Getty Images agreed to a deal with OpenAI to provide access to its licensed content libraries in ChatGPT’s search and discovery features.
A brief statement from Getty confirmed that the companies had entered into a multiyear partnership, although neither vendor revealed financial details.
Getty has long been one of the world’s foremost image libraries, with an archive of millions of pictures and working partnerships with more than 600,000 content creators.
But with advances in AI making it ever easier to digitally recreate the editorial and stock images that are the core of Getty’s business, the company is looking for new revenue streams in a rapidly changing landscape.
High‑quality, licensed visual content makes AI‑powered search and discovery more useful and more trustworthy. This partnership with OpenAI reflects a shared recognition of that, and together we will deliver richer visual experiences to ChatGPT users,” Getty CEO Craig Peters said in the statement.
However, while Getty said its images could be used to enhance “the richness of visual responses,” it is not clear at this stage whether there will be limitations on OpenAI’s access.
For example, there has been no mention yet of whether ChatGPT will be able to alter the images supplied. Nor has there been any reference to the possibility of Getty images being used to train OpenAI’s generative models.
For Getty, the deal constitutes something of a reversal following previous hostility toward AI companies, other than a licensing deal with AI search vendor Perplexity last year.
In 2023, for example, it initiated legal proceedings in the U.K. against Stability AI, alleging that it had “unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright.” However, many of its claims were dismissed in a London court in 2025.
Getty’s deal with OpenAI provided a short-term bounce for the company, with its share price rising dramatically in the hours after the agreement was revealed, although this was against a backdrop of a near-40 % drop in value since the start of the year.
