123RF runs three separate FTP hosts and enforces a storage quota on each, so a large delivery does not go up in a single pass. Photos and illustrations go to ftp.123rf.com with a 4 GB allowance, footage has its own host with 30 GB, and nothing enters the review queue until you process the folder from inside your account.
Where the web uploader stops being the right tool
123RF draws this line itself, and it draws it low. The contributor guide recommends the browser upload form only for small batches of fewer than ten files, and FTP for anything above that. That is an earlier cutover than most contributors assume, and it is the reason so many 123RF accounts stall: people keep using the form well past the point where it was designed to work.
The practical consequence is that 123RF is an FTP platform for anyone submitting at volume. If you are delivering a day's shoot rather than a handful of corrections, the browser is not a slower version of the right method. It is the wrong method, and the quota rules below only make sense once you are thinking in terms of folders rather than files.
Three FTP hosts, not one
This is the detail that most third-party write-ups miss. 123RF does not run a single endpoint with folders inside it for different media. It runs three distinct hosts, each with its own storage allowance, and sending a video clip to the photo host does not quietly route it to the right place.
Authentication is the easy part. You connect with your 123RF account username and password rather than a separate set of FTP credentials, so there is no request step and nothing to wait for before the first transfer.
123RF FTP hosts and storage quotas
The three 123RF FTP endpoints with the storage quota enforced on each: ftp.123rf.com at 4 GB for photos and illustrations, footage.ftp.123rf.com at 30 GB for video, and audio.ftp.123rf.com at 4 GB for audio.
If you work across more than one medium, treat these as three separate delivery targets with three separate schedules. A contributor shipping stills and clips on the same night is running two transfers against two quotas, and the one that fills first is almost always the photo host.
The quota is the constraint that shapes the batch
123RF is open about why the quotas exist. Its own wording is that quotas stop the server being monopolised by any one contributor, which tells you the limit is about shared capacity rather than your account standing. You cannot request more, and there is no tier that lifts it.
What matters is the behaviour when you reach the ceiling. The server simply stops accepting files. It does not queue them and it does not overwrite anything. From there the two recovery paths are quite different, and picking the wrong one costs you a day.
If you have stayed inside the quota, you can upload again as soon as the files already in the folder finish processing. If you have gone past it, 123RF holds you for 24 hours before the allowance resets. That asymmetry is the whole argument for splitting a large delivery deliberately rather than pushing everything at the host and seeing what sticks.
Splitting a 7.5 GB delivery under a 4 GB quota
123RF's own worked example for a delivery larger than the 4 GB photo quota: split 7.5 GB into a 3.8 GB batch and a 3.7 GB batch, then upload and process them one after the other instead of exceeding the quota and waiting 24 hours.
Uploading and processing are two different actions
This is the single most common place a 123RF batch goes quiet. Transferring files over FTP does not submit them. They land in your FTP folder and sit there, occupying quota, until you open the upload area in your account and process them. Contributors who stop at the transfer sometimes wait days for a review that was never going to start.
Processing is also where metadata becomes mandatory rather than advisable. 123RF will not review a file whose description or keyword fields are empty, so a processed batch with thin text does not get rejected, it just never progresses. The field rules 123RF enforces are worth settling before the transfer rather than after, because the upload step is the last comfortable moment to fix them.
The limits 123RF actually enforces
Two of these are checked automatically, before a reviewer is involved, which means a file that misses them is gone regardless of how good the photograph is. The others are format rules that behave the same way.
- Photographs must be at least 6 million pixels, roughly 2000 by 3000. Anything smaller is rejected automatically.
- The file must not exceed 30 MB. On a 123RF delivery this ceiling bites more often than the megapixel floor does.
- Photos are JPEG only, saved at 80% quality compression or better. No other raster format is accepted.
- Illustrations and vectors are supplied as EPS, and go to the same host as photographs.
- Scanned work is allowed but discouraged, with at least 300 DPI suggested for photographs and more for negatives.
- There is no cap on how many files an approved contributor may submit in total. Only the per-transfer storage quota limits you.
Six megapixels is permissive by current standards, so the files that fail are rarely camera originals. They are crops, phone exports and downsized web copies that found their way into the delivery folder by accident. If you are reconciling the resolution floors across several agencies, 123RF sits at the easy end on pixels and the strict end on file weight, which is an unusual combination to design a single export preset around.
Review timing, and the folder that keeps your rejections
123RF quotes roughly three working days for review, stretching to five in busy periods. Files that clear it appear on the site within about 24 hours after that, so the realistic gap between finishing a transfer and having work live is closer to four days than one.
Rejections behave more usefully here than on most platforms. Declined files stay in a rejected folder with the reason attached until you delete them, which turns the folder into a running record of what this particular agency keeps pushing back on. Reading it periodically is cheaper than guessing, and the reasons 123RF cites most often cluster tightly enough that a few fixes to your export settings usually clear most of them.
Why the keyword lock changes your upload order
On most agencies a weak keyword set is something you revisit later. On 123RF it is not. Descriptions and keywords can be edited while a file is pending, but not once it has been accepted, and the only route back into an accepted file's text is a rejection for an invalid keyword or description. In practice you get one attempt. That makes the keywording rules this agency enforces part of the upload workflow rather than a separate editorial task, and it argues for checking metadata before the transfer rather than after the approval.
It also changes what a sensible batch looks like. Sending a thousand files as one processed block is efficient right up to the moment the metadata turns out to be wrong, at which point a thousand files carry that mistake permanently. Smaller processed batches with a review pass between them cost a little more time and remove the only genuinely unrecoverable failure on this platform.
Running 123RF as one destination among several
Almost nobody supplies 123RF alone, and the quota behaviour is much easier to live with when the transfer is scheduled rather than manual. A routine that splits a delivery by size, processes each batch and only then starts the next one is tedious by hand and unremarkable once automated, which is the general case for running large FTP batches overnight across a list of agencies whose limits all disagree with each other.
This is the part worth treating as infrastructure. Rastock AI generates titles, descriptions and keywords from the image itself, applies each agency's banned and mandatory keyword rules before anything leaves your machine, and delivers over FTP or SFTP to 10+ agencies including 123RF. Any other agency that accepts FTP or SFTP can be added manually.
The reason that combination matters on this particular agency is the keyword lock. Generating metadata is the easy half; checking it against the rules before the files are processed is what stops a batch landing with text you can never repair. Rastock charges a subscription rather than a share of your royalties, with a 14-day free trial and no card required, so the agency commission stays the only cut anyone takes.
An order of operations that survives a real batch
Work backwards from the two rules that cannot be undone, and the sequence falls out on its own. Confirm the technical floor first, because a file under 6 megapixels or over 30 MB is decided before anyone looks at it. Write and check the metadata second, while it is still editable. Then size the delivery against the 4 GB quota and split it into batches that fit, rather than discovering the ceiling mid-transfer.
Upload one batch, process it from inside the account, and wait for the folder to clear before sending the next. Then leave it alone for three to five working days and read the rejected folder when the results land. None of this is difficult. It is simply a sequence with two irreversible steps in it, and knowing where they sit is most of what separates a smooth 123RF account from one that stalls for a week at a time.
Frequently asked questions
What is the FTP address for 123RF?
Photos and illustrations go to ftp.123rf.com. Video footage uses a separate host, footage.ftp.123rf.com, and stock audio uses audio.ftp.123rf.com. You sign in with your 123RF account username and password rather than a separate set of FTP credentials, so there is no request step before the first transfer.
How many files can I upload to 123RF at once?
There is no cap on how many files an approved contributor may submit in total. The limit is storage rather than file count: the photo and illustration host allows 4 GB at a time, and once that is full the server stops accepting files until you process what is already sitting in the folder.
What happens if I exceed my 123RF FTP quota?
The server refuses further files. If you have not exceeded the quota you can upload again as soon as the files in your folder finish processing. If you have exceeded it, the allowance resets after 24 hours, so a delivery pushed past the ceiling slips a full day rather than a few minutes.
Why are my 123RF uploads not being reviewed?
Transferring files over FTP does not submit them. They stay in your FTP folder, using up quota, until you process them from the upload area in your account. The other common cause is empty metadata: 123RF will not review a file whose description or keyword fields are blank, so it sits pending indefinitely.
How long does 123RF take to review uploads?
123RF quotes roughly three working days on average, stretching to five during busy periods. Files that clear review appear on the site around 24 hours later, so the realistic gap between finishing a transfer and seeing work live is closer to four days than one.
Can I edit 123RF keywords after uploading?
Only while the file is still pending. Once an image has been accepted, the description and keywords are locked, and the only way back into that text is a rejection for an invalid keyword or description. This is why metadata belongs in the pre-transfer checks rather than in a later clean-up pass.