Unsplash has been a great source of free photo stock, but now things are changing with the introduction of Unsplash+ after it was acquired by Getty Images in 2021.

Will it be the beginning of the end of Unsplash’s free stock access? Here’s everything you need to know about how Unsplash+ will affect you as a user and content creator.

What Is Unsplash?

Unsplash is a stock photography marketplace. In 2021, Getty Images acquired Unsplash, which, until October 2022, hadn’t changed anything for users. Unsplash users have a free-to-access library of millions of photos.

Unsplash homepage.

It's one of the most popular stock photography websites; Unsplash photos can be seen across thousands of websites, blogs, and articles (including plenty of ours).

While there are plenty of stock image sites, Unsplash’s extensive library and high-quality images often prevail over its competitors. Budding photographers can easily submit work to appear on Unsplash, although they won't receive any payment.

Free to use and without requiring an account, you might question what has changed now with the introduction of Unsplash+.

What Do Users Get With Unsplash+?

Unsplash+ has been subtly introduced, so you may wonder what it means to sign up. If you’re looking for premium stock photos, signing up for a year’s subscription to Unsplash+ will cost $12 per month billed yearly (at the time of writing).

New, curated photos will be added to the Unsplash+ library monthly. These will be exclusive to premium members and not available to Unsplash users. While the licenses remain the same—all photos are commercially licensed for unlimited and non-exclusive use—you may be getting better copyright protection with Unsplash+.

All premium photos have a model and property release and are backed by the Unsplash+ Protection guarantee.

Do Photographers Get Paid for Their Unsplash+ Photos?

DSLR overlaid with photo of dollar notes.

If you’re a photographer, you can benefit from Unsplash+ too. The benefit of charging a subscription for access to premium stock is that photographers get paid for their work. Photographers can shoot and submit commission-based content for Unsplash+, allowing visual creators more than just a credited caption as thanks.

While Unsplash’s open library allows photographers to submit photos of any content, the Unsplash+ contributors need to shoot to a brief. You can choose your brief based on Unsplash+’s listed trending topics. As a content creator, you are in control of how many briefs you wish to partake in per month.

You’ll be paid for images accepted into the library, not by how many downloads of the image you receive. Payment rates range, on average, between $5 and $30 per image accepted. Read Unsplash+'s How to Contribute page to learn more about the process.

Can You Still Get Free Stock From Unsplash?

Unsplash library with images of Berlin.

For the time being, Unsplash and its open library will continue to run as it always has. There is no suggestion of change from Unsplash about this. You can download unlimited stock images free of charge but the photographers and creators of those images do not receive payment.

When searching Unsplash’s extensive library, the only difference you’ll notice now is that Unsplash+ watermarked images are interspersed with the open library images. This doesn’t reduce the number of free images available overall, but it does lessen the real estate per page of free images.

Since Getty Images’ acquisition, there have been frequent adverts on the top and bottom of the Unsplash library to encourage premium stock photography purchases. If you want to avoid the temptation of buying images, see our alternative royalty-free stock photography websites.

Get Premium Stock Photography With Unsplash+

Change can sometimes mean losing access to things you love, but the introduction of Unsplash+ only adds more to what you can already access. Unsplash remains free with full access to all the same images you’ve loved in the past, but there’s a new option to buy access to Unsplash+ premium content.

It’s fairly priced and ensures creators get paid too. So are you going to make the switch to Unsplash+?