Frequently asked questions
Lightdrift is an image search API and MCP server for AI agents. These are the questions developers ask most about the image index, licenses, setup, and pricing.
Product and licenses
What is Lightdrift?
Lightdrift is an image search API and MCP server for AI agents. It searches 1,852,370 captioned, openly licensed images by natural-language text, a reference image, or both, and returns hosted file URLs with the source, license, and a ready-to-use attribution string for every result.
What images are in the index?
Creative Commons and public domain images from 17 sources, including Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, iNaturalist, the Smithsonian, NASA, US government collections, and CC0 stock photo sites. Coverage is strongest for real subjects: species, places, objects, historical events, spacecraft and aircraft, textures, and editorial photography.
Can I use the images commercially?
By default, search only returns images whose declared license permits commercial use (CC0, public domain, CC BY, CC BY-SA and similar). Noncommercial licenses are in the index but are opt-in: send filters.commercial as null to include them. Each result has a commercial flag so your agent can check.
Does Lightdrift guarantee an image is cleared for my use?
No. Lightdrift reports rights as declared by the source and normalizes them into one machine-readable rights object. Copyright licenses do not cover everything: likeness rights of people in a photo, trademarks, and some artworks and buildings carry separate rights that you and your users are responsible for.
Do I have to give attribution?
Only when the license requires it. Every result has an attribution_required flag and, when needed, an attribution string with title, author, source and license that your agent can place next to the image.
How is this different from generating images with AI?
Generated images are invented. When a page needs the real thing, such as a specific fish species, a particular aircraft, or a historical event, retrieval returns an actual photograph of it. Lightdrift excludes images marked AI-generated by default, and a retrieved photo can also be used as a reference to ground image generation.
How do I connect Lightdrift to Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex?
Add the remote MCP server https://lightdrift.ai/mcp to your client, then sign in through the browser or send an X-API-Key header. In Claude Code, run: claude mcp add --transport http lightdrift https://lightdrift.ai/mcp. Setup for every client is on the image search MCP page and in the docs.
Can I search with an image instead of text?
Yes, on paid plans. Send an uploaded image (image_base64) or a public HTTPS image_url, optionally with text to steer the results. You can also find images similar to any result by its asset ID. The dashboard playground gives every account 10 free searches a day, including image search, to try it.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. The Free plan includes 500 credits every month with text search and up to 10 results per search, with no card required. One credit covers up to 10 results, so that is up to 5,000 results a month.
Are AI-generated images included?
Images marked as AI-generated are excluded by default. Every result carries an ai_generated field so you can label or filter images yourself.
What does Lightdrift store about my searches?
Search logs keep the query text, the query type, and a fingerprint of any normalized query image. Raw uploaded images and image URLs are not stored in search logs, and uploaded images are never added to the searchable collection.
Pricing
How much does Lightdrift cost?
Free is $0 with 500 credits a month. Starter is $29 a month for 5,000 credits, Pro is $99 a month for 20,000 credits, and Scale is $299 a month for 75,000 credits. Annual billing costs the same as 10 months. Custom plans are available by email.
What is a credit?
A search uses 1 credit per 10 results, rounded up, with a minimum of 1. A search for 10 results uses 1 credit and a search for 100 results uses 10. The same rule applies to text search, image search, and find similar.
What is free of charge?
Image details, metadata, and license lookups are free, failed searches are not charged, and the Docs MCP server does not use credits.
Do unused credits roll over?
No. Credits reset every month on your billing date. Credit packs bought on Scale or Custom never expire and are used after monthly credits run out.
What happens when I run out of credits?
Searches return 402 credits_exhausted until your next reset. On Free, Starter and Pro you can upgrade to keep searching. On Scale and Custom you can buy a credit pack of 10,000 credits for $40.
Which features need a paid plan?
Search by image, image plus text search, find similar, and more than 10 results per search. Paid plans also raise request limits: Starter allows 60 requests a minute, Pro 300, and Scale 1,000.
Something missing? Email hello@lightdrift.ai or read the documentation. Plan details are on the pricing page.
