Pexels Stock Photo & Video Scraper

Pull free stock photos and videos from Pexels at scale — no API key, no account, nothing to sign up for. Search by keyword, look media up by ID, grab a whole collection, or export a photographer's entire portfolio. Every row comes with direct CDN download URLs at every size and quality, plus rich metadata.

Built for content teams, ML/AI dataset builders, digital-asset workflows, and anyone who needs royalty-free imagery in bulk.

✨ Why use this scraper?

• Zero setup — no Pexels API key or login required. Paste a query and run.
• Photos and videos — direct download links for every image size and every video rendition (with a convenience "highest quality" link).
• Rich metadata — tags, dominant colour + full colour palette, dimensions, aspect ratio, orientation, license, and the photographer's profile including Instagram, location, avatar and donation link.
• Four ways in — keyword search, by photo/video ID, by collection, or a photographer's full portfolio.
• De-duplicated & pay-per-result — you're charged per media record, nothing else.

How it works

1. Pick a mode: search, curated, byPhotoId, byCollection, byUser, or similarPhotos.
2. Fill the matching field (a query, some IDs, a collection URL, or a photographer handle) — or nothing for curated.
3. Set your limits and run. Results stream to the dataset — export as JSON, CSV, Excel, or via the API.

Modes

Mode	What you give it	What you get
search	a keyword + media type	matching photos and/or videos
curated	nothing (just media type)	Pexels' discover feed — no query needed
byPhotoId	photo/video IDs or URLs	those exact media records
byCollection	a collection slug or URL	every item in the collection
byUser	a photographer handle/URL	that photographer's full portfolio
similarPhotos	photo IDs or URLs	photos related to each one

Filters (search mode): media type, orientation, number of people (none / 1 / 2), min width/height, and video duration range.

Example input

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "coffee",
  "mediaType": "all",
  "orientation": "landscape",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example output (one photo row)

{
  "type": "photo",
  "id": 27860686,
  "url": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/coffee-cup-27860686/",
  "title": "coffee cup",
  "description": "A beautifully crafted cappuccino with intricate latte art…",
  "width": 2763,
  "height": 3683,
  "aspectRatio": 0.75,
  "orientation": "portrait",
  "license": "Pexels",
  "tags": ["barista", "beverage", "cappuccino", "latte art", "..."],
  "mainColor": "#918c79",
  "colors": ["#000000", "#696969", "#8b4513", "#a0522d", "#a9a9a9"],
  "photographer": "FFC Aarman",
  "photographerUrl": "https://www.pexels.com/@ffc-aarman-22995634/",
  "photographerLocation": "Jammu",
  "photographerInstagram": "ffc_aarman",
  "imageOriginal": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/27860686/pexels-photo-27860686.jpeg",
  "imageLarge": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/27860686/pexels-photo-27860686.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1440",
  "downloadUrl": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/27860686/pexels-photo-27860686.jpeg?cs=srgb&dl=...&fm=jpg"
}

Video rows add duration, fps, videoSrc, a videoFiles array (every quality with width/height/fps/link), highestQualityUrl, and thumbnails.

Key output fields

Field	Description
type	photo or video
id, url, slug	Pexels media id, page URL, slug
title, description, alt	Text metadata
width, height, aspectRatio, orientation	Dimensions
tags	Content tags
mainColor, colors	Dominant colour + palette (hex)
imageOriginal / imageLarge / imageMedium / imageSmall	Photo download URLs by size
videoFiles, videoSrc, highestQualityUrl	Video renditions + best link
downloadUrl	Best single download link
photographer, photographerUrl, photographerLocation, photographerInstagram, photographerTwitter	Creator profile & socials
license, donateUrl	License and donation link

FAQ

Do I need a Pexels API key or account? No. The actor is self-contained.

Can I download the actual files? The actor returns direct CDN URLs for every size/quality — pipe them into your own downloader or asset pipeline.

How many results per query? Pexels caps a single search/portfolio at roughly a few hundred results; use narrower queries (or by-collection / by-user modes) to target exactly what you need.

🤖 For AI Agents & LLM Apps

Compact reference for AI agents calling this actor via the Apify MCP server or the Apify API (actor: memo23/pexels-scraper).

Purpose: Pull royalty-free Pexels photos and videos with direct CDN download URLs at every size/quality — no API key or account required.

Minimal input:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "coffee",
  "mediaType": "all",
  "maxItems": 25
}

ID/URL variant (no search): { "mode": "byCollection", "collectionSlug": "aquatic-aesthetic-bw7dkse", "maxItems": 25 } (also byPhotoId/similarPhotos with photoIds, byUser with username, or curated with no query).

Output: one row per media record — type, id, url, slug, title, description, alt, width, height, aspectRatio, orientation, license, tags, mainColor, colors, imageOriginal, imageLarge, imageMedium, imageSmall, downloadUrl, photographer, photographerUrl, photographerLocation, photographerInstagram, photographerTwitter, donateUrl; video rows add duration, fps, videoSrc, videoFiles (each with width/height/fps/link), highestQualityUrl, thumbnails.

Behaviors an agent should know:

• Always set maxItems (default 30, free tier capped at 100); Pexels caps a single search/portfolio query at roughly a few hundred results.
• mode picks the source: search needs searchQuery; byPhotoId/similarPhotos need photoIds; byCollection needs collectionSlug; byUser needs username; curated needs nothing.
• Filters (orientation, peopleCount, minWidth/minHeight, minDuration/maxDuration) apply to search mode only.
• dedupe (default true) drops duplicate media by type + id.
• Billing: pay-per-result — one charge per media record returned; no charge for API key or login (neither is used).

⚠️ Disclaimer

This actor collects publicly available media metadata and links from Pexels. All content is subject to the Pexels License — please credit photographers where appropriate and use the content within Pexels' terms and applicable law. You are responsible for how you use the data.

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