The best sites to sell stock footage

Best sites to sell stock footage, compared

The table sticks to what each marketplace publishes for contributors. “Not public” means the information sits behind the contributor login.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock pays a share of each video license that rises with your yearly volume: 15% up to 10 video licenses in the calendar year, then 20%, 25%, 30% and 35%, up to 40% above 25,000. The count restarts on January 1. Data licenses (a 20% average rate) and its Unlimited program are paid separately and do not count toward the levels.

• Non-exclusive, and it does not offer an exclusive program. You keep the copyright.
• Specs: 48 fps, 2.7K drone sizes and files up to 10 GB are accepted (an older noise article still says 4 GB; the technical page is the one to follow); H.265 is accepted but not recommended.
• Metadata: a one-sentence description and 7 to 50 keywords, in English. The description limit is 2,048 characters in the metadata standards but 150 in the submission editor, so stay under 150.
• 100 video clips per rolling 7-day period, in the browser or over FTPS. Files sent by FTPS can take up to 72 hours to appear.
• Uploads are disabled if your tax form is not completed within 90 days of the first reminder.
• Editorial video accepted. AI-generated content refused.
• Not published: an amount per video license.

Every rule is on the Shutterstock requirements page.

Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock 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 based on the U.S. purchase price, discounts included.

• Non-exclusive: Adobe says you can sell your content elsewhere too.
• 5 to 60 seconds, 3,900 MB at most, no 48 fps; square video (1080x1080, 2160x2160) accepted.
• Metadata: a title ideally under 70 characters and up to 49 keywords, the first 10 weighing most in search.
• Upload in the browser; SFTP is reserved for qualified accounts.
• Generative AI video accepted when labeled “Created using generative AI”.
• Editorial: its illustrative editorial overview (11 June 2026) says Adobe does not accept traditional editorial content; its illustrative editorial program covers photos, illustrations and vectors only.
• Not published: the size of its weekly submission limit.

For a line-by-line comparison of the two largest, read Shutterstock vs Adobe Stock for video.

Pond5

Pond5 pays 40% on video you sell exclusively through it and 30% on non-exclusive video. Other media earn 30% and dataset licenses 20%. Payments go out on the 15th of the month, with a $25 minimum.

• Owned by Shutterstock since May 2022, when Shutterstock announced the deal at $210 million in cash. It keeps its own contributor site, rates and FTP upload (ftp.pond5.com).
• File size depends on resolution: 3 GB for HD and vertical, 5 GB for 4K to 6K, 6 GB for 8K and R3D. Motion JPEG, AVI and non-native MP4 are refused; camera-native files are preferred.
• Drone and smartphone footage must be at least 1080p. 360 VR clips run 45 to 119 seconds.
• File names without special characters, accents, spaces or dashes.
• Titles of 40 to 80 characters in English; up to 50 keywords, at least 7 (its metadata page gives 5 in one section and 7 in another), 10 to 20 recommended. Editorial captions start with the city, the country and the date.
• FTP uses a separate FTP password of at least 8 characters; releases go in a folder named Release.
• AI-generated content is not accepted.

More on the Pond5 requirements page.

iStock and Getty Images

Getty Images runs iStock and keeps most of its contributor rules behind the login. Its public “Preparing Your Content” page gives only a few facts:

• Clips of at least 5 seconds, with a suggested maximum of 30 seconds; longer is allowed when the content justifies it.
• Files of 6 GB at most.
• No content created with generative AI models (it names Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney). 3D renders and ordinary editing tools are fine.
• Model and property releases, and editorial property consent forms, are listed among the documents you may need.

The royalty rates are public: iStock's rate card, effective July 1, 2026, pays 20% of each video license to non-exclusive contributors, and 25% to 45% to exclusive contributors on istock.com depending on their downloads. The full video specifications and the keywording rules are not on a public page, so they are left out of this comparison. Getty Images and Shutterstock had agreed to merge; the UK competition authority would allow it only if Shutterstock’s entire editorial business was sold. Getty’s board decided against it, and Getty sent its termination notice on July 7, 2026.

What each site publishes, and what it keeps private

Each agency decides how much of its contributor terms you can read before you sign up.

Other places to sell footage

Beyond the four marketplaces, some services pay from subscriptions or distribute your clips for you. Only facts from their own pages are listed here.

How to choose

• Start from what you shoot. AI-generated video has one outlet among the four: Adobe Stock. News and events need an agency that takes editorial video, which rules Adobe out.
• Decide on exclusivity per clip. Pond5 pays 40% instead of 30% for exclusive video. In return, as Shutterstock points out, exclusive content cannot be sold on any other platform.
• Check your files against the specs. 48 fps, 2.7K and files over 3.9 GB pass at Shutterstock but not at Adobe. Drone footage under 1080p fails at Pond5. The video spec checker shows it per agency.
• Count the paperwork. Each extra agency means another metadata format, another CSV and another set of upload limits. Shutterstock and Pond5 share an owner but not a portfolio.
• Estimate before you commit. The earnings calculator applies each agency’s published rates to your own numbers.

The current position of each agency on AI video, quoted and dated, is on the AI video policies page.