Frequently asked questions

A reverse image search flips the normal search process on its head. Instead of typing keywords to find a picture, you start with the picture itself, and the search engine works backward to tell you about it. Under the hood, the engine analyzes visual features — colors, edges, shapes, and patterns — and compares that fingerprint against billions of indexed images. It's genuinely useful for:

• Finding the source — tracing a photo back to where it was first published
• Spotting duplicates — checking if your own photo has been reused elsewhere without credit
• Identifying objects — figuring out what a plant, landmark, or product actually is
• Verifying authenticity — confirming whether a photo is genuine or recycled from an unrelated event

Yes — completely. Our tool requires no sign-up, no account, and no payment at any point. There's no "free trial" that expires either; every feature (all 6 engines, unlimited searches, mobile access) stays free permanently. The individual engines we link out to — Google, Bing, Yandex, TinEye, and Pinterest — are also free to use on their own. We simply save you the trouble of visiting all five separately.

Regular image search starts with text (typing "sunset beach" to find matching photos). Reverse image search starts with an image itself — you provide a photo, and the engine finds where else it appears or what it's a photo of.

Photographers checking for stolen work, journalists verifying photos, online shoppers tracking down a product, designers sourcing references, and anyone checking if a profile photo is genuine.

"Image lookup" is another common term for the same process as reverse image search — using a photo as the search input to find matches, sources, or related images online. Different people search for it under different names, but the technique is identical.

It can sometimes surface other photos of the same person if those images are already indexed online — commonly used to check if a profile photo is being reused elsewhere (helpful for catching fake profiles). It cannot identify someone who has no existing photos online.

Accuracy depends on how widely the image (or similar images) already appears online. A photo that's been shared often will return strong matches; a brand-new, never-published photo may return few or no results since there's nothing yet to match it against.

The tool is built mobile-first, so the process takes seconds and needs no app download. Works identically on iPhone and Android, in any mobile browser — Safari, Chrome, Firefox — with no app install required. If you're searching a photo from Instagram, WhatsApp, or another app, simply save it to your camera roll first, then upload it the same way.

Yes — switch to the "Paste URL" tab, paste a direct link to an image (usually found via right-click → Copy Image Address), and it loads instantly for search.

JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, and BMP, up to 8MB per file.

Yes — after uploading, check the engines you want (all are selected by default) and hit "Search All Selected Engines" to open every result in a new tab simultaneously.

No account, no email, no password. Just open the page and start searching immediately.

Yes — screenshots work the same as any other uploaded image, as long as they're saved in a supported format (JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, or BMP).

No daily limits or search caps — use it as many times as you need, for free.

There isn't one "best" engine — each has a different strength, which is exactly why we search all of them at once instead of picking one for you.

Engine	Best for
Google	Broadest overall coverage, general use
Yandex	Facial recognition, identifying people
TinEye	Tracking an image's history over time
Bing	Clean visual search interface
Pinterest	Style, design, and aesthetic matches

Our recommendation: start with Google for general searches, then cross-check with Yandex or TinEye if the first result isn't conclusive.

Yes, through Google Images and Google Lens. Our tool links directly to both so you don't need to navigate Google's interface manually.

Yandex has historically been notable for stronger facial recognition results compared to other engines, which makes it popular for identifying people in photos.

TinEye specializes in tracking exactly where an image has appeared online over time, including modified or cropped versions — useful for copyright tracking.

Only briefly, and only because search engines need a real link to read your image from. Here's exactly what happens:

• Your image is saved to a randomized, private file path — not indexed or listed anywhere
• It's used solely to generate the search links you click
• It's automatically and permanently deleted within 24 hours
• No human ever views, reviews, or analyzes the image manually

We built it this way deliberately — the tool has no reason to keep your images longer than it takes to search them.

We don't require an account, so there's no personal search history tied to you on our end. Standard anonymous analytics may be collected — see our Privacy Policy for full details.

No. Uploaded images get a randomized, unguessable link used only to pass to search engines — they aren't listed publicly or shared anywhere on our site.

This almost always comes down to one of three things:

• File size — the image exceeds our 8MB limit, common with unedited phone camera photos
• Unsupported format — we support JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, and BMP; HEIC (default on newer iPhones) needs converting first
• Broken URL — a pasted link that isn't a direct image file (ends in .html instead of .jpg/.png, for example)

If your iPhone photo won't upload, it's very likely saved as HEIC — switch your camera format to "Most Compatible" in Settings → Camera → Formats, or use the "Paste URL" tab instead.

Some engines occasionally have trouble reading very small, heavily compressed, or extremely generic images (like a plain solid color). Try a slightly larger version of the same photo, or use a different search engine from the list — this is a limitation of the individual engine, not our tool.

Yes — tested and working on: on both desktop and mobile. If something looks broken in an uncommon browser, let us know via the Contact page and we'll investigate.

No daily limit on our end. That said, if you search extremely rapidly, some individual engines (particularly Google and TinEye) may temporarily rate-limit you — this is a restriction from the engine itself, not from us.

Yes, reverse image searching itself is completely legal — you're simply querying publicly available, already-indexed information, the same as a normal text search. What you do with the results can carry legal weight, though:

• Using the search to identify copyright infringement of your own work — legal and common practice
• Using it to stalk, harass, or track a private individual without consent — illegal in most jurisdictions
• Downloading and reusing a copyrighted image found through search — subject to normal copyright law

The tool is neutral; how it's used determines whether an action is appropriate.

Yes — this is one of the most common legitimate uses. Photographers and designers regularly reverse image search their own work to find unauthorized reuse across the web. TinEye is particularly well-suited for this since it specializes in tracking an image's spread and modification history over time.

Searching a publicly posted photo (like a profile picture or a photo shared on social media) is generally acceptable and is commonly used for basic safety checks — for example, verifying a dating profile isn't using a stolen photo. Using it to systematically track or monitor a specific private individual without their knowledge crosses into stalking territory in most places, and we don't encourage that use.