123RF vs iStock

123RF is a stock-content service for photos, vectors, videos, audio, fonts, and AI creative tools. The site advertises more than 302 million stock assets, including vector, illustration, and editorial content. Its AI Suite includes image and video generation, upscaling, generative fill, background blur and remix, background removal, and image extension. Stock images are described as royalty-free for marketing, advertising, and business use. The Standard License permits up to 500,000 print-runs but excludes merchandise for sale; the Extended License permits unlimited print-runs and merchandise for sale. Buyers can use credits or PLUS subscriptions. Credits start at $7.95, paid once, with credits valid for one year. PLUS starts at $24.50 a month for one user and has a daily download limit; PLUS Team costs $16.10 a month per seat for up to five users. The service runs on the web and offers an API for integrating image search, viewing, and downloads. Compatible AI clients can use its MCP connection to search and license photos and vectors with an active plan. 123RF was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Singapore.

iStock licenses royalty-free photos, illustrations, vectors and video clips for advertising, websites, blogs, presentations, video productions, podcasts and other uses. Its Essentials collection covers everyday content; Signature is a collection of handpicked material exclusive to iStock. The service also offers AI image editing to add or remove objects, extend images, change backgrounds, edit by prompt and upscale generated images to 4K. iStock says its AI is trained exclusively on licensed content, not visuals or data scraped from the web, and that generated images receive automatic legal protection of $10,000 per image. Licensed files include a $10,000 USD legal guarantee, with an Extended Legal Guarantee available up to $250,000 USD. Basic costs $29 a month and Premium costs $70 a month, each billed annually with 10 downloads monthly. Premium + Video is listed at $125 a month, with a new-customer offer noted; Unlimited AI costs $14.99 a month. iStock also offers one free Signature photo each week and free illustrations and video clips each month. API access is available, and a plugin links Dropbox for accessing, sharing and collaborating on content across devices.