Free Stock Video Sites: What You Can Legally Use

James Crawford

Published September 18, 20269 min readUpdated September 18, 2026

You need a video for your website, and you do not have a camera crew. So you type "free stock footage" into Google and get a hundred sites promising the same thing.

Free stock video sites do hand you real footage at no cost. What they do not all hand you is the same permission. Some want a credit line, and all of them ban a few uses that could bring you a letter from a lawyer.

Here is the honest version. Five sites whose licence pages we read line by line, what each one allows, and the jobs free clips will never do for your business.

Free stock video sites such as Pexels, Pixabay and Coverr let you download clips at no cost and use them in business videos, including paid ads. Each site sets its own licence. Most ask for no credit line, but all of them ban reselling clips or using footage as your logo. Read the licence page first.

Where can I get free footage for my business video?

You can get free footage for a business video from Pexels, Pixabay, Coverr, NASA and Wikimedia Commons. All five publish a licence page you can read before you download, and all five allow commercial use under their own conditions.

Stock footage is video that somebody else shot and then licensed for other people to use in their own projects.

We only name a site here if we opened its licence page and can link you to it. That rule kept the list short on purpose.

Three well-known names are missing for that reason. Mixkit keeps its free video licence behind a pop-up box that would not load as plain text for us. Videvo and Mazwai now redirect to Freepik, and their old licence pages did not open for us in September 2026. A guess about permission is worth nothing to you, so we left all three out.

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Free stock video sites compared: licence, credit and limits

Here are the five sources side by side, with the licence page for each one. The last column quotes the site's own words, so you can see the exact limit rather than our summary of it.

Site	Cost	Credit required	Commercial use	Main limit in their words
Pexels	Free	No	Allowed	"Don't sell unaltered copies of a photo or video" and "Don't imply endorsement of your product by people or brands on the imagery"
Pixabay	Free	No	Allowed	You may not "sell or distribute Content (either in digital or physical form) on a Standalone basis", or use content "in a misleading or deceptive way"
Coverr	Free	No	Allowed	"Our videos and music must not be used to train AI algorithms, develop AI models, or serve as part of any dataset for such purposes"
NASA	Free, mostly public domain	No	Allowed with care	Material "must not explicitly or implicitly convey NASA's endorsement of commercial goods or services"
Wikimedia Commons	Free	Depends on the file	Depends on the file	"Each media file has its licensing specified on its file description page"

Wikimedia Commons is the odd one out, and it catches people. There is no single licence for the whole library. Some files ask for credit, and some carry a share-alike rule, which means your edited version has to be shared on the same free terms.

Pexels, Pixabay and Coverr are the easy three for a small business. One licence covers the whole library, and you do not owe anyone a credit line.

What does royalty free actually mean?

Royalty free is a licence that lets you use a clip as many times as you want without paying again each time somebody watches it. It does not mean the clip has no rules, and it does not mean the clip is free of charge on every site.

Public domain is work that nobody owns any more, so anyone may use it. NASA says its content, including images, audio and video, "generally are not subject to copyright" in the United States.

Creative Commons Attribution, written CC BY, is a free licence that allows commercial use as long as you credit the creator. The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence lets you share and adapt the material "for any purpose, even commercially", and in exchange you "must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made".

So three different words, three different sets of homework. Read the licence, not the download button.

What can't you do with free stock footage?

Across every licence we read, four things are banned everywhere. You cannot sell the clip on, you cannot make the footage part of your logo or business name, you cannot suggest that a person or brand in the clip endorses you, and you cannot pass a clip off as something it is not.

Pexels also says identifiable people "may not appear in a bad light or in a way that is offensive". Pixabay puts the burden of checking on you, and says users are responsible for checking whether third-party rights apply to a specific file.

Coverr adds a newer rule that many owners miss. Its videos and music cannot be used to train AI models or to form part of a dataset for one.

Here is the short checklist of what to avoid:

Reselling or re-uploading a clip, edited or not
Putting stock footage inside a logo, trade mark or business name
Showing a face or brand in a way that implies they recommend you
Using footage that makes a real person look bad
Training an AI model on clips you downloaded free

How do you check a clip's licence before you use it?

Check a clip's licence in two minutes by opening the site's licence page, then the clip's own page, then looking at who and what is in the frame. Save a copy of the terms on the day you download.

Step 1: Open the licence page, not the download button

Go to the site's licence page and read it in full before you download anything. Every site listed above keeps one, and each one is shorter than a page of text.

Step 2: Check the clip's own page for a different licence

Some libraries mix free and paid clips, and Wikimedia Commons sets terms file by file. Look at the individual clip page for a credit requirement before you assume the site-wide rule applies.

Step 3: Look for faces, logos and number plates

Scan the clip for recognisable people, brand names, shop signs and vehicle plates. Those are the details that turn a free clip into a rights problem, because the licence covers the footage and not the people or brands inside it.

Step 4: Save proof on the day you download

Take a screenshot of the licence page and the clip page, then save both with the video file. If anyone questions the clip in two years, you have the terms as they stood on the day.

Step 5: Keep one log of every clip you use

Keep a simple spreadsheet with the clip name, the site, the licence link and the date. Your editor, your agency and your future self will all need it.

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Why does free stock footage make small business videos look generic?

Free stock footage makes small business videos look generic because every competitor in your town can download the same clips for nothing. The smiling family in the kitchen and the man in the hard hat pointing at a roof are in hundreds of other ads already.

There is a second problem, and customers feel it before they can name it. The van is not your van. The clinic is not your clinic. The hands fixing the pipe are not the hands that will knock on their door.

Explainer videos are the most common single video type marketers make, with 73% having produced one, according to Levitate Media's 2026 roundup of Wyzowl data. When that many businesses are making the same kind of video, sameness is the real risk.

Free clips still earn their place in a few jobs. They work as a background behind text, as short cutaways under a voiceover, as filler in a social post, and as scene setting for a place you cannot film.

They fall down in the moments that sell. A roofer needs his own finished roof, a dentist needs her own waiting room, and a gym needs the actual class at 6am.

An accountant selling a process has nothing to film at all. That is the point where a drawn or animated video takes over.

When is a custom animated video the better answer?

A custom animated video is the better answer when the thing you sell cannot be filmed, or when the footage would have to show your own process, product or premises. Insurance, software, legal advice, financing and maintenance plans all fall into that gap.

Custom work has a real price attached. A 60-second custom animated explainer from a North American studio typically costs $5,000 to $10,000, according to Vidico's 2026 explainer video cost guide, with premium 3D or character work above that. Our 30-second explainer video is $297 one-time, normally $497, and that covers the script, a human voiceover and the animation, delivered in 7 days with 3 revision rounds and a money-back guarantee.

Style matters more than most owners expect. Pexo's 2026 guide to explainer types calls whiteboard animation the budget-friendly workhorse for step-by-step teaching and professional services, names 2D motion graphics as the all-round style, and points to live action when you want a real face or product on screen. Our guide to the types of explainer videos and which fits your budget walks through the same choice in more detail.

Length follows the job. Yum Yum Videos puts 30 to 45 seconds with awareness campaigns and ads, and 60 to 90 seconds with website and sales use.

If you want the full range of prices before you decide, our breakdown of what small businesses pay for an explainer video in 2026 compares DIY tools, freelancers, packages and agencies.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use free stock footage in a Facebook or Instagram ad?

Yes, on Pexels, Pixabay and Coverr, because all three allow commercial use at no cost. The ad must not imply that a person or brand in the clip endorses your business. Check the clip for logos and recognisable faces before you spend money behind it.

Do I need a model release for people in a free clip?

Free stock sites licence the footage, not the person in it. Pixabay says users are responsible for checking whether third-party privacy or similar rights apply to a file, and NASA warns that commercial use of an identifiable person may infringe their right of privacy or publicity. For anything sensitive, pick a clip with no recognisable face.

Can I use free music with free stock video?

Music carries its own separate licence, even on a site that gives away video. Coverr's licence covers videos and music together, while other libraries licence them apart. Read the audio licence on its own before you drop a track under a clip.

What happens if I use a clip the wrong way?

The usual first step is a takedown notice or an invoice from the rights holder, not a court case. Keeping the licence screenshot and your clip log makes most of those letters easy to answer. That is why the two-minute check above is worth doing every single time.

The short version

Free stock video sites are a genuine option for a small business, as long as you treat the licence page as part of the job. Pexels, Pixabay and Coverr give you clips at no cost with no credit line. NASA adds public domain material, and Wikimedia Commons works file by file rather than library-wide. Every one of them bans reselling clips, logo use and implied endorsement.

Use free footage for backgrounds, cutaways and scene setting. Film or animate the parts that are actually yours, because that is what turns a viewer into a customer. Video pays back for most businesses, with 82% of video marketers reporting a positive return in Wyzowl's 2026 State of Video Marketing survey as reported by Levitate Media. The goal is a video that only your business could have made.

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