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The Best Free Stock Photo Sites in 2026
Curated by Musharof Chowdhury · Last reviewed · How we pick
The best free stock photo sites now rival paid libraries for everyday website, blog and social images. What separates them is the licence and the style of their collections, not the image quality.
Every site on this shortlist offers photos you can use commercially for free. Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay do not require attribution; check the licence page of the others before using an image in an ad or on a product.
Our shortlist
Unsplash
Best for high-quality editorial photosThe best overall quality among free libraries, with a licence that allows commercial use without attribution.
Pexels
Best for photos and free stock videoA large, well-curated photo library that also has one of the best collections of free stock video clips.
Pixabay
Best for photos, vectors and music in one placeCovers photos, illustrations, vectors, video, music and sound effects under one free licence.
Openverse
Best for Creative Commons and public-domain imagesSearches hundreds of millions of openly licensed images from museums and archives, showing the licence on every result.
Burst
Best for ecommerce and small-business imageryShopify's free library, focused on product, retail and small-business shots that suit online stores.
Kaboompics
Best for lifestyle and interior shotsConsistent lifestyle photography where each image comes with its colour palette, handy for matching brand colours.
Rawpixel
Best for public-domain art and vintage imageryIts free public-domain collection includes high-resolution scans of classic artworks and vintage illustrations.
Gratisography
Best for quirky, attention-grabbing imagesOffbeat, humorous photos for when a generic smiling-office stock photo would be ignored.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free stock photo site?
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Unsplash has the best overall image quality, Pexels is best if you also need free video, and Pixabay is best when you want photos, vectors and music from one site. All three allow commercial use without attribution.
Can I use free stock photos commercially?
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Yes, on all the sites in this list. You still cannot sell the photos unaltered, imply that a person in a photo endorses your product, or use photos of identifiable people in sensitive contexts. Check each site's licence page for the exact terms.
Do I need to credit Unsplash or Pexels photos?
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No. Attribution is appreciated but not required by the Unsplash or Pexels licences. Images found through Openverse are different: many Creative Commons licences do require a credit.
Where can I find free stock videos?
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Pexels and Pixabay both have large libraries of free stock video under the same licences as their photos.
Browse every stock photo site
All 20 listings in this category, submitted by the community.
Oksuro is an easy prompt and settings sharing service. Oksuro offers an extensive library of creatively crafted prompts and settings for generating AI...
Vecteezy is the fastest growing and one of the largest online creative marketplaces in the world with millions of stock photos, vector graphics, icons...
Unsplash is an internet’s source of freely usable beautiful images. This free stock has over 300,000 beautiful, high-resolution images from quite 50,0...
Pexels has a bunch of high-quality stock images ready that cover a wide color of themes. Moreover, the search function is easy to use and has multiple...
Explore more than 600 million creative works An extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio, available for free use....
Pixabay may be a marvelous free image & royalty-free stock. This site offers an awfully large database of high-quality images. It’s more oriented towa...
OneHour is a platform designed to simplify and streamline the creation of online portfolios and personal websites. It offers an affordable, intuitive ...
Stop checking weather apps every hour. PhotoWeather monitors forecasts 24/7 and alerts you only when conditions match your photography goals—so you ne...
Dropclips is an online batch video editor for people who keep making the same edits to different videos. Instead of opening each clip and repeating th...
We built a one-of-a-kind stock footage and music licensing platform for the creative who can't stand using outdated libraries with sub-par quality and...
Rawpixel has both free and premium photos available. The free collection counts with thousands of images within the trendy authentic style. Images are...
Kaboom Pics allows an extensive kind of high-quality free stock photos. Photos can apply for marketing plans but cannot be exchanged. Photographer an...
Startup Stock Photos is a free stock photo site giving high-quality photos for startups, small businesses, and the administrator community. And all wi...
Gratisography allows free high-resolution photographs for your personal and commercial projects. Even new awesome pictures are adding weekly and are f...
Royalty free videos and templates created by video professionals from all over the world. Unique videos and stock footage for every budget and every ...
Frames is a powerful and elegant app designed specifically for analog photographers who want to keep track of their shooting settings and enhance thei...
Zenvoya is an AI-powered travel planning and booking platform built to make trip planning faster, smarter, and more personal. Instead of juggling mult...
WaveSpeedAI offers a powerful API designed to speed up the generation of AI-driven images and videos, making them easily accessible for developers and...
Burst is a resource from Shopify that gives free stock photos for entrepreneurs. Some photos are licensed under Creative Commons CC0. Moreover, this w...
Wallpea provides creative professionals, agencies, businesses, media houses, designers, writers, artists, programmers, and other creators with unique ...