Shutterstock is one of the biggest players in the game and regularly ranks among the best stock photo sites. It’s well-known for its gargantuan collection of over 500 million royalty-free media, fantastic commercial licenses, and a large number of tools—but did you know it’s also one of the most affordable stock image sites around?
Shutterstock’s success is largely due to its value for price. That said, there are a few places where some other stock media platforms do something better. To help you better understand exactly how Shutterstock stacks up, I’ll share my experience using it and review its latest pricing, licensing, and UI changes.
Shutterstock review in short:
- What’s new with Shutterstock?
- How much does Shutterstock cost?
- Industry-standard royalty-free license
- The largest library of royalty-free images (also great for videos and audio)
- Modern, easy-to-use user interface
- Suite of AI tools & Creative Flow editor
- Solid Creative Cloud extensions and other integrations
- Customer support has gone from excellent to meh in the last year
- Shutterstock review: Scorecard
- Is Shutterstock legit?
- Should you buy Shutterstock?
What’s new with Shutterstock?
Shutterstock is currently the most active stock footage platform. It constantly improves its pricing and content library and forges new partnerships. In the last 12 months, Shutterstock:
- Shutterstock’s library reached 500+ million images in 2025.
- Fully integrated its AI Image Generator into its suite of AI tools, powered by Dall-E 3, now available at $7 per month for 100 generations.
- Updated its music pricing, replacing its standard subscription with an unlimited music plan.
- Added over 50 million images, videos, and audio files to its library.
- Acquired Envato Elements and partnered with several AI companies, such as Nvidia and Reka.ai, in an attempt to keep up with the AI trends.
- Announced a merger with Getty Images.
Learn all about the most recent Shutterstock updates.
How much does Shutterstock cost?
Key takeaway: Shutterstock charges $29 monthly for 10 images, $79 monthly for 5 videos, and $42 monthly for unlimited audio. These prices sit right in the middle of industry standards, and you can save 15% with code ‘PHOTUTORIAL15’.
I’ve had to update this Shutterstock pricing section about a dozen times as they continue revising their offerings. One important thing to know: unlike Adobe Stock, Shutterstock makes you buy separate subscriptions for different media types—one for images, another for videos, and a third for music.
Subscriptions are definitely the cheapest route with Shutterstock. They come in month-to-month, annual (paid monthly), or annual (paid upfront) versions, with the upfront annual plan saving you the most money. My biggest frustration is that unused downloads don’t roll over. I’ve often scrambled to use remaining downloads before my renewal date, grabbing random stock photos I might need someday.
For image subscriptions, you’ll pay $29 monthly ($299/year) for 10 downloads, while video subscriptions run $99 monthly ($949/year) for 5 videos. Unlimited audio downloads cost $49 monthly. Higher-volume tiers are also available, which cost more upfront but less per download.
These prices align closely with competitors. Adobe Stock and iStock also charge $29 monthly for 10 photos, though Depositphotos offers a better deal with 30 downloads at that same price (and follows similar patterns for video).
For better value, consider unlimited subscriptions from other providers. These let you download numerous assets (usually capped at around 50 daily) for one flat fee. For images and videos, solid options include Envato Elements ($16.50/month), Vecteezy ($9/month), Artlist ($29.99/month), or Motion Array ($19.99/month). For audio content, both Artlist ($9.99/month) and Epidemic Sound ($9.99/month) work well.
Not everything at Shutterstock comes with a subscription. Extended royalty-free licenses (labeled as “Enhanced”) are only available through packs, as are editorial images and videos. Image and video packs offer more flexibility than subscriptions, but at a higher cost per download.
Though Shutterstock eliminated their free trial, you can still create a free account to get three royalty-free photos and 40 free videos. For more free content, check out my guides on stock photo free trials and stock video free trials, covering options like the Adobe Stock trial, iStock trial, and Depositphotos trial.
Rating: 4.5/5
Industry-standard royalty-free license
Shutterstock’s standard license comes automatically with every subscription or standard pack download. This royalty-free license gives you plenty of flexibility for most commercial projects. You’ll get unlimited web distribution and up to 500,000 copies for print, packaging, or advertising impressions. The $10,000 indemnity protection is pretty standard across major stock providers and works perfectly for social media posts, websites, and corporate materials.
Sometimes, you’ll need to go beyond these standard limits. Maybe you need higher indemnity protection (up to $250,000), want to print your stock photos on merchandise like T-shirts and mugs, or expect your social videos to get more than 500,000 views.
That’s when the Enhanced License makes sense. You can grab this upgrade by flipping the “Enhanced” switch when buying image and video packs or selecting the single-file purchase option for audio. I’ve found the prices vary based on what you’re buying—typically around $50 for images and sound effects, and up to $200 for videos and music.
The standard license works great for most commercial projects, but things get a bit more complicated with editorial content. These are media showing recognizable celebrities or landmarks (like the Empire State Building) without signed releases. You’ll spot these marked as “Editorial Use Only” across the platform.
Shutterstock actually offers two types of editorial content with different licensing terms. Standard “Editorial Use Only” images and videos can be downloaded with your regular subscription—they’re part of the standard collections and can be filtered using the switch in the left sidebar. These come with the Standard Shutterstock License but include additional restrictions on commercial use.
The second type is what Shutterstock calls premium editorial content—professional photos and footage taken by reporters. This is typically used for news articles and documentaries. These files cost $99 to $199 for images and $149 for videos and come with a single-use rights-managed license with up to $25,000 indemnity protection. The licensing is quite strict—for instance, using the same image in two different news articles requires paying for it twice.
Rating: 4.5/5
The largest library of royalty-free images (also great for videos and audio)
Shutterstock’s library is massive—it’s the largest collection of royalty-free images out there, and it’s packed with videos and audio, too. Whenever I need a visual or sound asset, I can count on finding it there. They’re constantly adding new content, with about 200,000 files uploaded each week. Right now, they’ve got:
- 503 million standard photos, vectors, and illustrations
- 40 million videos
- 43,400 music files
- 16,200 SFX files
- 50 million editorial images and videos
- 2 million premium images and videos
For my everyday needs—like blog posts, small ad campaigns, YouTube videos, or social media content—Shutterstock’s standard stock photos and videos work great. The quality matches what you’d get from Adobe Stock or iStock, but Shutterstock offers more variety than iStock or Depositphotos. However, when I’m working on a big commercial project that demands the highest quality imagery, I turn to their premium collections.
Shutterstock’s premium offerings, like Offset for images and Select for videos, are top-tier. They stand up against the best from Getty Images, Stocksy, and the premium tiers of Adobe Stock and iStock. These assets are suitable for any project, but they come with a higher price tag: $249 for an image and $349 for a video.
Shutterstock also provides editorial images and videos, which are perfect for news articles, magazines, documentaries, and similar uses. These are sourced from editorial photographers and global partners. While the quality is comparable to Getty’s editorial collection, I find that Getty has a slight edge in terms of variety, especially for time-sensitive events.
Rating: 4.0/5
Modern, easy-to-use user interface
Shutterstock’s interface is pretty straightforward—it’s got that classic stock photo site layout most of us are used to. There’s a search bar at the top, a carousel of thumbnail images in the middle, and filters on the left side. If you’ve used other stock media platforms, you’ll feel right at home here.
When I’m searching for something on Shutterstock, I always start with a specific phrase in the search bar. Broad terms like “office” will give you millions of results, which can be overwhelming. But if you try something more targeted, like “office people shaking hands,” you’ll get a much more manageable set to browse through. It’s all about using keywords that really capture what you’re after.
Also, don’t forget to select the type of content you need—whether it’s photos, videos, or something else—right next to the search bar. That instantly narrows down your results.
If you need to refine your search even further, the filters on the left are super helpful. Just click Filters below the search bar, and you can adjust things like the image’s orientation, colors, the number of people in it, and even details like age and ethnicity. With these options, you can go from a huge pile of images to exactly what you need in about 30 seconds. These filters also let you choose between editorial or non-editorial content, premium images, or even exclude certain keywords. I covered that in the licensing section.
One feature I really appreciate, especially now in 2025, is the Exclude AI-generated images filter. AI-generated content has been a bit of a headache for stock libraries lately—I’m sure you’ve seen those images with weird details, like mangled fingers. Luckily, Shutterstock’s filter works well. When I turn it on, I don’t see any of those odd AI images, which is a relief.
The filters aren’t just for images, either. For videos, you can filter by resolution, aspect ratio, frames per second, and duration. For music, you can sort by genre, mood, length, beats per minute, and even specific instruments. It’s all pretty standard stuff that you’ll find on most stock media sites, but it’s still really useful for getting exactly what you need without wasting time.
Rating: 5.0/5
Suite of AI tools & Creative Flow editor
Shutterstock’s Creative Flow is a suite of apps designed to help you bring your ideas to life.
Create editor
The Create editor is Shutterstock’s answer to Canva and Adobe Express. You get free access to basic tools like cropping, adding text, and filters, but for premium tools like removing background and smart resizing, you need an active image or video subscription, same as Canva.
If you’ve worked with a similar online image editor, the interface will feel instantly familiar. It has an image in the middle, a main menu in the left sidebar, and a refinement tool in the top menu. It’s a typical drag-and-drop editor where you use your cursor to do everything.
The easiest way to start is through thousands of professional templates. After you pick one, you can personalize it with your text, images, and branding. You can add as many images and videos from the Shutterstock library as you wish. They remain watermarked until you finally license, which gives you the freedom to experiment without wasting your download credits.
You can then adjust your images with filters, special effects, textures, shadows, touch-ups, and, of course, basic image edits such as exposure, contrast, and saturation. You can also remove the background and erase objects just like in Lightroom or Photoshop (but not as good).
One of the coolest features is the AI-driven insights. This means you get data-backed recommendations to help you pick the strongest visuals. For example, you’ll get suggestions on what images will most likely catch your audience’s attention. Creative Flow also helps organize and plan your content calendar by scheduling posts and campaigns ahead of time.
Creative AI
Last October, Shutterstock released an editing suite of six AI tools known as Shutterstock’s Creative AI. The centerpiece of this suite is the AI Image Generator, introduced earlier in 2023 through a partnership with OpenAI. Powered by DALL·E 3, this image generator is available with the Essentials plan for $9.99 per month.
Shutterstock’s AI Image Generator focuses on user-friendliness. The interface looks similar to Adobe Firefly, and all you need is a text description like “dog wearing sunglasses, sunbathing” to start. Using predefined styles (“photo,” “art,” “digital”) and technical terms (“motion blur,” “bokeh”) helps you easily get the desired effect. This approach makes it easier to use than tools like Midjourney.
Once you’ve generated an image, the other tools in the Creative AI suite help with refinement. “Variations” will create three new images closely related to your original prompt.
If you want to add, remove, or change specific parts of the image, you can use “Magic Brush”, while if you need a wider view, “Expand Image” acts like a zoom-out feature. Finally, “Background Remove” and “Smart Resize” do exactly what their names suggest.
Like many other stock photo sites nowadays, Shutterstock offers reverse search. If you have a photo, video, or music clip you like, you can use this tool to find something similar on Shutterstock. But you cannot use it for editorial media, sound effects, or templates.
Rating: 4.5/5
Solid Creative Cloud extensions and other integrations
When I’m picking a stock media platform, I don’t just focus on licensing, pricing, or image quality—I want integrations that make my work easier, and Shutterstock delivers some solid options there.
Their Adobe Creative Cloud integration is the breadwinner for me. I can browse Shutterstock’s library right inside Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere Pro. It cuts out the tedious download-and-upload dance, and I love that I can play around with watermarked previews before committing to a purchase. That’s a real time and money saver.
Still, Adobe Stock’s seamless, native integration across the whole Creative Cloud suite is better. Also, it’d be nice if I didn’t need a separate extension for Final Cut Pro.
Shutterstock’s WordPress plugin is another cool perk that lets you browse and pull images straight into the platform. Sounds handy, but since I always edit my images before posting, it doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. If you’re in the same boat, you might not find it as useful either.
They’ve also got integrations for Microsoft PowerPoint and Sketch, though these don’t seem to get as much love from users. Then there’s the Chrome extension, which is supposed to match any online image to Shutterstock’s library. I’ve tried it, and honestly, it’s hit-or-miss—reviews back that up, too.
On top of all this, Shutterstock has some free tools that anyone can use. They’re not revolutionary, but they can smooth out your workflow a bit. You’ve got an image resizer, a file converter for JPEG, PNG, and TIFF, a collage maker, and a color scheme generator. Take the image resizer—it’s simple and gets the job done when I need to tweak dimensions fast.
So, Shutterstock’s integrations and tools won’t blow you away, but they do bring some practical perks to the table. They’ve made my creative process a little less clunky, even if there’s room for improvement.
Rating: 5.0/5
Customer support has gone from excellent to meh in the last year
I’ve always said that Shutterstock and Depositphotos have the best customer support in the industry (compared to Getty and Adobe, who have some of the worst support).
If you need help, you can reach Shutterstock through live chat, email, or even phone calls. I’ve always been a fan of live chat, especially when I had general questions like “What’s the difference between subscriptions and packs?”. However, lately, it seems Shutterstock has started to outsource live chat to agents who aren’t familiar with Shutterstock, because I often don’t get a correct answer. (And the fact that Shutterstock and Getty are emerging doesn’t make me hopeful about the future of their support).
For specific or tricky questions, I choose email support instead. While it might take a bit longer than live chat, you’ll usually get a response within an hour. Plus, the email support agents seem to have a much deeper understanding of Shutterstock’s policies and systems.
Rating: 3.5/5
Shutterstock review: Scorecard
| Pricing | Average prices among competitors, but asset-based plans can be inconvenient. | 4.5/5 |
| Licensing | Industry-standard royalty-free license, but the standard video license limits the number of video views to 500K (Adobe Stock doesn’t). | 4.5/5 |
| User interface | Easy-to-navigate interface and useful filters that let you find the right asset quickly. AI search would be great. | 5.0/5 |
| Features & tools | Shutterstock has numerous integrations, its own AI image generator, and an ever-growing AI suite. | 5.0/5 |
| Customer support | Used to be great but is lacking lately. | 3.5/5 |
Is Shutterstock legit?
You may have noticed Shutterstock’s low ratings on platforms like Trustpilot (where they average a 1.2 out of 5 based on over 2500 reviews). I dug into those reviews, and a common complaint stood out: customers feeling surprised by annual subscription commitments and high early cancellation fees.
Let’s be fair: Shutterstock isn’t trying to pull a fast one. They do state their terms upfront in their pricing pages and terms of service. Many customers likely misunderstand the difference between monthly billing and monthly subscriptions versus annual commitments with monthly payments.
This subscription model is common across many digital services, not just stock photography. When signing up, customers select a plan that appears to be month-to-month but is actually an annual contract with monthly payments. Early termination then triggers cancellation fees that surprise users.
The negative reviews represent a small fraction of Shutterstock’s overall customer base. I think it’s safe to say they’re a legitimate company, and plenty of professionals use their services successfully every day. Most of the negative feedback likely comes from customers who didn’t fully understand the commitment they were making when signing up, which happens with many subscription services.
As with any subscription service, the key is to carefully read the terms before subscribing and to fully understand the commitment period you’re agreeing to.
Should you buy Shutterstock?
After years of using Shutterstock, there are many reasons for me to continue using it, but there are certain scenarios where a different platform can be better.
Choose Shutterstock if:
- You need a large selection of royalty-free images at affordable prices.
- You need commercially licensed AI-generated images.
- You want to use stock photos within Creative Cloud Apps or WordPress without having to alt-tab.
- You need free videos or free images.
Don’t choose Shutterstock if:
- You need lots of videos or audio files. (Choose Artlist or Envato Elements instead)
- You want a native, full-fledged integration in all Adobe Creative Cloud Apps. (Choose Adobe Stock instead)
- You want a large volume of premium stock images, including editorial imagery. (Choose Getty Images instead)
Related reading:
- Shutterstock licenses explained
- The best Shutterstock alternatives
- Shutterstock vs. Getty Images
- Shutterstock vs. Adobe Stock
- Shutterstock vs. iStock
This article was originally published in April 2020. The most recent update was in May 2025.
