Royalty Free Image Resources
All members of the BYU community—faculty, staff, students, volunteers, and patrons—are expected to respect the rights of copyright owners. Although BYU does not endorse any particular sources of copyrighted content, the following resources may be helpful to members of the BYU community who are seeking legitimate sources of online content. In many cases, such content is available at no cost under a creative commons license or in the public domain and free to use for any purpose without paying royalties.
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Adobe Stock Photos (opens in a new tab)
Millions of high-quality stock photos to download and use for free by logging in with your BYU NetID. All that is required is proper attribution when using these images. Great resource because Adobe Stock images are licensed for perpetual use.
BYU Library (opens in a new tab)
The HBLL has purchased subscriptions for the use of hundreds of thousands of images in various galleries in classrooms and for scholarly purposes. To see the specific terms for each database, click here (opens in a new tab).
BYU Photo (opens in a new tab)
Active members of the BYU campus community have access to BYU photos specifically for campus use.
Pexels (opens in a new tab)
Hand-picked, hi-res, FREE photos | NO Attribution Required (CCO License (opens in a new tab))
Pixabay (opens in a new tab)
1Million+ stock photos, vectors, and art illustrations | NO Attribution Required (CCO license (opens in a new tab))
Unsplash (opens in a new tab)
Professional photographers giving photos away for free! | Credit Appreciated, though not required
Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)
Thousands of images available under free creative commons licenses, or in the public domain.
Canva (opens in a new tab)
Millions of high-quality stock photos as well as a comprehensive list of the 73 top free stock image websites.
WikiGallery (opens in a new tab)
These images cannot be used for commercial purposes.
The Met Museum Art Collection (opens in a new tab)
Nearly 400,000 high-quality images of The Met’s holdings have been made available for free!
New York Public Library Public Domain Collections (opens in a new tab)
More than 180,000 high-quality images from the library’s holdings are public domain and free to use.
Openverse (opens in a new tab)
600 million free images and audio of openly licensed creative works.