Top 9 Free Stock Image Websites (2026 Update)

A website full of great photos instantly looks more professional. The right image can explain a product, set a mood, or simply make a page feel finished. The wrong approach is paying for stock photos when free libraries have improved so much.

This guide first appeared on the UK2 blog back in 2016, when sites like Openphoto and Press Loft were the go-to options. The free stock landscape has changed a lot since. This 2026 update keeps the useful entries, drops the ones that have faded, and adds the libraries that now dominate search. All nine sites below are free to use for commercial projects, and each one is worth bookmarking.

What Changed Since the Original 2016 List

The first version of this article recommended a mix of community archives and search-engine workarounds. Some of those entries still hold up, but several no longer belong on a practical list.

Press Loft, for example, still exists but serves journalists and PR teams rather than website owners, so it has been dropped. The Google and Bing image search workarounds are still handy in a pinch, but they are not dedicated libraries and licensing checks are fiddly, so they no longer earn a slot either. Openphoto stays because it has found a genuinely useful niche in an AI-heavy era.

In their place, the modern giants have arrived. Unsplash and Pexels barely registered in 2016, yet they are now the first places most designers look. Burst, Shopify’s free library, did not exist. The 2026 list below reflects where the free stock world actually is today, not where it was a decade ago.

What to Look for in a Free Stock Image Site

Before the list, a quick word on what makes free stock websites actually useful. Four things matter more than the number of photos it holds.

• Licensing clarity – The site should explain what you can and cannot do with its images. If you cannot find a licence page, treat the images as unusable for a business website.
• Search quality – A library of six million photos is only useful if the search finds what you need. Good filters for orientation, colour and subject matter save hours.
• Fresh uploads – Sites that add new free stock images regularly stay current. A library frozen in 2018 will show its age in the photos, and so will your website.
• Download speed – The best free sites let you grab full-resolution images without a lengthy sign-up process or watermark games.

The Nine Best Free Stock Image Websites in 2026

1. Unsplash (unsplash.com)

Unsplash is the default choice for good reason. It hosts millions of high-resolution photos contributed by photographers worldwide, and every image is free to use under the Unsplash Licence, including for commercial projects. You do not have to credit the photographer, although it is good practice. Search is fast, collections are well curated, and new photos arrive daily. The only downside is that popular Unsplash images appear all over the web, so look past the first page of results.

2. Pexels (pexels.com)

Pixabay has been around since 2010 and now holds more than six million images, illustrations, vectors and videos. Its content licence allows free commercial use without attribution. The archive is so large that search quality matters more than elsewhere, so be specific: “brick wall texture” beats “wall”. It also hosts music and sound effects, which makes it useful for video projects too.

3. Pixabay (pixabay.com)

Pixabay has been around since 2010 and now holds more than six million images, illustrations, vectors and videos. Its content licence allows free commercial use without attribution. The archive is so large that search quality matters more than elsewhere, so be specific: “brick wall texture” beats “wall”. It also hosts music and sound effects, which makes it useful for video projects too.

4. Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org)

Wikimedia Commons is the media library behind Wikipedia, and it is a genuinely underrated source of free stock images. It holds more than 85 million files, including historical photographs, diagrams and public domain artwork that no stock library will ever match. The catch is licensing. Images sit under a range of Creative Commons licences, and some require you to credit the creator or restrict commercial use. Read the licence on each file before you publish it.

5. Stockvault (stockvault.net)

Stockvault has been run by photographers since 2004, and it is still adding new material every day. It offers free stock photos, textures and illustrations that you can use commercially without attribution. The library leans towards textures, backgrounds and business themes, which makes it a good second stop when the big sites do not quite have the shot you need.

6. Burst by Shopify (burst.shopify.com)

Burst is Shopify’s free image library, built with online sellers in mind. The catalogue is smaller than the giants, but it is packed with product photography, lifestyle shots and images of small businesses at work. Every photo is free for commercial use, and there is no attribution requirement. If you run an online store, start here before you look anywhere else.

7. StockSnap (stocksnap.io)

StockSnap offers a curated collection of free stock photos under the CC0 licence, which means you can use them for anything, commercially or personally, without crediting anyone. The library is a fraction of the size of Unsplash or Pixabay, but the quality is consistently high and the site is fast and clean to browse. It is a reliable second source when the main sites come up short.

8. Gratisography (gratisography.com)

Most free stock image libraries lean towards safe, corporate imagery. Gratisography is the opposite. Photographer Ryan McGuire has filled it with quirky, humorous and genuinely original shots that you will not find anywhere else, all free for commercial use. It will not cover every need, but for blog headers and social posts that need personality, it is unmatched.

9. Openphoto (openphoto.net)

Openphoto has been around since 1998, which makes it one of the oldest free stock image websites on the internet. Its current tagline is worth noting: “actual non-AI stock photos”. In an era where AI-generated images are everywhere, Openphoto is a useful source of real photography, shot by actual people. It is a small archive and licensing varies by image, so check each one, but it fills a niche the modern giants ignore.

Free vs Royalty-Free: Know the Difference

One point from the original article is worth repeating, because it causes real problems. Free and royalty-free are not the same thing.

Free images cost nothing to download. Royalty-free means you pay once for a licence and then use the image as many times as you like, without paying again. Sites like Shutterstock and iStock sell royalty-free images. The nine sites above offer genuinely free images.

Whatever site you use, check the licence before you publish. Most of the sites above allow commercial use without attribution. Wikimedia Commons and Openphoto vary by image, so read the terms on each file. When in doubt, credit the photographer. A caption is free, and it keeps you on the right side of the licence.

How to Use Free Stock Images on Your Website

Finding images is only half the job. Using them well matters just as much.

• Compress your images – A photo straight from a camera can be several megabytes, and large files slow your page down. Resize and compress every image before you upload it so your pages load quickly.
• Add alt text – Alt text describes an image for visitors using screen readers, and search engines use it to understand what the page shows. Write a clear, descriptive sentence for every image you add.
• Keep a consistent style – Photos from five different libraries can make a page look disjointed. Pick a style, such as bright and airy or dark and moody, and stick with it.

And if you are building a site from scratch, remember the images need a home.

Our website builder makes it easy to build a professional site with drag-and-drop tools, and you can add photos in minutes.

If you want to learn the basics first, our beginner’s guide to web hosting explains how websites work.

And if you are selling online, our guide to starting an online store in the UK covers the whole process, including product photography.

Frequently Asked Questions