Found in a Search Is Not Free
A picture in search results still belongs to whoever made it. Unless a licence says otherwise, every right stays with them.
Free to Use Images: Download Them in Bulk, Licences Included
Find pictures you are allowed to reuse - on Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash, Pexels and Flickr, or in an image search with its licence filter on - and download a whole search or collection at once. NeoDownloader keeps the page each picture came from, and with every Commons file its licence and author, so the terms can be checked before a picture is used, not after.
✓Windows, Mac and Linux✓A whole search or collection in one run✓The page with its licence kept for every picture✓Pictures as the site serves them, never resized✓Supports 1,200+ sites
How it works0:28
Search Free to Use Images With a Licence Filter
The shortest way to a folder of pictures you may reuse: switch on the licence filter of the search, then let NeoDownloader take everything it found.
One-time setup: download NeoDownloader and install it. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The steps below are what you repeat each time.
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ProjectsNew searchGoogle ImagesBing ImagesFlickrUnsplashPexelsWikimedia CommonsOpen the Search in NeoDownloader
Click New search over your projects and pick where to look: Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, Unsplash or Pexels. The site you choose opens inside the program's window, as it would in your browser.
- 2Google ImagesDownload search resultslighthouse
Turn On the Licence Filter
On Google, open Tools, then Usage rights, and choose Creative Commons licenses. Commons has a licence filter of its own, Flickr a licence menu over its results, Unsplash a choice between free photos and Unsplash+.
- 3Google ImagesDownload search resultslighthouse
Take Every Result
Press Download search results. Your query and the filter are saved with the project; every picture comes from its own site, with that site's page kept under “Found on”.
Where to Download Free Images and CC0 Photos
Sites whose pictures come with a licence that allows reuse, and searches that can be narrowed to them. Each card leads to the guide for that site:
Wikimedia Commons: A Licence on Every File
Public domain scans and Creative Commons photos, each file with its licence and author on its page. A category or a search comes down in original size, and both facts go into each file's properties.
Wikimedia DownloaderUnsplash: Free Photos, One Licence
Everything outside Unsplash+ is free to use, commercially as well, and credit is optional. The one thing its licence rules out for bulk downloads: collecting photos to build a service like Unsplash.
Unsplash DownloaderPexels: Photos and Videos Under Its Own Licence
Free to use and to edit, credit optional - but not CC0: unaltered copies may not be sold or posted to other stock or wallpaper sites, and people in a photo may not be shown in a bad light.
Pexels DownloaderFlickr: Creative Commons by Filter
By default, Flickr photos are all rights reserved. The licence menu of a search keeps the ones that allow reuse, the project keeps that choice, and each photo's page, where Flickr names its licence, stays under “Found on”.
Flickr DownloaderGoogle Images: Usage Rights
Tools, then Usage rights, then Creative Commons licenses. The other choice there, Commercial & other licenses, means a licence exists - often one you pay for at a stock agency.
Google Images DownloaderBing Images: The License Filter
Public domain, free to share and use, free to use commercially: Bing sorts by what pages say about themselves. It often has only a small copy of a picture, so for full size go to the site the picture is from.
Bing Images DownloaderWhy Check the Licence Before You Use an Image
Free to download is not the same as free to use.
A Filter Is a Hint, Not a Promise
Licence filters trust what pages say about themselves, and a mistake on the page comes through: a game screenshot can turn up as public domain. Google itself asks you to confirm each licence.
Free Licences Have Terms
Most Creative Commons licences ask for the author's name; some rule out commercial use or changes. Free of charge does not mean free of conditions.
People, Brands and Products
A licence covers the photo, not what is in it. A recognisable face in an advert, a logo or a designed product can need permission of its own.
Someone Else's Photo, a Free Licence
Anyone can upload to a free site. If the picture was not theirs to give, their free licence protects nobody - its real owner's rights still stand.
The Bill Comes Later
Owners, and agencies working for them, find their pictures with image search and ask for payment for the time a picture was used. Taking it down afterwards does not always settle it.
Copyright Free Images and What the Licences Mean
- Public domain - no copyright left: its term has run out, which takes a different time in each country, or the work was never protected, like works of the US federal government
- CC0 - the author gave up every right they could: use it for anything, no credit needed
- CC BY - use and change it, commercially too, as long as you credit the author
- CC BY-SA - the same, and what you make from it goes out under the same licence
- NC in a licence's name - not for commercial use
- ND in a licence's name - share it as it is, without changes
- Royalty-free - on stock sites, paid for once and used many times, not free of charge
- Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay - free to use under each site's own licence, none of them CC0
Download Free Images in Bulk
What the program adds once the pictures are found
The Whole Search, Not One Picture
Every result of a filtered search, or every file of a category with its subcategories, arrives in a single run.
Licence and Author With the File
Commons files bring both into their properties, under “What the site says”, ready for the credit line.
Back to the Source Page
Each picture keeps the page it was published on under “Found on”; “Open on the site” takes you there to reread the terms.
As Big as the Site Serves It
Nothing is resized or re-encoded: Commons and Unsplash send their originals, Pexels its photos at full size.
Look Before You Use
The built-in viewer shows each picture full screen; the arrow keys go through them, and a star marks the ones to keep.
New Files Only, Next Time
Run the category or search again later, and only pictures added since are fetched.
How to Download a Collection of Free Images
A collection somebody has gathered often beats a search - a Wikimedia Commons category, an Unsplash collection, a Flickr album of public domain photos. To take one whole:
- 1Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lighthouses_in_Maine
Copy the Collection's Address
Open the category, collection or album in your browser and copy its link from the address bar. A Commons category brings its subcategories too, each into a folder of its own.
- 2ProjectsNew project
What do you want to download?
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lighthouses_in_Maine
NextStart a New Project With It
Click New project in NeoDownloader: the link is already in the field. Press Next; the program knows Commons, Unsplash, Pexels and Flickr and reads each the way it should be read.
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Name and folder
Lighthouses in Maine
Create projectCreate the Project
Say where the files should go and press Create project. Pictures arrive named as the site names them, and every Commons file with its licence and author.
Free Images FAQ
Where can I download free images?
On sites that publish under free licences - Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash, Pexels, Flickr's Creative Commons photos - or through an image search with its licence filter on. NeoDownloader takes a whole search or collection at once and keeps the page of every picture.
Can I use images from Google?
Only as each picture's licence allows. Google shows pictures from other people's sites and owns none of them. Its Usage rights filter, under Tools, keeps pictures with Creative Commons licences, and Google asks you to confirm every licence on the picture's own page.
How do I check an image's licence?
Look on the page where the picture was published: the licence is usually named beside it or at the foot of the page, often with a link to its full text. In NeoDownloader, “Open on the site” in a file's menu opens that page, and a Commons file shows its licence in its properties.
What are CC0 images?
Pictures whose authors have waived every right they could under Creative Commons Zero. They may be used for anything, commercially too, without credit - though a person or a brand in the picture may still need permission.
Are royalty-free images free?
Not necessarily. On stock sites, royalty-free means you buy a licence once and use the picture again and again without paying per use. Free images are royalty-free as well, but royalty-free alone does not mean free of charge.
Are copyright-free images really free of copyright?
Only public domain works are. Most pictures sold as copyright-free still belong to their authors and come with a licence; the licence, not the label, says what you may do.
Can I use free images for commercial use?
Under public domain, CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA, yes - with credit where the licence asks for it; under any licence with NC in its name, no. Unsplash and Pexels allow commercial use under their own conditions, and a face or a brand in a picture can still need permission.
Do I have to credit the author?
Under every Creative Commons licence except CC0, yes: give the author's name, a link to the source and the licence's name. Unsplash and Pexels do not require it but appreciate it. NeoDownloader keeps every picture's source page and every Commons file's author.
Are Pexels and Pixabay images CC0?
No. Each site has a licence of its own: free to use, credit optional, but selling unaltered copies is not allowed, and Pexels also rules out posting its photos to other stock or wallpaper sites.
Can I download all the photos from Unsplash at once?
A search, a collection, a topic or a photographer's profile, yes, whole. What Unsplash's licence does not allow is compiling its photos to build a similar or competing service: a folder for your own projects is fine, a copy of Unsplash is not.
Is there a free image downloader?
Yes. Getting NeoDownloader costs nothing, and it takes pictures from image searches, Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash, Pexels, Flickr and any web page. The free version has no time limit; Premium lifts its limits on the number of files per project.
What happens if I use an image without permission?
Its owner can ask you to take it down and, often, to pay for the time it was up; agencies that do this for owners find pictures through image search. Checking the licence before publishing takes a minute, and settling afterwards takes more.
Free Images, Licences Included
Run a search with a licence filter or paste a collection, and keep each picture with the page that says how it may be used. The free version has no time limit.
Available for Windows, Mac and Linux