Searching for the perfect image is essential, and we've got some tricks of the trade to help you find the perfect content quickly:

You can also use our sort buttons for different results: New, Relevant, and Creative. Filters, an advanced search tool, and even external help are available for your research needs. Please read our full article for more tips and tricks.

There might be times when you need extra help or don't have the time to carry out your own research. For key accounts we provide a free super-fast picture research service - talk to your account manager if this applies to you.

When you are using Alamy's content, it's important to understand the difference between commercial and editorial use. Let's break it down for you.   

a) Commercial Use: If you are looking to use Alamy's images or videos for any of the following, it's called Commercial use:  

b) Editorial Use: Now, if you want to use our images and videos for sharing informative content or telling news stories, that's editorial use. This includes: 

Just a quick heads-up though, some of our images and videos are only for editorial use, and they will be marked with a restriction notification.

Whether you're a global brand manager, picture buyer, or just someone seeking great images, Alamy's collection has you covered. We have over 350 million stock photos, 10 million footage, and a network of more than 60,000 individuals contributing worldwide. Explore our themed categories, fresh picks, and Stockimo collection to find the best content.

If you are wondering about how you can spot some of our images and video clips in the public domain and if you can use them, it's time we have a deeper understanding of copyright and content in the public domain. Sometimes, you stumble upon content that is not protected by copyright or the copyright ownership is unknown. Such images are said to have entered the public domain. This happens when the copyright has expired, has been forfeited, or is not applicable and no one specifically owns the image anymore. For these images and videos, we don’t claim any copyright or other intellectual property rights and neither do our contributors, so anyone can use them. So, what is copyright? A copyright is a law that gives you ownership over the things you create. As copyright owner, you have the exclusive rights to sell, display, and distribute the work however you want. So, for images and videos in the public domain, we just provide access to a copy to use in line with the terms of the license you buy. Other copies of these images and videos might also be available elsewhere for free.

Alamy acknowledges the creative possibilities of AI image generation technology but emphasizes ethical usage to protect content creators. We participate in 'The Fair Diffusion Program,' an ethical AI initiative with Bria, Getty Images, and Envato. This program promotes attribution and rewards content source creators. For more information, visit our Fair Diffusion blog.

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Yes, there are usage restrictions outlined in the license terms. It's crucial to review these restrictions, as they specify what you can and cannot do with the content you license. This ensures you have a clear understanding of how to use our imagery within the bounds of your chosen license.

There are also restrictions on images that are available for Editorial use only. Editorial content shouldn’t be used for commercial use such as advertising or promotional campaigns, commercial projects, office wall decorations or product packaging. This list is not exhaustive. See our explanation about editorial and commercial use here.

Editorial content has no model or property releases on file, so to use it for commercial purposes, you’ll need additional clearances from either the people or the owners of the property featured in the visuals. See our explanation on release here.

We start the payment process on the 1^st working day of each month, as long as your cleared balance is over $50.

It may take up to nine working days for the funds to reach your account. ‘Cleared’ means we’ve been paid by the customer.

Check out this handy guide about how to read your balance of account page (including how to generate a revenue report).

Some of our customers report usages to us over a period of time which can be several months. If the sale doesn’t show in your report within 4 months for a regular customer (or 6 months for a distributor) then please get in touch directly with our Infringements Team infringements@alamy.com who will be able to chase this up for you.

Alternatively if you suspect there’s been an infringement (there is no license in place or there is a license mismatch) you can use the Infringements form found here when logged into your account (or from your dashboard access the form under “Report an unauthorised use”).

Because of the large number of images each day we take a random sample of images and if all images in that sample are fine then we pass all images awaiting QC. If we find one failure then all images awaiting QC will fail. All images submitted should meet our QC standards so when we look at a random sample this should represent the quality of all images submitted.

You’ll need to apply for access which you can do under the ‘additional revenue options’ section of your contributor dashboard. If you have any queries, you can email our news team at news@alamy.com

Once you add your caption and at least 5 image tags they’ll be on sale after 24 hours once the search engine has updated.

Images normally go through QC in a day, but it can take longer than this depending on how busy we are or if it’s a national holiday. Our QC team work Monday to Friday, so if you are uploading over the weekend there will be a delay and our team will get through to your submission as soon as possible. Once we’ve checked your submission we’ll send you an email to let you know how you’ve got on.

If you are not an Alamy contributor and have any legal or copyright issues you need to email copyright@alamy.com