123RF is popular creative stock library that hosts millions of stock images and stock videos. See how you can download thousands of images for free and how to save on 123RF.
We find that 123RF is a highly underrated stock library, which has a lot to offer to the creative community. Let’s take a look at this site and see what it has to offer for free and for a deep discount.
Contents
What is 123RF?
123RF is massive stock asset library that competes equally with the other players in the creative asset industry like Shutterstock, Pond5, iStock by Adobe.
123RF is an international library available in several languages, including several European and Asian languages. The site offers stock photos, stock vectors, footage, and music. 123RF also gives access to several quick and easy-to-use creative tools like Background Removal, Filters & Effects, Image Auto Enhancer.
123RF also owns such popular online editors like Pixlr and helps you create logos in seconds on their sister site Designs.ai.
If you are looking to save on your creative assets, 123RF has a lot to offer. Let’s see where you’d start.
Free images
In 2022 123RF set up a separate free image library where you can get over 100,000 free images (our approximation).
To get access to thousands of free images, visit the Free Image section on their site. You will need to sign up for a free account. There is no need to provide any payment information at this stage.
With a free account you can search and download thousands of high-quality HD images for free.
123RF allows you to use their free images for both commercial and personal projects. The only caveat is that you are required to give attribution to the site. In our opinion, it’s a small price to pay for such a selection of free images.
Here is what you will see when you download free images on 123RF. Copy the link and add it to your online page or blog post where you use the free image.
The free collection of images includes both photos and vectors. So give it a try!
PLUS images
123RF is a for-profit site, in the end. They will try to upsell you to their PLUS subscription. The PLUS subscription costs $20 per month in 2023. Is it worth it?
We believe that $20/month is a good deal as you get access to 60M stock photos, 20M stock vectors, and over 30,000 3D illustrations . If you pay upfront, the subscription price will go down to $13 per month, which is much better!
The PLUS subscription does not have limitations, so you can download as many images as you need each month in theory. But you cannot download more than 100 images per day. This means that you will be maxed out at 3,000 assets per month. This is still less than $0.01 per image. Attribution is not required for any downloads under the Plus subscription.
Take a look at the current 123RF plans and compare Free to Plus as well as the Premium package on this site.
What are the savings for more cost-efficient creators? Read on to find out more.
How to save on 123RF
The first saving comes with the free images that we discussed above. This is a no-brainer.
For creators who need more choice and more variety, the PLUS subscription offers quite a lot at a relatively low monthly cost (but you need to pay more upfront to save).
Promotional codes give you another level of savings.
You can always use the standard 10% discount that’s available at all times here. Use the promo code 10OFF at checkout whenever you license an one-off asset or sign up for a subscription.
You will also get several emails with discounts ranging from 10% to 15% when you get a free account. Don’t delete those emails – see what they have inside.
123RF also runs promos every now and then (like once every 2 months). Just make sure their emails don’t go to your Spam folder. 123RF’s deals and discount are sometimes highly attractive, especially around the holidays and events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Why would you consider 123RF?
Our team is using 123RF’s PLUS subscription and we’re currently happy with our choice.
Sometimes, we need to make only minor edits to imagery like the featured image to this article (see above). We just needed some text overlay and a crop to the image. 123RF gives such basic image editing features right before you download the image.
These basic but powerful editing options were a big benefit to us.
Are 123RF Free Downloaders Real?
While 123RF provides free collections and affordable subscription plans, there’s a buzz around tools known as “123RF downloader” or “123RF free downloader.”
Certain sites claim to offer a way to download 123RF’s premium content for free. Sounds tempting, right? But here’s the catch: these tools are not affiliated with 123RF, are illegal, and actually don’t exist as such!
123RF protects the intellectual property of artists and photographers. So they put in place solid security on their site that free downloaders are not able to bypass. These security protocols ensure that the content remains exclusive to paying customers or those using the free collections provided by 123RF itself. Attempting to find 123RF downloaders will only lead you to shady sites where the site owner may want to trick you to click on an ad or download an app or program with a virus inside.
But why risk it? 123RF offers a wide array of free images and the low-cost Plus collection. In this way 123RF is already accessible for various budgets. By using these legal channels, you support the creative community and ensure that artists are compensated for their work.
Final Thoughts
123RF is an underrated stock library that has a ton to offer to creators. From free images to deeply discounted plans, a cost-concious creator will definitely find a good amount of assets to use for their client work.
Disclaimer: We are not associated with 123RF and we got no payment to write this article about their free images and promos.