Frequently Asked Questions

You can submit photos / illustrations files from "Your account page". Please read carefully the requirements in "Contributor Guide" before you upload.
Guideline for illustration (including EPS/PNG) is available at "PIXTA Channel".

Footage files are acceptable via FTP. Follow the instructions in "Upload" page.
If you don't have your FTP account yet, please let us know your user name and URL of your footage portfolio by email.
( email address: footage_dept@pixta.co.jp ) See also "Contributors Guide"

Please see Keywording Advice for the details of how to keyword images.

Yes, you can upload and submit your photos / illustrations from your account page. As for footage, you have to upload your clips via FTP and submit them from your account page.

Yes. You can get emails when reviewing is finished. Please go to "Account Settings" and opt-in the notification.

You have upload limit per month for photo/illust. It can change depending on multiple factors such as approval rates, quantity of past uploads and quantity of sales. So far there is no upload limit for footage.
For details about upload limits, please see here.

No, we accept English tags. IPTC tags can work as they are. In reviewing, they will be automatically translated from English to Japanese. Please note that we may modify or delete inappropriate tags.

You can match a model release with content which you uploaded in "Submit Images". However, you can not match model release with content uploaded via FTP in the past. Please upload them again in "Submit Images" when you submit new contents.

Reviewing of photos or illustrations is expected to take up to 7 business days and footage reviewing is expected to take up to 7-10 business days. As a result of consecutive holidays or crowded uploads, some reviews may take longer time. We announce in Your account page when there are long delays. In case that if your content has been pending over a month, it might be caused by system failure. Please let us know the content's number via email.

You can check the results in your "Content Manager"(Your account page). If you want to get informed when your review done, go to ‘Account Settings’ and check "Receive Onlined-Files Notifications".

We have multiple reviewing steps (image quality, tag check or etc.), which may result in some time lag. Usually they catch up in several days, so please be patient. In case of system's error, for example, only one content is still pending for over a month even the rest are already reviewed, please let us know the file number via e-mail.

Please note that we can't accept contents incompatible with our guildeline.
If your contents got rejected, go to "Content Manager" to check the comments. Basically we do not accept the contents rejected before, but, you can upload them again if the content is fixable (e.g. inappropriate keywords, dust on your image etc.).
Basically we don't reinvestigate the files that have once been rejected.
Please understand that we reserve the right to decline images on the basis of our own standard, which we are constantly improving for better quality. However, if the rejection reason seems completely wrong (may be for some system errors), please inform us the file no. and details.

You can find all your downloads at "Sales History" as soon as it happens. You can also receive an email when your file(s) purchased. Please opt-in the notification at "Account Settings" page.

Yes. You can receive email notifications when your contents are downloaded. Please go to "Account Settings" and opt-in the notification.

Credit is PIXTA’s currency ( 1 credit = 100 JPY). Your sales and earnings ( including those earned by affiliate program ) are indicated in credits.

We offer two payment options: Paypal or Payoneer. You can choose the payment method in "Payment Settings" page. To get paid, please make a request from "Request Payment" page. Our default minimum payout is 50 credits (=5,000JPY) . Payment will be processed on 15th (if holiday, deferred to the next business day) of the month after the next you make a request.
(e.g. If you make a request during August, payment will be disbursed on October 15th.)

If you choose Payoneer as your Payment Method, the amount of royalties in Japanese Yen will be exchanged at the JPY-USD rate as applied by Payoneer to the amount in US dollar, which will be transferred to your Payoneer account, subject to the conversion fee to be deducted in the amount equivalent to 2% of the amount of royalties in US dollar.

The applied JPY-USD rate shall be the rate of an external financial institution determined by Payoneer in accordance with the date of our exchange order, which may be different from the date of your conversion application or payment date.

Yes. Your earnings derived from selling contents may be subject to withholding tax.
The provision is different depending on each tax convention, so we recommend you to contact your legal and/or tax advisor if you have any question.
See also "Income Tax Information" (Login required).

At PIXTA, contributor rank rises as the total numbers of sold photos/illustrations increases.The more files you could sell, the higher rank and royalty you can get.
*Currently, contributor rank only applies to the sales of photos and illustrations. It is not applied to footage sales.
For further information, please see "Contributor Rank".

If you are a resident of any of the countries which have a tax convention with Japan and eligible for tax relief, please refer to "Income Tax Information" and send required tax forms to PIXTA. (The provision is different depending on each tax convention, so we recommend you to contact your legal and/or tax advisor if you have any question. )

"Size upgrade" icon appears when your file is replaced with a bigger one by the customer who had once downloaded it.
Since it's a size upgrade, the difference between two sizes will be charged.

"Ex" icon appears when your file is downloaded with an "Extended License". Please refer to "Contributor Guide" for further information.
Customers can add "Extended License" to the files which they had already downloaded in the past. In this case, only the Extended License itself will be charged.

Please register from following page if you wish to register as a customer.
After you have input necessary information, confirmation email will be sent to your email address.
By clicking the URL in confirmation email, your registration will be completed.
There’s no fee needed for registration.
»Sign up

You can sign up for PIXTA contributor account from here. Please see Contributor Guide.

We do not collect registration fee nor membership fee.
Both customer membership and contributor membership could be registered for free.

《 The confirmation mail seems missing 》
Please check your spam mail folder. If you couldn't find our mail, please go to here and resend confirmation email.
( If email address is wrong or your registration is already completed, email won't be sent. )

《 The confirmation URL doesn't work 》
If the link doesn't work, please try the following :
- Copy and paste it into your browser.
- Try to login. Your registration might have already completed. If you forgot your password, please reset from here.

If you still have problems, please contact us with your email address.

If you can't log in to your account, please make sure that you have input correct e-mail address and password.
Please note that password is case-sensitive, and be careful not to input unnecessary space.
There's also some possibilities of computer environment causing the error, so please check preferred system requirements from here.
If you have forgotten your password, please input your registered e-mail address at following page.

Please register as a contributor which enables you to both purchase and sell contents.
You can sign up for PIXTA contributor account from here. Please see also Contributor Guide.

Please submit one of the following JPEG images from the ID confirmation application form.

【For residents in Japan】
・Driver's license (Front or both sides if it has any amendments)
・Basic Resident Registration Card (Juki Card) (Front or both sides if it has any amendments)
・Passport (the identity page that includes your name and date of birth)
・Individual Number Card (nicknamed as "My Number".Front side)
※Please do not submit the back side on which your individual number is stated.
※ A notification card will not be accepted.
※If the image of My Number readable is uploaded, We will delete it immediately.

【For non-residents in Japan】
・Passport
・Driver's license (Front side. If there are items mentioned, please upload the back side as well. Written in English, DOB and your portrait photo are required.)
・Photo ID issued by the government. (Front side. If there are items mentioned, please upload the back side as well. Written in English, DOB and your portrait photo are required.)

【For residents in the People's Republic of China】
・Resident Identity Card (both sides)

ーPlease be sure to read the notes.ー
※ Only upload the image data of your ID here.
※ We do not accept the ID via airmail or email.
※ Provided information must be compatible to your account information including your name and DOB.
※ Document must be 50MB or less of JPEG data.
※ Please note that the data is not acceptable when it is unfocused or includes discrepant information.
※ Until you pass the approval of confirmation document and introductory test, you can not "Submit works".
※ If there's no amendment (e.g. family name or address), the reverse side is not required.

You can change your email address, password or other information at any time in your account page.
Please go to Account Settings to view or change your information.
If you are registered as a customer member and want to sell stock contents, please see a Contributor Guide. Contributor members can make purchase with no additional procedure.

Please log into your account page and follow the instruction in "Close Account".

PIXTA is validated by following version/system environment.
If any failure occurs in system environment other than following system requirements, please change the environment and try again.

- Mac OSX
Google Chrome(Latest version)
Firefox(Latest version)
Safari(Latest version)
*Not validated by OS9

- Windows Vista, 7, 8
Google Chrome(Latest version)
Firefox(Latest version)
Internet Explorer 8 or higher
*Not validated by Windows98, 2000, ME, XP

- Others
cookie function is enabled
JavaScript is enabled
Latest Flash player is installed
Flash player is necessary in order to utilize some functions such as uploading images and playing footage preview.
If it's not installed to your system, please download it from Adobe.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Flash player is necessary to watch footage preview.

Please install from Adobe if you do not have Flash player.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Our recommended network line speed is over 1.5Mbps.

If you want to stop receiving newsletters from PIXTA, please log in to your account page, access to Account Settings and uncheck "Opt-in Newsletters".

*E-mail announcing purchase/sales details and confirmation e-mail regarding changing account information can't be stopped.
*Please be noted that important announcement such as system maintenance might be sent to members not permitting to receive newsletters.

Please check your e-mail account again because it could be possible that our e-mail has arrived to your junk mail folder.
If not in your junk mail folder, please contact us again.

It takes about a couple of days until our reply (We are not operating during weekends and national holidays). Please be noted that it might take longer depends on the subject of inquiry or some congestion.