# Sources & licences

Image Asset Server searches or links 33 image sites. Use the `id` with `providers=` to restrict a search. "deep link" sources are not searched automatically (they need a key, sell their images, or their terms forbid aggregation): the response carries a `searchUrl` that runs the same search on the site. No image passes through the server: thumbnails, previews and downloads come from the sources.

| Source | id | Best for | Categories | Search | Pricing | Licence | Direct download |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [NASA Image and Video Library](https://images.nasa.gov) | `nasa` | About 140k NASA photos: planets, galaxies and nebulae, Earth from orbit, launches, astronauts and aircraft. Public domain in the US with credit to NASA (no endorsement, no insignia); originals up to full camera resolution plus 640–1920 px copies. | Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Nature & landscapes, Technology, Transport, People & portraits, History & archives | API | free | per image | yes |
| [The Metropolitan Museum of Art](https://www.metmuseum.org) | `met` | Over 370k public-domain artworks from 5,000 years of art: paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, armour and decorative arts. Every image CC0 (Open Access), originals at full scan size. | Art, History & archives, People & portraits, Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Objects & still life | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu) | `artic` | About 59k public-domain artworks with images: Impressionist and modern paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and textiles. CC0, served over IIIF at any size up to the full scan. | Art, History & archives, People & portraits, Nature & landscapes, Architecture & interiors | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://www.clevelandart.org) | `cleveland` | About 42k CC0 artworks with images: paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, ceramics, textiles and arms from around the world. Print-size JPEGs and master TIFFs. | Art, History & archives, People & portraits, Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Objects & still life | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/photos/) | `loc` | About 1.1M historic photos, prints, drawings, posters and maps from the Prints & Photographs Division, many public domain. Rights advisory per item; master TIFFs for most. | History & archives, People & portraits, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, Transport, Nature & landscapes, Art | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org) | `wikimediacommons` | Over 100 million freely licensed photos, drawings, maps, diagrams and SVGs: nature, places, people, history, science and art. Licence recorded per file (CC0, public domain, CC BY, CC BY-SA); resized copies up to 4K and the original file. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Iconify](https://iconify.design) | `iconify` | About 470k open-source icons in 280 sets (Material Symbols, Tabler, Lucide, Phosphor, Font Awesome Free…). Every icon an SVG with a transparent background; licence per set (mostly MIT, Apache 2.0 and CC BY). | Icons & symbols | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Openverse](https://openverse.org) | `openverse` | About 800M openly licensed images in one index: Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, museums and free stock sites. CC0, public domain and every CC licence, stated per image. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures | API | free | per image | yes |
| [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com) | `unsplash` | Over 5 million high-resolution photos from a community of photographers; Unsplash licence (no credit needed). Link-only for now: its API needs a key and its terms forbid replicating Unsplash. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures | deep link | freemium | Unsplash License (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com) | `pexels` | Millions of free stock photos, many of people and lifestyle; Pexels licence (no credit needed). Link-only for now: its API needs a key and its terms forbid competing services. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures | deep link | free | Pexels License (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com) | `pixabay` | Over 5 million free photos, illustrations and vectors; Pixabay Content License (no credit needed). Link-only for now: its API needs a key and its terms limit automated use. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | free | Pixabay Content License (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Flickr (Creative Commons)](https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/) | `flickr` | Hundreds of millions of photos, over 500 million under Creative Commons or public domain. Link-only: the API needs a key, and Openverse already indexes Flickr's CC photos. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | free | Per-photo licence (Flickr) (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Rawpixel](https://www.rawpixel.com) | `rawpixel` | Free and premium photos, vectors and mockups, plus a large set of public-domain art remastered from museum scans. Link-only: downloads need an account. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures, Art, History & archives | deep link | freemium | Rawpixel licence (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [StockSnap.io](https://stocksnap.io) | `stocksnap` | Tens of thousands of free CC0 photos added weekly. Link-only: no public API. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures | deep link | free | CC0 1.0 (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Burst (Shopify)](https://burst.shopify.com) | `burst` | Free stock photos from Shopify, aimed at online shops: products, small business, lifestyle. Link-only: no public API. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures | deep link | free | Burst licence (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Vecteezy](https://www.vecteezy.com) | `vecteezy` | Millions of free and Pro vectors, photos and PNG cut-outs. Link-only: its API is paid and its terms forbid scraping. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | freemium | Vecteezy licence (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Freepik](https://www.freepik.com) | `freepik` | Millions of photos, vectors, icons and PSD mock-ups; free with credit or premium. Link-only: paid API, terms against scraping. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | freemium | Freepik licence (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Smithsonian Open Access](https://www.si.edu/openaccess) | `smithsonian` | About 5 million CC0 images from the Smithsonian's 21 museums, libraries and zoo: art, natural history, aviation and space, American history. Link-only for now: its API needs an api.data.gov key. | Art, History & archives, Science & medicine, Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, People & portraits, Architecture & interiors | deep link | free | CC0 1.0 (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Europeana](https://www.europeana.eu) | `europeana` | Tens of millions of images from European museums, libraries and archives; the link shows openly licensed ones. Link-only for now: its API needs a key. | Art, History & archives, Science & medicine, Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, People & portraits, Architecture & interiors | deep link | free | Per-item rights statement (Europeana) (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection) | `rijksmuseum` | Over 700,000 public-domain images of Dutch art and history (Rembrandt, Vermeer), downloadable at full resolution. Link-only for now: its data services need a key. | Art, History & archives | deep link | free | CC0 1.0 (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [National Gallery of Art](https://www.nga.gov/open-access-images.html) | `nga` | About 60,000 open-access (CC0) images of paintings, prints and drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Link-only: no search API (the open data is a CSV dump). | Art | deep link | free | CC0 1.0 (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [NYPL Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org) | `nypl` | About a million digitised prints, photos, maps and manuscripts from the New York Public Library, over 180,000 of them public domain. Link-only: its API needs a token. | History & archives, Art, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors | deep link | free | Per-item rights (NYPL) (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Internet Archive (images)](https://archive.org/details/image) | `internetarchive` | Millions of scanned photos, book illustrations, posters and ephemera. Link-only: licences are uploader-asserted and image search through its API is poor. | History & archives, Art, Science & medicine | deep link | free | Uploader-asserted licence (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Openclipart](https://openclipart.org) | `openclipart` | About 180,000 public-domain clip-art drawings, all SVG. Link-only: no public API. | Icons & symbols, Backgrounds & textures, Objects & still life, People & portraits, Technology, Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife | deep link | free | CC0 1.0 (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [SVG Repo](https://www.svgrepo.com) | `svgrepo` | About 500,000 free SVG icons and vectors from open-source sets, licence shown per collection. Link-only: no public API and it rate-limits bots. | Icons & symbols, Backgrounds & textures, Objects & still life, People & portraits, Technology, Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife | deep link | free | Per-collection licence (SVG Repo) (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [Flaticon](https://www.flaticon.com) | `flaticon` | Millions of icons and stickers (Freepik); free with credit or premium. Link-only: paid API. | Icons & symbols | deep link | freemium | Flaticon licence (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [The Noun Project](https://thenounproject.com) | `nounproject` | Over 8 million icons and photos from designers worldwide; free with credit (CC BY) or royalty-free with a subscription. Link-only: its API needs a key. | Icons & symbols | deep link | freemium | Noun Project licence (Unclear: check the terms) | no |
| [unDraw](https://undraw.co) | `undraw` | About 1,500 open-licence flat illustrations in a colour you pick, for websites and apps. Link-only: no public API. | People & portraits, Technology, Objects & still life | deep link | free | unDraw licence (Commercial use OK) | no |
| [Shutterstock](https://www.shutterstock.com) | `shutterstock` | One of the largest paid image libraries: over 400 million photos, vectors and illustrations, per image or by subscription. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | paid | Shutterstock licence (paid) (Needs a paid licence or releases) | no |
| [Adobe Stock](https://stock.adobe.com) | `adobestock` | Paid photos, vectors, illustrations and templates, built into Creative Cloud apps. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | paid | Adobe Stock licence (paid) (Needs a paid licence or releases) | no |
| [Getty Images](https://www.gettyimages.com) | `gettyimages` | Premium creative and editorial photography: news, sport, entertainment and archive pictures. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | paid | Getty Images licence (paid) (Needs a paid licence or releases) | no |
| [iStock](https://www.istockphoto.com) | `istock` | Getty Images' lower-priced library of photos, illustrations and vectors. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | paid | iStock licence (paid) (Needs a paid licence or releases) | no |
| [Alamy](https://www.alamy.com) | `alamy` | Over 400 million paid stock photos, strong on travel, news and historical pictures. | Nature & landscapes, Animals & wildlife, Cities & streets, Architecture & interiors, People & portraits, Food & drink, Objects & still life, Technology, Transport, Space & astronomy, Science & medicine, Art, History & archives, Backgrounds & textures, Icons & symbols | deep link | paid | Alamy licence (paid) (Needs a paid licence or releases) | no |

Sources marked "per image" set licences per item; check each result's `license.verdict`. Royalty-free licences allow use in your music but not redistribution of the images. Licences explained: /docs/licences.md

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Source: https://image.shep.bot/docs/sources