Visual content is an essential component of social media marketing. The images that we choose for our posts and our Facebook Ads say a lot about our business, so we need high quality, interesting, and attention-grabbing images to support our content.
These images, however, can be expensive to create and require a high skill set and a ton of time. The answer is stock photos, and it’s possible to find free pictures for Facebook.
While there are plenty of paid stock photo sites, some of are free and have filtered photos by license so that you can legally use them for your Facebook marketing.
To help you get the best high-quality images for your Facebook Ads and Facebook posts, you can use any of the sites on this list of free pictures for Facebook.
1. Google Images (with a License Search)
While Google Images may seem like an obvious place to find pictures, many results are protected by copyright. These images can not and should not be used. You can, however, use Google Images to find free images that can be used.
To do this, just filter the images by “Usage rights.” You can then select “Labeled for reuse,” which will show you images that you can legally use for your Facebook marketing without requiring any modifications or licenses.
Just in case any errors are made in the labeling of the images, always double check site you’re pulling the image from to make sure that the image allows for license-free usage.
2. Gratisography
Gratisography provides free high-resolution pictures that you can use on your personal website. This means that you can use them in your content, which can also be featured on Facebook Ads and in your Facebook posts. These images are free to use without the risk of copyright violation.
These images have a number of diverse subjects, which are always growing, considering the site regularly adds new images to their digital inventory. Photographer Ryan McGuire adds new photos on a weekly basis, so check back regularly for new images that you can use.
3. Unsplash
Unsplash is a personal favorite of mine when it comes to stock photo sites. They have incredibly stunning, high-quality images that are free, “do whatever you want” photos.
I’ve used these images in multiple blog posts and for a number of Facebook Ads. If you’re looking for beautiful images that you can legally use, check out this site first.
4. New Old Stock
New Old Stock provides vintage photos from public archives that are free of any known copyright restrictions. If you want to reference or talk about a past event in history, this site is perfect for you. It’s also a great choice for channeling that sentimental feeling that surrounds old photographs.
This site has some images that are in color, though most are in black and white. While the black and white images are gorgeous and make for great images for blog posts, remember that black and white may not jump out at Facebook users when they see it in their Newsfeed.
5. Picjumbo
Picjumbo is another one of my favorite, go-to sites. They have a ton of beautiful images that are all free to use for marketing purposes.
If you really love Picjumbo and want more images, you can subscribe to their Premium membership, which has unlimited downloads and access to brand new and premium-only images. That being said, there are a ton of amazing, gorgeous images that are free to use on the site at any time, no premium membership required.
6. Life of Pix
Life of Pix is another site that provides free high-resolution photos with no copyright restrictions. The images–which come from a network of talented photographers- are all donated to the public domain, allowing anyone to access them without problems.
Pictures are added to the database regularly; when I checked the site, there were multiple images that had been uploaded today.
7. Freeimages
Freeimages has an enormous database of images that can be used to find free pictures for Facebook. They currently have 389,317 free images that you can browse through. Images include both photographs and illustrations.
If you’re a fan of Freeimages and want more images, you can subscribe to their paid membership to get access to 2.4 million premium photos and illustrations.
8. Freerange Stock
Freerange is an advertising revenue-supported photographic community. This means that photographers get paid when users click on the ads that appear by their submissions. After you sign up, all images are free quality stock photos that are licensed for commercial and non-commercial use.
This site has both photographs and illustrations, offering diverse images for whatever you need.
9. FreePhotosBank
This site provides free stock photos in every possible category. From images categories that include computers and technology, architecture, and recreational activities, you’ll find some interesting images here.
A number of these images are not insanely high quality or high resolution like you’ll find on sites like Unsplash. If you dig, though, you can find some good ones, and you might be able to find exactly what you’re looking for.
10. Pixabay
When you’re looking for free pictures for Facebook, this site is fantastic. Pixabay allows you to find and share outstanding images with just a few clicks. When I’m looking for something a little more specific than “computer keyboard,” I head to Pixabay.
I’ve found images of everything from garden gnomes to Christmas stockings to people yelling at each other. They have graphics, photographs, and illustrations.
11. Creative Commons
While Creative Commons is not as streamlined as the other free photo options, it’s a complete creative commons images search engine. It offers convenient access to search images provided by other independent organizations, such as Flickr and Google Images.
If you want to find copyright free images quickly that are available for commercial use, you can use this search engine. This saves you from having to check each site individually. Make sure to unselect “modify, adapt, or build upon” if you want to use the image without making any changes.
12. Focus fitness
We all know how hard it is to advertise on social media when your business has to do with health and skin-revealing body images. Focus fitness provides free high-quality images for personal and commercial use. The site mainly focuses on fitness, health, weight loss, and foods. It’s quite easy to find photos since they’re arranged in categories.
No attribution is required. So you don’t have to give credit to the site or photographer. If you have a health and fitness blog this website will be a great resource. New photos are added every week.
Final Thoughts
All the resources on this list can help you find and provide you with gorgeous, high-resolution images that can be used for Facebook marketing.
When in a hurry, you can use the enormous library of free stock images available when creating your Facebook Ads. These free pictures for Facebook usage can elevate your content and your results all at once.
What do you think? Have you used any of the sites on this list? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!
Great compilation here, I always had trouble finding photos for my facebook pages as well as blogs.
Do not forget about rgbstock.com!
Hi, great article with good sources. On more source i can recomend you is http://creativecommons.photos they have a lot of cc0 images aviable.
Thanks Tobi!
Hey, nice resource. I’m a travel photographer and have launched http://shutteroo.com. All photos are my own.
Great collection of images website. This will help us to use copyright free commercial images. Thanks for sharing valuable information.
Thank you so much for this blog post! I am definitely adding this to my marketing bookmarks! Thanks again – I will definitely be using these resources for my online marketing!
I’m so glad to hear it! Let us know which site is your favorite!
Hi Ana, my favourite of the lot is definitely Unsplash!
Mine, too! The pictures are just so gorgeous.
Thanks so much it is a challenge to find royalty free photos.
I’m glad this can help! These sites have all made my life as a writer and marketer so, so much easier!
The problem I found was that you could never be sure the photos were copyright free so I started up a website with only free stock photos. They’re all cc0 so free to use. Once I get it up to the standard I want, I hope you might include it in your list: RepublicOfStockc.om
Hi Ana – Great list of sites! Would you consider adding my new free stock photo website?
http://RepublicOfStock.com provides free (cc0) images with the ability to download images at pre-set sizes for Facebook among other social media sites. I’ve only just launched it but I’ve massive plans for it 🙂 Thanks again!
Hey John, this sounds like a great idea! This list is unfortunately set for now, but I’ll keep an eye on the site 🙂
Hello Ana,
thank you for the list, I think you would also like https://avopix.com with more than 120 000 free photos under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence (for commercial use with no attribution).
Would you consider adding our project Avopix.com to your list? Thanks a lot!
All the best,
Martin
This is a great list. We have been working on a resource to help designers get access to high-quality images for free as well and just launched a new program. I would also like to add Blend Images ( https://www.blendimages.com/free-stock-images-blendimages-community-resource ) to this list. We launched a new program this year that features one brand new shoot to use for free each month.
I’m looking for pictures of people that are copyright or royalty free. preferably multiple pictures of each person. Anyone have any sources?
Thanks for the great list! Please also check out the world’s largest collection of free, public domain/CCO images, https://snappygoat.com/ ,with 14 Million Public Domain/CC0 stock images, clip-art, historical photos and more, all in one searchable database. It includes an easy to use meme-maker.
thanks a bunch Ana!!!!you really solved my big time problem with this superb list. Thanks
Can I use pixabay or unsplash images to create memes which I will commercially use in my website?
Nice post dear, thanks for sharing.
Thanks, I just started a new WordPress blog and Facebook page so your mentions are gonna help me alots. Thanks again.
One google search and found this blog. Outstanding. Has everything I ever needed and so much more.
Thanks so much!!!
👍 Thank you for the list! ⚡ At https://123PhotoFree.com we have thousands of free photos under Creative Commons licence (CC0) with 7 social sites dimensions (for Facebook, Twitter and more)…
This is a pretty useful list, thanks 👍 I’ll recommend also Imageric it has tons of free photos, vectors and videos under CC0 license (Public Domain).
For Facebook ads image was really so important. In your this post you just share the haven with me. Now I can easily find image for my Fb Ads.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this superb blog! I suppose for now I’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your
RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group. Chat soon!
Nice article! I have a suggestion for you: publicdomainphotography. It is a free website where you can download free images without any watermark. Even professional photographer share their images free on the public domain photography website.
I blog frequently and I really thank you for your information. The
article has truly peaked my interest. I’m going to take a note of
your website and keep checking for new information about once per week.
I opted in for your Feed too.
Did you try picfoods.com? There are awesome free food pictures!
Another great place to search free stock images is our site *shameless plug*. Joke aside, we have tons of free stock images to search from. You’ll love our site 🙂
very useful compilation.
Thank you
I like the tactic that you showed to find reusable images from Google images. While creating a blog post, I was always bothered about the images licensing issue. But now after reading this post, I’m able to easily add great images for my blog post without any copyright problems.
great List, also check freejpg and photostockeditor