Looking for free stock images online? Nearly everyone has tried mainstays like Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Stock Exchange and MorgueFile. These are four excellent resources for free stock photos, but they’re far from the only options online. Instead of pulling stock images from the same pool as everyone else, try these 30 resources – some of which you’ve probably never heard of.
1. Stock Vault
A well-known free stock image resource with more than 30,000 free photos.
2. Creativity 103
More than 2,500 free images, textures, backgrounds and more for your graphic designs.
3. PDSearch
Royalty-free, public domain stock photos you can browse by category or search by keyword.
4. Free Range
Like some others listed here, you have to sign up for a membership (it’s free), but the high-resolution free stock images on this site make that slight inconvenience well worth it.
5. Free Photos Bank
An easy-to-navigate interface makes finding the perfect free stock images for your graphic designs a breeze.
6. DotGovWatch
Free public-domain photos taken by government employees. This website lets you search for photos or browse pre-selected galleries.
7. Photogen
Thousands of free stock images for commercial and personal use. High resolution!
8. FreeMediaGoo
Totally free stock images, plus audio and more.
9. Everystockphoto
This isn’t a gallery in and of itself, but a search engine for free stock photos that will connect you with many other great resources.
10. Freefoto
Bills itself as the largest collection of free photos online, with more than 130,000 images.
11. Pixel Perfect Digital
Not the most extensive collection, but the free stock images here are of excellent quality.
12. Imagebase
Free photos that you can treat as though they’re in the public domain in high resolution formats make this a great go-to site for that unique photo you’re after.
13. Open Stock Photography
A search engine for Wikimedia Commons, with access to more than 2 million free images.
14. Woophy
A unique take on free stock image search; this website lets you use a world map to drill down to a specific location. You’ll find free photos for that location.
15. Free Stock Photography
More than 1,000 images you can download and use in your designs, 100 percent royalty-free.
16. Photl
The images found on Photl can only be found on Photl, which makes it the perfect resource for finding something different and unique.
17. Kave Wall
Well-categorized stock images, textures and more you can download for free.
18. Turbo Photo
Browse galleries of free public domain images for graphic design, but be wary of the search feature – it takes you to Shutterstock, a paid image website.
19. Image After
The interface can put you off a little at first, but don’t ignore the powerful search tools for free stock images from an established website.
20. RGB Stock
Free high-quality stock photos, illustrations and backgrounds.
21. Free Stock Images
True to its name, you’ll find free stock images on this website. You’ll also find free icons and other free graphics.
22. Nations Illustrated
More than 8,000 free photos for download, based on country of subject and origin.
23. Unprofound
An excellent resource of high-quality free stock photography, seeded by a small group of talented and dedicated photographers.
24. Cepolina
Different and cool, with free stock images plus icons and more for free download.
25. U.S. Government Photos and Images
Many of these are in the public domain, but some are not. Always check licenses before use!
26. Liam’s Pictures from Old Books
Looking for a perfect vintage photo or image for free? Look no further than this website, which has images from – you guessed it – old books!
27. Picdrome
Not extensive, but you will find unique photos here to add some spice to your designs.
28. Photo Rack
More than 10,000 free stock photos you can browse by category.
29. Design Packs
Download free full design packs that work together seamlessly in your own graphic designs.
30. Free Pixels
An excellent collection of free stock images for web and print design.
We’d like to have http://www.SchoolPhotoProject.com included in this list as well. We are a free stock photo site that make good quality photos available for students and public in general. Big photo files, up to 4000 pixels in size are available to download. New free photos are uploaded daily. Thank you!
Thanks for the link! Hopefully I’ll receive more submissions so I can expand this post to include more – if you have a free stock photo site, please let me know.
Here are several more free stock photos sites we know:
http://www.morguefile.com
http://www.photogen.com
http://www.sxc.hu
http://www.pics4learning.com
Thank you!