Shutterstock API

Number of APIs: 123

Getting Started

The Shutterstock API provides access to Shutterstock's library of media, as well as information about customers' accounts and the contributors that provide the media. It allows customer platforms to search for media, view information and previews for the media, and license and download media.

  1. Create an application at https://www.shutterstock.com/account/developers/apps. To license media, you also need a paid subscription, but the API provides a free option for you to try out the API without licensing media. For information about applications and subscriptions, see Subscriptions in the API reference.
  2. Authenticate to the API to get a token. You can get a token from the application page, or you can use the methods described in Authentication in the API reference.

Now you're ready to make your first API request.

Basic API requests

Let's search Shutterstock's catalog of images:

  1. In the Qodex Collections tab, open the Shutterstock API collection dropdown.
  2. In the collection, click Images > Search > Search for images. This request uses the API GET /v2/images/search endpoint.
  3. Click the Authorization tab of the request.
  4. In the Type dropdown, select OAuth 2.0.
  5. Enter your Shutterstock access token in the Access Token box.
  6. Click the Params tab of the request.
  7. In the query parameter, type a search term, such as flowers.
  8. Click Send.

The API response contains 20 images, including URLs to thumbnails. To customize your search, check out the full list of parameters on the GET /v2/images/search endpoint.

Other resources

For full documentation, check out our api-reference.

To learn more about all of the services that we offer to developers, head over to our developer portal.


  1. Audio-Search - List audio genres GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/audio/genres

  2. Editorial Images-Livefeeds - Get editorial livefeed GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/editorial/images/livefeeds/:id?country=<country-code-3>

  3. Images-Search - Search for images GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/images/search

  4. Images-Search - Run multiple image searches POST {{baseUrl}}/v2/bulk_search/images

  5. Images-Search - Get keywords from text POST {{baseUrl}}/v2/images/search/suggestions

  6. Images-Search - List image categories GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/images/categories

  7. Images-Search - List similar images GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/images/:id/similar

  8. Images-Search - List recommended images GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/images/recommendations?id=<string>

  9. Images-Search - List updated images GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/images/updated

  10. Images-Details - List images GET {{baseUrl}}/v2/images?id=<string>