Are you looking for high-quality, copyright-free images to use on your website or blog? This guide lists several sources you can use to find not just images, but also artwork, video, audio, movies, books, and more.
In this guide
Using copyright-free images is important to ensure legal compliance, avoid disputes, and uphold ethical standards and professionalism as a website owner.
Images and other media are classified as free if:
- It is in the public domain, meaning it is old enough to no longer be subject to copyright laws.
- It is copyright-free (also sometimes referred to as copyleft).
- It is under one of the Creative Commons licenses for use and redistribution.
It’s equally important to understand the terms and conditions associated with each image and adhere to them. Creative Commons licenses, for example, come with specific guidelines regarding how the images can be used, and it’s crucial to comply with these terms to stay within legal and ethical boundaries.
Your WordPress.com account includes two extensive libraries of free images you can use on your website! You can access both libraries from your site’s Media library and in the editor:
The Pexels Photo Library is a vast resource of free, high-quality photos. Visit our Pexels Free Photos guide to learn how to access free images in your WordPress.com account.
Openverse is a search engine for openly licensed media that gives you access to over 600 million Creative Commons licensed and public domain image and audio files. Visit our Openverse Free Photos guide to learn how to access free images in your WordPress.com account.
- The Internet Archive contains free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
- Flickr Commons is a site for publicly-held photography collections.
- Wikimedia Commons features freely usable media from Wikipedia.
- Unsplash photos can be used for free, even for commercial purposes.
- Google Images provides filter options for free images.
