Adobe Stock vs Pond5 for selling video

Adobe Stock vs Pond5 at a glance

Royalties, price and payouts

Adobe pays 35% of the net price of each video license, from the first sale, against 33% for photos, vectors and illustrations. The net price is the U.S. purchase price after any discount. Pond5 pays 30% of each video sale, or 40% in its exclusive program, whatever your volume.

A higher share is not a higher amount. Neither agency publishes a price per video license, so the table cannot say which one earns more per sale. To compare a year with your own numbers, use the stock footage earnings calculator.

Exclusivity: where Adobe Stock and Pond5 collide

Adobe describes Adobe Stock as a non-exclusive platform: you keep the right to sell the same files elsewhere. Pond5 runs an Exclusive Video Artist Program at 40%, and its definition decides the matter. Content counts as exclusive when it is not for sale on any marketplace other than Pond5 or Shutterstock.

So the 40% rate and Adobe Stock do not mix. If you join, the clips covered by the program have to come off Adobe Stock; Pond5 offers a two-week grace period to remove them from other agencies when you join. If you stay non-exclusive at Pond5, nothing stops you from selling the same clip on both at 35% and 30%.

How Pond5 exclusivity plays with Shutterstock, which does allow it, is covered in Pond5 vs Shutterstock.

File specs side by side

Four rules decide most double uploads. Size: a 4K clip of 4.5 GB passes at Pond5 but not at Adobe, and an HD clip of 3.5 GB passes at Adobe but not at Pond5. Frame rate: 48 fps works only at Pond5. Codec: Motion JPEG works only at Adobe. Names: harbor_dawn_04.mov fits both, harbor-dawn 04.mov fails at Pond5. A file that sits under 3 GB, at a listed size and rate, in ProRes or H.264, passes both lists. Check one in the video spec checker; the full lists are on the Adobe Stock requirements and Pond5 requirements pages.

Titles, keywords and editorial

One set of text can serve both. Write a title of 40 to 70 characters without commas: it fits Adobe’s limit and Pond5’s range. Then keep 10 to 49 keywords, the most important first. That satisfies all three Adobe pages and the Pond5 CSV, and the first 20 cover Pond5’s recommended 10 to 20 if you want a shorter list there. Both agencies offer keyword suggestions at upload; review each one against the clip. The title and keyword checker tests one list against both limits.

News, events and visible brands shot as editorial have one outlet of the two: Pond5. Adobe’s illustrative editorial overview (11 June 2026) says it does not accept traditional editorial content, and its illustrative editorial covers photos, illustrations and vectors only.

AI video and AI training

Selling AI video. Adobe Stock accepts generative AI video when you mark it at submission. It must meet the usual technical and legal rules, with no copied artist style, no real-world IP in the prompt and no embedded text or watermark. Pond5 does not allow AI-generated content: its help page says authorship of such content cannot be attributed to an individual person.

Training on your footage. The two differ just as much. Adobe’s Firefly FAQ (16 September 2026) says Adobe Stock video is now used to train Firefly models, that Adobe does not offer an opt-out for Adobe Stock content, and that eligible contributors received a Firefly Contributor bonus on September 17, 2026, the fourth year of the bonus. Pond5 licenses datasets at a 20% royalty and has let contributors opt out of future datasets since April 2023. The full picture, Shutterstock included, is in stock footage and AI training licenses.

Uploading

Adobe announced its weekly submission limit on 20 May 2025, without a figure. Reaching it pauses submissions for a while. If you upload large batches, plan for that pause on the Adobe side.

Which one to choose

For most non-exclusive contributors, the answer is both, with the file and text adapted. The rules favor one side in these cases.

Shutterstock changes the picture for many contributors, since Pond5 exclusivity allows it. That comparison is in Shutterstock vs Adobe Stock for video.