Is it allowed to automate stock uploads?

The short answer, agency by agency

The table sums up the contributor terms, site terms and help pages listed in the sources. "Not addressed" means we found nothing in those texts, not that the agency has no view.

Shutterstock: FTPS, terms and guidelines

Shutterstock presents bulk transfer as the normal route for footage: "FTPS is a great way to upload many video clips at a time" (21 April 2025), and names the clients: "Some of the free options include FileZilla, Cyberduck and WinSCP." Its video submission page adds: "We also offer the option of uploading metadata via a CSV file for larger submissions."

The Contributor Terms of Service, effective 5 September 2023, contain no clause on robots, scripts or third-party applications. Their account rules are about information and duplicates. Section 4a: "You agree to provide true and complete information relating to your Shutterstock contributor account and Content". Section 4f: "You may not hold more than one Shutterstock account, or share content with another Shutterstock account, without permission."

The contributor guidelines (23 September 2025) add the rule people mean when they ask about letting someone else upload: "You may not share an account with another individual, and/or share content with another Shutterstock contributor without prior consent from Shutterstock." The sentence is about people. An assistant or a service that logs in as you needs Shutterstock's consent first.

Shutterstock's public API does not cover uploads: its Contributors section lists five endpoints, all for reading contributor details and collections.

Adobe Stock: SFTP, General Terms and contributor agreement

Adobe's Submit videos page (11 June 2026) says SFTP is "ideal for bulk uploads and large videos that may not upload reliably via the web interface", for qualified accounts. In the same steps it writes: "If using a third-party tool such as Stocksubmitter, update the credentials there as well." It is the only page we found, at any of the three agencies, that names a stock upload tool rather than a general FTP client.

The SFTP password is generated in the portal, under Upload, then Learn More, and is separate from your Adobe login: Adobe says to log in to the SFTP client with the new password, other credentials unchanged. A tool set up for SFTP uses that generated password.

The Adobe General Terms of Use (3 October 2025) apply to Adobe Stock contributors, since the contributor agreement is incorporated into them. Three items matter here:

• 5.1: "You, as a Personal User or a Business User, are responsible for all activity that occurs via your account", and "You may not (A) share your account information (except with an authorized account administrator)".
• 6.3: you must not "enable or allow others to use the Services and Software using your account information".
• 6.6: you must not "access or attempt to access the Services and Software by any means other than the interface we provide or authorize".

SFTP is an interface Adobe provides. A tool that drives the Contributor Portal page itself is a case the terms do not name; item 6.6 is the sentence to read before you use one. The contributor agreement (18 June 2024) asks you to "deliver the Work in the format(s) and via the delivery method(s) we request" (6.1). The only API it mentions is a program "that allows our partners to showcase and to facilitate sales of the Work."

Pond5: FTP, Terms of Use and contributor agreement

Pond5's FTP article (5 November 2024) tells you to install an FTP client and, if you have none, "we suggest a file-management tool comparable to FileZilla." The FTP password is set apart from your login.

The Pond5 Terms of Use list, under Restrictions on Use of the Website, things you will not do, among them: "use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering and extraction tools on or at the Website or use any other automated means to access the Website". Under User Codes, you agree you "will not share the user ID or password that you obtained or use in connection with your access to or use of the Website, an upload to the Website or a purchase of a license" with any other person.

The Contributor Agreement (effective 15 January 2025) looks at the same question from the other side. Section 13 makes you "solely responsible" for each access under your user name and password "(including access to the Website via FTP, API, or other modalities)", and for access by a Person "who we reasonably believe has been authorized by you to access the Website or submit Content". FTP access is plainly expected; access through a person acting for you is too, at your risk.

AI-generated keywords and titles

None of the pages we read forbids keywords or titles written by software. The agencies run such software themselves: Shutterstock's suggestions are "automatically generated by our computer vision technology", Adobe "can generate suggested keywords when you upload your content to the Contributor Portal", and Pond5 uses "image-recognition software that can generate keywords automatically".

What they all hold you to is accuracy, whoever wrote the words:

• Shutterstock: titles and keywords "should be free of spelling errors, grammatical errors, emojis, and spam" (26 February 2026), and repeated keyword spamming is a listed reason for warnings.
• Adobe: you warrant the Work, keywords included, will not "contain misleading, deceptive or false information" (3.1), and its tips page says "Use only relevant keywords to avoid content refusal."
• Pond5: Content Information must not include "false, misleading or inapplicable metadata intended to or which has the effect of keyword ‘doping’" (section 7).

AI-generated footage is a different rule: "Shutterstock does not accept AI-generated content from our contributors", Pond5 "does not allow the submission of AI-generated content", and Adobe accepts it under its own submission rules. See AI video policies by agency. How to get usable keywords out of a model is in AI keywording for stock footage.

How to automate within the rules

1. Upload through the documented channels: the web page, FTPS, SFTP or FTP, and the CSV import.
2. Before you give a tool a login, check which password it stores. Prefer Adobe's generated SFTP password and Pond5's FTP password to your main login.
3. Read every title and keyword before submission. The agency treats them as your statements.
4. Do not hand your account to another person without the agency's consent.
5. For a tool that works inside the web portal, ask contributor support in writing and keep the answer.
6. Plan around the limits: automation does not change Shutterstock's 100 clips per rolling 7 days.

The limits per agency are in upload limits by agency, and the full method in how to automate stock footage uploads.

Where RushPilot fits

RushPilot is a desktop app in private beta. For this question, what matters is the order of its steps: it writes the title, description and keywords from five frames of each clip, checks common rejection reasons, then waits for your approval before it uploads to Shutterstock, Adobe Stock and Pond5. You stay the one who confirms each clip's metadata, as all three agencies require. It does not sign releases, file your tax form or decide acceptance. You cannot download it today: join the waiting list.