Quote from: Her Ugliness on May 20, 2026, 10:12

Quote from: Micha91 on May 20, 2026, 08:51
Has anyone managed to get in touch with a person in Shutterstock support? Some time ago, someone used to reply to me when I wrote directly to their mailbox. Now only a bot responds, and it's impossible to sort anything out. Have they fired everyone or what?

By the way, I have $106 this month, which is 4x less than the average of the last three months. We're going down!

I actually tried when I figured out that all of my bestsellers lost their ranks to images by people who are part of the unlimited program. Just wanted them to make aware of it, as I don't feel like unlimited downloads should be counted the same for ranking.
But all I got was a reply from a bot. Lot's of "We are sorry you feel that way" and the claim I could just tun on unlimited downloads for my account (no, I can't). Didn't really get me anywhere, as expected with AI bots. They never have any kind of info that you couldn't already find yourself somehere in the FAQ.

I am in the exact same situation, and I had many supersellers. My best bestseller sold over 26,000 times, but now it's somewhere rotting in the depths of Unlimited content. I still don't have access to Unlimited, and it seems to me it's only a matter of time before sales are generated solely by Unlimited accounts. I don't even want to contact them anymore to being added to this Unlimited program because every time they respond with the same sh*tty template email.

Now I have a new problem - they are rejecting animations I send after render ends, claiming they were uploaded to another author's account, and they're threatening to close my account, haha . Talking to a bot is pointless.

Has anyone managed to get in touch with a person in Shutterstock support? Some time ago, someone used to reply to me when I wrote directly to their mailbox. Now only a bot responds, and it's impossible to sort anything out. Have they fired everyone or what?

By the way, I have $106 this month, which is 4x less than the average of the last three months. We're going down!

My year-over-year results for April:

2015 – $1476.75
2016 – $3632.88
2017 – $4279.75
2018 – $3464.22
2019 – $4082.64
2020 – $3656.61
2021 – $3112.74
2022 – $2557.24
2023 – $2266.04
2024 – $1919.26
2025 – $941.15
2026 – $260.12

Still excluded from unlimited. Regular uploads don't help, new content sells occasionally, but the higher sales gone. Currently, Shutterstock is a waste of time for me.

Yes im missing one file, it disappeared couple days ago. No notification from adobe side. In the past they always sent a message with removal information.

Quote from: Thomas-Luc on February 12, 2026, 18:23
For the first time, I'm making zero sales today.
I'm checking if my images are visible on the site, and I can't see any of them.
I see that by default the search engine is set to "unlimited images only".

what is this ?

I understand better now why sales are so poor on Shutterstock... 

Let's call this what it is: structural favoritism.

If search results default to "Unlimited only", then contributors who are not part of that program are effectively excluded from visibility unless buyers manually change the filter. The vast majority of users will never do that.

This is not competition. This is controlled exposure.

Unlimited contributors receive traffic by default. Traffic generates downloads. Downloads generate internal ranking signals. Ranking signals further increase visibility. Meanwhile, everyone outside the program is pushed down due to the very lack of traffic the system itself created.

That is not a neutral marketplace. That is a two-tier system.

I'm in the same situation, I'm not qualified for the Unlimited program either.
I also contacted support about this. As expected, I only got the usual corporate boilerplate response, saying that I can "express interest" via a form. I did that as well — it led nowhere.

From what I can see, it looks like accounts with very large amounts of content are the ones being selected. I personally have around 4,000 images and 1,000 videos, all carefully produced over 15 years. This isn't mass content, it's a curated portfolio built long-term.

At my peak, I was earning $150–250 per day on Shutterstock. Now it's a few dollars

In my opinion, Unlimited downloads have a impact on the algorithms, and being included seems important mainly to feed those algorithms with constant activity. If there's no traffic and no signals on an account, it simply starts to die in search and visibility.

Quote from: Robert_Ruidl on January 22, 2026, 06:29
Just got another pop-up for a mission in my dashboard:

"Videos Mission SFX: Everyday Objects & Materials
Capture video clips with audio (10–30 sec) where every sound matches a visible action. Each clip should contain one action, with the sound coming from a clear object or action in real-life settings.
Assets for this Mission do not require releases, metadata or post-processing.
Volume: Upload 50 to 50 assets per submission. Up to 1 submissions | Used: 0"


Compensation: 92 USD



That´s less than 2 Dollars per clip. For gathering items, setting up everything, making the videos and titling them accordingly (that´s a must in the detailed briefing) I would say it´s minimum 3 hours. I´ll pass again.

Do you see the mission? What´s your compensation?

I had this mission and completed one of the two. I also had to buy a directional microphone. It took me more than three hours. In my opinion, it's not worth it for $92; I got the exact same rate. I'm a bit surprised they want such large packages instead of 10-20 clips.

I've been a Shutterstock contributor since 2012.
My best period was 2019, when I was getting 200–300 downloads per day and could comfortably make a living from it.

Since 2019, my earnings have been declining exponentially. Today, 10–30 downloads per day is the norm, and my earnings this month are around $140.
Yes — $140.

At this point, I'm honestly starting to wonder whether I've been shadowbanned. My suspicion is that the unlimited plan has completely distorted the algorithms. Since I'm not included in unlimited licensing, I'm not generating those "internal" sales signals, and my files are likely being pushed further and further down in search results.

What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that I cannot participate in unlimited sales at all, despite being a contributor for over a decade and having achieved strong results in the past.

At this stage, the only thing I feel toward Shutterstock is embarrassment and disappointment.

To be honest, the only reason I'm still in microstock at all is Adobe Stock and iStock, both of which have performed significantly better for me recently.

I got around 5 times less than last year

Quote from: LouisPhotos on August 05, 2025, 17:09
shutterstock sell drop and money for contributor too. i lost around 35%. I sell a lot in the past like 120 photos a day and now 80

You are a lucky person. I sold 240-300 per day 3-4 years ago, now 20-30.

I have the same slow week. Shutterstock slow down to me as well.

it actually works now, via browser too I think

ftp also

what can I say. from 220-280 sales per day in 2017-2021. Now I have about 20-30 per day . I have no idea what's going on there but the algorithm hates me.

It's getting worse from month to month in my case.

August 2024 for me on Shutterstock is a decrease in income compared to:
-July 2024 decrease by 42%,
-August 2023 decrease by 56%

Try also to scale the page text to 50% it should prevent overlapping texts

You just need to switch to desktop version of website

Quote from: Artist on August 22, 2024, 07:00
I am seeing this trend that I downloads on single and others are lot more than their subscription, almost covering 80% section.
What does your stats say?

I would say about 90% in my case. It has drastically decreased month by month for the last year. I think people just do not continue their subscriptions. My wife works in a big company that always had a subscription to Shutterstock, but about a month ago they just canceled it.

Quote from: Stockhome Syndrome on August 19, 2024, 21:43

Quote from: Micha91 on August 19, 2024, 14:54
Does anyone else have a similar experience? It breaks my heart to see how my once-favorite stock photo site is hitting rock bottom.

My August is surprisingly bad.  I may not hit $1K.  And this at an agency where it wasn't uncommon for me to hit $5K - $7K per month just a few years ago!  Guess everyone who wanted my clips got them.

I used to earn somewhat lower amounts, and I don't think I'll surpass $1K this month either. The worst part is that I barely have any subscription sales anymore—just Single & Other, sometimes clip packs. The number of sales has dropped about 8 to 10 times compared to the best years, 2017-2019. I'm not sure if it's due to algorithm changes or customers leaving, but I can't stop the decline despite frequent uploads.

Month by month, it's getting worse, at least for me. Last month was very weak, and August seems like it won't even reach half of last month. I earned more when I had just a few hundred works back in 2015. New items aren't selling, which is strange because on Adobe Stock, new items are moving, so that's probably not the issue. Maybe I have a shadow ban because how else can I explain it? After reaching level 5, I noticed quite intense drops in sales.

Does anyone else have a similar experience? It breaks my heart to see how my once-favorite stock photo site is hitting rock bottom.

Quote from: Ambu on July 16, 2024, 06:23
Comparison between Shutterstock and Adobe Stock after 15 days of July 2023 & July 2024:

July 2023:
Shutterstock : $426.10
Adobe Stock : $263.23

July 2024
Shutterstock : $97.31
Adobe Stock : $283.03

I have similar results on shutterstock; everything is divided by four.

Quote from: stocky on July 08, 2024, 19:35

Quote from: Micha91 on July 08, 2024, 19:02
I see that the issue is widespread. I haven't had it this bad since June and now July for the past 9 years, even though I've been uploading to Shutterstock since 2014. Back then, my portfolio was a fraction of what it is now, and uploading new content didn't feel like throwing it straight into the trash. I've also noticed that very few subscriptions are selling; only on-demand images are moving.

Maybe buyers are shifting over to Adobe Stock, as sales there keep increasing?

Yes, on Adobe, but I felt the most growth on iStock, where the increases have been 2-3 times over the past two years.

I see that the issue is widespread. I haven't had it this bad since June and now July for the past 9 years, even though I've been uploading to Shutterstock since 2014. Back then, my portfolio was a fraction of what it is now, and uploading new content didn't feel like throwing it straight into the trash. I've also noticed that very few subscriptions are selling; only on-demand images are moving.

Quote from: Wilm on June 18, 2024, 13:29
Since 6 June, my download figures have deteriorated dramatically. Am I the only one or is it the same for someone else?

I've been on Shutterstock since 2012 and it's worse than in 2014 when I was building up my portfolio. Yesterday, I had a very small number of sales, but I think it's due to changes in search results. In the popular section, there are some mixtures and not what has been positioned over the years. Shutterstock has repeatedly mixed with the algorithms, so let's hope this is temporary.

Quote from: Micha91 on June 11, 2024, 16:21
Hello everyone!

A question for all those who create 3D renders. Have you ever had your renders rejected because they were deemed to be generated by artificial intelligence? I've experienced this rejection on almost all platforms and had to email support to prove that I made them in Blender and not with AI. Do you have any methods to avoid such rejections? Honestly, it's tiring to constantly prove that something can be done without AI.

Best regards,
Michal

Thanks for the suggestion. Indeed, adding "3D render/CGI" will be the easiest way.

Quote from: bennu99 on June 11, 2024, 20:59
I had a case in istockphoto where they removed like more than 50 3d files instantly without saying anything and I just happened to find out that by chance a week later.

Some time ago Adobe flagged some of my already accepted renders as AI-generated. I would understand if it wasn't for the fact that these renders were submitted before AI image generation was even possible.