Ways To Pay - Frequently Asked Questions

Purchasing Files

To download a file on iStockphoto, you need to purchase a royalty-free license. There are several ways to purchase these licenses:

• Pay As You Go - Pay As You Go to download the files you need, when you need them. Simply add the files you want to your shopping cart and pay with your credit card or PayPal account
• iStock Credits - iStock Credits are a convenient payment method sold in preset packages. Credits let you pay once for multiple downloads up front and download files with the click of a button.
• Subscriptions - Subscriptions give you a set number of credits each day that you can use to download files for the duration of the subscription.

Pay As You Go:

To Pay As You Go, simply add the files you want to your shopping cart and pay with your credit card or PayPal account.

iStock Credits:

iStock Credits let you pay in advance for files you'll download in the future. To purchase licenses with credits, you need to sign in to your account and buy iStock Credits (sold in preset packages).

Once you have credits in your account, simply go to the detailed information page for the file you wish to purchase and select the correct size and licenses before clicking "Download This File". The price in credits will be deducted from your account balance.

1. Buy Credits
2. Find Your Files
3. Download and Go

You can purchase iStock Credits using credit cards or PayPal. You can also use our mail order form to pay with checks or money orders (in USD funds).

Credits are valid for 1 year from the date of purchase.

Lost/Expired Credits

If you've noticed that you had credits in your account that are no longer there, they may have expired.

iStock Credits expire one year from the date of purchase. We will send you an email notification prior to your credits expiring.

If you are unable to use your credits before they're due to expire, simply contact Support and one of our representatives will be more than happy to extend the expiry for you.

Subscription credits expire daily.

Subscriptions

A Subscription plan gives you a daily supply of credits you can use to download any of our content for a set time period. The longer your Subscription, the less you'll pay per day.

Subscription credits expire daily. If you surpass your daily limit, you can purchase Top-up Credits.

Learn more about Subscriptions.

Corporate Accounts

Corporate accounts are designed for large organizations that require large numbers of credits to be distributed to various members of the team.

Corporate accounts are only available for iStock Credit and Subscription purchases.

Distribute Credits

Once you have a corporate account, you can set up sub-accounts that allow you to distribute credits to members of your team, grant permissions, and monitor account activity.

Pay With Terms

Once your corporate account has been approved, you'll be able to pay using terms and keep track of your activity using our invoicing system.

Learn more about Corporate Accounts.