Photographers are reporting that Adobe Stock is imposing upload limits after the image-selling platform has been swamped with AI imagery.
Robert Kneschke reveals on the Daily Life of a Photo Producer blog that earlier this month, the number of AI images in Adobe Stock’s portfolio was almost 50 percent.
That means over 300 million AI images have been uploaded in just three years. For context, it took 20 years for photographers to upload that many real photos onto Adobe Stock.
Kneschke reports that in May 2023, there were 8.5 million AI images on Adobe Stock, representing 2.5 percent of the total portfolio at that time.
But fast forward two years and that number has increased approximately 40 times with Kneschke records showing that as of April 2025, there were 313 million AI images available on Adobe Stock and 342 million actual photographs — 29 million images shy of being 50/50.
“In just three years, almost as many AI images were uploaded to Adobe Stock as normal works in the 20 years since Adobe Stock (formerly Fotolia) was founded,” Kneschke writes, pointing to Midjourney as a catalyst for this dramatic change.
Upload Limits
The huge increase in images being uploaded to Adobe Stock has allegedly prompted the company to restrict submissions.
“This surge in demand presented the photo agency with a number of new challenges,” writes Kneschke. “Wait times for new images to be published exploded, sometimes reaching over two months, whereas previously, images were usually posted online within a few days.”
Kneschke says that “many photographers” are noticing a “significantly increased rejection rate” with “similar content in our collection” the most common reason given by Adobe for the refusal.
“Social media was filled with reports from photographers who, after years of uploading, suddenly found themselves facing mass rejections for the first time,” says Kneschke.
“Just a few weeks later, in mid-May 2025, Adobe Stock sent out an email announcing that upload limits had been introduced based on previous acceptance rates, sales, and other factors.”
One user in an Adobe forum complained at the end of March, “I went from a 95% acceptance rate to 20% or less.” The user says the reason given is always that there are “similar images.”
Kneschke adds that he believes Adobe doesn’t want the number of AI images to rise above 50 percent as, apart from anything else, the cost of server space will dent their bottom line.
“What initially sounds like a trivial matter becomes quite different when you consider that in January and February 2025 alone, more than 29 million AI images were accepted per month at Adobe Stock,” he says.
Adobe has been approached for comment.
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