The relationship between advertising agencies and stock image platforms has been one of the most commercially significant partnerships in the creative industry. For decades, agencies relied on Getty Images, Shutterstock, and their competitors to supply the visual raw materials for campaigns—photographs, illustrations, and design elements that would be customized, composed, and branded into final advertising assets.
AI image generation is disrupting this relationship. Both Getty and Freepik now offer AI generation tools trained on their respective licensed libraries, giving agencies the ability to generate custom images on demand rather than searching through existing catalogs. But a notable trend has emerged: a growing number of agencies are choosing Freepik’s Pikaso over Getty AI for their AI generation needs.
The reasons are practical rather than ideological, and they reveal how the economics and workflow of agency creative production are evolving.
The Agency Perspective
Advertising agencies evaluate creative tools through a specific lens: Can this tool help us produce better work, faster, at lower cost, while managing risk? Every tool decision balances these four factors, and Pikaso’s advantage comes from addressing all four more effectively than Getty AI for many agency use cases.
Cost Structure
This is the most immediate and quantifiable difference. Getty Images has historically been positioned as a premium platform, with per-image licensing fees that reflect the quality and exclusivity of its library. Getty AI extends this premium positioning into AI generation, with pricing that reflects both the AI capability and Getty’s brand premium.
Freepik’s pricing for Pikaso access is significantly lower. The platform’s Essential and Premium plans include both AI generation credits and access to Freepik’s entire stock library at a fraction of Getty’s cost. For agencies that generate hundreds or thousands of images per month across multiple client campaigns, this cost difference compounds into substantial savings.
A mid-size agency running campaigns for ten clients might generate 500-1,000 AI images per month for concepting, internal reviews, and client presentations. The cost difference between Pikaso and Getty AI for this volume can amount to thousands of dollars per month—savings that go directly to the agency’s margin or can be passed through as competitive pricing to clients.
Creative Range
Getty’s strength has always been photography. Its library of premium photographs—editorial, commercial, fine art—is among the best in the world. Getty AI inherits this photographic strength, producing impressive photorealistic images particularly in categories where Getty’s library is deep: portraits, lifestyle, business, and editorial photography.
Pikaso’s creative range is broader. Freepik’s library spans not just photography but also illustration, vector graphics, flat design, 3D rendering, and graphic design elements. For agencies that need diverse visual styles—a photorealistic hero image for a billboard, illustrated icons for a website, flat design elements for a social media campaign, and 3D mockups for a product launch—Pikaso provides these from a single platform.
This versatility reduces the number of tools and subscriptions an agency needs to maintain. Rather than using Getty AI for photography, a separate tool for illustration, and another for graphic design, agencies can consolidate around Pikaso for the majority of their AI generation needs.
Workflow Integration
Agency workflows are complex, involving multiple team members (strategists, art directors, designers, copywriters, account managers) across multiple stages (concepting, internal review, client presentation, revision, production). Tools that fit naturally into these workflows gain adoption; tools that create friction get abandoned.
Pikaso’s integration with Freepik’s broader platform creates a unified workflow for both AI generation and stock resource access. Designers can generate AI images and browse stock resources in the same interface, combining generated and curated assets seamlessly. The style controls and preset options reduce the time spent on prompt engineering, which is valuable in agency environments where designers are juggling multiple projects.
Getty AI operates within Getty’s platform, which is primarily designed for stock image search and licensing. The AI generation feature is an addition to this search-centric workflow rather than a native AI generation platform. For agencies that already use Getty extensively, this integration is natural. For agencies evaluating AI generation as a new capability, Pikaso’s purpose-built generation experience is more immediately productive.
Volume and Variation
Agency work often requires high volumes of variations. A campaign concept might need to be tested in fifty visual variations before the art director settles on a direction. A social media campaign might require unique visuals for twenty posts across five platforms. A pitch deck might need custom images for every slide.
At these volumes, the economics strongly favor Pikaso. Higher generation allowances at lower price points mean agencies can iterate freely without watching usage meters. The psychological effect matters too—when every generation has a visible cost, teams are more hesitant to experiment. When generation feels abundant, creative exploration is more natural.
Vector and Design Asset Generation
A distinctive advantage of Pikaso for agency work is vector generation. Agencies frequently need scalable graphics—logos, icons, infographic elements, print-ready illustrations—that must be resolution-independent. Pikaso’s training on Freepik’s extensive vector library produces output that is well-suited for vector conversion, with clean lines, flat colors, and clear shapes.
Getty AI, rooted in a photographic library, does not produce output that translates well to vector format. Agencies that need vector assets must use a separate tool, adding cost and workflow complexity.
Commercial License Clarity
Both Getty AI and Pikaso offer commercial licenses for generated images, and both are trained on licensed content. However, the license structures differ in practical ways.
Getty’s licensing has historically been complex, with different license tiers (editorial, creative, editorial+creative) and usage restrictions that vary by license type. This complexity extends to AI-generated content, where the licensing terms may not perfectly align with the agency’s intended use without careful review.
Freepik’s licensing is simpler. The commercial license covers the standard range of agency uses—advertising, marketing, editorial, web—without the tiered complexity. For agencies that produce high volumes of content across diverse use cases, this simplicity reduces the time spent on license compliance.
The Counter-Argument: When Getty AI Wins
It would be incomplete to discuss this comparison without acknowledging where Getty AI maintains advantages.
Premium photorealism: For campaigns that require the highest possible photorealistic quality—luxury brand advertising, high-end editorial, premium product photography—Getty AI’s photographic training data produces superior results. When a single hero image needs to be indistinguishable from a professional photograph, Getty AI delivers.
Editorial credibility: Getty’s brand carries credibility in editorial contexts. Publications and brands with strict editorial standards may prefer Getty AI’s association with premium editorial content.
Enterprise relationships: Large enterprises and holding companies often have existing contracts with Getty that include AI generation capabilities. Switching to Pikaso may not be worth the procurement and contract renegotiation, especially if Getty’s capabilities meet requirements.
IP indemnification: Getty offers indemnification for AI-generated content under certain license tiers, providing an additional layer of legal protection. While Pikaso’s rights-cleared approach reduces risk, explicit indemnification is a stronger guarantee.
The Agency Decision Framework
For agencies evaluating Pikaso vs. Getty AI, the decision framework breaks down as follows:
Choose Pikaso when:
- Your work spans multiple visual styles (photography, illustration, vector, design)
- Volume is high and cost matters at scale
- Your team values a unified generation and stock resource platform
- Vector and design asset generation is important
- You want simpler licensing for diverse commercial uses
Choose Getty AI when:
- Premium photorealistic quality is the top priority
- Your agency already has an enterprise Getty contract
- Editorial credibility and brand association matter
- IP indemnification is a hard requirement
- Your needs are primarily photographic rather than design-oriented
Use both when:
- You need Getty’s photographic excellence for hero images and Pikaso’s design versatility for everything else
- Budget allows for multiple subscriptions
- Different clients have different requirements
The Broader Trend
The shift from Getty to Pikaso among agencies reflects a broader trend in the creative industry: the disaggregation of the premium stock image model. For decades, premium platforms like Getty and Corbis commanded high per-image prices because their libraries represented unique, high-quality content that could not be found elsewhere.
AI generation diminishes the scarcity that justified premium pricing. When any platform can generate custom images on demand, the value shifts from the uniqueness of the image to the safety of the license, the breadth of the style range, and the economics of the pricing model. Pikaso competes effectively on all three dimensions, which is why agencies are making the switch.
This does not mean Getty is declining—its premium positioning serves a real market need. But for the broad middle of agency creative production—the hundreds of images per month that are not hero shots but essential campaign components—Pikaso offers a more practical and economical solution.
References
- Freepik. “Pikaso by Freepik.” https://www.freepik.com/pikaso
- Freepik. “Freepik Pricing.” https://www.freepik.com/pricing
- Getty Images. “Getty AI Image Generator.” https://www.gettyimages.com
- Getty Images. “Licensing and Pricing.” https://www.gettyimages.com/plans-and-pricing
- AdAge. “How Agencies Are Adopting AI Creative Tools.” Ad Age, 2025.
- WARC. “AI in Advertising Production.” WARC Reports, 2025.
- Adobe. “Adobe Firefly.” https://www.adobe.com/products/firefly.html
- Shutterstock. “Shutterstock AI.” https://www.shutterstock.com/ai-image-generator
- AIGA. “2025 Design Industry Report.” https://www.aiga.org
- Digiday. “Agency AI Adoption Survey.” Digiday, 2025.