Last revised: March 11, 2025
About us and these terms
1. Welcome: Hi, we’re Envato and welcome to Envato Elements, a subscription service for digital items created by designers and other creatives from around the world. We’re really glad you’re keen on becoming an Author with us.
2. Author Terms: By becoming an Author, you agree that these Author Terms, which supplement and form part of the Envato Elements User Terms, are a legally binding agreement between us and you. Please take the time to read these Author Terms and check them regularly as they may be amended from time to time. If you do not agree to all of the Author Terms and the Envato Elements User Terms, you should not become an Author.
3. Definitions and interpretation: Any capitalized terms will have the meanings set out in the Definitions section of these Author Terms or, if not defined in these Author Terms, have the meanings given to them in the Envato Elements User Terms (unless the context requires otherwise). If there are any inconsistencies between these Author Terms and other applicable Envato terms, these Author Terms will prevail in relation to your activities as an Author.
As an Author on the Envato Elements you have responsibilities to us and Subscribers of your Items. Please take the time to review these Author Terms and other documents carefully.
We hope you find these resources helpful in understanding how to be a great Author on Envato Elements!
Becoming an Author
4. Becoming an Author is free: Becoming an Author and making your Items available on Envato Elements is free but there is a review process. There are a few things you warrant in exchange for the right to be an Author, which are outlined in these Author Terms and our other applicable terms and policies.
5. Process to become an Author: In our Author Help Center you’ll find instructions and resources to get started as an Author (including how to sign up, Author ID checks and how to start selling), along with information about payment, submission requirements and other important details about being an Author. If you are already an author on Envato Market then the process to become an Envato Elements Author may be able to be streamlined.
6. Information and documents required: To become an Author you will need to provide information and documents so we can process and verify your application. This information may include your name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth, a government-issued photo ID document, payment information and certain tax and business information. If you do not provide the required information or we are unable to verify that information then we cannot approve your application. By providing the required information, you consent to us collecting, verifying, using, storing and displaying on our sites and products certain information about you, including to:
a. process your application to be an Author;
b. verify your identity and, if relevant, your business registration;
c. provide our support services to Authors and other Users and respond to queries, feedback, claims or disputes;
d. provide you with the right to access and use Envato Elements and our other sites and products;
e. help you publish Items or other information on Envato Elements or our other sites and products;
f. display Author information on Envato Elements and other sites as required by applicable law; and
g. make such disclosures as may be required for any of the above purposes or as required by applicable law, for tax or payment purposes or in respect of any claims or potential claims brought against any Group Company.
7. Application approval and access: If we believe the information or documents you provide are inaccurate, incomplete, or not up-to-date, we may ask you to fix it without delay. Should you fail to do so or if we reasonably believe you are violating these Author Terms or our other applicable terms or policies or any applicable laws, we may refuse to approve your application and we reserve the right to suspend, disable or terminate your account and access to our services.
The rights you grant us
8. Your ownership and responsibility: You represent that you are the sole and exclusive owner of your Items. You will retain ownership of your Items and are solely responsible for the Items you contribute to Envato Elements (which you direct us to upload to the Envato Elements site).
9. Appointment: You appoint us and our Group Companies as your non-exclusive distributor to sell (that is, to license and/or sub-license) your Items on Envato Elements to Subscribers worldwide on a non-exclusive basis (and as otherwise permitted under section 10).
10. License to us: You grant us the worldwide rights:
a. to market your Items, including by reproducing, publishing, displaying, communicating and publicly performing your Items on the Envato Elements site, other sites operated by Group Companies, and in marketing and promotions about Envato or the Group Companies;
b. to make use of your Items on other sites operated by Envato or the Group Companies, in other products, features and services of Envato or the Group Companies, to develop, and enable the Group Companies to develop, new products, features and services (either independently or in collaboration with other parties), to use those products, features and services in perpetuity, and for any reasonable business purpose of the Group Companies, including to train artificial intelligence models and algorithms;
c. to sub-license the non-exclusive rights to use the Items to Subscribers on the terms of the Envato Elements License (as amended from time to time);
d. to sub-license the non-exclusive rights to reproduce, modify, copy, publicly perform, communicate, display, broadcast, translate and transmit the Items in any format or media to enterprise Subscribers or users of sites or platforms operated, or products offered by the Group Companies (including the right to create derivative works provided that use of such derivative works is limited to Subscriber’s or user’s permitted use with respect to the Item) subject to and in accordance with agreements as we or a Group Company may negotiate with enterprise Subscribers or such other users from time to time;
e. to sub-license the non-exclusive, perpetual rights to reproduce, modify, copy, publicly perform, communicate, display, broadcast, translate and transmit the Items in any format or media to licensees or prospective licensees of any Group Companies and to allow those licensees and prospective licensees to sub-license those rights to their own customers or licensees (including the right to create derivative works provided that use of such derivative works is limited to the licensee’s or prospective licensee’s permitted use with respect to the Item) subject to and in accordance with agreements as we or a Group Company may negotiate with them from time to time; and
f. to license and sublicense the non-exclusive, perpetual rights to reproduce, modify, copy, publicly perform, communicate display, translate and transmit the Items to any Group Companies for use on other products and services operated by the Group Companies (including the Placeit service), and to sub-license the non-exclusive, perpetual rights to use the Items to customers of those products and services, on the terms and conditions of the applicable product or service,
in each case, including the right to sub-license these rights to any Group Companies to do the same.
11. Credit: Where practicable, we may credit you if we use your Item in marketing and promotions, but you acknowledge that this might not always be feasible depending on the circumstances.
12. Non-exclusive basis: You agree that you contribute your Items on a non-exclusive basis. This means that nothing in these Author Terms affects your right to use or sell your Items outside of Envato Elements. If you’re an exclusive author on Envato Market, you can also be an author on Envato Elements and Placeit without impacting your Envato Market author fee or exclusivity. To avoid doubt however, your activities as an Envato Market author will be subject to separate Envato Market Author Terms.
13. Affiliate program: You acknowledge that a participant in Envato’s affiliate program can use your Item thumbnail previews in their promotion of Envato Elements and that no compensation is due to you for these types of uses.
Revenue share and payment
14. Envato pricing: We set all of the pricing for Envato Elements, including the price of subscription plans, what subscribers get for their money, and the relative value of Items.
15. Revenue share: As an Envato Elements Author, you will receive a share in 50% of the Net Revenue from Individual and Teams subscriptions to Envato Elements, and a share in 25% of the Net Revenue from Enterprise subscriptions. Your share will be calculated using the “subscriber share” method. In respect of Placeit, you will receive a share in 20% of the Net Revenue from customers of Placeit, calculated using the Placeit method. Your share may be subject to income / withholding tax depending on where you live. Your share of revenue, after any deductions or withholdings referenced in these Author Terms, is referred to in these Author Terms as ‘your earnings’ or ‘earnings’.
16. Compensation for permitted use of an Item: Where Envato receives a payment for a permitted use of an Item by a third party other than through Envato Elements or Placeit, Authors will be compensated for these uses.
17. Free Items: Without limiting our other rights under these Author Terms, from time to time we may make Items available for free on Envato Elements or other sites operated by a Group Company to encourage people to subscribe to Envato Elements or such other sites. Any such use would be guided by the free file policy in the Author Help Center.
18. Minimum threshold amount: We will only pay your earnings in accordance with these Author Terms once your unpaid earnings have reached the minimum threshold amount of USD$50.
19. Payment: We will pay your earnings into your nominated bank account within thirty (30) days from the end of the month in which your earnings reached the minimum threshold amount. We will inform you of our supported payment methods from time to time. It’s your responsibility to make sure you give us accurate and up to date payment information.
20. Payment errors: We will continue to hold your earnings if we’re not able to pay your earnings to you for whatever reason, including if:
a. we do not have the correct payment details;
b. we can’t contact you using the contact details that you have supplied;
c. you have not made a request for payment; or
d. you are asking for payment to be made to a person, an institution or a country that we’re legally prohibited from making payments to, or where there are limitations in the banking systems.
21. Statement: We will also give you a statement setting out how your earnings have been calculated.
22. Currency: Your earnings will be paid to you in US dollars. You are responsible for all costs of currency conversion relating to your earnings. Your financial institution does the currency conversion and may charge you additional fees outside our control.
23. Blocked payments: We may block payment if we or our payment providers can’t make or do not support payments to your country or region. You should check what payment methods are available in your country or region for receiving payments. Envato shall not be liable for any delay or failure to pay an amount owing in such circumstances. Also, if payment is prohibited by law or otherwise restricted, your unpaid earnings may be forfeited.
Taxes
24. Your responsibility for taxes: You are responsible for collecting and paying all taxes associated with your use of, and your transactions on, Envato Elements. Your responsibility includes any transaction taxes and withholding taxes, except to the extent we collect and remit that tax in accordance with sections 25 and 26.
25. Transaction taxes: In any jurisdiction where we are required to collect and/or pay any GST, VAT, sales tax or other taxes that apply to transactions on Envato Elements, you acknowledge and agree that:
a. we may add the applicable tax, or make an appropriate adjustment, to the amount payable;
b. we will generally display the tax amount at checkout or on an applicable invoice, and it will be included in the total amount payable; and
c. we will collect this tax amount via any means available to us, and remit the tax to the relevant authority.
26. Withholding taxes: We may deduct or withhold from any amount payable to you under these Author Terms, including your earnings, an amount sufficient to satisfy any taxes (including withholding taxes) which we are required to withhold under applicable law. The rate of withholding taxes will depend on the jurisdiction where you are located and whether or not an applicable tax treaty exists. You are required to pay the full amount of any amount payable by you under these Author Terms and may not deduct any applicable taxes (including withholding taxes) from that amount, unless otherwise specified in an agreement with us or an invoice we issue.
27. Tax information: From time to time, we may request or collect information or documentation from you that may be used for tax purposes, including location information for tax residency purposes. Tax rates are calculated based on this information and the applicable tax rate at the relevant time. Any information you provide must be accurate, complete and kept up-to-date. If you do not provide or update any required information or documentation, we may withhold payments to you.
Please see our Author Help Center for more details relating to Author tax requirements.
If you have any questions or require more information about your tax obligations, please contact your local tax authority, or seek independent tax advice. We cannot provide you with tax advice.
Your, representations, warranties and responsibilities
28. Your representations and warranties to us: You represent, warrant and covenant to us that:
a. you are 18 years of age or over;
b. you will follow any Author guidelines provided by us, act in good faith, and provide assistance and co-operation as we reasonably request;
c. you will not use any Envato Intellectual Property, including any trademark or trade name, in connection with your Items, your account or otherwise without our prior written consent or as expressly permitted under these Author Terms or our trade mark guidelines;
d. the information you provide us (including your name, address, email address, phone number and, if applicable, government issued ID document and tax and business registration details), is accurate, complete and up-to-date;
e. you are not located in a country which is subject to international sanctions such as those imposed by the US Government, the European Union, the Australian Government or the United Nations, and are not on a sanctioned persons list; and
f. you will not use a virtual private network or VPN or any other means to avoid compliance with these Author Terms, or for any fraudulent or illegal reasons.
29. Item representations and warranties: You represent, warrant and covenant to us that:
a. each Item conforms to the Content Guidelines and Supporting Materials (including Quality and Technical Requirements and policies and terms relevant to your Item);
b. the Item matches the description given by you;
c. you have all rights, licenses, releases, consents and authorizations necessary to grant us the rights set out in these Author Terms;
d. our use of the Item, including licensing the Item to subscribers, and our subscriber’s use of the Item (in accordance with the Envato Elements License), will not infringe any rights (including third party intellectual property rights or rights of publicity) ;
e. each Item complies with our Acceptable Use Policy;
f. each Item and its description do not violate any applicable law or regulation (including those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, criminal law, pornography, anti-discrimination, trade practices, fair trading or privacy);
g. if an Item preview contains watermarked previews sourced through another Group Company site, you must ensure the following: (i) the watermark must remain on the watermarked preview; (ii) the Author and name of the watermarked preview must appear in your Item description; and (iii) the watermarked preview must not be included in your Item file(s) available for download;
h. each Item does not contain viruses or other computer codes, files or programs which are designed to limit or destroy the functionality of other computer software or hardware; and
i. if an Item includes a use of a model, location or property, you have obtained a valid and binding model or property release from the model, or the owner or licensor of the location/property and you must:
i. comply with all Content Guidelines and Supporting Materials, including our model and property release policy that are necessary for capturing model and property releases;
ii. retain copies of all releases and provide those copies to us upon request;
iii. provide a privacy notice to the model, making the model aware of their personal information that you will receive and how you will handle that information;
iv. obtain the model’s written permission to use their personal information;
v. use the personal information only for the limited purposes for which the model gave permission; and
vi. meet any privacy and spam law requirements that apply to you.
30. Indemnity: You agree to indemnify and hold harmless each Group Company from and against any and all losses, costs (including legal costs), expenses, demands, settlement damages or liability that a Group Company incurs arising out of, or in connection with, a third party claim against a Group Company alleging that any Items you provide, license or otherwise made available through Envato Elements or to any Group Company infringes, misappropriates or otherwise violates any third party’s rights, including intellectual property rights and rights of publicity.
Managing Envato Elements
31. Item review: We do not generally review Items uploaded to Envato Elements at the direction of Authors, although we may carry out post-upload checks and remove Items that do not meet the Content Guidelines and any other standards notified to you in the Supporting Materials. We may also remove Items for any other reason.
32. No liability for Item use: We are not responsible for the way that Subscribers or other Users use the Items on Envato Elements or any other sites operated by Group Companies, or the way end users interact or use an End Product that incorporates an Item.
33. Copyright infringement:
a. If you would like to submit a notification of alleged infringement of your Items on the Envato Elements, you must first send us a DMCA takedown notice pursuant to our DMCA Policy.
b. In the event Envato receives a notification of alleged infringement about one or more of your Items, Envato may suspend access to any or all of your Item/s pursuant to our DMCA Policy.
c. If you knowingly or repeatedly submit false copyright infringement claims and takedown notices to Envato that we consider in our reasonable discretion to be false, Envato reserves the right to disable or delete your account with no further notice to you.
Termination
34. Suspension or termination: We hope that you will be with us for a long time. But we may, using our reasonable discretion, decide whether or not your actions comply with these Author Terms. We can suspend or terminate your participation as an Author on Envato Elements at any time for any reason (acting reasonably), including:
a. if you breach these Author Terms or any other applicable terms or policies;
b. if we believe any information or documents provided by you are inaccurate, incomplete, or not up-to-date;
c. if you breach any applicable laws, rules or regulations;
d. if you act in a way that does not align with the values of our community including:
i. engaging in serious or illegal misconduct (such as criminal or fraudulent activities); or
ii. infringing the intellectual property rights of others; or
iii. breaching our Community Guidelines; or
e. if you act in a way that could cause harm to any Group Company or any user of a site operated by a Group Company, including:
i. any public conduct or activity (such as public communications) that would adversely affect the reputation of any Group Company; and/or
ii. any threats of harm or damage to any user of any product or service of a Group Company.
If we decide to terminate your Envato account, you must not apply for a new account as you will no longer be welcome in our community. This decision may also apply to your use of other sites (as an author or a user) operated by any Group Company. Authors have the right to raise any concerns using our complaint-handling system if they are suspended or denied access to Envato Elements. Additionally, we may cancel unverified accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a substantial period of time.
Miscellaneous
35. Changes to these terms: We may change these Author Terms at any time. We will post the current version of these Author Terms on our website and will update the “Last revised” date at the top of these Author Terms. We will provide you with reasonable prior notice of any changes to the Author Terms that materially adversely affect your rights or your use of Envato’s services, before they take effect. We may provide you this notice via our website and/or by email to the email address associated with your account. You can also keep track of whether changes have been made by referring to the version and effective date of the Author Terms. By continuing to use Envato’s services after the effective date of the changes, you agree to be bound by the updated Author Terms. If you do not agree with the changes, you may close your Envato account.
36. Entire agreement: These Author Terms, together with the Envato Elements User Termss and the other terms referenced therein and herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and Envato with respect to Envato Elements.
37. Notices: For any notice or queries regarding your account or your Items, you must submit your notice or request via a help request. If you have a specific question about these Author Terms, please contact terms@help.envato.com with the subject line ‘Envato Elements Author Terms’. Any notice we send to you may be provided via our website and/or by email to the email address associated with your account.
Definitions
Author, you or your: each Member who contributes and licenses Items for inclusion on Envato Elements.
Author Terms: the Envato Elements Author Terms set out in this document.
Content Guidelines: the guidelines published by us, as amended from time to time, which set out the Quality and Technical Requirements, rules and standards which must be met by all content made available on Envato Elements.
Envato we, us or our: Shutterstock, Inc.
Envato Elements: the online subscription service made available by Envato at https://elements.envato.com (or any successor site), including all features and functionalities, websites, software, Items and other content offered, provided or made available thereon.
Group Companies: Envato and any company that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with Envato. References to a Group Company include any successors (whether by merger, purchase or otherwise) and permitted assigns.
Items: the digital goods made available to Envato for use and license in accordance with these Author Terms, and includes , any associated files, documentation and metadata, and any other content you upload or provide to Envato under these Author Terms.
Member: any User who registers and maintains an account with us, whether or not they purchase a subscription to Envato Elements.
Net Revenue: gross purchase and subscription revenue less taxes (including VAT, GST and other transactional taxes paid by us or Subscribers), refunds, reversals, affiliate costs, costs we incur in relation to services offered as part of the service subscription (including, without limitation, amounts we agree to pay to third party service providers and other costs we incur in making those services available to subscribers), costs we incur in commissioning or directly licensing content for Envato Elements from non-authors, discounts and promotional offers, and payment processing fees. Subscription revenue received in currencies other than US dollars (for example, Euro) will be converted to US dollars prior to the calculation of the Net Revenue in US dollars.
Supporting Materials: any information or guidance that we have made available to you via the Author Help Center from time to time. This includes the Content Guidelines, our policies, terms and licenses, as well as any rules, standards, handbooks or other documents made available via our Help Center.
Subscriber: a Member who purchases a subscription to Envato Elements.
User: each person who accesses or uses Envato Elements, whether or not they are an Author, Member or Subscriber.
Go forth and author!
We’re very glad you’ve made it to the end of this important document. You can head over to the Author Help Center which covers all the relevant information about the practical and operational stuff you’ll need to know.
We wish you all the very best as an Author on Envato Elements!