Reverse image search
Upload any image — a photo, screenshot, product shot or artwork. We look for copies and re-uploads of that image across public sources. No face needed.
What this finds
Upload an image and this looks for that picture wherever it has been published — image hosts, blogs, forums, shops, marketplaces and social posts. It is the right tool when your question is about a specific file rather than about a person.
Trying to find out who someone is?
Then this is the wrong tool and it will waste your time. A face search matches the person rather than the file, so it works on screenshots and finds other photos of them — which is what identifying someone actually requires.
Use the face search insteadWhen a reverse image search is the right choice
- Your photo was taken and reused. Finding every copy is the first step before a takedown request, and the list of URLs is the evidence you need.
- A listing looks too good. Rental scams and marketplace fraud almost always use photos lifted from somewhere else. One search usually settles it.
- You need the original source. Tracing a picture back to where it first appeared is what this does best.
- You want to check a product image. The same photo on dozens of shops tells you something about all of them.
Why file matching sometimes fails
A reverse image search compares the image you upload against copies it can find. That comparison is based on the picture data itself, so anything that changes the data makes the match harder:
- A screenshot has different dimensions and compression from the original.
- Cropping removes part of what the comparison relies on.
- Filters, overlays and re-saving at lower quality all degrade the signal.
- Anything behind a login was never crawled and cannot be matched at all.
This is exactly why identifying a person from a forwarded photo so often fails here and works in a face search — the face survives all of the above, the file does not.
Getting more out of it
- Use the highest-quality version you have. An original beats a screenshot.
- Crop to the subject so background clutter does not dominate the comparison.
- If you have more than one version of the picture, try each — they return different results more often than you would expect.
Frequently asked questions
What does a reverse image search find?
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Copies of the image you upload, wherever they have been published on pages that can be crawled — image hosts, blogs, forums, shops, marketplaces and social posts.
What is the difference between reverse image search and face search?
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A reverse image search looks for the same picture. A face search looks for the same person across different pictures. If you want to identify someone rather than trace one image, the face search is the right tool.
Does it work if the image was cropped or resized?
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Sometimes. Modest edits are often still matched, but heavy cropping, filters or re-compression can break a file-based match. For people, a face search is far more tolerant of all of that.
Can it find images on private accounts?
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No. Private and locked content is not publicly accessible, and no legitimate service can reach it.
Can I find out who owns a photo?
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You can often find the earliest published copy, which usually points at the source. Ownership itself is a legal question that a search result cannot settle on its own.
What can I use this for?
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Checking whether your own photos have been reused without permission, verifying a marketplace or rental listing, tracing a product image, finding the original source of a picture, and checking whether a photo was taken from somewhere else.