Pixabay is a global online platform that provides a large library of free stock media, including photos, illustrations, vector graphics, videos, music, sound effects, and animated GIFs. It serves as a community-driven marketplace where creators upload content that can be freely accessed and used by others under the Pixabay Content License.

The platform is designed to simplify access to high-quality creative assets without traditional licensing barriers. Users can search, download, and use media in personal and commercial projects without requiring attribution in most cases, although attribution is encouraged by the community. The content is curated and organized into categories to make discovery easier for designers, marketers, developers, and content creators.

Pixabay operates as both a creative community and a distribution platform, enabling contributors to share their work with a global audience while also providing tools such as upload systems, API access, and community forums. It is widely used as a resource for web design, advertising, social media content, presentations, and other digital media production workflows.

The platform originally allowed content under the CC0 public domain license but later transitioned to its own Pixabay Content License, which includes additional restrictions such as prohibiting standalone resale of unaltered content and limiting certain commercial uses involving trademarks or misleading contexts.

Pixabay is owned by Canva and continues to operate as part of a broader ecosystem of creative tools and resources.

Key features include:

• Library of 5.9M+ free photos, vectors, videos, and audio files
• Free usage for personal and commercial projects under Pixabay License
• No attribution required (optional credit to creators)
• Community-driven uploads and global contributor network
• API access for integration into apps and design tools

Common use cases include:

• Website and app design
• Marketing campaigns
• Social media content creation
• Presentations
• Blog illustrations
• Video production
• Creative inspiration

Pixabay was founded by Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger in Germany and is currently owned by Canva.