Unsplash Gives Developers Access to 200,000+ High-res Photos Through Free API

Everyone knows the power of a good image.

It’s finding a good image that’s difficult. Add in the myriad of available license options and pricing schemes that often accompany stock photography and it can be downright impossible. Montreal’s Unsplash makes it easy to find the right image, for free.

Starting today, developers can access Unsplash’s entire library of photos via API for free. That means developers can quickly source a photo — or a few thousand — from the Unsplash API with no rate limits.

Odds are you’ve seen an Unsplash image before, you just might not have known it. Unsplash photos have been used in more than 100 million creations, appearing in everything from apps to album covers to billboards.

The company doesn’t require attribution after all, meaning all 200,000+ photos posted on Unsplash can be used personally or commercially without giving credit.

The Unsplash API serves two purposes. On one hand, it makes it easy for developers to create beautiful-looking products. And on the other, it increases the audience size for Unsplash photographers.

“A big point of opening the Unsplash API for free is to help bring an even bigger audience to the contributors of Unsplash,” said Mikael Cho, Co-Founder and CEO of Unsplash.

Though credit isn’t required if you download and use a photo from Unsplash.com, the Unsplash API does require you to credit the photographer.

“The aim is to eventually help the thousands of contributors on Unsplash by translating these visitors into real opportunities for Unsplash photographers like booking creative work and sales from different products made with Unsplash photos,” Cho continued.

“Like all creative industries, the photography industry is evolving fast. We feel it’s our responsibility to think about what the world looks like 10 years from now for photography and how we can help photographers benefit in it.” Though Unsplash doesn’t turn a profit yet Cho says, “the best way for us to make money will be to help members of our community make money.”

Header image by Bady QB.