If the system is not accepting your credit card, please verify all of the information that was entered, including the credit card number, expiration date, and cvv (security) code. If your credit card is still being declined please contact the company that issued your card for more information. Also, we are happy to assist by processing the charge with you on the phone. You can call us at 1-866-663-3954 or, if outside the US, 646-419-4452.

A Shutterstock custom account is designed to meet a client’s specific needs that do not fit within our traditional subscription plans. Although these prices are higher as a result, they are considerably lower than any of our competitors’ prices. The multi-user functionality of our custom accounts is exclusive to Shutterstock and has proven to be a great benefit for our customers.

We provide detailed descriptions of each image on our site. All of our images are royalty-free and non-exclusive; therefore we do not contact photographers or research images for our clients. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Editorial images are images that have not been released for commercial use. We do not provide the service of researching and/or obtaining any needed additional releases. Shutterstock makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with respect to the use of names, trademarks, logos, uniforms, registered or copyrighted designs or works of art depicted in any Image. You must satisfy yourself that all necessary rights, consents or permissions as may be required for reproduction of any image have been secured by you. Please review the license carefully.

We do not activate customer accounts until our bank has actually received the wired funds. Wire transfers can take from 5 -10 business days, depending on the location and particular bank that is sending the wired funds. Shutterstock checks our bank accounts for newly deposited wires every day.

You can find all of your receipts in your account by following these steps:

1. Login to your account
2. Scroll to “Order History” to view all of your invoices
3. Choose the transaction in question and print it from your computer

If you require further assistance with finding a receipt, please contact Shutterstock Support at 1-866-663-3954.

The Contact Us link can be found on the bottom of any page within Shutterstock. Please use our online contact form to send us an inquiry, or email support@Shutterstock.com.

At Shutterstock, you can choose the subscription that best suit your needs. With our 25-A-Day plans, you can subscribe for one month, three months, six months, or one year, and download up to 25 images per day (750 per month). With our On Demand plans, you can purchase a fixed number of downloads for use any time you want over the course of a year. There are no hidden or additional fees after you become a subscriber. We also provide special licenses for multi-user accounts, print runs exceeding 250,000, and merchandise and media uses.

Yes we do! Please visit Shutterstock Photographer Submissions at http://submit.shutterstock.com

Stock photography is existing photography that can be used for print and web ads, in books and magazines, in news, on websites, in brochures and packaging, and in a large number of custom applications, according to the licensing terms to which the photographer and buyer have agreed. Using an image that already exists saves the purchaser the time and expense of a custom photo shoot.

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep costs low for our customers, we do not publish catalogs. Every image in our library can be found on our website

Shutterstock has been tested with Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape, and Firefox, on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. For best results, we recommend using Firefox.

Under our 25-A-Day plans, you may download up to 25 images per day. Your image-per-day allotment begins the minute your account is activated. In any 30 day-period, you can download 750 images! With our On Demand plans, you can purchase a fixed number of downloads for use any time you want over the course of a year. Additionally, we also offer multi-seat licenses for those who need greater flexibility, and an Enhanced license for more commercial uses.

No. According to our Terms and Conditions only one user is allowed to use your account. Please contact support if you have an interest in Multi-User licenses.

Visit the subscribe page and select the subscription plan that’s best for you, or choose as many plans as you need.

Shutterstock uses cookies to hold your username and/or password. No credit card or purchasing data is stored in the cookie. Also, no personal information is stored in any Shutterstock.com cookie.

Your images will remain in your lightbox until you delete them, even after your current subscription has expired.

A Lightbox is used to store a group of images that you would like to eventually download or share with a colleague. You can place images into a Lightbox, and then later download the images, or send the Lightbox link to a friend/colleague for them to review. You are not obligated to download images in your lightbox, and it's entirely up to you how many lightboxes you have, or if you use the images later.

There are two ways. When you conduct an image search, the results are displayed as miniatures called thumbs. If you scroll over a thumb, you can add that image to your lightbox by clicking on the light bulb icon directly beneath the thumb. This will generate a dropdown box, prompting you to “add to lightbox.” If this is your first lightbox, you will choose “new,” and will be able to save the lightbox with whatever title you prefer. Thereafter, you may continue to add other images to that particular lightbox, or continue creating other lightboxes, depending on your needs.

The other way is to click on the image itself, which will bring up the image on your screen to full-size. You will see to the lower left of the image the same lightbulb icon and the words “add to lightbox.” Click on this and the same dropdown box will come up and simply repeat the process stated above.

Once you have created a lightbox, you have the option to email it to a third party. Just enter the email address and click 'send.' You can also share lightboxes with other Shutterstock users by clicking on the “share” button and entering the username of another Shutterstock subscriber.

You are probably trying to log in at the wrong site. Photographers and Illustrators login at: submit.shutterstock.com, but subscribers must use www.shutterstock.com. If problems persist contact support@shutterstock.com.

Absolutely. You can subscribe to any of our 25-A-Day plans (1, 3, 6 or 12 month), an Enhanced License plan, an On Demand plan, or any combination of the three, depending on whatever best suits your needs.

Yes. You must first use the images within six months of the expiration date of your subscription. Once you have used the images within this time period you may continue to use them indefinitely. Under the terms of our licenses, you may not stockpile unused images for use at a later date.

For each image in our library, we calculate a popularity score based on the total number of downloads, the length of time the image has been available to customers on our site, and a number of other proprietary metrics. Organizing your search results by Most Popular images first, currently the default setting, ensures that you'll see the images we have identified as the highest-quality images most relevant to your search. Additional sorting options include “Newest First,” “Oldest First,” and “Random.”

We provide detailed descriptions of each image on our site. All of our images are royalty free and non-exclusive therefore we do not contact photographers or research images for our clients. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We charge either in USD, or in the official currency of your home country if you are in most European countries. If you see a USD price on your screen, the actual conversion to your local currency is done by your credit card company at the moment of the purchase, based on our fixed USD price. Any charge beyond this conversion rate is a surcharge added by your credit card company for the conversion.

Since you may view our actual images and the image size information upfront, we regret that we cannot provide refunds.

Editorial images are images that have not been released for commercial use. We do not provide the service of researching and/or obtaining any needed additional releases. Shutterstock makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with respect to the use of names, trademarks, logos, uniforms, registered or copyrighted designs or works of art depicted in any Image. You must satisfy yourself that all necessary rights, consents or permissions as may be required for reproduction of any Image have been secured by you. Please review the license carefully.

Just login to your account, and visit the 'My Account' link from the header of any Shutterstock page. You can opt out of any list from inside the Members section.

Shutterstock does allow a redownload period. For the 25-A-Day subscription plans, you can access images you have already downloaded as long as your account has been active. Downloading the same image more than once will not count more than once against your daily allotment. You can download the same image several times but Shutterstock will only count it once.

Redownloads for On Demand and Enhanced License plans will only be available for one week (168 hours) after their initial download of an image. For a supersize image, this means 7 days from when the image is originally downloaded. After the seven day period, it will count against your subscription to download the image again. If your subscription term ends before this one week period expires for a downloaded image, the image will still be available for download for the same one week term.

You can find all of your receipts in your account by following these steps:

1. Login to your account
2. Scroll to “Order History” to view all of your invoices
3. Choose the transaction in question and print it from your computer

If you require further assistance with finding a receipt please contact Shutterstock Support at 1-866-663-3954.

For our 25-A-Day plans, you can subscribe for one month (30 days), three months (90 days), six months (180 days) or one year (365 days). The full year subscription offers the best deal at a deep discount. You can add days to your account from our Renewal Page. With our On Demand plans, you can purchase a fixed number of downloads for use any time you want over the course of a year. We also offer an Enhanced License for print-runs exceeding 250,000, and for expanded media and merchandise uses. Finally, we offer Multi-User licenses for companies and organizations that require multiple people be allowed access to the Shutterstock library. These licenses can be customized according to how many access points and how many downloads are required. Please contact Support for more information and customized quotes on Multi-User licenses.

Auto Renewal is a convenient option that allows you to automatically continue your subscription upon its expiration, and does so at your initial subscription price and term, so that any price changes during the next 15 months will not affect you. You can cancel Auto Renewal at any time from your Shutterstock home page or by emailing Support.

No problem. Just visit the Forgot your password? link beneath the Subscriber Login to have your username and password sent to your email address.

Sharing your username and password is against our Terms of Service, but we do offer multi-seat licenses to customers who need more than one point of access for their company or organization For more information or to price a multi-seat license, please speak to someone on our sales staff at 1-866-663-3954 (inside USA) or 1-646-419-4452 (international).

All of your information is stored in a protected database on a secure server in a secure location.

Images downloaded with a purchased subscription will not be watermarked.

All images are royalty-free. Detailed information can be found on our licensing page.

You may modify an image and use it; however, you may not claim copyright to that image. Shutterstock and its suppliers continue to own all images, whether or not they have been modified.

US Copyright law defines a "derivative work" as a work that is based on (or derived from) one or more already existing works, is copyrightable if it includes what the copyright law calls an “original work of authorship.” Derivative works, also known as “new versions,” include such works as translations, musical arrangements, dramatizations, fictionalizations, art reproductions, and condensations. Any work in which the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship is a “derivative work” or “new version.” For more information, please click on this link: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html#derivative/

Yes. You can use any photo from Shutterstock for a customer/client project. Please indicate to your client that they do not own and do not have the rights to sell the individual images.

According to our Licensing Terms you may use the photos in or on

Web sites

Multimedia presentations

Displays for trade shows

Billboards/banners

Packaging/labels

Broadcast video

On business letterhead

Brochures

Business cards

Office decoration

Decoration for restaurants

Public areas

Decoration in stores

And many other uses outlined in our Standard and Enhanced Licensing Terms

Yes. In instances where photos have recognizable faces in them, those people have signed a model release which is on file in the Shutterstock offices. Some Editorial photos may not be model released. These Editorial photos will be indicated as such, directly below the photo.

This means that you are either typing in an invalid image number, or that the photographer has removed this image from the site. Because photographers retain copyright to their images, they have the right to remove a photo from the site at anytime. If you see an image you like or need, it is best to download it as soon as possible.

No. We maintain an online galleriy, and users can be referred directly to our website. We suggest that you use a Lightbox for the purpose of grouping and sharing images.

A TIFF is an uncompressed file format that is available only to our Enhanced License subscribers. Our TIFF files are converted from the same JPEGs that are available under the Standard License. We use the JPEG format to store images in our database.

“Royalty-free” is a type of a stock photo license that provides for the unlimited use of an image in any media defined in the licensing terms. “Royalty-free” is the opposite of “rights-managed.” A rights-managed image needs a specific license stating the audience and material surrounding the image. All the images on Shutterstock are royalty-free and do not require an individual license. All images are bound by one or both of the two types of licensing agreements.

They can be downloaded in four different sizes, all of which are included in a basic subscription membership. Our images come in Small, Medium, Large, and Supersized. Supersized images can be as large as 4000x3000 pixels! Each image has size information detailed iunderneath the chosen image

To see which Terms of Service applies to your account, click here.

You may not sell the images that you download from Shutterstock. You can use them in design elements, but not offer them for resale or distribution.

No. All images from Shutterstock are royalty-free and subject to our main licensing terms.

You cannot sell templates under our Standard subscription license but we do allow it under our Enhanced subscription license.

No, there is no extra cost.

No, only images that you have downloaded can be backed up, substitutions are not allowed.

For an extra monthly fee, we will send you backup CDs containing all of the images you've downloaded. You will receive a CD via U.S postal mail every 30 days, within 10 days of the end of each 30 day period.

For the On Demand plan, the backup CD will be sent out once all your allotted downloads are used up. If you go the duration of an On Demand plan without using all your allotted downloads, you will receive the CD when the subscription ends. There is a small one-time fee for this service.

You can sign up for this service one of two ways. During check-out, check the “Purchase Backup CDs” option on the “Subscription Details” page. Or, if already a subscriber, go to the “My Account” page then scroll down and click the “Backup CDs” link.

Yes, it is up to each submitter whether or not they will allow you to backup their image using the backup CD program.

The backup CD will only contain the native size of the picture that you have downloaded. Supersized images are not available on the backup CD.

You should receive a CD every 30 days, within 10 days of the end of each 30 day period.