How can I tell if a photo has been reused or stolen?

A reverse image search shows every page using that photo. If it appears on many unrelated sites, it has been widely reused; comparing publish dates helps identify the original.

How to Find the Original Source of a Photo

Q: How do I find who posted an image first?

Reverse search the image across multiple engines and sort results by date. The earliest-published page with a full-resolution copy is usually the original source, though it is not guaranteed.

Q: Why do different engines give different results?

Each engine crawls and indexes a different slice of the web, so Google, Yandex, and Bing each surface sources the others miss. Checking all three gives the fullest picture.

Whether you're checking if a news image is real, finding who to credit, or seeing where your own photo has been reused, the method is the same: reverse search across several engines and work out which result came first. Here's the workflow.

Open the reverse image search tool →

The workflow

Reverse search the image. Upload it to the reverse image search tool and run Google Lens first.
Check the other engines. Run the same photo on Yandex and Bing. They index different parts of the web, so each finds pages the others don't.
Sort by size and date. The largest copy is usually closest to the original, and the earliest-published page is often the true source. Open the candidates and compare.
Crop and re-search. Crop to a distinctive detail — a logo, a face, a sign — and search again. This surfaces pages a full-frame search misses.

Reading the results

Reverse search tells you where a photo appears, not automatically which copy came first — so treat it as evidence, not proof. A photo on dozens of unrelated sites has been widely reused; the version with the highest resolution and the oldest publish date is your best candidate for the origin. For news and viral images, cross-checking the date against when the event supposedly happened is a quick way to catch recycled or miscaptioned photos.

Common uses

Fact-checking: confirm a photo actually depicts what a post claims.
Crediting: find the photographer or original publisher before reusing an image.
Protecting your work: see which sites have reposted your photos without permission.
Shopping: trace a product photo back to the store that sells it.

FAQ

How do I find who posted an image first?

Reverse search across engines and sort by date. The earliest page with a full-resolution copy is usually the origin — though not guaranteed.

How can I tell if a photo was reused or stolen?

A reverse search lists every page using it. Wide reuse across unrelated sites plus publish dates reveals the original.

Why do engines give different results?

Each indexes a different slice of the web, so Google, Yandex, and Bing each surface sources the others miss.

Try it now →