Use Openverse Media Library

Improve the look of your site with Openverse, a search engine for openly licensed media (previously known as CC Search).

Openverse has an index of over 600 million Creative Commons licensed and public domain image files, which you can add to your website free of charge.

Certain Jetpack Blocks now include built-in support for Openverse.

Jetpack Blocks require the Block Editor (also referred to as the Gutenberg editor). If you’ve installed the Classic Editor plugin, you have a few options:

Deactivate the Classic Editor: Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins in your WP Admin and deactivate the Classic Editor plugin.
Enable both editors: If you prefer flexibility, navigate to Settings → Writing in your WP Admin (not the menu under Jetpack settings). Set Allow users to switch editors to Yes. You will only see these options if you have the Classic Editor plugin installed and active.

Some custom themes or plugins may prevent you from using the Block Editor. In that case, please contact the support team for the plugin or theme for further assistance.

For more details, see Using Blocks and the Classic Editor.

Important note: Any images you import into your Media Library from Openverse will count toward your server storage limits. Please consult your host’s customer service team for any questions or concerns about this.

Use the Image or Gallery Block with Openverse support

Follow these steps to find and insert Openverse images within the Image or Gallery Block:

Insert an Image Block (or Gallery Block) into the post or page you’re working on.
Choose “Select Image” and select “Openverse” from the list of sources:
Use keywords to search for the perfect image on Openverse.
Select the image you’d like to insert into the Image Block.

Photographer support

Where possible, each image’s photographer is automatically credited in the caption. This credit helps support the photographers. However, the caption can be removed if preferred.

Modify image dimensions

Check your theme’s documentation for ideal image dimensions used in different areas of your site. If necessary, you can change image dimensions within your Media Library or with another editing tool, such as PicMonkey, Canva, Pixlr, or Photopea.