Design & CreativePexels review
Free stock video and photography at real scale: commercial use, no attribution, no subscription.
Is Pexels right for you?
Pexels is a free stock library covering both video and photography at a scale that makes it useful rather than a nice idea. Hundreds of thousands of clips, free for commercial use, with no attribution required and no subscription: for anyone editing regularly, that turns b-roll from a budget line into a search.
The scale is the whole argument. Smaller free libraries are lovely until you need a specific shot, and then you’re back to paying. Pexels is usually deep enough to finish the job, and with stills and motion in one place, a project that needs both takes one search instead of two.
Three cautions. The best clips turn up everywhere, so anything meant to feel distinctly yours probably shouldn’t start from the first result. Coverage thins quickly for specialised, technical, or B2B subjects. And the licence covers your use of a clip, not releases from the people or property in frame, which matters the moment footage runs in a paid ad. For looping background video behind a website hero, Coverr’s smaller, hand-picked library is often the better search.
Questions about Pexels
What people usually want to know before committing, answered the way we'd answer them on a call.
Should I use Pexels or just Canva's built-in library?
If you're already paying for Canva Pro, start there. Its included video and image library covers most needs, and that's where our own searches tend to end. Pexels earns its place when you're not paying for anything, or when Canva doesn't have the specific thing you're after. It's a good free option, not a tool we'd tell you to go out of your way for.
Read the Canva reviewIs Pexels genuinely free for commercial use?
Yes: free for commercial use, no attribution required, no subscription. The catch is what's inside the frame: the licence covers your use of the clip but doesn't guarantee the people or property in it signed releases. For most marketing use, that's fine. For a paid ad built around a recognisable face, it isn't, and that's the point to licence properly.
Where does the library run out?
Specificity. It's strong on lifestyle and general footage and thins quickly once your subject gets technical, industrial, or B2B: the more precisely you can describe what you need, the less likely it's there. The other limit is ubiquity. The best clips are popular for a reason and turn up everywhere, so anything meant to feel distinctly yours probably shouldn't be built on the first result.
Still deciding?
Not sure if Pexels is the right call?
The tool is rarely the hard part; fitting it to what you've already got is. Five minutes with the concierge: honest fit, no pressure, and a real person follows up.
More Design & Creative
The rest of this shelf, if you're weighing your options.
Canva
Unsplash
VideoHiveDisclosure: there's no affiliate link on this page. We don't earn anything if you sign up for Pexels; it's here because it's good. Other tools in the toolkit do carry affiliate links, and each of those pages says so.