Pexels Overview 2026 — Free Stock Photos & Videos

Who Is Pexels For?

Pexels is a free stock photo and video library that has grown into one of the two default "free stock" destinations alongside Unsplash. It was acquired by Canva / Vista and now sits inside that broader creative ecosystem.

It's a strong fit for video creators and social media managers. Unlike Unsplash, Pexels has a large free stock video library with clips in multiple resolutions and orientations, which makes it genuinely useful for Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and longer-form projects.

It suits bloggers, marketers, and small businesses looking for free photography with a permissive licence. The main photo library is comparable in quality to Unsplash and often has different aesthetic coverage.

It's a good fit for Canva users, because Pexels' library is deeply integrated into Canva's image and video pickers, making it a natural choice when you're already working in Canva.

Pexels is less compelling for users who need legal indemnification or model releases. Like Unsplash's free tier, Pexels does not guarantee releases, so projects that involve recognisable individuals or commercial-sensitive contexts may need paid stock with guaranteed rights.

It's also less suited for unique or niche subjects. Popular free stock is, by definition, used by many sites, so if visual distinctiveness matters, paid or custom photography is worth the investment.

Photo Library

Pexels' photo library is the largest free offering outside Unsplash, and its aesthetic tends to differ in useful ways.

• Millions of free photos — a continuously growing library contributed by professional and amateur photographers worldwide.
• High resolution — most images are available at large, print-capable resolutions.
• Search and filters — keyword search with filters for colour, orientation, and size.
• Curated collections — themed collections assembled by editors for popular topics and moods.
• Popular subjects — strong coverage of business, lifestyle, people, food, nature, backgrounds, and abstract imagery.
• Diverse contributor base — content from photographers in many countries, which tends to produce broader cultural and aesthetic coverage than older libraries.
• Photographer profiles — every image credits the original photographer with a link to their Pexels profile.
• Download sizes — images can be downloaded at multiple sizes, not just the full resolution, saving time for web-only use.
• No account required — anyone can browse and download; creating an account is only needed for likes, collections, and uploading.
• New photos added daily — continuous fresh content for users who come back regularly.

Pexels' photo library is a strong complement to Unsplash — between the two, most common subject searches produce enough candidates for any project.

Video Library

Pexels' video library is its biggest differentiator compared to Unsplash's free tier.

• Free stock videos — tens of thousands of high-quality stock clips available at no cost under the Pexels licence.
• Multiple resolutions — clips available in 720p, 1080p, and 4K for many titles.
• Portrait and landscape — vertical and horizontal clips, which matters for social platforms like Reels, Shorts, and TikTok that require vertical aspect ratios.
• Diverse subjects — lifestyle, nature, urban, business, technology, travel, and abstract clips all well-represented.
• Direct download — clips can be downloaded directly in supported formats without a paywall or account.
• Preview playback — hover previews and inline playback while browsing.
• Compositing-friendly — many clips are shot cleanly enough to overlay with text and graphics, which matters for social media templates.
• B-roll value — a strong source of B-roll for YouTube and TikTok videos when you need cutaway shots.
• Consistent contributor quality — like the photo library, Pexels curates uploads to maintain a reasonable quality bar.

For video-heavy workflows, Pexels' video library alone is often enough of a reason to prefer it over alternatives like Unsplash for free stock footage.

The Pexels Licence

Pexels' licence is similar in spirit to Unsplash's — free, permissive, and usable for most projects without attribution.

• Free for commercial and non-commercial use — photos and videos can be used for both without paying a cent.
• No attribution required — attribution is welcomed but not legally required.
• Modifications allowed — you can edit, crop, colour-grade, and combine Pexels content with your own work.
• Restrictions — you can't resell unmodified Pexels content on competing stock sites, and you can't use it in a way that implies the photographer endorses you.
• No releases guaranteed — model and property releases are not guaranteed, so commercial use involving recognisable individuals or private property carries the same legal caveats as Unsplash's free tier.
• Trademarks not licensed — logos and trademarks visible in images remain the property of their owners and are not licensed through Pexels.
• Editorial and commercial both allowed — most mainstream business, marketing, blog, and product uses are within the licence.
• Credit best practice — crediting the photographer and linking back to their profile is encouraged even when not required.

Review the full licence if you're using Pexels in anything sensitive or legally exposed, but for standard marketing and content work, the licence is generally as permissive as you'd want.

Integrations & Workflow

Pexels' integration footprint is broad, helped by its ownership by Canva.

• Canva — Pexels is built into Canva's image and video pickers, so you can drop free stock directly into designs.
• WordPress — Pexels plugins add search and insertion directly inside the WordPress editor.
• Figma — Pexels is available as a Figma plugin for design mockups and prototypes.
• Video editors — Pexels is integrated into several online video editors and stock-footage-aware tools.
• Public API — a free developer API lets apps query and embed Pexels content with attribution.
• Mobile apps — native iOS and Android apps for browsing and downloading.
• Chrome extensions — extensions put Pexels backgrounds on new tab pages for designers.
• Direct download links — the web UI encourages fast "click, download, use" flows without friction.
• Collections — logged-in users can save collections of images and videos for reuse.

Because Canva acquired Pexels, the two products are tightly bound, which is another reason the service tends to be a default for Canva-first marketers and creators.

Cost Summary

Pexels costs nothing, full stop. The main practical question is whether Pexels or Unsplash (or both) fits your project. The usual answer is to check both — their libraries overlap partially but each has images and clips the other doesn't.

Compared with paid competitors, Pexels is unmatched on cost. Compared with Unsplash specifically, Pexels' main advantage is its video library; Unsplash's main advantage is Unsplash+ for users who need guaranteed releases and indemnification.