Best Free Stock Photo Websites 2025: Are you lacking photography skills but also don’t want to use the same boring stock images that every other website uses? The good news is that there are still a variety of stock photo sites offering a wide range of unique and free images for your creative projects.
Best Free Stock Photo Websites 2025
Unsplash (Web, iOS, Android)
With over six million images and multiple add-ons, Unsplash is one of the easiest and largest free stock photo websites to access.
The site is also user-friendly: just type a keyword in the search bar at the top of the page, and browse the results to find the best images for your needs. If you’re unsure what you’re looking for, there are category tabs along the top of the homepage for inspiration.
Another feature that sets Unsplash apart from other free stock photo sites is the collections section. Users can create collections by organizing the images they come across. If you want many similar images on a specific topic, Unsplash might be your best bet.
Pixabay (Web, iOS, Android)
The Pixabay site hosts over 5 million images, illustrations, vector graphics, and videos—all free to use. Click on the images next to the search bar to search for images by type, or you can search more precisely by exploring the advanced search options on Pixabay. It allows you to search by photographer, orientation (horizontal or vertical), size, and even color, and you can choose to include or exclude AI-generated images. The site also features an editor's choice section highlighting the best images selected by the Pixabay team. Click on the “Explore” dropdown menu in the top right corner of the site to see their picks.
Once you find what you’re looking for, it only takes one click to pull the image into Canva for editing or to use as part of a design.
If you need a professional-looking illustration, just click on the images, select illustrations, and enter your search terms, and that’s it. You can also use Pixabay to search for vector graphics and videos and even sound effects.
Pexels (Web, iOS, Android)
You can also search by popular collections and by color (which is helpful if you plan to use a specific color palette in your final product). Pexels’ partnership with Canva allows you to edit stock photos—or use them as a base for a new design—with just one click. The tool’s add-ons also give you access to stock images and edit them directly from within Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, or Figma or Sketch.
If you plan to use stock images in social media graphics or other visual projects, it might be beneficial to use a source that easily integrates with basic graphic design tools. Pexels offers a wide range of free images and videos for your next project, and the site is fast and easy to use.
Burst (Web)
Burst is a free stock photo site powered by the leading e-commerce platform Shopify. The platform offers thousands of free images that you can use to enhance your content, including a large selection of business-oriented images (like retail, e-commerce, finance, and products). The site features 28 different categories, many of which are subdivided into subcategories to make it easier to find the images you need.
Browsing, searching, and downloading are standard, but as an added bonus, Burst and Shopify provide tips on things like how to turn your online business ideas into reality.
123RF (Web, iOS, Android)
Many of the stock photo sites I’ve tested now offer AI-generated images, either alongside human-created images or instead of them. I found that 123RF is the most useful option because, although it offers AI-generated stock images, you can choose to filter out these results. This feature makes your image search much easier since both types of content are gathered in one place for you—but you don’t have to wonder which is which.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can create your own image using the AI-powered image generator. You can specify the image size, style, color scheme, lighting, and composition—you can even add a reference image—and the 123RF AI engine will generate three options for you to choose from.
Overall, the site is easy to navigate. 123RF also comes with plenty of additional paid features, including AI image generation, AI copywriting, and a wide range of fonts.
Rawpixel (Web)
Rawpixel is more than just a stock photo site (though it has a wide selection of free images to choose from). It covers all kinds of visual projects, providing images, vectors, illustrations, fonts, stickers, and more. If you’re looking for a comprehensive source for your next creative project, chances are rawpixel has what you need.
You can sort your search results and narrow down the type of content, filter by price or file type, and even choose to exclude (or isolate) AI-generated images.
Once you find the right visual element, rawpixel provides extensive built-in design and editing tools to edit images, add text, overlays, and other elements, transforming a simple image into any type of graphic you need.
The site is easy to browse, and if you’re looking for inspiration, you can explore the topics tab to find curated design resources to spark your creativity.
Conclusion
If you publish content regularly, you’re likely to get good results using the best free stock photo websites of 2025. Just make sure to maintain your brand’s visual identity: using too many random images can confuse your branding and make it hard to stand out from the crowd.
