Perplexity just signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images, one of the world’s leading visual content providers. The deal gives Perplexity rights to display Getty’s creative and editorial images across its AI-powered search engine and discovery tools. This signals a major step for both companies in aligning AI, digital content, and copyright compliance.
With this deal, Perplexity will gain direct access to Getty’s vast archive via API, integrating both stock and editorial photos into its results. Each image surfaced through Perplexity will be accompanied by clear attribution and a source link, hoping to educate users about the legal use of licensed imagery.
Nick Unsworth, Vice President of Strategic Development at Getty Images, highlighted the significance of the partnership, stating, “Partnerships such as this support AI platforms to increase the quality and accuracy of information delivered to consumers, ultimately building a more engaging and reliable experience. This agreement paves the way for a productive and collaborative partnership between our companies, where we will work together to improve attribution of our contributors’ work and Getty Images’ high‑quality creative and editorial content will enhance Perplexity’s platform”.
Perplexity’s deal with Getty Images comes at a critical time for AI companies, amid rising legal scrutiny over how these firms train and present content. In the past year, Perplexity has faced allegations of scraping and plagiarism from a variety of publishers.
For instance, the company was previously called out for using Getty-owned images within news content, raising questions about copyright. In response to this changing environment, Perplexity has worked toward formalizing relationships and establishing revenue models alongside content owners to legitimize its practices.
Jessica Chan, Head of Content and Publisher Partnerships at Perplexity, stated the company’s commitment to ethical practices, noting, “Attribution and accuracy are fundamental to how people should understand the world in an age of AI. Getty Images shares our belief that the future of AI‑powered discovery requires respecting the creators behind the content. Together, we’re helping people discover answers through powerful visual storytelling while ensuring they always know where that content comes from and who created it”.
Changing the Norm
For Perplexity, this multi-year deal marks a substantial step forward in rebuilding trust and strengthening its platform with premium, verified visuals. The company’s platform has been designed to provide direct answers to user questions, and the addition of authentic Getty images elevates the experience, combining search intelligence with authoritative visual context.
By integrating clear image credits and links, Perplexity sets a new bar for transparency and copyright compliance in the AI search sector. Perplexity and Getty have reportedly been collaborating for over a year, with Getty quietly joining Perplexity’s Publishers’ Program, a model designed to share ad revenue with outlets when their content appears in AI search.
The new licensing arrangement, however, is distinct in that it allows for more formal and extensive use of Getty’s archive in Perplexity’s products and future AI tools.
The partnership emerges against a backdrop of legal actions and ongoing negotiations across the AI and publishing industries. Getty Images has itself been active in protecting its intellectual property, previously banning AI-generated art on its platforms and filing suit against Stability AI for alleged mass-scale unauthorized use of its imagery.
Meanwhile, Perplexity has faced copyright challenges from several international publishers and is the subject of ongoing lawsuits, including a recent case from Reddit, alleging unauthorized scraping and circumvention of access controls. The Getty deal, therefore, not only legitimizes Perplexity’s use of high-value content but also signals to regulators and rights holders that the company is willing to play by clearer, more ethical, and contractual rules.
This move by Perplexity and Getty follows a broader trend where AI companies are signing licensing agreements as a strategic defense against fair use lawsuits and a way to access unique, high-quality data. Experts assert that while such deals will become mandatory for top-tier content owners like Getty, replicating this model across the wider web remains a challenge due to the fragmented nature and vastness of internet content.
For Getty, the agreement aligns with its focus on “supporting AI-driven creativity,” and sector leaders expect more deals to follow as AI firms look to stand out and future-proof their offerings.
