Stock Photo Upload Requirements, and How to Meet Them on a Mac

Each agency publishes its own limits, and they change, so confirm on the agency page before a big batch. This table holds what Shutterstock’s contributor help pages state, each row read on 11 October 2026. Adobe Stock publishes its own photo and video requirements on its photo requirements page and its video requirements page. Read those directly, because a figure copied from a forum is how files get refused.

Shutterstock’s own pages disagree on video size: the requirements article says “Maximum 10 GB” and the file-size error article says 4 gigabytes. Treat the lower number as the safe one until your upload screen says otherwise.

Shutterstock requires at least 4 MP, which is width times height of at least 4,000,000 pixels. Megapixels measure dimensions, not file size, so a small file can still pass and a heavy one can fail.

A 24 MP frame is six times the floor, so there is rarely a reason to resize at all. The upper limit is 150 MP. Enlarging a small file with an upscaler to reach 4 MP is a risk: Shutterstock rejects pixelation, and its quality page describes enlarged rasters as the cause. Smol’s photographer guide covers the resize default in more detail.

Upload the camera original whenever it is under the cap. Use Smol only when a file is over the limit, in the wrong format, or needs a lighter copy for your own portfolio. Quality numbers below are starting points we chose, not thresholds any agency published.

Smol sets quality and pixel size, not output bytes, so it cannot promise that a file lands under 50 MB. It writes a copy with a _compressed suffix, so sort the output by size and rerun only the files that miss. JPEG chroma subsampling stays at 4:4:4 from quality 90 and up, which is why 90 is where we start for stock. Smol also has a target-size mode for images (Neural) that aims at a size between 4 and 4096 KB. It is slow and it makes no quality promise, so stock work should not rely on it.

Should you strip metadata from a stock file?

Usually not. Smol strips EXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP by default when it compresses images, and IPTC is where your title, caption and keywords live. Switch stripping off for files you will submit with embedded metadata. For files going to a public portfolio, strip. See what compressing removes.

Check the whole batch for size and pixels first, then touch only the files that fail. The steps below leave your originals untouched by default.

1. 1

   Sort the folder by file size and dimensions in Finder

   Anything under 4 MP, or over 50 MB, is the only work you have. Everything else uploads as it is.

2. 2

   Drag the failing files into Smol

   Mixed batches work, so a TIFF, a HEIC and a clip can go in together.

3. 3

   Set JPG, quality 90 or higher, and switch the resize off

   Raising the maximum dimension above your long edge is the same thing. Leave metadata on if you embedded keywords.

4. 4

   Run it and read the per-file sizes

   Smol shows each result. Any output still over the cap goes back in at a slightly lower quality.

5. 5

   Open one result at 100 percent before you upload

   Look for blocky edges in skies and shadows. Those are the artifacts reviewers reject.

Shutterstock takes QuickTime .mov or .mp4 clips of 5 to 60 seconds, horizontal or vertical, at 23.98 to 60 frames per second, with H.264 encoded at its best quality setting. Its page also accepts ProRes and H.265, but does not recommend H.265 because of a known HDR issue.

Footage is where Smol earns its place. A ProRes clip is much larger than an H.264 clip of the same length, and re-encoding to H.264 with the resolution kept can cut size without lowering pixels. Re-encode once, from the camera original, and check the result against the limits above. Our 4K guide and H.265 versus H.264 posts explain the trade-offs. Drone and action work has its own pages: see drone footage.

You probably already own an export tool. Start with the one you have, and add Smol only for the jobs below.

Read our sips guide if you prefer a script. For portfolio previews, the web image workflow and the benchmark show how AVIF compares on small test photos. Delivery to clients has its own page: photographer client delivery.

Compressing can reduce your chances with an agency that wants maximum quality, so skip Smol when the original already fits.

• The original is under the cap. Upload it. Every re-encode of a JPEG loses detail, and Smol has no lossless mode for images.
• The file is under 4 MP. Compression cannot add pixels, and upscaling invites a pixelation rejection.
• You need EPS or SVG vector files. Smol does not write them.
• You must develop RAW or edit keywords and captions. Smol reads RAW and compresses it, but it does not develop it or edit metadata.
• You need a lossless pixel-identical reduction. The answer there is a lossless optimizer such as ImageOptim (see our head-to-head).