2026-09-01

How to attribute AI images for stock sites

Every major agency accepts AI content — with its own rules. Here's how to attribute Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Flux generations so they pass review and sell.

The mandatory Generative AI flag

Adobe Stock, Freepik and Shutterstock require the “Created with generative AI” tick (or equivalent) in the dashboard. It can't be set from metadata — but everything else (title, description, keywords) is embedded into the file and pre-fills automatically.

What to put in the title and description

The title should describe the image, not the prompt. “A solemn medieval knight in a gothic cathedral” — good. “Midjourney v7 masterpiece, ultra detailed, 8k” — bad: prompt jargon doesn't belong in a title and hurts search.

Keywords, on the other hand, should include “ai generated” and “generative ai” — buyers deliberately search for AI content.

Technical file requirements

JPG, at least 4 MP (Adobe Stock, Shutterstock);
Freepik — sides 2000–10000 px, title up to 100 characters;
No watermarks or upscaling artifacts;
XMP metadata with a proper JFIF marker (or Adobe Stock won't read the fields).

A workflow for hundreds of images

Generate in Midjourney → upload a batch to Stock Metadata Tagger → AI writes the metadata → edit in the table → a ZIP for Freepik (100/40 profile) and SFTP delivery to Adobe Stock (full 200/47). Manual attribution takes 3–5 minutes per file; here it's seconds.

10, 25 or 49? How many keywords to use on Adobe Stock, Shutterstock and Freepik. Agency limits, first-tag weight and the optimal tagging strategy.

Why Adobe Stock doesn't read your JPG metadata

Embedded XMP into a JPG but Adobe Stock shows empty fields? The missing JFIF APP0 marker is to blame. Here's the cause and how to fix the file.

How to upload video to Adobe Stock

Step by step: how to prepare and upload video to Adobe Stock — file requirements, metadata, category, SFTP upload. A checklist of why videos get rejected.

IPTC vs XMP for stock photos

IPTC and XMP both carry title, description and keywords. Learn which fields stock agencies read, why sidecars fail, and how to embed metadata into the JPEG itself.