Most Getty Images rejection reasons are not a reviewer disliking your photograph. They come from published specifications that a file either meets or does not, and the majority of them can be checked on your own machine before the upload ever starts. Sorting the mechanical rejections from the editorial ones is the fastest way to raise an acceptance rate.
The requirements below are taken from Getty's contributor guidance as published in September 2026, and they apply to both the Getty Images and iStock collections. Where a rule is a hard number, treat it as a hard number; Getty publishes very few of them, which is precisely why the ones it does publish are enforced without discussion.
The technical bar, in numbers
For photographs, Getty states the following requirements outright:
- Minimum 3 megapixels. Getty gives its own example: a 2000 x 1333 px file totals under three million pixels and does not qualify.
- Maximum 256 megapixels. Large panorama stitches and high-resolution scans can exceed this.
- RGB colour space. A CMYK export from a print workflow will not be accepted.
- Highest available resolution, with no upsizing. Interpolating a small file up to clear the 3 MP floor is the wrong fix and reads as soft on inspection.
- JPEG at the highest quality setting, saved with no sizing changes.
Getty also asks contributors to tech-check every high-resolution image at 100% before uploading, confirming that the main subject is crisp and that no technical flaws are present. That instruction is doing more work than it appears to. Reviewers inspect at the same magnification, which is where softness, over-sharpening halos, sensor dust, chromatic fringing and compression artefacts become obvious even though the image looks perfect fitted to a screen.
Illustration and vector rejections
Vectors carry more rejection surface than photographs, because there are two files to get right and a compatibility requirement most illustrators only discover after a batch comes back:
- EPS files must be CS6 compatible. Saving from a current version without stepping down the format is a common cause.
- Close all shapes, delete stray objects and points, and expand any custom effects before saving.
- Every vector must be paired with a high-quality raster illustration. A lone EPS is an incomplete submission.
- The raster goes out as RGB JPEG, minimum 1900 x 2800 px, with 4075 x 4075 recommended for best results.
- The pair must share a file name: illustration.eps alongside illustration.jpg.
The file-name pairing rule is worth flagging separately, because it is the one that survives every other check and then fails silently. A batch where the raster was exported with a suffix from a different naming convention will look correct in a folder listing and still break the pairing.
Video rejections
Getty's video guidance is unusually editorial in tone, and the duration rule explains why:
- Minimum five seconds per clip, with a suggested maximum of thirty. Longer is allowed where the content justifies it.
- Maximum file size of 6 GB.
- Let the action in the shot dictate the length rather than cutting to a habit.
Getty explicitly asks contributors not to over-cut their material, leaving room for the editor of a project to choose what works. A clip trimmed tightly to the action gives a buyer nothing to work with, which is a commercial rejection rather than a technical one, but it costs you the file either way.
Duplicate and serial content
Getty asks contributors to choose the best content from a shoot and warns directly that files too similar to others in the same series can be flagged as duplicate content and rejected. This catches out photographers arriving from agencies where uploading a full sequence is normal practice and lets the search algorithm sort out which frame performs.
The comparison is made within your own submission, not against the wider collection, so the fix is entirely in your hands: cull harder before you upload. Getty frames this as a customer benefit rather than a restriction, noting that a tighter selection helps buyers find the right image faster. From a contributor's side the arithmetic is the same either way, since eight near-identical frames that all get rejected earn less than one frame that gets accepted.
AI-generated content is not accepted
Getty's guidance states that it does not accept submissions created using AI generative models, and names Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney as examples. This is a firmer line than several other agencies hold, and it is not a labelling requirement that you can satisfy by disclosing the model. The content is simply out of scope for the collection.
The boundary is drawn around generative models specifically. Getty says this does not prevent the submission of 3D renders, and does not affect the use of digital editing tools such as Photoshop or Illustrator for modifying and creating imagery. A rendered scene built in a 3D package is a different category from a prompted generation, and Getty treats it that way.
If you contribute to multiple agencies, this is one of the few places where a single portfolio genuinely cannot be distributed identically everywhere. Files that are acceptable elsewhere with an AI disclosure need to be excluded from the Getty batch at the point of selection, not at the point of upload.
Releases, trademarks and logos
Getty asks contributors to have supporting documents prepared before submitting: model and property releases, editorial property consent forms, and reference images for illustrators. A file that needs a release and arrives without one is not held in a queue while you find it; it is a rejection you then have to resubmit around.
Alongside that sits the visible-trademark problem. Getty's legal reminders ask contributors to remove visible trademarks and logos so that files are clear for commercial licensing. This is broader than most people assume: brand marks on clothing, distinctive product shapes, signage in a background and recognisable architectural details all qualify. Cloning a logo out at the editing stage is trivial; discovering it after a batch rejection is not.
Where the remaining rejections come from
Once the published specifications are satisfied, what is left is judgement: whether the file has commercial or editorial value, whether the keywords describe what is actually in the frame, and whether the execution holds up against a collection that is already deep in that subject. Those rejections are harder to predict and worth treating as feedback rather than as a fault to fix line by line.
It also helps to separate rejection rules from admission rules, since Getty gates who can contribute in the first place and the two are often confused; we covered the entry side in Getty Images contributor requirements.
Contributors who submit the same shoot to several agencies will find the overlap useful but incomplete. The equivalent lists for Adobe Stock and Shutterstock share the technical fundamentals but diverge sharply on AI content, duplicate tolerance and release handling.
That divergence is the argument for keeping per-agency rules in the tooling rather than in your head. Rastock AI writes titles, descriptions and keywords against each agency's own policy, flags banned and mandatory terms before delivery, and ships to 10+ agencies over FTP with per-agency status you can check afterwards. There is a short tour of how that works, the plans are here, and the 14-day trial does not ask for a card.
No tool changes Getty's standards. What it changes is how many of your rejections are avoidable ones you could have caught at your own desk.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum image size for Getty Images?
Three megapixels. Getty spells this out with its own example: a file measuring 2000 x 1333 px totals fewer than three million pixels and does not meet the requirement. The upper limit is 256 megapixels, which mainly affects stitched panoramas and high-resolution scans. Getty also asks for the highest resolution you actually have, without upsizing, so interpolating a small file upward to clear the floor is not a valid workaround.
Does Getty Images accept AI-generated images?
No. Getty's contributor guidance states that it does not accept submissions created using AI generative models, naming Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney as examples. The restriction is specific to generative models rather than to digital work in general: 3D renders remain acceptable, and using Photoshop or Illustrator to edit and build imagery is unaffected. This is a stricter position than several other agencies, which accept generatively created work if it is labelled.
Why were my images rejected as duplicates by Getty?
Getty asks contributors to submit only the strongest frame from a sequence, and files that are too similar to others in the same series can be flagged as duplicate content and rejected. The trigger is visual similarity within your own submission, not similarity to another contributor's work. Culling hard before upload solves it, and it has a second benefit Getty points to directly: a tighter selection makes it easier for customers to find the right frame.
What are the vector requirements for iStock and Getty?
Vector EPS files must be CS6 compatible, with all shapes closed, stray objects and points deleted, and custom effects expanded before submission. Every vector must also be paired with a high-quality raster illustration saved as RGB JPEG, at a minimum of 1900 x 2800 px, though Getty recommends 4075 x 4075 for best results. The paired files must share the same file name, so illustration.eps goes with illustration.jpg.
How long should stock video clips be for Getty Images?
Getty asks for a minimum of five seconds and suggests a maximum of around thirty, with longer durations allowed when the content justifies them. The reasoning is editorial rather than technical: the length should follow the action in the shot, and leaving handles at both ends lets an editor choose their own in and out points. Individual files are capped at 6 GB.