reference | The public fetch did not establish a current usable licence. Treat attribution and commercial permission as unknown. |
| 29. Free images | Stock-library reference | Inspect the current licence for the individual asset; free pricing alone does not define reuse rights. |
| 30. Kaboompics | Free and editorial collections | Current licence distinguishes Standard from Editorial Use Only. Editorial images cannot be used in commercial advertising; AI training and standalone redistribution are restricted. |
| 31. Moveast | Unverified photographer reference | The public fetch was blocked. The old permission summary has not been carried forward as a current licence. |
| 32. Magdeleine | Curated image reference | Check the image-level licence and attribution; a curated collection does not establish one licence for all linked files. |
| 33. Public Domain Archive | Archive reference | The current terms address privacy, not a usable image licence. Confirm the original asset’s provenance and rights. |
| 34. ISO Republic | Free library | Current licence states CC0, but warns that people, brands and private properties may lack releases. |
| 35. Goodstock | Stock-library reference | A current usable licence was not established. Confirm the exact publisher terms rather than assuming CC0. |
| 36. Visual hunt | Changed or unclear reference | No current stock-image licence was established. Do not infer permission from this legacy listing. |
| 37. PhotoRack | Legacy library reference | Current asset permissions were not established. Use a source with a retrievable licence before publication. |
| 38. Unprofound | Photographer archive | The home page describes its contributors’ public-domain collection, but this review did not establish a detailed image-level permission record. |
| 39. Little Visuals | Photographer archive | The current home page describes a preserved archive and free commercial use. It does not promise a continuing supply of new photos or clear unrelated rights. |
| 40. Startup stock | Office-photo collection | Current terms permit commercial use of individual pictures while restricting the collection and disclaiming verification and warranties. Ask about releases when relevant. |
| 41. Foodiesfeed | Food-image collection | Current licence describes CC0-equivalent permission, including its AI-generated images, with resale, redistribution and endorsement restrictions. Check whether a realistic image is synthetic. |
| 42. Foter | Unverified legacy reference | The public fetch was blocked; current service and permissions remain unknown. A blocked request is not evidence of closure. |
| 43. New old stock | Historical archive discovery | Follow each photo to its institutional source and rights statement. Age and archive membership do not prove worldwide public-domain status. |
| 44. Pick up image | Image-library reference | Check the current image-level licence and contributor provenance; a usable permission record was not established in this review. |
| 45. 123rf | Stock-library reference | Free and paid products may use different terms. Check the selected asset and licence; do not rely on an old registration summary. |
| 46. 500px | Photography community | The captured page was a client-rendered shell. A visible photograph in a community is not permission to reuse it. |
| 47. Freemediagoo | Free-media library | Current terms allow commercial and personal use without required credit, but the licence is personal to the downloader and may not be reassigned or resold. |
| 48. HubSpot free stock photos | Publisher’s downloadable collection | Check the licence bundled with the actual download. The old collection count and blanket permission were not freshly established. |
| 49. Jeshoots | Stock-library reference | The captured terms address redirected to the home page; this review did not establish a distinct usable licence. |
| 50. Freepik | Asset platform | Check the licence attached to the exact free or paid asset, including any attribution or AI conditions. Platform branding and terms can change. |
| 51. Textures | Texture platform | The captured terms page did not expose readable conditions. Check download credits, plan and redistribution rights before use. |
| 52. Animalphoto | Animal-photo reference | Confirm the author, image source and licence on each photograph; current blanket commercial permission was not established. |
| 53. Skitterphoto | Free library | Current licence page states CC0 and explicitly preserves trademark, privacy and publicity rights. |
| 54. Ultra HD Wallpapers | Wallpaper reference | A wallpaper download is not evidence of permission for commercial website use. Obtain an applicable asset licence. |
| 55. FreePhotos.cc | Email photo service | Current terms describe a free weekday newsletter of CC0 photos. This is a subscription workflow, not the old unrestricted search directory. |
| 56. Photo Everywhere | Attribution-based travel library | Current terms require a printed credit or online hyperlink and identify CC BY 2.5; model/property releases are not supplied. |
| 57. Realistic shots | Free-photo archive | Current terms state CC0 and no required attribution. A legacy update-frequency claim is not a promise of fresh uploads. |
| 58. OpenPhoto | Unverified legacy reference | The public fetch failed. Current availability and image permissions were not established. |
| 59. Fancy Crave | Unverified legacy reference | The public fetch timed out. Do not treat the old commercial-use summary as a current licence. |
| 60. TinEye | Reverse-image search tool | Use it to investigate where an image appears. It is not a stock-photo library and does not grant image rights. |
| 61. Creativity 103 | Attribution-based design resources | Current terms identify CC BY 3.0 and require source credit; bulk archiving and redistribution are restricted. |
| 62. Free Pixels | Free-photo library | Current licence page waives copyright and related rights to the extent possible under law. Check unrelated rights in the image and intended use. |
What to do next
- Replace any image on your site whose source you cannot confirm.
- Download stock images only from the official site and keep a note of the licence and date.
- Compress every image before upload and add honest alt text.
- Plan a real photo shoot for your team, work and premises.
- If you want help planning the visuals for a new site, see how I approach small business website design. For logos, see my list of online logo makers, and for the wider kit, my list of web design tools.
Frequently asked questions
Are royalty free images free?
Not always. Royalty free means there is no fee per use. Some royalty free images are free, such as those on Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay. Others are paid once, such as Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. In both cases, the image is still owned by someone and the licence terms apply.
Do I need to credit Unsplash, Pexels or Pixabay?
The free-photo licences for Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay do not generally require a credit, although each encourages it. That copyright permission is separate from an Australian moral-rights question or permissions for people, brands and property shown. API use and paid tiers can also have different conditions. Save the actual source and applicable terms rather than copying an aggregator’s summary.
Can I use free stock photos on products I sell?
Usually not as-is. Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay all ban selling unaltered copies, such as printing a photo on a poster or mug without significant changes. Images with recognisable logos or trademarks cannot be used on products. For merchandise, use a paid licence that covers it, or create your own artwork.
Is CC0 the same as royalty free?
No. CC0 is a public domain dedication: the creator waives their copyright as far as the law allows, so you can use the image for any purpose without credit. Royalty free is a licence model where the owner keeps copyright but lets you use the image without per-use fees, within stated limits.
What happens if I use a copyrighted image by mistake?
The copyright owner can ask you to remove it and may seek payment for the use. Remove the image as soon as you are notified and keep records of where your other images came from. The simplest protection is to download images only from sources with a clear licence.
Is Unsplash royalty free?
Yes. Photos on Unsplash are free to use, including commercially, under the Unsplash License, with no payment and no credit required. You can’t sell unaltered copies, or gather Unsplash photos to run a similar or competing image service. Photos marked Unsplash+ are a paid tier with their own licence.
How do you make an image royalty free?
Only the copyright owner can. If you took the photo, you can license it royalty free, for example by uploading it to a free library under that site’s licence or selling it through a paid stock site. Editing, cropping or crediting someone else’s image does not make it royalty free.
