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ItalianoA reverse image search starts from a picture instead of a keyword: the engine compares its visual content with billions of indexed images and lists the pages where it appears. It is the basic tool to find out whether your photo has been stolen.
How a reverse image search works
The engine computes a kind of visual fingerprint of your image (shapes, colours, distinctive points) and then looks for images with a similar fingerprint. The best engines find a photo even when it has been cropped, resized, compressed or lightly edited. A very tight crop, a mirror flip or a heavy montage, however, can make it impossible to find.
The main free engines
| Engine | Strengths | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Google Lens / Google Images | Largest index, very good on online shops | Mixes exact matches with “similar” images |
| Bing Visual Search | Good complement to Google, different results | Smaller index |
| TinEye | Exact matches only, sorting by date | Smaller index, few social networks |
| Yandex Images | Strong on Eastern European and Russian-language sites | Less relevant for Western sites |
For a one-off check, drag your photo into two or three of these engines and compare the results: none of them sees the whole web.
Running a reverse image search step by step
- Use the file closest to the published version (same crop, same edit).
- On Google Images or Google Lens, click the camera icon and upload the image.
- Open the “Exact matches” tab when it is offered: it is more reliable than similar images.
- Repeat on Bing Visual Search and TinEye.
- Open each page: check that it really is your photo and note the address and the date.
The limits of searching by hand
By hand, reverse image search quickly becomes unmanageable: you have to repeat it for every photo, on every engine, regularly, because new sites copy your images every month. Many results are also false positives: images that only look similar, or pages that no longer contain the photo.
Monitoring your photos automatically
Frolay Protect does this work for your whole portfolio:
- search on several engines, including Google Vision and Google Lens for online shops;
- automatic check that the photo really is on each page, so only genuine matches are kept;
- an allow list of your sites and clients, which no longer show up;
- automatic rescans and an e-mail alert for every new use;
- an evidence file and ready-to-send letters when you find a theft.
Once you have found a theft, follow our guide someone stole my photo: what to do.
Frequently asked questions
Is reverse image search free?
Yes, Google Lens, Bing Visual Search and TinEye offer free searches, one photo at a time. Automatic monitoring tools such as Frolay Protect offer a free plan to test a few photos.
Can a cropped photo be found?
Often, yes: current engines find images that have been cropped, resized or lightly edited. A very tight crop, a mirror effect or a heavy montage greatly reduces the chances.
Why do some results not contain my photo?
Engines also list visually similar images, or pages that have removed the image since they were indexed. You have to open each page to check; Frolay Protect does this check automatically.
Can I find a photo posted on Instagram or Facebook?
Partly: much of social media is not indexed by search engines, especially private accounts and stories. Public posts and sites that reuse the image, however, are often found.