Are you looking for free, royalty-free images and don’t know where to start? Save time and effort with our ultimate list of free image banks in 2024. we’re already using them in our projects!. In this blog, we’ve compiled the best from the past year and briefly explain what they offer (and what they don’t) to make it easier to choose where to find the perfect image for you.
UNSPLASH
Unsplash is one of the most popular and well-recognized free image banks. It stands out for its wide collection of high-quality photos across various categories. It has an intuitive interface that makes it easy to search for and download images. It has two versions: the first one costs 10 euros a month, and the second one is free. 
PEXELS
It started as a simple image bank for amateurs, but now it has transformed into an incredible professional option. The photos are super sharp, and there’s an impressive variety in different categories for you to choose from. What’s great is that it also provides data and information on current trends, which is ideal for selecting the perfect photos for your projects.
PIXABAY
This image bank is one of the most comprehensive we will talk about in this blog. It has a large number of resources, such as images, vectors, illustrations, videos, music, and sound effects, all royalty-free! Therefore, it’s a prime choice for media professionals and graphic designers.
FREE IMAGES
What stands out in free image banks is the variety of photos available, and Free Images perfectly meets this criterion. It has more than 300,000 photos, vectors, cliparts, icons, and PSD files, which are updated and expanded daily. Its interface is intuitive and complete, which makes it easy to find exactly what you need.
NEW OLD STOCK
The name of this bank already gives us a clue about what it offers: digitized old photos to give your designs that vintage touch. Although it doesn’t have a search engine, you can explore a feed with images of various sizes, some in color and others in black and white, until you find what you’re looking for. We encourage you to take a look because it really is worth it.
FLICKR
Flickr is a social network and one of the free image banks where everyone can post and share photos or videos online. It can be filtered by features: the first is color (you can select up to 5 different colors), in addition to being able to filter by other black and white photos, photos with shallow depth of field, minimalist photos, and photos with patterns. Keep in mind that not all images are free; each one specifies whether it is or isn’t copyright-free.
STOCKSNAP.IO
This bank stands out for its wide variety of photos, well organized into categories and subcategories. It has a feed that shows all the images by upload date and a section dedicated to the most popular photos. When you select an image, you can see details such as the author, resolution, views, weight, downloads, and the type of copyright.
GRATISOGRAPHY
For those who appreciate unconventional and high-quality photos, Gratisography is an excellent option. Although its catalog is more limited, the images are unmatched in terms of uniqueness and humor. The photographer behind each image is Ryan McGuire, known for his unique style.
LIFEOFPIX
If I had to summarize it in one sentence, it would be: High-quality images, taken by professional photographers and available for free. You have the option to filter by galleries and photographers. These photos, being conceived from an artistic perspective, evoke emotions and are ideal for projects that seek to leave a lasting visual impression.
MAGDELEINE
At Magdeleine, you find cool photos of all kinds, from abstract to cities and people, always with good contrasts. They upload a new photo every day to always have fresh things. Most are completely free to use, so you can use them without worry. But be careful, some require you to give credit to the author. Don’t worry, when you enter the photo, it clearly tells you what’s up with the license.
CUPCAKE
All photos on this portal are the work of Jonas Wimmerström and are free of rights (CC0), so you can use them however you wish, though it’s always nice to mention the author. One advantage of this site over other free image banks is that you can download images in their highest quality with just one click. However, the downside is that Cupcake does not have a search engine, so you’ll need to browse to find what you’re looking for.
JAY MANTRI
“Do anything (CC0). Make magic” is the first thing you see when you enter. Like Cupcake, this photo bank offers high-quality images in various categories with a personal touch. The license is CC0, so you can use them without permission for both personal and commercial use. However, like Cupcake, it also lacks a search engine.
PICOGRAPHY
Picography is one of the free image banks with high-quality photos and a well-organized search engine, precisely 26 categories, so it’s well organized. The images you’ll find can give your projects a visually distinct aspect. They ensure their photos are license-free.
STOCKVAULT
On this website, you’ll find public domain images (CC0), most of which are of incredible quality, including cool textures and graphics. It’s a bit like Shutterstock, but here you can use the images without having to pay anything. And that’s not all! It also has a blog with super interesting articles.
STARTUPSTOCKPHOTOS (SSP)
If you’re an entrepreneur, a blogger, a web developer, or someone linked to the tech world, this portal is made for you. Here, the high-definition images are totally free of rights, ready to be used in whatever you need.
SPLITSHIRE
Splitshire stands out as a very detailed image bank. When you enter on its website, there’s an extensive menu bar where you can filter through thousands of different categories. There are both photos and videos, all available for download in high quality. If you still can’t find the photo you want even after filtering by categories, it has a search engine to find you the perfect image.
FREEPIK
Freepik is a very useful platform not only for images and videos but also for vectors, AI images, and PNG format icons, which is ideal for designers and creative professionals. It’s worth noting that it follows a freemium model, so there’s a limit to the number of downloads available. With this introduction, you can imagine how big the application’s capacity is, so we encourage you to try it because we know you won’t regret it.
KABOOMPICS
This image bank is great, you know why? Because it has super high-quality photos with a super clean aesthetic. The best part is that it has a special section for photo sessions. But what we really love is the option to filter images by color, making your search much easier when matching the color palette of your project.
LITTLE VISUALS
This image site started as the dream of Nic Jackson, but unfortunately, he passed away unexpectedly in November 2013. Despite having few images, Nic’s family decided to keep the website in his honor. All images are of excellent quality and completely free. If you’re looking for images with a story behind them, this is the right place.
FOCA STOCK
The unique mix of urban photography, natural landscapes, and office interiors is highly beneficial for certain websites or social media platforms. Thanks to the classification of the images, now you don’t encounter as many flowers as before. All images, like those on Lifeofpix, come with an unrestricted Creative Commons license, and new photos are added weekly, providing innovation and freshness.
PICJUMBO
This platform belongs to the designer Viktor Hanacek, who decided to share his passions to help others through his blog. In addition, it offers not only images but also videos and vectors of approximately 3500 pixels in quality. It features various categories for you to explore, although we must warn you that it is also one of the freemium image banks. However, the number of files you can find without having to pay anything is very extensive.
LIBRESHOT
Martin Vorel is the creator of this image bank, and he is passionate about photography, though it’s not his profession. He created this website especially to share his passion, and he demonstrates this by saying that he never liked taking pictures just to fill the hard drive of his computer, but rather to share them and to have them used for some concrete purpose, including commercial use.
NEGATIVE SPACE
Its photographs, divided into 22 categories, draw you into the image bank. In this portal, we find images that will reinvent your marketing content, with their warm colours and excellent composition sure to enhance your materials.
BURST
If you’re an entrepreneur or an e-commerce professional, this resource, created by Shopify, is for you. Discover high-quality images, categorized by collections, and it features a special section of business ideas along with images ready for your use.
BARNIMAGES
This image bank was created by two Latvians named Igor and Roman, who also upload photographs on the portal, although not all are taken by them. They simply share images that they like and find attractive, hence deciding to share them on their website to reach more people. They ensure that none of the more than 2000 images is like another. Don’t miss this website!
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
This portal of images and videos, as its name suggests, belongs to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia. Here, there are photographs and videos used by the world’s largest online encyclopedias. On the portal, we can find more than 75 million files, and almost all are free to use, although it is advisable to check the license of each photo or video to avoid any unnecessary problems.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PLATFORMS
As you can see, finding pages with a large collection of free images is easy, but if you still haven’t found the photograph you wanted even with all these free image banks, we recommend a very innovative alternative: generating images with artificial intelligence (AI).
We propose a list of several platforms, some completely free and others freemium, with which you can create images with artificial intelligence.
Starting with the “freemium” ones, we have Microsoft 365 Copilot, Craiyon, Wepik, and Fotor. The first three are known for having an AI conversational chat, like ChatGPT, but have now also included AI image generation in their tools. The differences between the paid and free versions, starting with Microsoft 365 Copilot, are access to the integration of the tool along with the Office package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote). For Craiyon, the speed of generation and quality of its images mark the difference between the free and paid versions. Regarding Wepik, the difference lies in the number of downloads, which are limited in its free version and unlimited in its paid version. Finally, there is Fotor, which, unlike the first three, does not have an AI conversational chat, and its main feature is that it works on credits, which in this case are quite scarce, so if you want to generate many images, you should buy the paid version or simply use another completely free platform like the following:
If, on the other hand, you are looking for a completely free platform, we recommend Canva or Leonardo AI. Canva is famous for its enormous flexibility when creating projects, so it has now decided to incorporate the AI image creation tool, but with the condition that it has to be within its designs. Lastly, Leonardo AI is also free, but you cannot start using it until you send a request on their website, and it is accepted. Once it is, you will have countless tools to use on their portal at no cost, as well as a feed to share your creations with other users.
That’s our updated list of free image banks. We hope you try some, even if just to browse. We’ve put together this selection with all the portals we know, but there might still be more out there. Do you think we missed any? Name it in the comments, and we’ll add it to the list.