Unsplash uses a third-party AI tagging service (Imagga's Auto-Tagging API) to automatically generate descriptive keywords and category labels for every photo submitted to the platform. This applies to all uploaded content globally.

When a photographer submits a photo to Unsplash, the image is parsed through Imagga's Auto-Tagging API, which applies computer vision to suggest keywords and assign a category. These tags power Unsplash's keyword-based search. Photographers can add or remove tags manually, but the initial tag set is generated automatically. Unsplash's own blog confirms that automatic tagging occurs on every photo submission, and the Imagga case study confirms Unsplash integrated this API to enhance image metadata and search capabilities.