Shutterstock description: the rules
| Where the text goes | Shutterstock's description field is also the title buyers see. |
|---|---|
| Length | At least 5 words and at most 150 characters. |
| Style | A descriptive sentence: the subject, what it is doing and where. Not a list of keywords, and no special characters. |
| Editorial | Documentary editorial starts with a dateline, "City, Country - MONTH DAY, YEAR:". The editorial generator writes it. |
Agencies update their rules, so confirm in the agency's contributor help before you submit. Keywords for Shutterstock: Shutterstock keyword generator · Already have text? Shutterstock metadata checker · News and events: Shutterstock editorial generator.
Weak and better Shutterstock description examples
Weak: Lake
Better: Small church on an island in a calm mountain lake at sunrise
Under 5 words is rejected ("your description must be at least 5 words").
Weak: lake, church, island, sunrise, travel, Slovenia
Better: Church on an island in a calm lake at sunrise in Slovenia
A list of keywords reads like spam. Write one sentence.
Title and description generators for other agencies
Add a note: the AI can't see where you were
A photo of a church on a small island in a mountain lake is a nice photo. "Lake Bled, Slovenia" is what a buyer types. Add the facts you know and the AI can't see, such as the place, event, species, date or concept, and they go into the title, the description and the keywords.
Example
Without a note: Church on a small island in a calm mountain lake
Note "Lake Bled, Slovenia, sunrise": Tranquil Lake Bled with Island Church and Julian Alps at Sunrise
How it works
- Drop up to 5 photos. JPEG, PNG or WebP. They are resized and sent to the AI, not stored.
- Add a note with what the AI can't see, and switch on Editorial for news or documentary photos (or use the editorial caption generator). The note is used for every photo, so upload photos from the same shoot together.
- Review and edit. Each field is checked against the agency rules: 5 words and 150 characters for Shutterstock, keyword counts for Adobe Stock, the controlled vocabulary for iStock.
- Copy or download. Copy each field into the upload form, or download a CSV for Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, iStock or Alamy with one row per photo.
Built for stock, not alt text or AI prompts
Generic image description tools write alt text, social captions or prompts for AI image generators. This one writes metadata the way stock agencies want it: literal, searchable, in English, without brand names, and inside each agency's limits.
Guides
30 Shutterstock description examples
Weak descriptions rewritten for photos, illustrations, video and editorial.
Why stock photos get rejected
Intellectual property, titles and keywords, AI labeling, similar content and quality.
How to sell stock photos
Signing up, photo requirements, uploading and metadata for beginners.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Shutterstock description limit?
At least 5 words and at most 150 characters. The field also works as the title, so make the first words the subject.
What does "your description must be at least 5 words" mean?
Shutterstock wants a complete descriptive sentence of five or more words. Say what the subject is doing and where, rather than adding filler words.
Is the stock photo description generator free?
Yes. Without an account you can generate metadata for 5 photos every 24 hours. A free account raises that to 10 photos a day and adds $2 of credits for batch processing.
Which stock agencies is it for?
Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, iStock and Getty Images, and Alamy. You get a title for Adobe Stock and iStock, a description for Shutterstock and iStock, a caption with tags and supertags for Alamy, and keywords for all of them, with the iStock keywords matched to its controlled vocabulary. Each agency has its own CSV download, with one row per photo.
What should I write in the note?
Facts the AI cannot see in the pixels: the place, the event, the species, the date or the concept. "Lake Bled, Slovenia, early morning in October" turns "church on an island in a lake" into a title buyers actually search for. The note is optional, but it is the biggest single improvement you can make.
Can I use it for editorial photos?
Yes. Tick Editorial and put the place and the date in the note. The description then starts in the format Shutterstock uses for documentary editorial: "City, Country - MONTH DAY, YEAR:" followed by a factual sentence. Brand names that are part of the story are allowed in editorial metadata.
Can I choose the AI model or use my own prompt?
Yes. The generator starts on a fast model with a built-in prompt tuned to the agency rules, but you can pick any GPT, Claude or Gemini model and write your own prompt, or load an example. Thinking models are slower and use 3 free photos per photo. To test and compare prompts side by side, use the Prompt Playground.
Are my photos stored?
No. Your photo is resized and sent to the AI model only to write the metadata, then discarded. We keep a record that a photo was processed, so the daily limit works, but not the photo itself.
Can I use it for alt text, social media captions or AI image prompts?
It is not built for those. The generator writes metadata the way stock agencies want it: factual, searchable, without brand names and inside each agency's limits.
How is this different from the full PhotoTager app?
The app does the same for hundreds of photos and videos at once. You add one note per folder, it writes iStock keywords with a model fine-tuned on the iStock vocabulary, embeds the metadata in your files and exports a CSV for every agency. Full metadata costs $0.04 per image ($40 per 1,000 images) and $0.12 per video.
Metadata for a whole shoot, not one photo at a time
Pay-as-you-go: full metadata from $0.04 per image, no subscription, credits never expire.
Start free with $2 of creditsCheck metadata you already have: free metadata checker · stock rejection checker
Keyword generators for: Adobe Stock · Shutterstock · iStock & Getty Images · Alamy