Can I use images from Google on my website?

Why a photo is protected without anyone registering it

Across the EU, copyright in a photo arises the moment it is taken. No registration, no © sign and no notice is needed, and protection runs until 70 years after the photographer's death. The UK works the same way. Putting a photo on your site without permission publishes it without a right to do so, even if it was free to find and even if you credit the creator.

Quotation exceptions do not help a business site. You may quote an image to comment on it, in a review or an analysis, not as a mood picture above your services page. And if a recognisable person is in the photo, a second right applies: in Belgium and several other EU countries that person must agree to their image being used, separately from the photographer. Their face is also personal data, which belongs in your privacy policy.

Can I use images from Google for my business? Source by source

The Usage rights filter in Google Images helps you find licensed pictures, but you read the licence itself on the source's site. Canva's free and paid licences differ in detail; check them before you build a brand on an element.

Can I use images from Google Maps on my website?

Yes, in the right form. Embedding a Google Map, for example on your contact page, needs no permission, and the attribution travels with it. A screenshot of Maps is allowed when you keep the standard attribution to Google and its data providers inside the image; moving it to your footer is not enough. Street View is stricter: you may embed it, but you may not take a screenshot of it for any purpose. Google Earth images are for non-commercial use only, so not for a website header or an ad.

AI images: owned by nobody, still not risk-free

An image made entirely by an AI model probably has no copyright under EU case law, because no human creation is behind it, so you may usually use it. The risk lies elsewhere: a model can imitate an existing work, a character or a brand too closely, and then you may still infringe. The EU AI Act also requires some AI content to be identifiable from December 2026; see AI-generated content labelling. And on a site that has to earn trust, an obviously generated picture rarely helps; AI website builders covers what AI does well and badly when building a site.

What happens if you use one anyway

Photo agencies and photographers run image searches across the web. If they find their picture without a licence, you get a letter asking for a licence fee and sometimes damages. The amount depends on the photographer, the period and the use, and quickly exceeds what a licence would have cost. Removing the image at once and having a lawyer look at the claim is usually the best route.

Your own images: more up front, less afterwards

Your own shoot settles three things at once: the rights are fixed in an agreement with the photographer, you have written consent from the people pictured, and your site shows your business, people and work rather than a stock photo your competitor uses too. Planning the day is covered in corporate photoshoot ideas, and the sizes to order in social media image sizes. Give every image alt text afterwards so Google and screen readers know what it shows.