You can only purchase one Shutterstock image / video at a time.
Shutterstock Pricing FAQ
Depending on what buying method you use. A Shutterstock photo can cost between $0.26 and $9.80 with a Standard license. For an Extended license, the price ranges between $67.96 and $99.50 per image.
There are no limits on the number of times you can use the image on your merchandise.
Yes, Shutterstock does pay. The company pays contributors for each image or video download from the site. Contributors earn a base rate of $0.25 per download and can earn up to $120 per image depending on the image price, portfolio size, and performance level.
With the Shutterstock Image licenses, there is no set time frame for using the images after a download. With a Standard Image License, you can store those images for your own use. The Enhanced Image License is necessary if you want to use them as elements of digital templates for sale/distribution.
Shutterstock Photos Are Royalty-Free
Although there is a charge for Shutterstock images, once you have purchased them, they become what is known as royalty-free. This means that you are granted copyright to the intellectual property and have the license to use what you buy in multiple ways on multiple applications.
With the exception of the weekly free photo and free vector, all content available at Shutterstock is royalty-free but has an associated cost. Traditionally, a royalty is a fee paid to the author or creator of a work each time a copy of that work is used or sold.
As a Shutterstock contributor, you will earn a percentage of the price Shutterstock receives for licensing your content. There are 6 separate earnings levels for images and for videos, ranging from 15% up to 40%. You can graduate through them independently based on your download count in each category.
The minimum payout amount is $35 and the maximum is $2000.
Become a Contributor
Produce high-quality images and videos for our customers to download. Upload your content with our easy-to-use platform, and get tips for success. Make money every time your content is downloaded by one of our worldwide customers. Earn even more by referring new contributors and customers.
Shutterstock: The Cons
The biggest con to using Shutterstock is the cost. It is expensive for most users who are looking for images to upload to their personal blogs or small scale YouTube Channels.
Stock photos are photographs that are already taken, edited, and ready to be used. But are stock images free to use? A big and resounding NO. The photographer or author of a stock photo makes it available for licensing, meaning you can pay a fee to get the right to use the stock image in your designs legally.
Shutterstock's pricing is based on a combination of the variety, quality, and the number of stock images and other digital assets they offer with their subscription plans. Their prices might seem expensive compared to most other stock image platforms, but they're in line with most premium stock image platforms.
On average, stock photographers make $0.02 per image per month with stock photos, while professionals make $0.05–$0.25 per image per month. Royalty-free sales earn between $0.10 and $99.50, while extended licenses bring up to $500. Stock photo agencies pay $0.32 per sale of a royalty-free license on average.
The Bottom Line
Shutterstock is the best stock photo site and is worth a try if you're looking for a large collection of stock images, videos, music, and editorial content. Subscriptions are the cheapest way to get royalty-free images, while image packs offer the most flexibility.
Shutterstock is a relatively inexpensive stock photo agency, with royalty-free content starting at $0.22/image. But Shutterstock can also be expensive, meaning high prices per image, for extended licenses, image packages, stock footage, or buying each photo individually.
Keep It Simple
They have a high chance of being rejected simply because they have enough of those subjects in their database already. Once you are accepted by Shutterstock, then submit all the photos you like. The hardest part of Shutterstock is getting in. Don't try and wow them with anything fancy to begin with.
When and How Do Contributors Get Paid? A Shutterstock contributor gets paid at the end of every month. But only if they reach the minimum payout amount of $35. The amount isn't lost if you don't make enough in one month.
The best-selling style of images varies from one year to the next, but overall, images of people (or lifestyle photography) are an all-time best-selling genre in stock photography. Other concepts like landscapes, flowers, and beaches are also consistently popular.
1. Alamy. With over 60 million images, Alamy is the largest stock photo website, but they also pay well too. Photographers earn 50% of every sale, and aren't restricted to selling exclusively with Alamy.
Shutterstock's Terms of Service do not allow stock photos or vectors to be used in trademarks or as full or partial logos, unless you purchase an exclusive license. Unlike our Standard and Enhanced Licenses, our exclusive license gives you exclusive rights to an image.
The watermark is automatically removed when you download the picture from Shutterstock legally, using the download button on the screen. Be it through a free download way or by paying for an image pack or subscription plan, this is the only legal method to remove the Shutterstock watermark.
Obtaining permission
You send a letter to the holder asking for permission and stating how you intend to use the image. The holder sends a letter back granting you permission. Your request should be as specific as possible in describing the intended use of the image.