Can I use these stock photos for editorial and commercial projects?

Editorial use means an image supports a story rather than sells something. A newspaper piece on remote work, a blog post explaining interest rates, a textbook chapter on coastal erosion, a lecture slide, a long feature in a magazine. The picture illustrates, explains, or comments. Commercial use means the image helps move money. Product ads, landing pages, packaging, brochures, paid social campaigns, app store screenshots, a printed poster that promotes an event. Here the picture is part of a sales or promotional message.

Many classic stock libraries split their catalogues along that line. Editorial-only stock photos often show real people, real brands, or real news events, and they cannot go into an advert because nobody signed a release. Cheap Stock Photos does not need that split, because every image on the site is AI-assisted stock imagery. There is no photographed stranger and no photographed storefront behind the file. That removes the usual editorial-only restriction, but it adds one rule of its own.

The one rule that applies to both uses

Never present an image from this site as a documentary photograph of a real event, a real place as it actually looked, or a real person. The images are generated and refined with AI tools. They can look like a rainy street in a Nordic city or a surgeon in an operating theatre, but they are not records of any specific street or any specific surgeon. Captioning one as "Protesters outside city hall on Tuesday" would mislead readers, and that is not allowed under the license regardless of whether the publication is a newspaper or a shop.

So the question is not "editorial or commercial" but "is anyone being led to believe this is a real record". If the answer is no, both contexts are fine.

A magazine feature versus a product ad

Take the same image, a woman reading at a kitchen table under warm morning light.

• Magazine feature on slow living: fine. It sets a mood for the article. Add a small note such as "Image is illustrative" if your house style calls for it, and do not name the woman or claim she is a reader who was interviewed.
• Product ad for a coffee brand: fine. Place your product, your logo, and your copy around the picture. The image supports the sale, and nobody is being told it is a snapshot from a real customer's home.
• News report on a real flood, using a generated image of a flooded street as if it were taken on location: not fine. That is passing a synthetic picture off as documentary evidence.

The magazine and the coffee brand are on opposite sides of the classic editorial and commercial divide, yet both uses are permitted. The news misuse fails not because it is editorial but because it fakes a record.

Practical habits for editors and marketers

Label when context demands it. Journalism, science communication, and education carry a higher expectation of truthfulness, so a short "illustration" or "AI-assisted image" credit keeps you honest with your audience. Advertising rarely needs this, since readers already understand that campaign imagery is staged.

Avoid captions that attach a real name, a real date, or a real address to a generated scene. Descriptive, generic captions like "Hospital corridor at night" are accurate. "Ward 4 at Riverside General, March 2026" is not.

Check the picture for details that could read as real. A street sign, a shop name, or a face that closely resembles someone you know should be cropped or edited out before you use the image in a sensitive editorial setting. Our tagging helps you find plain stock photos fast. Browse subject collections through the tag index and pick images with neutral backgrounds.

Quick summary

Stock photos from this site work in articles, lessons, reports, ads, packaging, and websites alike. Commercial use is not restricted, and editorial use is not restricted, but presenting a generated image as an authentic photograph of something that happened is off limits. Keep captions honest, edit out anything that looks like a real identifier, and you are covered. More questions on usage are collected on the FAQ index, and the full terms live on the license page.