Pexels Stock Image Scraper

Pexels Stock Image Scraper

Extract free stock photos from Pexels by keyword or search URL. The Pexels Stock Image Scraper returns clean, structured photo data — titles, tags, dominant colors, dimensions, download links, and full photographer details — ready for design tools, content pipelines, or dataset building.

Search by keyword or paste a Pexels search URL, filter by orientation, size, and dominant color, and get every photo's download links, tags, colors, and photographer metadata in one structured record.

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Apify Actor: parsebird/pexels-stock-image-scraper. Scrapes free stock photos from Pexels (pexels.com). Call via ApifyClient: client.actor("parsebird/pexels-stock-image-scraper").call(run_input={"keyword": "summer", "results_wanted": 20}). Also accepts url (a Pexels search URL, filters preserved), max_pages, page (start page), orientation ("horizontal"/"vertical"/"square"), size ("large"/"medium"/"small"), color (name or hex), locale (e.g. "en-us", "de-de"), and proxyConfiguration. Returns per photo: id, type, slug, title, description, alt, photo_url, download_page_url, download_image_url, small_image_url, medium_image_url, large_image_url, width, height, aspect_ratio, license, created_at, updated_at, publish_at, tags, colors, main_color_rgb, photographer_id/name/slug/username/location/avatar/hero/instagram/twitter/badges, reactions_emotional/technical/stylistic_count, user, image, reactions, search (query/locale/source_url/page/total_photo_results/current_page). Full API spec: https://apify.com/parsebird/pexels-stock-image-scraper/api. Get your token: https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations.

What does Pexels Stock Image Scraper do?

This actor renders Pexels' own search results page and reads the same structured data Pexels' frontend uses to display photos — no manual clicking, no rate-limit guesswork. You give it a keyword, a Pexels search URL, or both, and it returns every matching photo with dimensions, license, tags, dominant colors, and download links.

• 🔍 Keyword or URL search — search by a plain keyword, or paste a Pexels search URL with filters already applied (?orientation=, ?color=, etc.) to preserve your exact search settings.
• 🎚️ Orientation, size, and color filters — narrow results to horizontal, vertical, or square photos, a minimum resolution tier, or a dominant color (by name or hex code).
• 📄 Configurable pagination — set a start page and a max-pages cap to control exactly how deep a run goes.
• 🖼️ Full image variants — small, medium, large preview URLs plus the direct high-resolution download link for every photo.
• 👤 Full photographer metadata — name, username, location, avatar, hero/badge status, and social links for attribution.
• 🌍 Locale support — fetch results in a specific Pexels locale (e.g. de-de) to get localized titles and descriptions.

What data can you extract from Pexels?

Field	Description
title / description / alt	Photo title, description, and alt text
tags	Pexels' own keyword tags for the photo
colors / main_color_rgb	Dominant color palette (hex) and main color (RGB)
width / height / aspect_ratio	Image dimensions
download_image_url / download_page_url	Direct download link and Pexels download page
small_image_url / medium_image_url / large_image_url	Preview image variants at three sizes
license	License label supplied by Pexels (typically Pexels, free to use)
photographer_name / photographer_username / photographer_location	Photographer attribution
photographer_avatar_small / photographer_avatar_medium	Photographer avatar images
search	The query, locale, source URL, and page context the photo was found under

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	No	—	Public Pexels photo search URL; preserves filters already in the URL
keyword	string	No	summer	Search keyword; used when no URL is given, or as the active query when both are supplied
results_wanted	integer	No	20	Maximum number of photo results to save
max_pages	integer	No	10	Maximum number of result pages to process
page	integer	No	1	Page number to start collecting from
orientation	string	No	—	horizontal, vertical, or square
size	string	No	—	large, medium, or small (approximate minimum resolution tier)
color	string	No	—	Dominant color filter — a color name (e.g. blue) or hex code
locale	string	No	en-us	Locale override, e.g. en-us or de-de
proxyConfiguration	object	No	Residential proxy on	Apify Proxy settings — residential proxy is required and on by default (Pexels blocks Apify's datacenter IPs)

Output example

{
  "id": 8455817,
  "type": "photo",
  "slug": "color-flipflops-on-the-sand",
  "title": "Color Flipflops on the Sand",
  "description": "Vibrant flip flops stand in the sand against a clear blue sky.",
  "alt": "Vibrant flip flops stand in the sand against a clear blue sky.",
  "photo_url": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/color-flipflops-on-the-sand-8455817/",
  "download_page_url": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/8455817/download/",
  "download_image_url": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/8455817/pexels-photo-8455817.jpeg?cs=srgb&dl=pexels-rdne-8455817.jpg&fm=jpg",
  "small_image_url": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/8455817/pexels-photo-8455817.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=130",
  "medium_image_url": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/8455817/pexels-photo-8455817.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=350",
  "large_image_url": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/8455817/pexels-photo-8455817.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1440",
  "width": 4442,
  "height": 6663,
  "aspect_ratio": 0.6666666667,
  "license": "Pexels",
  "publish_at": "2021-06-23T22:00:45.455Z",
  "tags": ["beach", "summer", "vacation"],
  "colors": ["#008b8b", "#00bfff", "#cd5c5c"],
  "photographer_name": "RDNE Stock project",
  "photographer_slug": "rdne",
  "photographer_location": "Los Angeles",
  "search": {
    "query": "summer",
    "locale": "en-us",
    "source_url": "https://www.pexels.com/search/summer/",
    "page": 1,
    "total_photo_results": 5186,
    "current_page": 1
  }
}

Download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or XML directly from the Apify Console, or fetch them via the Apify API / dataset endpoint.

Use cases

• Design and content pipelines — pull curated, license-clear stock photos by keyword directly into a CMS, design tool, or asset library.
• Dataset building — build labeled image datasets with tags, colors, and dimensions for computer vision or ML projects.
• Website and blog imagery — automate sourcing relevant photos for articles, landing pages, or social posts by topic.
• Color-based mood boards — use the color filter to collect photos matching a specific brand palette.
• Photographer discovery — surface active, high-output photographers on Pexels by keyword niche.

How to scrape Pexels stock photos

1. Set your search — enter a Keyword, or paste a Pexels search URL into the URL field to preserve existing filters.
2. Choose filters — set Orientation, Size, and Color to narrow the results.
3. Set limits — Results Wanted caps total photos returned; Max Pages and Start Page control how deep pagination goes.
4. Leave Proxy Configuration on — residential proxy is enabled by default and required for reliable access.
5. Run the actor — click Start in the Apify Console, or trigger it via the API or on a schedule.
6. Get your data — download the dataset as JSON/CSV/Excel, or pull it via the API.

How much does it cost to scrape Pexels?

This actor uses Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing — you're charged per photo extracted, not per compute unit.

Event	Price per event	Price per 1,000
photo-scraped (Free plan)	$0.0011	$1.10
photo-scraped (Bronze)	$0.001	$1.00
photo-scraped (Silver)	$0.00095	$0.95
photo-scraped (Gold)	$0.0009	$0.90

A run collecting 500 photos costs roughly $0.45–$0.55 depending on your Apify plan. All Apify accounts include a free trial with credits to try the actor before committing to a paid plan.

FAQ

What does the size filter actually do? Pexels' own site filters photos by minimum width/height rather than a named size tier, so large/medium/small are mapped to approximate minimum-resolution thresholds (roughly matching Pexels' official API's 24MP/12MP/4MP tiers).

What format does color accept? Either a common color name (red, blue, green, etc.) or a hex code (with or without the #). The filter matches photos by dominant color, not exact pixel color.

Why do main_color_rgb or photographer_location sometimes come back empty? Not every photo has a Pexels-computed main color, and not every photographer has a location set on their profile. These fields are returned empty when Pexels doesn't supply a value.

Why is a proxy required? Pexels blocks Apify's datacenter IPs via Cloudflare, even from a real browser. A residential proxy is enabled by default in Proxy Configuration to keep runs reliable — turning it off will cause runs to fail.

Does this actor download the actual image files? No — it returns the download_image_url and image preview URLs so you can download files yourself, on your own schedule and infrastructure.

Does this actor support scheduling and integrations? Yes. Use Apify Schedules to run it daily or weekly, connect it to Zapier, Make, or Slack, or call it through the Apify API from your own backend.

What are the limitations of this actor? ⚠️

• Pexels' search results are effectively capped around 10,000 matches per query, regardless of the total match count shown
• Results reflect Pexels' public photo search only (not videos or user profiles)

Is it legal to scrape Pexels?

Yes. This actor only accesses publicly available photo listings that Pexels makes visible to any visitor. It does not bypass login walls or access private accounts. Scraping publicly available data is generally considered legal — see Apify's overview of web scraping legality for more detail. All photos returned are licensed under the free Pexels License. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of the collected data complies with applicable laws and Pexels' Terms of Service.

Python and JavaScript usage

Python (apify-client):

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

run_input = {
    "keyword": "summer",
    "results_wanted": 50,
    "orientation": "horizontal",
}

run = client.actor("parsebird/pexels-stock-image-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["title"], item["download_image_url"])

JavaScript (apify-client):

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' });

const input = {
    keyword: 'summer',
    results_wanted: 50,
    orientation: 'horizontal',
};

const run = await client.actor('parsebird/pexels-stock-image-scraper').call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Related Actors

• Unsplash Image Scraper — free stock photos from Unsplash
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• Pinterest Image Downloader — bulk-download Pinterest images
• Pinterest Profile Scraper — pins and boards from a Pinterest profile

Browse the full catalog on the ParseBird Apify Store page.