Royalty Schedule

The charts below set out the royalty rate an iStockphoto contributor will earn when your files are licensed.

Contributor royalties begin at 15% and increase based on the total amount paid to license your files each calendar year (see "Redeemed Credits" below), up to 45%.

Each year, new redeemed credit targets will be announced. These targets will be used to guide a contributor's royalty rate during that year and to establish the initial royalty rate for the following year. This initial rate will be the minimum the contributor receives throughout the year, however a contributor's royalty rate increases immediately if their redeemed credits total reaches a new level.

How We Calculate Royalties

Using the royalty rate established by a contributor's "Redeemed Credits", royalties are paid out based on how much money was spent licensing the content, regardless of what payment method was used to license it. There are many ways to license iStock content, including Pay As You Go, iStock Credits and Subscriptions.

For files licensed using on a Pay As You Go basis, the royalty rate is based on the net amount paid to download your image. In the case of a file licensed using iStock Credits, the contributor's royalty is based on the net price of iStock credits used to license a file. iStock Credit prices vary depending on when they were purchased (as our prices change over time) and how many were purchased at once (as we discount bulk packages).

Redeemed Credits

Redeemed credits can refer both to the actual number of iStock credits used for each download on the site (based on file size, type, collection and any extended license options added), as well as to the equivalent credit cost of a file licensed on a Pay As You Go basis. Contributors will have separate redeemed credit totals for each file type they contribute to (e.g., artists who contribute photos and videos will have separate redeemed credit totals for each).

Royalty Rate Levels for 2013