Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
AI Licensing | Nov 3, 2025

Image: Freepik/rawpixel.com
On October 31 2025, Getty Images and Perplexity announced a global multi-year agreement that gives Perplexity permission to display Getty’s creative and editorial photos within its AI search tools. The partnership uses Getty’s API to bring licensed images directly into Perplexity’s results with clear credits and links to the original source.
It’s one of the first major deals between an AI company and a content rights holder, an example of how licensing can help AI platforms respect creators while improving the quality of what users see.
Jessica Chan, Head of Content and Publisher Partnerships at Perplexity:
“Getty Images shares our belief that the future of AI‑powered discovery requires respecting the creators behind the content. Attribution and accuracy are fundamental to how people should understand the world in an age of AI"
Perplexity has faced several plagiarism and scraping allegations during the past year, including incidents involving Getty photos that appeared without license. The new agreement resolves those issues by providing legitimate access under clear terms.
Nick Unsworth, Vice President Strategic Development at Getty Images:
"This agreement paves the way for a productive and collaborative partnership between our companies, where we will work together to improve attribution of our contributors' work and Getty Images’ high‑quality creative and editorial content will enhance Perplexity’s platform.”
Attribution does not grant any rights, and any reuse or commercial application still requires a separate license from Getty Images. There is no indication of sublicensing or user-level permissions in any official material.
The Perplexity–Getty deal is a win-win where a structured licensing partnership can strengthen trust and reduce copyright exposure while improving the user experience. For Getty, the deal adds a new business stream in AI search.
For Perplexity, it helps rebuild credibility after a year of public criticism while following through on stronger commitment to transparency and proper credit for creators. This partnership also builds on the company’s earlier initiative to share value with content creators through its 80/20 revenue-sharing program for publishers.
Being transparent about where information comes from builds confidence with users and regulators. As Canada develops its own rules for AI and copyright, partnerships like this one show how respecting creators can go hand in hand with innovation.
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