Depositphotos takes files over its own FTP server and through the browser uploader, and both routes drop them into the same place: an unattributed queue that sits there until you go back and type a description and keywords. The file rules are narrow and published, the approval gate comes before any of it, and that attribution step is where most new batches go quiet.
The approval gate comes first
Before any upload workflow matters, Depositphotos wants five sample works. Its own contributor guide describes uploading five files for examination and says the works are usually processed in seven to ten business days. Metadata is not required for that first pass, which is the one time on this platform that it is not.
The detail worth reading twice is what happens to those five files afterwards. The guide states plainly that the works uploaded for examination do not automatically go into your portfolio, and that you have to come back to your account to fill in the description and keywords for them. Contributors who pass review and then wonder why their first five files are not earning have usually stopped one step short.
Review itself is a content check rather than a technical one at this stage. The published description of it covers abusive, obscene or pornographic material and violations of patents, copyrights and human rights, which is a different filter from the per-file quality inspection that comes later. The reasons files get refused once you are in are a separate subject, and we have gone through them in our notes on Depositphotos rejection reasons.
What happens between signing up and your first earning file
The four stages Depositphotos publishes for a new contributor: five sample works submitted without metadata, a seven to ten business day examination, a manual attribution step because sample files do not enter the portfolio on their own, and only then open uploading over FTP or the browser.
What Depositphotos accepts, in its own numbers
The image requirements FAQ is short enough to quote almost in full. The file format should be JPEG. The resolution should be a minimum of 2400 by 1600 pixels. The file size must not exceed 50 MB. And the file should be attributed in English. Alongside that sit four content conditions: no artificial enlargement, distortion or stretching, no modification from the original size, authorship by the uploader, model releases for recognisable people, and no copyrighted logos, trademarks or protected properties.
One inconsistency is worth naming rather than smoothing over. The image FAQ describes that 2400 by 1600 minimum as 3.4 MP, while the contributor guide describes the same pixel dimensions as 3.8 MP for vectors. The arithmetic gives 3.84 MP, so the guide is closer, but the pixel dimensions are the figure both pages agree on and the one to build a check against. If you are setting a hard gate in your own pipeline, gate on 2400 by 1600 and you satisfy either reading.
Vectors follow a different packaging rule. AI and EPS are both accepted, and they go up inside a ZIP archive with a JPEG or JPG preview rather than on their own, at the same pixel minimum and the same 50 MB ceiling. Video has a far wider format list, described in the contributor guide as running from ASF to MP4, with the detailed specifications kept on a separate video contributor page.
Will this file clear the Depositphotos ceiling?
Checks a file's pixel dimensions and size against the limits Depositphotos publishes: JPEG at a minimum of 2400 by 1600 pixels and no more than 50 MB for images, with vectors at the same pixel minimum and the same 50 MB ceiling when packaged as AI or EPS in a ZIP with a JPEG preview.
Uploading over FTP
The FTP answer in the contributor FAQ is two lines long. The address is ftp.depositphotos.com. The username is your login and the password is the same one as your account. There is no separate FTP credential to generate and no key to install, which makes this one of the faster connections to set up across the major agencies.
The convenience has a cost that is easy to miss. Because the FTP password is your account password, it ends up stored in whatever client or automation tool you point at the server, in whatever form that tool stores it. On agencies that issue a dedicated FTP credential you can rotate the upload path without touching your login; here you cannot. If you share a machine, or if you are weighing up a third-party tool, that is the relevant difference rather than anything about speed.
The FAQ does not publish a folder structure, a concurrent connection limit, a per-day file cap or a batch ceiling. That absence is a real answer, not a gap in our reading: Depositphotos documents the credentials and leaves the rest unstated. Treat any specific number you find quoted elsewhere with suspicion, including figures that sound precise, and behave conservatively until your own batches tell you otherwise.
The step after the transfer
An FTP transfer on Depositphotos moves pixels, not meaning. Files land in the account waiting to be described, and nothing enters review until you have given each one a description and keywords. Embedded IPTC in the file does not substitute for that account-side entry, so a batch that is perfectly tagged in Bridge still arrives as a list of untitled thumbnails. Which fields the platform actually reads, and how its own transformations touch what you type, is the subject of our Depositphotos metadata field reference.
This is the single structural fact that should shape how you batch for this platform. On an agency where FTP carries metadata through, the natural batch size is whatever your connection will push overnight. Here the limiting resource is your own attention at the attribution screen, so the natural batch size is whatever you can realistically describe in one sitting. Pushing four hundred files and describing sixty of them leaves three hundred and forty files earning nothing and aging quietly in a queue.
English only, and why that is a hard rule
The requirement that the file should be attributed in English sits in the same short FAQ as the format and size limits, which tells you it is treated as a submission condition rather than a preference. Depositphotos sells into many language markets and handles the translation itself downstream, so a description typed in your own language is not a head start for those markets, it is a file that fails its entry condition. What the platform expects in those fields beyond the language is covered in our notes on Depositphotos keywording rules.
Where batches actually go wrong
Four failures account for most of the stalled batches contributors describe, and three of them are avoidable before the transfer starts.
- Upscaled files. The requirements explicitly refuse artificial enlargement, distortion and stretching, and a file that was interpolated up to clear the pixel minimum fails on the condition that was supposed to be satisfied. A 2000 pixel original stretched to 2400 is worse than a 2000 pixel original left alone and sent somewhere with a lower floor.
- Non-JPEG images. The format line says JPEG, singular. PNG and TIFF are not alternatives here, and a converted-at-the-last-minute JPEG saved at low quality trades a format rejection for a compression one.
- Vectors sent bare. An AI or EPS file on its own does not meet the packaging rule. It needs the ZIP with a JPEG preview inside, and the preview needs to clear the same pixel minimum as a photo would.
- Unattributed transfers. Not a rejection, which is what makes it the expensive one. The files are accepted onto the server and simply never progress, so nothing tells you anything is wrong until you notice the portfolio count has not moved.
If you are sending the same shoot to several destinations, the 2400 by 1600 floor here is not the one that decides your export settings, because it is among the more permissive minimums in the market. The agency with the strictest requirement sets your export, and the rest follow for free. We have put the minimums side by side in what resolution stock photos actually need.
Building a batch you can repeat
A workflow that survives contact with a real shoot has the gating done before the transfer, not after. Export once to the strictest destination's requirement, run a pass that rejects anything under 2400 by 1600 or over 50 MB, confirm every image is a real JPEG rather than a renamed one, and package vectors into their ZIP with a preview at the same moment you export them rather than as a separate chore later.
Then size the batch to the attribution screen rather than to the pipe. The honest way to set that number is to time yourself describing twenty files properly and multiply. Whatever that gives you is your batch, and sending more than it is not productivity, it is deferred work with a worse memory of the shoot attached to it.
Keep a record of what went up and when. Depositphotos does not publish a batch ceiling, which means the platform will not tell you where its comfortable edge is; the only person who can observe it is you, and only if last night's manifest still exists this morning. The general problem of running large unattended transfers reliably is covered in reliable tools for large nightly FTP batches.
Where tooling helps and where it does not
Be clear-eyed about what any tool, ours included, can do against this particular workflow. Software can gate files on format, pixels and size before a transfer starts, write a description and keyword set in English per file, keep per-destination rules apart so a term blocked at one agency does not travel to another, and keep a manifest of what left and when. That is the part we build. What no tool can do is make Depositphotos read metadata it has chosen not to read at the FTP boundary. The attribution step is a property of the platform, and a tool that claims to remove it is describing something else.
The part worth remembering
Depositphotos has a permissive file ceiling, a fast FTP connection with no extra credential to manage, and one firm structural quirk: the transfer and the attribution are separate events, and only the second one puts a file in front of a buyer. Get your gating done before the transfer, size the batch to the describing rather than the uploading, and the rest of this platform is unusually undemanding. What those files then earn depends on the download-count tiers, which we have broken down in the five Depositphotos payout levels. If you want to see the gating and the per-destination rule handling run against a real batch, our trial lasts 14 days and takes no card — the plans are here.
Frequently asked questions
Can you upload to Depositphotos over FTP?
Yes. Its contributor FAQ names the server as ftp.depositphotos.com and says to sign in with your login and the same password as your account. There is no separate FTP credential to generate, which makes setup quick and also means your site password is the one living in your FTP client's configuration.
What are the Depositphotos file requirements?
For photos the FAQ states JPEG format, a minimum resolution of 2400 by 1600 pixels, and a file size that must not exceed 50 MB, with metadata written in English. Vectors go up as AI or EPS inside a ZIP archive with a JPEG preview at the same pixel minimum and the same 50 MB ceiling. Upscaled, stretched or distorted files are refused.
Does an FTP upload carry your keywords across?
No. Files arriving over FTP sit in your account unattributed, and nothing enters review until you add a description and keywords there. Embedded IPTC in the file does not substitute for that account-side entry, so a batch that is fully tagged in Bridge or Lightroom still shows up as untitled thumbnails waiting on you.
How many files can you upload to Depositphotos at once?
The platform does not publish a batch ceiling, a per-day cap or a concurrent connection limit, so there is no official number to quote and any specific figure you find elsewhere is someone's inference. In practice the binding constraint is not the transfer but the manual attribution that follows it, so size batches to what you can describe in one sitting.
How long does Depositphotos take to approve a new contributor?
Its contributor guide says the five sample works submitted for examination are usually processed in seven to ten business days. Metadata is not required for that first submission. Passing it is not the end of the step, because the guide also states those five files do not enter your portfolio automatically and need describing afterwards.
Does metadata have to be in English?
Yes. The requirement that files be attributed in English appears in the same short FAQ as the format and size limits, which places it among the submission conditions rather than the recommendations. Depositphotos handles translation for its other language markets downstream, so writing descriptions in another language does not help those markets and risks the file.