How to become a Shutterstock contributor

Who can become a Shutterstock contributor

We read Shutterstock's contributor help center and its Terms of Service on 12 October 2026. The conditions to open an account are short, and most of them are about who you are, not what you shoot.

Some third-party guides say Shutterstock asks every new contributor for a government ID. We found no Shutterstock page that says so, so this guide does not list it as a step. If the sign-up form asks you for one, follow the form.

Sign-up, step by step

Registration happens on the contributor site, submit.shutterstock.com. Shutterstock points customers to shutterstock.com, and a buyer account there is a different thing. The help center describes this sequence:

1. Fill in the registration form. Your full legal name (or business name), a public display name and an email address. You accept the Terms of Service at this point.
2. Verify your email. The message can take up to 24 hours. It comes from email@service.shutterstockmail.com or messages.email@service.shutterstockmail.com, so check spam, junk and trash. If you asked for several, only the most recent link works.
3. Enter your addresses. A residential address, and a mailing address if it differs. Shutterstock asks for address information in English only.
4. Submit a tax form. See the next section.
5. Send your first content for review. Once it is accepted, you can keep contributing.

You can also join from the Contributor mobile app. You have to leave the app to verify your email, and you are sent back to it afterwards. If you typed the wrong email, Shutterstock says to log out and create a new account with the right address.

The tax form comes early

Shutterstock's sign-up article is direct: "A valid tax form is required in order to receive payments and submit content." The Terms of Service ask US persons for a signed IRS Form W-9 and everyone else for the appropriate W-8. The sign-up article links to the three forms the Tax Center handles: W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E and W-9.

Which form fits your situation, how long it stays valid and why payments can be lower than earnings are covered in the Shutterstock tax form guide. For your own tax position, ask a tax adviser.

Your first submission

The registration article says to "submit your first set of images for review. Once accepted, you can begin contributing." It does not say how many files need to pass, and we found no separate first-review rule for video. Footage goes through the same three steps as any later batch:

A first batch is the cheapest place to learn what reviewers reject. Send a small, varied set of your best clips rather than a whole shoot, read every rejection reason, and fix the pattern before the next upload. Check the files against the Shutterstock video requirements first, then follow how to upload video to Shutterstock.

Setting up payment

You choose one of three payout services in your account settings: PayPal, Skrill or Payoneer. Shutterstock does not pay by wire transfer, bank transfer or check. For PayPal and Skrill you enter the email linked to that account; Payoneer has to be connected with your Payoneer login. If a new PayPal or Skrill address is refused, Shutterstock suggests waiting 72 hours after opening that account before trying again. Check on each provider's site that it works in your country.

• You may not share a PayPal, Skrill or Payoneer account with another Shutterstock contributor.
• Contributors from certain countries flagged as high-fraud areas wait 90 days after their first approved clip before they can be paid. They can submit and sell during that time, and no Shutterstock employee can lift it.
• Video starts at level 1, which pays 15% of the price the customer paid for each license, and rises with the number of video licenses in the calendar year.

The payout minimum, the monthly calendar and the six video levels are detailed in Shutterstock payouts.

Rules that can close an account

Shutterstock's account guidelines list the behavior that leads to warnings, and multiple warnings can lead to suspension or termination. For a new contributor, these matter most:

• Submitting work you do not own. Intentionally submitting content you do not hold the copyright to leads to immediate termination. Material from search results or free-download sites is not allowed.
• Resubmitting rejected clips unchanged. Repeated resubmission without fixing the legal, technical or metadata issue counts against you.
• Keyword spam. Repeating words in a title or adding irrelevant or repetitive keywords, again and again, is listed as a violation.
• Contact details and outside sales. No phone numbers or emails on your profile, and no asking customers to buy outside Shutterstock.
• Watermarks. Do not embed your own watermark, website name or copyright notice in your content.
• Logos and copyrighted material. Commercial content cannot contain third-party trademarks or logos, or copyrighted material without a signed property release.

One rule works in your favor. Shutterstock is non-exclusive: you keep the copyright, grant it a non-exclusive license, and can sell the same clips on other agencies. Where that stops being true is explained in exclusive vs non-exclusive stock footage, and the wider path from first shoot to first sale is in how to sell stock footage.