Shutterstock: Leading Paid Stock Image And Footage Library

For those who associate Shutterstock with stock photos only, here is a surprise. Shutterstock has a productive video library consisting of over 20 million video clips. Your browsing experience on the video side is similar to the image side. You can start by searching. If you create a free account, you will be able to build personalized collections. Such collections are helpful tools to get organized and decide which video to buy.

Shutterstock Video is not limited to video clips only. This rubric of Shutterstock gives you access to their Select video collection. You can also find a good amount of video effects in the Elements section.

Shutterstock sell video clips as single clips and packs. In 2024 clips were priced at $79 for HD. If you need more clips, you may consider packs. They come with 5, 10, and 20 clips included. With packs, each clip’s cost will be lower. Shutterstock is now offering video subscription options on the site. You can sign up to download 5, 10, 20 clips per month. There is usually a commitment period: annual billed monthly, monthly with no contract, and annual billed upfront.

Shutterstock is a paid photo library. The site has over 250 million stock images and graphics. All these are for sale. Shutterstock does offer a small number of free images. Occasionally, the site opens free trials. They also feature free images and free vector files on their homepage.

Shutterstock also has an active coupon page. Their FF10 coupon will give you a 10% discount for video clips and music tracks on Shutterstock video and Shutterstock music. The coupon is valid for video subscriptions and video packs, too.

If you need images, use the below SS10 coupon to get 10% off on visuals, like photos, illustrations, or vectors.

Shutterstock has 2-3 major sales per year when their images and videos are discounted by 20-25%. Otherwise, the company may have other less valuable coupons like these ones that are valid in 2024:

FFF15 – Get 15% off video clips and music until the end of 2024.

All these coupons are only valid on standard online licenses. Enterprise and custom offers are not included. You need to apply the coupons at checkout.

Shutterstock is more than an image library. The site includes millions of images, video clips, music tracks, editorial photos. Pricing is also different for each creative asset type. For instance, Shutterstock images have many pricing options. The more you buy, the lower the price. If you buy 2 images, the price will be over $10 per image. If you buy a monthly or annual subscription, the price per image will go down under $2. Also, search for Shutterstock coupons to get immediate discounts from 10% to 20%.

Shutterstock organizes seasonal sales when all licenses for images, videos, music are at 20%, 25%, 30% off. The discount does not apply to Enterprise, Custom or Enhanced licensing deals. Check out the Shutterstock recent sales here.

You can become a Shutterstock contributor free of charge. To do so, go to their Contributor site and sign up by following the steps. Becoming a contributor is easy, but making money on Shutterstock may not be as easy. Let’s remember that this library has over 300 million images and over 15 million video clips.

If you hope to make a living with Shutterstock or a similar platform, you need to consider the following. Making money with Shutterstock is a full-time job. You need to focus on the quality of your submitted images and videos. You also need to submit good quantities of clips and photos to the library.

Don’t think that a submitted video clip will bring you riches. Set up a plan of, say, 500 video clips of good to great quality to submit. Expect 10-15% of your clips to be rejected. Shutterstock’s review practices are strict when it comes to technical specs. Our experience with Shutterstock is that you can expect to make between $100-$200 with 200-250 video clips. You need to submit new clips all the time, as the platform prioritizes new stuff on a regular basis.

We have a separate article explaining how you can download and buy stock footage on Shutterstock. It includes several ways of download stock videos on Shutterstock for free (legally).