FinalAI-edited source brief

Getty Images and OpenAI strike multi-year deal to surface licensed photos in ChatGPT

The partnership brings Getty's rights-cleared visual library into ChatGPT search results — and a Getty spokesperson confirms it's display-only, with no AI training rights granted.

Published ...7 sources0 Reddit6 web85% confidence

What matters

Getty Images and OpenAI signed a multi-year display partnership bringing licensed photos into ChatGPT search and discovery results.
Getty spokesperson Julia Holmes confirmed the deal is 'display only,' excluding AI training rights — matching the structure of Getty's earlier Perplexity AI agreement.
Getty previously banned AI-generated art, sued Stability AI, and launched its own NVIDIA-powered generative tool before pivoting to licensing deals with AI search companies.
Getty's stock (NYSE: GETY) moved higher on the announcement.
The deal follows a similar October 2025 Perplexity AI partnership, establishing a pattern of display-only licensing for Getty.

What happened

Getty Images announced a multi-year display partnership with OpenAI on June 21, 2026, bringing its licensed visual content library into ChatGPT's search and discovery features. Under the agreement, Getty's rights-cleared photos will appear in ChatGPT visual responses with proper attribution.

The official press release described the deal as enabling "use of Getty Images' content for display within ChatGPT, enhancing the richness of visual responses." Getty CEO Craig Peters called the partnership a reflection of "a shared recognition" that licensed visual content makes AI-powered search "more useful and more trustworthy."

Crucially, Getty spokesperson Julia Holmes confirmed in an email to Yahoo Tech that the OpenAI agreement — like Getty's October 2025 deal with Perplexity AI — is "display only." That means OpenAI can show Getty images in ChatGPT responses but cannot use them to train its models. This removes ambiguity left by the press release, which did not explicitly address training rights.

Getty's stock (NYSE: GETY) moved higher on the news.

Why it matters

This deal marks another step in Getty's evolving — and sometimes contradictory — relationship with generative AI. In September 2022, Getty banned all AI-generated art from its library. Months later, it sued Stability AI for alleged copyright violations, a claim that was rejected in late 2025. By September 2023, Getty had launched its own generative AI tool, powered by NVIDIA's Edigy model, with royalty-free licenses on outputs.

The OpenAI deal follows a similar October 2025 partnership with Perplexity AI, which also included commitments to improve image attribution with credits and source links. Together, these agreements suggest Getty has settled on a licensing-first strategy: monetize display access to its library while withholding training rights.

For OpenAI, the partnership adds a trusted, rights-cleared visual source to ChatGPT at a time when both OpenAI and Perplexity face lawsuits over alleged scraping of copyrighted materials. Licensed content with proper attribution could help differentiate ChatGPT's visual responses from competitors relying on less clearly sourced imagery.

Public reaction

No Reddit or public discussion threads were available at the time of writing, so there is no measurable community sentiment to report. The story was primarily covered through Getty's official press release and tech news outlets including Engadget, Yahoo Tech, and Crypto Briefing.

What to watch

Rollout timing and scope: The press release did not specify when Getty content will begin appearing in ChatGPT or whether it will be limited to certain tiers, regions, or query types.
Attribution implementation: How OpenAI renders image credits and source links in ChatGPT responses — and whether it matches Perplexity's approach — remains to be seen.
Photographer compensation: Whether content creators see meaningful revenue from these display partnerships is an open question.
Broader licensing trend: Expect more stock-photo agencies to pursue similar display-only deals with AI search providers, potentially establishing a new recurring revenue stream for rights holders.
Training rights pressure: If display partnerships prove commercially successful, AI companies may push to expand them into training licenses — a line Getty has so far held.

Sources

Public reaction

No Reddit or public discussion threads were available at the time of writing, so there is no measurable community sentiment to report. The story was primarily covered through official press releases and tech news outlets.

Open questions

Will photographers and content creators see meaningful revenue from AI display partnerships?
How will image attribution and source links be implemented in ChatGPT responses?
Could this deal eventually expand to include AI training rights?

What to do next

Developers

If you build apps on top of ChatGPT or OpenAI APIs, review how visual responses are rendered in your UI to ensure Getty image attributions and source links display correctly.

Licensed content with attribution requirements may introduce new metadata fields or link structures in API responses.

Founders

Evaluate whether your AI product needs a similar licensed-content partnership to remain competitive on trust and visual richness.

As OpenAI and Perplexity secure stock-photo deals, users may come to expect rights-cleared imagery in AI search results, raising the bar for new entrants.

PMs

Audit your product's image sourcing and attribution flow to ensure compliance if licensed third-party content begins appearing in AI-generated responses.

Display partnerships introduce attribution and linking obligations that may affect how your product surfaces and credits visual content.

Investors

Watch for similar licensing deals between stock-photo agencies and other AI search providers, as this could become a recurring revenue stream for visual content companies.

Getty's stock moved higher on the OpenAI news, and the Perplexity deal suggests a replicable licensing model that could benefit rights holders across the industry.

Operators

If your team uses ChatGPT for research or content workflows, brief staff on the upcoming presence of licensed Getty imagery and the importance of respecting attribution when repurposing visual results.

Licensed images carry usage restrictions; teams should understand that seeing a Getty photo in ChatGPT does not automatically grant republication rights.

How to test

1Open ChatGPT and initiate a search query that would naturally surface visual results (e.g., 'Show me images of [newsworthy event or landmark]').
2Observe whether Getty Images content appears in the visual response.
3Check whether the image includes attribution, credit text, or a link back to a Getty source page.
4Compare the visual richness and attribution quality against a similar query on Perplexity AI, which has its own Getty deal.

Caveats

The rollout may be gradual and not immediately available to all users or regions.
The official press release does not specify exact launch timing within ChatGPT.
Attribution display details may differ from the Perplexity implementation.