
Keeping up with Instagram these days can be a tough task. As a brand or business owner, you should be posting Instagram photos at least once per day — more if you can handle it — in order to gain the most exposure to your audience and to keep them engaged with your content.
Whether you’re creating your own content or reposting other people’s Instagram photos or otherwise, it can be exhausting to keep up the pace.
So to give yourself a breather or to liven up your feed with some truly amazing photography, here are the top 10 best sites where you can get free images to share on your Instagram feed.
That’s right — I said free.
Long gone are the days of the crappy, uninspired free stock photo sites. Everyone has a camera these days, and there are some truly talented photographers out there sharing their work online for free.
So take a peek at a few of these sites and you are bound to find more than a few great pics that fit in perfectly with your Instagram theme and branding.
Related Post: 45+ Awesome Resources for Bloggers + Creative Entrepreneurs
Here are the top sites for free Instagram photos, in no particular order:
1. Pexels
Pexels is probably my person favorite source for free stock photos for Instagram and blogging. They have an extensive collection of beautiful and high-quality stock photos that are absolutely free to use.
All photos are licensed under the Creative Commons, so you won’t need to worry about attribution either.
Pexels makes it super easy to search for the specific kind of photo you want, and has a super useful features that shows you similar photos to the one you’re looking at. This can be incredibly helpful for quickly selecting a series of photos that fit into your theme and go well together aesthetically.
I’ve definitely whiled away countless hours scrolling through the photo feed on Pexels, saving photo after photo for my later use. There are just so many good shots that are too good to pass up! It’s like a kid in a candy shop, seriously!
2. Unsplash
Okay okay, maybe I have TWO favorite sources for free Instagram photos — because I’ve spent a lot of time picking amazing photos out of Unsplash’s expertly curated lineup as well.
Unsplash has a fabulous selection of professional looking photos, and you won’t believe the quality you get for free! I almost wouldn’t expect photos this good from a free source, but free stock sites just keep getting better and better.
You can use their handy search bar to find exactly what you’re looking for, but I suggest taking a peek at the curated “Collections” of photos on the site. These will be on specific themes such as “Green”, “Workplace”, or “Minimal Home Decor” to name a few, so you can find a large collection of appealing images that play well together all at once. It’s a huge time saver and will have your Instagram feed looking fly in no time!
3. Pixabay
I frequent Pixabay quite often in search of the perfect photo for my most recent blog or social media post.
Here you’ll find a gigantic collection of not only top quality photos, but high quality vectors and illustrations as well.
All photos on Pixabay are licensed under the Creative Commons, so you can use them freely without attribution. Of course, Pixabay makes it easy for you to make a small donation to the artist by “Buying them a coffee” if you’re feeling super appreciative.
4. Stock Vault
Stock Vault is a free stock photo community where photographers and artists share their own photos with people from all over the world.
There are thousands of beautiful photos available, but they also have a great selection of graphics and illustrations.
Stock Vault also has a large collection of free textures which can work great as backgrounds for text-based Instagram posts.
All stock photos and images are 100% free, and attribution is not necessary for any images you find on the site.
5. Gratisography
Gratisography is an especially great photo source if you run a travel, nature, or animal related Instagram account.
They have a fantastic selection of fun and interesting animal and nature photos that will really help you liven up your feed and entertain your followers!
New photos are added weekly, and are licensed under the Creative Commons — meaning you can use them without attribution.
Get My Instagram Growth eBook for 50% Off!
You’ll get instant access to the top 5 most effective strategies for growing your Instagram following from scratch — the EXACT strategies I used to grow my Instagram audience to over 100k followers in under a year.
Grab your copy of the Complete Guide to Instagram Growth
6. Death to the Stock Photo
Death to the Stock is a bit different than the sites I’ve mentioned up until now — it’s a subscription service. You’ll need to become a member in order to access their highly curated selection of images, but you can still do this for free.
Death to the Stock Photo offers premium photos, videos, graphics, and media downloads, which you will receive every month when you sign up for their email list.
You’ll only get a certain selection of images per month as part of their free membership, but if you’d like to access their whole archive of content you can upgrade to their premium service to gain instant access.
7. Burst by Shopify
If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur who posts about your biz on Instagram, Burst by Shopify is a great source for free Instagram photos for you.
Since Shopify is an ecommerce platform, they have a ton of great business related stock images to help you create better products, social media campaigns, websites, and marketing material.
So if you’re posting a lot about what’s going on in the business niche, chances are you’ll find some great relevant images here.
Photos on Burst by Shopify are public domain — which means they are free to use for personal or commercial purposes. New photos are also added every week, so keep an eye out for great new content.
8. Foodie’s Feed
Are you a food blogger? If you are, Foodie’s Feed can’t be beat when it comes to great professional-quality food pics for your Instagram feed!
The photos on this site are absolutely stunning — you’ll literally have your followers drooling all over their phones from looking at all the delicious food.
Though the quality is great the selection isn’t huge, but it’s still a great place to grab a few beautiful Instagram photos from time to time in order to supplement your own Instagram content.
9. StyledStock
Are you a creative entrepreneur or #girlboss looking for something a little bit more feminine?
StyledStock has a great collection of free feminine stock photos that are great for anyone going for a beautiful female entrepreneur vibe on their Instagram feed or blog.
Though the collection is small, it’s full of great styled flat lay images and pretty feminine objects.
These photos are free for both personal and commercial use.
10. FreePhotos
Though this site is called FreePhotos, it does have a mix of both free and paid content.
There is a great selection of high quality photos in their free section though, and you can easily search through them by category. This can save you a ton of time finding the right kind of photos that fit in with your Instagram theme and branding.
Attribution isn’t necessary but is always appreciated if you feel like it.
Ready to take your Instagram to the next level?
Get My Instagram Growth eBook for 50% Off!
You’ll get instant access to the top 5 most effective strategies for growing your Instagram following from scratch — the EXACT strategies I used to grow my Instagram audience to over 100k followers in under a year.
Great alternatives to the few I knew, especially the option for food bloggers which has awesome free photos.
Great article! Thank you!
Hi Brie,
Thank You for this.
Well, Instagram is more about content and finding the right content is crucial when you are creating content for clients.
These free stock photo sites are golden nuggets and I’m in love with Pexels, Pixbay, and Burst (By Shopify).
To be honest they have saved me a ton of money and time 😀
Keep sharing!
thanks for the post.
Good work
I am interested in getting more information about your social marketing services, Instagram in particular. Thank you for the great information about the free photo options. That’s great and generous of you. I will watch your video.
Best regards,
Linda
Linda Martinez-Lewi,
Hi Brie,
Great to know there are some good alternatives out there. Will try out some of these free stock photo websites. Thanks for the list of “10 Awesome Websites to Find Free Instagram Photos”.
Thanks for reading! Free stock photo options have really improved over the last couple years, there are almost too many options these days! But it is a good problem to have.