I previously shared my stock photo earnings for 2023 in this article. I analyzed all my stock site earnings in detail, one by one, with graphs.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t be active in stock photo content production in 2025. I was hardly able to upload anything due to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery. Last year was a test of whether it’s really possible to generate passive income from this stock photography.
As you can see in the title, I earned $3177 from stock photography in 2025. So, all the earnings I made from stock photography in 2025 can be considered entirely passive income. That’s because I did nothing.
Annual Stock Photography Income Analysis
Photo by I started selling my stock photos in October 2021 and earned only 10 cents that year. I didn’t sell anything for the first two months. However, in December, I earned my first 10 cents, and that first 10 cents started everything.
Here are my annual stock photo sales earnings from 2021 to 2025:
2021: $0,10
2022: $945,93
2023: $3.044,73
2024: $4.669,61
2025: $3.177,09
The graph below shows the annual growth chart since 2021. The highest earnings were in 2024, but I was quite active that year and regularly uploaded content. In 2025, I reaped the rewards of my previous efforts.
Annual Stock Photography Earnings Analysis (2021–2025)
Annual Growth Analysis in Stock Photography (2021–2025)
These are the total earnings I made from all sites. I upload content to 10 different sites in total. Now, let’s analyze each site a little more individually.
My Stock Photo Earnings Chart in 2025
Last year, I earned the highest amount of $1304,97 from Adobe Stock. My second-highest earnings were $890,49 from Shutterstock. The chart below shows the distribution of my earnings from all other stock photo sites.
My Stock Photo Earnings Chart in 2025
As seen in the graphic, iStock and Freepik follow Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. Last year, I earned $383.11 from iStock and $367.96 from Freepik as passive income.
My Highest Earnings From Stock Photography in 2025
Just like every year, last year I earned the highest income from Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. Based on earnings, I can rank all stock photo sites as follows:
Adobe Stock > Shutterstock > Istock > Freepik > Vecteezy > Alamy > Pond5 > Deposit Photos > Dreamstime > 123RF
Earnings Distribution According to Stock Photo Sites in 2025
Based on this table, I can see which sites I should focus my efforts on.
Adobe Stock’s Monthly Earnings in 2025
As in previous years, my highest-earning stock photo site was Adobe Stock. I can say that Adobe Stock has been the site that has motivated me the most throughout this entire journey, thanks to its high earnings per sale. I really love Adobe Stock :)
The graph below shows how much I sold on Adobe Stock each month throughout the year. There weren’t many extended license sales last year. There were more in 2024. In fact, there was a $944 drop in sales compared to the previous year.
Adobe Stock’s Monthly Earnings in 2025
Still, Adobe Stock is the site I want to focus on going forward. PNG sales, in particular, are doing much better. This year, I aim to upload more PNGs.
These numbers also include Free Collection and Firefly Contributor Bonus payments. Last year, I was paid twice for the Free Collection. I received $68.4 from the Free Collection payment and $16.99 from the Firefly Contributor Bonus payment.
Other Payments on Adobe Stock
Shutterstock’s Monthly Earnings in 2025
Shutterstock was the other site that followed Adobe Stock by a narrow margin. Although the number of sales on Shutterstock was higher than on Adobe Stock, the earnings remained lower.
Shutterstock’s Monthly Earnings in 2025
Freepik’s Monthly Earnings in 2025
Last year, I made 5,900 sales on Freepik, which is three times more than Shutterstock and 3.5 times more than Adobe Stock. Despite this, the income from Freepik is 3.5 times lower than Adobe’s and approximately 2.5 times lower than Shutterstock’s.
Freepik’s Monthly Earnings in 2025
My Stock Photo Sales Chart by Sales Volume
As shown in the graph below, Freepik was the stock photo site where I made the most sales in 2025. I made a total of 5,900 sales on Freepik throughout the year. Shutterstock follows Freepik with 1,920 sales, and Adobe Stock with 1,632 sales. I made 630 sales on iStock throughout the year.
My Stock Photo Sales Chart by Sales Volume in 2025
Earnings per Sale
According to all these statistics, the earnings per sale are as follows:
Adobe Stock: $0.80 per sale
iStock: $0.61 per sale
Shutterstock: $0.46 per sale
Freepik: $0.06 per sale
When we look at the earnings per sale data, we see some significant gaps in the values per sale. Accordingly, Adobe Stock is the site offering the highest value per sale, followed by iStock and Shutterstock.
The fact that Freepik only pays 0.06 cents per sale indicates that you need to achieve massive download numbers to earn significant income there. I am not including other sites in this statistic because I have made very few sales on them throughout the year.
Overall, these statistics tell us this: if your priority is a high unit price, Adobe Stock is the obvious leader; however, if your goal is to earn from volume and reach a wide audience, low-margin sites like Freepik could be an option. It appears that most of my passive income from stock photos in 2025 came from Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. That’s why I’ll be focusing my energy on these two sites from now on.
Thanks for reading this far. It was quite a long article. I’d really appreciate your claps (you can clap up to 50 times!) and shares.
Note for Referral Links:
Please note that the links to Shutterstock and Freepik are referral links, and I will earn commission by referring contributors. Thank you for your support.
Gizem
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