Help centre: Using files

Help centre

Using files


Using images for free

The images on Getty Images are intended for use in commercial and editorial projects. This means you need to buy a licence to use the image in most projects, including for personal use.

You can use an image without paying for a licence with our Embed feature, which lets you use over 70 million photos on any non-commercial website or blog (if you’re using it to sell a product, raise money or promote or endorse something, Embed isn’t for you). Just do a search, then go to Filters to turn on the Embeddable images filter on the search results page.

Learn how to embed Getty Images photos and videos

Using creative images, videos and music

Our creative stock photos, illustrations, vectors, videos and music clips are intended for use in commercial projects like advertising, websites, blogs, presentations, video productions, as well as virtually any other project you can imagine, within the terms of our content licence agreement.

Informed by our unparalleled creative research team, these stunning, art-directed images and videos already come with signed model and property releases that allow you to use the content for a wide variety of uses (in some cases additional clearances may be required).

The licence type your file is offered under has an impact on how you can use it. There are two main types of licences: royalty-free (which comes with our broadest usage rights) and rights-managed (which comes with exclusive rights based on your specified use).

No matter which licence type you select, licensed content can never be used for any unlawful purposes, e.g., as part of defamatory communications or within hatred-inciting or pornographic material.

See our content licence agreement for restricted uses

Using royalty-free images and video clips
Every image or video clip downloaded with a royalty-free licence provides you with broad usage rights that let you use it for advertising, websites, blogs, presentations, printed material, video productions, podcasts and more, as many times as you want, worldwide.

Using rights-managed images and rights-ready video clips
Rights-managed editorial images and rights-ready video clips provide customised rights control for a fraction of the cost of a custom shoot. However, unlike royalty-free licences, the licence terms of our editorial rights-managed images and rights-ready video clips are based on how, where and for how long you intend to use the content. Since you’re paying only for that specific use, you can’t use the image or video in additional projects without purchasing additional licences. Getty Images no longer offers rights-managed licences for creative images.

Using editorial photos and video clips

Our editorial stock photos and video clips are, as the name suggests, primarily intended for use in editorial projects.

Shot by some of the leading news, entertainment and sports photographers in the business, our editorial photos and video clips show real-world people, places, events and things, and are intended to be used only in connection with events that are newsworthy or of general interest.

Unlike creative images and videos, editorial images and videos have restrictions on their usage. They can only be used for newspapers, magazines, editorial broadcasts, non-commercial websites, blogs and social media posts illustrating matters of public interest. Editorial images don’t have model or property releases, so you won’t be able to use these images for commercial, promotional, advertorial or endorsement purposes. Additional restrictions may apply (for more information, refer to the “Restrictions” information on your file’s detailed information page and the content licence agreement).

Search Editorial photos

Vectors and illustrations file formats

Vector graphics are illustrations that are saved as EPS files, which enables them to be scaled up without compromising on quality. Vector files will open in many photo-editing programmes and can be saved as JPEGs, TIFFs, PDFs, or other raster file formats.

Using Boards to save, organise and download images and video clips

A Board is the best place to organise, save and share your favourite files on Getty Images, letting you group images and videos by project, brand or interest.

The easiest way to save something to a Board is when you’re signed in and searching. When you find an image you’d like to add to a Board, simply select Save to Board either from the search results page or beneath the image on the detailed information page. If you don’t have a Board already, you’ll be prompted to create a new Board. Otherwise, your image or video clip will be added to the last Board you viewed or used.

You can view the contents of all your Boards by selecting Boards from the menu and then selecting View all Boards.

Ready to download from your Board? Add images or video clips to your basket by selecting the ones you want to download and clicking the shopping basket icon at the top of your Board. If you have a prepaid pack, you can download individual files from your board using the UltraPack download option on the detailed grid view of your Board. If you have a Premium Access agreement, Easy-access agreement or Editorial subscription, you can download single or multiple images by selecting them and choosing Download selected assets from the Choose an option drop-down.

Collaborating with Boards

Boards are a great way to collaborate inside and outside of your team. You can invite anyone to become a Board collaborator by using the Share button at the top of your Board. You’ll get two unique links that you can copy and share. One of the links will let anyone view, add images to, and edit your Board. There’s also a read-only link that will let your collaborators review the contents and provide feedback using notes.

Image resolution

On occasion, you may notice that an image you’ve downloaded appears to be in a lower dpi than expected. This is because some contributors may save large files to default resolutions lower than 300 dpi. This doesn’t affect the quality or physical size of the downloaded image. You can always change the dpi to your preferred resolution by opening the images in your image-editing tool and changing the resolution.

Images for large print

Looking for an image big enough for a billboard? We can help with that. By refining your search results using the Image resolution search filter to show images that are 21 MP or larger, you’ll find the images best suited to large format reproduction.

Changing your search language

You can search in your preferred language by changing your country using the international drop-down menu at the bottom of any page. Once you’ve changed your country selection, you’ll be redirected to the local site for that specific language, where available.

Improving your search results

Use the filter panel on the search results page to help refine and sort your search results.

Some examples include searching by:
  • Relevance (best match, newest, or most popular)
  • Product type (royalty-free, embeddable images)
  • Specific people (editorial only)
  • By photographer, illustrator or filmmaker
  • Number of people in the image

Searching by photographer, illustrator or filmmaker

Like the look of an image or video clip and want to see more by the creator? Click their name under the Credit field on the file’s detailed information page to search all of their work.

If you know exactly who you’re looking for, you can also use the filter panel on the search results page to search for that photographer, illustrator or filmmaker.

Searching for content included in your agreement

We get it, sometimes you find the perfect image or video clip only to realise it isn’t available with your Easy-access agreement, Premium Access agreement or Editorial subscription. To search for images and video clips only available with your agreement or subscription, simply use the agreement filter at the top of the page.

Attributing credit to Getty Images contributors

If you are using photos or illustrations for editorial purposes, you must include the following credit format near the photo or in the production credits: “[Photographer Name]/[Collection Name] via Getty Images.”

If licensed content is used in an audio/visual production where credits are given to other providers of licensed material, you must include the following credit in comparable size and placement: “[Video] [Imagery] [Music] supplied by [Artist Name]/[Collection Name] via Getty Images.”

See more collection-specific formatting

Have other questions? Contact us

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