Alamy pays contributors between 15 and 50 percent of the licence fee depending on which of four commission tiers you are in, and the tier is recalculated once a year from your gross sales rather than fixed when you sign up. Everyone starts on Silver at 20 percent. What surprises most new contributors is not the rate but the timing: Alamy pays only when the customer has paid, which can take months.
The four commission tiers
Alamy publishes the split for each tier in its contributor terms, and the spread between the bottom and the top is wide enough to be worth planning around.
- Bronze: 15 percent to you, 85 percent to Alamy. Where you land if your gross sales for the year come in below 250 dollars.
- Silver: 20 percent to you. The default tier for every new contributor, and the band for gross sales from 250 dollars up to and including 3,000 dollars.
- Gold: 40 percent to you. For gross sales above 3,000 dollars and up to 25,000 dollars. This is the largest single jump in the system: crossing 3,000 dollars doubles your rate.
- Platinum: 50 percent to you. For gross sales over 25,000 dollars, and the only tier where exclusivity comes into it: the top rate applies where images are exclusive to Alamy and the qualifying criteria in the contract are met.
Student photographers are treated separately and can earn 100 percent commission through Alamy's student programme.
The revenue year is the part people miss
Alamy's revenue year runs from 1 September to 31 August, not from January, and your tier for the coming year is calculated from what you grossed inside that window. Alamy's own contributor contract help page sets out both the dates and the thresholds.
Movement works in both directions, but not at the same speed. If your sales cross a threshold during the year, you move up immediately and the higher rate applies to sales from that point onwards. Moving down happens at the year end: fall below 250 dollars gross over the twelve months and you start the next year on Bronze.
Two details change the arithmetic. The thresholds are measured on gross, meaning the full licence fee before Alamy's share, so the number you need to hit is much lower than your own earnings suggest. And other income such as DACS and ASCRL payments does not count towards your gross, so a good collecting society year does not help you climb.
One practical consequence: if you are close to a threshold in July or August, the timing of when sales are reported matters more than it does at any other point in the year. There is no way to force that, but it is worth knowing which side of the line you are on before the year closes.
What an Alamy sale is actually worth
There is no fixed price per image. Alamy prices by customer and end use, and states that the average licence price on the platform is 35 dollars. That average is the reason contributors treat Alamy differently from subscription driven microstock: individual sales are worth considerably more, and there are far fewer of them.
Run the tiers against that average and the model becomes clear. On Silver a typical licence returns about seven dollars to you. On Gold it returns about fourteen. The same file earns very differently depending on nothing but your sales history, which is a different shape from how Shutterstock contributor payouts and Getty contributor payouts are structured.
When the money actually arrives
This is where Alamy differs most from the agencies contributors usually compare it with, and it is set out on the sales and payment help page.
- Cleared versus uncleared. A sale appears in your account as soon as it happens, but it is uncleared until the customer has actually paid Alamy. Clearing usually takes between 45 days and four months, and up to six months for distribution sales.
- The threshold. Alamy pays out once your cleared balance is over 75 dollars. Uncleared money sitting in your dashboard does not count towards that.
- The schedule. The payment run starts on the first working day of each month and can take up to nine working days to reach your account.
- The methods. PayPal or bank transfer, in US dollars, pounds sterling or euros, set in your contributor dashboard.
- Tax paperwork. Alamy does not issue tax forms and does not ask you to complete any. Declaring the income is your responsibility, and your own tax office is the place to confirm what that means where you live.
Add these together and a sale made in January can realistically land in your bank account in June. If you are budgeting around stock income, Alamy is a lagging indicator rather than a monthly wage.
Exclusivity: what it does and does not buy you
Alamy is non exclusive by default and places no restriction on selling the same work elsewhere. Exclusivity does not change your commission rate at Bronze, Silver or Gold. It only matters at Platinum, where the top rate depends on images being exclusive to Alamy and the contract criteria being satisfied.
The definition of exclusive is narrower than it first sounds. A black and white version or a different crop of an image that is available elsewhere does not count, though a different frame from the same shoot can. Images sold through your own website or directly to clients can still be marked exclusive, and print on demand is allowed as long as the file is not offered for additional licensing there. Marking an image as exclusive when it is not carries a real cost: if Alamy pursues an infringement and then finds the file on another stock site, it can charge an admin fee.
For most contributors the maths is simple. Below 25,000 dollars in gross sales, exclusivity buys you nothing on rate, so the question is only whether you want the other protections that come with it. Leaving is straightforward either way: the contract requires 45 days notice.
What actually moves you up a tier
Tier movement is a function of gross sales, and gross sales are a function of how findable your files are, because nothing on Alamy sells from a page nobody reaches. An image that passes quality control but never gets a caption and five tags stays off sale entirely. The Alamy metadata requirements cover which fields carry the search weight and how the supertag system ranks your own terms.
Volume matters too, and volume is where quality control becomes a financial question rather than a technical one, since a failed batch is a batch that earns nothing while your rank drops. The Alamy rejection reasons are worth knowing before you plan a year around a target.
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Frequently asked questions
What commission does Alamy pay contributors?
Alamy runs four tiers. Bronze pays 15 percent, Silver 20 percent, Gold 40 percent and Platinum 50 percent, with the rest going to Alamy. New contributors start on Silver automatically. Your tier is set by gross sales across the revenue year rather than chosen, and the top rate at Platinum additionally requires images to be exclusive to Alamy and the contract criteria to be met.
When does Alamy recalculate my commission tier?
At the end of each revenue year, which runs from 1 September to 31 August. Gross sales below 250 dollars move you to Bronze for the following year, 250 to 3,000 dollars keeps you on Silver, above 3,000 up to 25,000 puts you on Gold, and over 25,000 dollars reaches Platinum. If you cross a threshold mid year you move up straight away and the higher rate applies to later sales.
What is Alamy's minimum payout?
Alamy pays when your cleared balance passes 75 dollars. Cleared means the customer has paid Alamy, which is separate from the sale showing in your dashboard. The payment run begins on the first working day of each month and can take up to nine working days to arrive, by PayPal or bank transfer in US dollars, pounds or euros.
Why is my Alamy balance uncleared?
Because Alamy reports sales as they happen but only pays you once the customer has settled the invoice. That usually takes between 45 days and four months, and up to six months for distribution sales. Nothing is wrong with the account during that period, but uncleared funds do not count towards the 75 dollar payout threshold, so the practical wait between a sale and the money is long.
How much does an image sell for on Alamy?
There is no set price. Alamy prices each licence according to the customer and the intended use, and says the average licence price across the platform is 35 dollars. At Silver that returns roughly seven dollars to the contributor and at Gold roughly fourteen. Individual sales are worth much more than typical subscription microstock, and there are correspondingly fewer of them.
Do I have to be exclusive to Alamy?
No. Alamy is non exclusive and puts no restriction on selling the same images through other agencies. Exclusivity has no effect on your rate at Bronze, Silver or Gold, and only comes into play at the Platinum tier. If you do mark images as exclusive, the definition is strict, and marking a file exclusive when it is available elsewhere can result in an admin fee.