Data AnalysisVerified
Reviewed and published by trentmaziarz, May 11, 2026. Discovered and drafted by our automated research pipeline.
Unsplash deployed a machine learning-based visual matching system that scans the public web to identify where contributor photos have been used, then surfaces that information to photographers in a 'Uses' dashboard. This feature launched in May 2021.
Details
Unsplash built its own visual matching technology powered by machine learning, combined with a custom web crawler, to identify public placements of Unsplash photos across the internet. The system takes Unsplash images as reference and matches them against indexed web pages, producing a list of notable public URLs where each photo appears. This information is displayed to photographers in their stats area under a section called 'Uses'.
Products affected
Unsplash (contributor dashboard)
Sources & Evidence
Cite this record
Trace Foundation. (2026). Unsplash: Unsplash deployed a machine learning-based visual matching system that scans the public web to identify where contributor photos have been used, then surfaces that information to photographers in a 'Uses' dashboard. This feature launched in May 2021 (data as of 2026-05-11) [Data set record]. AI Trace. https://www.aitrace.org/r/practice/47289653-b2a8-4ce5-808b-84cee9d5fb5b. Accessed October 5, 2026.
- Stable link
- https://www.aitrace.org/r/practice/47289653-b2a8-4ce5-808b-84cee9d5fb5b
- Data as of
- May 11, 2026
- Last verified
- Not recorded
Other practices by Unsplash
ModerationUnsplash uses a content filtering system built into its API that automatically screens search results to prevent images violating submission guidelines—such as nudity or violence—from being returned to API consumers. This is active by default for all API applications.RecommendationUnsplash uses advanced image recognition technology to power keyword-based search across its library, with the Unsplash API officially described as being powered by 'tens of millions of community generated tags and advanced image recognition.' This is available to all users and API consumers globally.ProductivityUnsplash 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.
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