After extensively testing over 30 stock photo websites, we found 8 free trials that are worth signing up for. The best free trial is Adobe Stock which gives you up to 40 free images during a 30-day period. By using all free trials, you can get up to 120 free stock images, plus unlimited downloads with Canva.
All stock photo trials require signing up for a free account and entering your credit card information. If you don’t want to be charged, you need to cancel the trial before it expires.
Table of Contents
7 Best Stock Image Free Trials of 2022
- Adobe Stock – 10, 25, or 40 free images
- Shutterstock – 10 free images
- iStock – 10 free images
- Depositphotos – 10 free images
- Canva – 1st month free, you can get unlimited downloads
- Bigstock – 35 free images or videos.
- Dreamstime – 15 watermarked images
10, 25, or 40 images
Adobe Stock
5.0
Adobe Stock’s free trial is the best in the industry, as it allows you to get 10, 25, or 40 free stock images based on which subscription plan you pick. It’s the largest free trial you can get, and there are no hidden fees or tricks. It is available with Adobe Stock’s annual subscriptions of 10, 25, or 40 monthly downloads that cost $29.99–$79.99/month. So, the free trial saves you up to $80.
Read more: Adobe Stock review
- Pick any 10, 25, or 40 standard assets, which include high-res photos, vectors, illustrations, templates, 3D, and music tracks.
- You can get free trials of other Adobe apps too that complement Adobe Stock, such as Creative Cloud.
- You keep the images even if you cancel the free trial.
- Available only with the annual subscription plans.
- You can’t download the premium images during the free trial.
- Go to Adobe Stock.
- Click “Pricing” in the top right.
- Pick an annual subscription plan.
- Click the “Start free trial” button.
- Sign in to your Adobe account (or create one).
- Enter your payment information (you won’t be charged).
- Click “Continue“.
- Confirm the free trial order.
Read more: How to get Adobe Stock free trial?
10 Free Images
You can try Shutterstock for free and download ten images per month at zero cost. The free trial expires after 30 days, regardless of whether you downloaded the images. Whether you renew or cancel your annual subscription, you get to keep the ten free images you downloaded. However, you need to cancel the trial 2 days in advance, otherwise, you get charged for the full month.
Read more: Shutterstock review
- Any 10 free images during a 30-day trial.
- You get to keep the images even if you cancel the free trial.
- Misleading free trial terms, forcing you to cancel the free trial 2 days before it ends, otherwise, you pay for the whole next month.
- Go to Shutterstock.
- Click “Start your free trial” in the top bar.
- Sign in to your Shutterstock account (or create one).
- Enter your payment information (you won’t be charged).
- Click “Continue“.
- Confirm the free trial order.
Read more: How to get Shutterstock free trial?
10 FREE IMAGES
iStock introduced its free trial only recently, on January 26, 2022. But the free trial is available only in a select group of countries, which changes occasionally. Thus, the best way to check whether you’re eligible for the trial is to check manually.
The free trial gives you one month of access to the Essentials collection of 10 monthly downloads, costing $29.99/month. Every image you download is licensed under a royalty-free license, which allows you to use it for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Even if you cancel the trial, you can keep using all the images you downloaded.
Read more: iStock review
- 30 days with 10 images.
- You save $29 during the first month.
- Keep using the images even if you cancel.
- All images are royalty-free.
- Download only from the Essentials collection.
- Not available worldwide.
- Go to iStock.
- Click on the “Start your free trial” button.
- Create a free account.
- Enter your billing information.
- Verify that the free trial worked.
- Complete checkout
Read more: How to get iStock free trial?
BEST FOR BLOGGERS
Depositphotos
4.9
Depositphotos’ free trial is shorter (7 days) that most competitors’ (30 days), but you get 10 free stock photos or vectors nonetheless. However, besides being available with annual subscriptions, you can also get it with monthly plans, which is not common.
Read more: Depositphotos review
- Available with monthly and yearly subscriptions
- 10 free photos or vectors.
- No tricks or hidden fees.
- Relatively short (only 7 days).
- Not well-known due to limited promotion.
- Go to Depositphotos.
- Click “Pricing” in the top right corner.
- In the “Subscription” panel, select 25 images/mo plan.
- Click on the “Free 7 day trial” button.
- Enter your billing information.
- Click on the “Start Free Trial” button.
Unlimited downloads
Canva Pro is a membership service that gives access to the famous Canva image editor as well as premium services such as a Business Brand Kit manager, a Migration Assistance Tool, thousands of design templates, and free photos from hundreds of sources around the world. With this subscription, you may get as many photos as you need, with limitless downloads being only one of the benefits of subscribing to your membership. After your trial expires, you pay only $9.95/month. The free trial lasts for 30 days and gives you access to 100+ million premium stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics. You also get 610,000+ premium templates, 100GB of cloud storage, and various other tools for image editing and branding.
Read more: Canva review
- The free trial gives you free images and all Canva features.
- Unlimited downloads
- You can’t download images directly. They must be a part of a design.
- Go to Canva.
- In the top bar, hover “Plans” and click on “Pro”.
- Click on the purple “Start your free Pro trial” button.
- Sign in to your Canva account (or create one).
- Enter your payment information (you won’t be charged).
- Click “Continue”.
- Confirm the free trial order.
35 FREE IMAGES OR VIDEOS
I’m not a huge fan of Bigstockphoto, but it’s among the cheapest stock photo sites and offers several free trials. Every trial is linked to a subscription plan that you get free for a week. Three stock image plans and two stock footage plans come with a free trial. Since these plans give you a certain number of downloads per day, you could potentially get up to 70 videos or 70 images during the free trial. But the free trial is limited to 35 images or videos only. As a result, Bigstockphoto’s free week is more generous than some other stock photo free trials, though the overall quality is considerably lower.
Read more: Bigstock review
- 35 free images or videos.
- You only get half the allocated images/videos during the trial.
- Only lasts 7 days.
- Go to Bigstock.
- Click on the blue “Image free trial” button.
- Sign in to your Bigstock account (or create one).
- Enter your payment information (you won’t be charged).
- Click “Continue“.
- Confirm the free trial order.
15 WATERMARKED IMAGES
Dreamstime
3.9
Dreamstime offers a few subscription plans, one of which includes a free trial (15 monthly downloads). However, Dreamtime’s free trial isn’t very good as you can only download watermarked images. To explain, most stock photo sites give you the option to download watermarked images anyway, so the free trial is quite pointless.
Read more: Dreamstime review
- You can download 15 free stock images.
- The free trial images are watermarked.
- Lasts only 7 days.
- Go to Dreamstime.
- Click “Prices and download plans” in the top right.
- Pick the 15 monthly downloads subscription plan.
- Click the “Buy” button.
- Sign in to your Dreamstime account (or create one).
- Enter your payment information (you won’t be charged).
- Click “Continue“.
- Confirm the free trial order.
Summary: Best Stock Image Free Trials
| Stock photo site | Number of free images | Duration | Worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Stock | 10, 25, or 40 | 30 days | $29.99–$79.99 |
| Shutterstock | 10 | 30 days | $25–$29 |
| iStock | 10 | 30 days | $29 |
| Depositphotos | 10 | 30 days | $24.92–$36 |
| Canva | Unlimited | 30 days | $9.95–$12.95 |
| Bigstock | 35 | 7 days | $18.55 |
| Dreamstime | 15 (watermarked) | 7 days | $25.00 |
Ratings Methodology
To identify the best stock photo sites, we took a holistic view of 31 stock photo agencies that incorporated image number, quality, variety, prices and pricing options, licensing terms, features, and customer support. Although the websites were scored based on the following parameters, the ranking was based on the free trials. We ranked the free trials based on the number of images, image quality, license terms, free trial value, and duration.
Image quality & variety: 20% of the score. We browsed each stock photo site for over 50 search terms and analyzed the resulting image quality and their variety. Both were scored qualitatively based on our expertise and experience. The quality check comprised technical quality, including exposure, sharpness, grain, saturation, and color temperature, and their added value. The variety check was primarily focused on checking what percentage of images came from the same photo shoot.
Stock photo prices and pricing options: 20% of the score. Price is the crucial factor in choosing stock photos, and having a variety of options helps customers find the best plans. We checked whether the stock photo agency offers subscriptions, on-demand options, and which sizes. In addition, having a free trial is a bonus as it allows customers to get an insight into what they can expect. Finally, we took into account the minimum, median, and maximum price per image as well as the price per extended license image.
Licensing terms: 20% of the score. We read and took notes on every stock image license. We compared them based on how many copies, reprints, and impressions they allow, as well as the indemnity value.
Image number: 15% of the score. The number of images is an important factor when rating stock photo sites because when you need thousands of images, you can quickly run out of free photos. We checked each stock photo site’s database and took notes on the number of images.
Additional features: 15% of the score. Additional features are meant to simplify or enhance a customer’s workflow. We reviewed and tested all the additional features where possible. Since some are limited to enterprises or we couldn’t get in touch with the support team, we searched for customers who did have access to the additional features and asked for their opinion.
Customer support: 10% of the score. Crucially, when testing customer support, we didn’t tell them who we were, so we got treated like every other customer. We took notes of the response times, contact options (live chat, email, and telephone), and the usefulness and kindness of the support teams.
What is a Stock Photo Free Trial?
A stock photo free trial is a 30-day trial offered by some stock photo agencies that allow you to download a certain number of stock images, videos, or audio files for free. Unless otherwise specified, you can continue to use the downloaded files after the free trial period expires.
When you sign up for a free trial offer, you should read the terms and conditions thoroughly, because some trials contain tricks. For example, with the Shutterstock free trial, you must cancel two days before the trial expires or you’ll be charged for the entire next month.
How Do You Get A Stock Photo Free Trial?
Free trials for stock images are usually only available in conjunction with an annual subscription. To get a trial subscription, check the pricing page of a stock photo website for subscription plans.
Once you find a free trial subscription, proceed to checkout where you’ll be asked to enter your payment information, but you won’t be charged. You’ll need to provide your payment information so you’ll be charged when the free trial expires if you don’t cancel it.
Best Stock Image Free Trials FAQ
Are there any free stock photos?
You can find free images on sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels. But you can also get high-quality, royalty-free images from paid stock photo sites by signing up for a free trial. During the 30-day trial period, you can download up to 40 images and then cancel.
Where can I get high-quality stock photos for free?
You can get high-quality stock photos for free by using the free trials of paid stock photo sites like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and Canva. Here, you can download royalty-free photos for free for the first 30 days of an annual subscription. If you cancel before your subscription expires, you don’t have to pay anything.
How to cancel the Adobe Stock free trial?
Canceling Adobe Stock free trial is fairly simple. Sign in to your account, and under Plans and payment, click on the Manage plan button, and choose to Cancel plan. Adobe will ask you to give them a reason for the cancellation, but you may skip it.
The best part is that you don’t have to be afraid of missing the deadline because you’re allowed to cancel at the last minute. For example, Shutterstock requires you to cancel 4 days in advance, which catches many customers off guard.
How to cancel Shutterstock free trial?
To cancel the Shutterstock free trial, go to the Plans page in your account and press the Cancel plan early button. Canceling the trial at least four days before it expires is completely free. Within the four-day period before the subscription starts, you can no longer cancel the trial.
How to cancel Dreamstime free trial?
Log into your account and go to the Payment Management page. From there, select the subscription plan you wish to cancel and click on the Cancel Subscription button.
Is there a free trial for iStock?
iStock doesn’t currently have a free trial. In 2022, from January to April, iStock ran a free trial for a handful of countries, but it’s no longer available. However, by creating an iStock account, you can get one free photo every week.
How do I get Getty Images free trial?
GettyImages doesn’t have a free trial. Although there are illegal ways to acquire unwatermarked images, I strongly advise you against it. Their team patrols the internet looking for misuse of their images, for which you may pay high fees.
How to get CanStockPhoto free trial?
CanStockPhoto is a little-known stock photo site that doesn’t offer a free trial with any of its plans.
