Getty Images to Acquire Unsplash, But Photos Remain Free

March 30, 2021 – Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and Unsplash, the preeminent image platform for global creators, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Getty Images will acquire Unsplash. Getty Images will fund the transaction from existing cash balances and the transaction is expected to close at the close of the month. 

With more than 100 million images downloaded every month the Unsplash platform powers the creation of tens of millions of users via the Unsplash website and thousands of partner integrations through the Unsplash API.

Getty Images powers the world’s corporate and media communications through more than 425 million images and videos from the world’s top visual experts, award-winning content creators, producers, partners, the world’s deepest digital archive of historic photography, and world-class support, technology and capabilities.

iStock by Getty Images, backed by the visual expertise of Getty Images, is a leading source of imagery and video empowering small and mid-sized businesses to cost-effectively reach and engage with their customers.

Through the combination of the Getty Images, iStock and Unsplash brands, and their corresponding websites and APIs, Getty Images will be uniquely positioned to reach and enable creativity and communications across the full spectrum of the world’s growing creative community.

“We could not be happier to welcome Unsplash to the Getty Images family,” said Craig Peters, Chief Executive Officer, Getty Images. “The Unsplash team share our values and share our vision of enabling global creativity and communication. We are impressed by what the Unsplash team and community has built and we look forward to supporting their continued development.”

Unsplash founders, Mikael Cho, Luke Chesser and Stephanie Liverani, will continue to lead and operate the Unsplash business maintaining its free content model, reporting to Getty Images CEO, Craig Peters.

Mikael Cho, Co-Founder and CEO of Unsplash said,

“I’m so proud of what the Unsplash community and team has created. And it’s only the beginning. This partnership is an important milestone for Unsplash, but our mission of Photos for Everyone remains unchanged. We are very excited to partner with Getty Images to move the industry forward together.”

Started in 2013 as a Tumblr blog, Unsplash now offers over 2 million free high-resolution images, providing an easily searchable online platform for a community of millions of users. The company works with some of the world’s leading brands to curate, amplify and syndicate their content to the platform’s broad audiences. As of 2021, Unsplash has over two billion image downloads across the globe, allowing brands in Unsplash’s unrivaled ecosystem to syndicate targeted images that are seen 22 billion times, and by 300 million people, each month.