Creative & media

Stock photography & footage

You shoot photos or video and license them on stock sites for anyone to buy. Each file can keep earning long after you upload it.

No reviews yet — be the first to add one.

Add a review

Median monthly earnings

$1,440

Middle 50% shown here

Effective hourly

$20.00

Earnings over the hours people logged

Hours per week

18 hrs

Median across reviews

Startup cost

$100–500

To get up and running

Time to first $100

1–4 weeks

From starting out

Monthly expenses

$50–150

To keep it running

Schedule flexibility

Mostly flexible

Most common answer

Would recommend it

72%

Say yes or probably yes

What people make in a month

Gross earnings people entered themselves, before expenses and taxes. Example distribution.

Under $100

$100–250

$250–500

$500–1,000

$1,000–2,000

$2,000–3,500

$3,500–5,000

$5,000–10,000

$10,000+

By platform

How many reviewers use each platform. Many people work more than one.

?Platform one

12 reviewers

?Platform two

9 reviewers

?Platform three

4 reviewers

How it scores

Happiness7.4 / 10

Would do it again68%

Schedule flexibility4.1 / 5

Pay predictability2.9 / 5

What surprised people most

Every option reviewers could pick, most common first. Example distribution.

How much time it takes

How difficult it is to find customers or clients

Unexpected expenses

How little I could earn

Nothing really surprised me

How difficult it is to get started

Taxes — how much I owe

How much I could earn

How competitive the market is

Example preview

Be the first to review this one

Nobody has reviewed this hustle yet, so the numbers behind the blur are placeholders. Add yours and real medians, hourly rates, and reviews show up here.

Add a review

About five minutes · anonymous · US residents only

Already doing this?

Most people doing stock photography & footage overpay on taxes — here's the full write-off guide.

📷 27 Tax Write-Offs for Freelance Photographers

Simply by using the everyday expenses you rack up for your business, you can lower your tax bill and keep more of what you earn.

Side hustle income means side hustle taxes.

Keeper — the tax app behind this index — finds the write-offs for whatever work you do.

Explore Keeper