Why you'd want to trace an image
You saved a photo from somewhere — a screenshot, a forwarded message, a social post — and now you can't remember where it's from. Or you found an image you want to use and need to verify the source. Maybe you're a photographer wondering if someone is using your work without credit.
Whatever the reason, finding where an image originally came from used to mean hours of guesswork. Reverse image search has changed that.
How reverse image search actually works
When you do a reverse image search, you're not typing keywords — you're submitting the image itself as the query. The search engine creates a visual fingerprint of the image and compares it against billions of indexed pages.
This is how it can find an image even when there's no metadata (EXIF data is often stripped from images shared on social media) and even when the image has been resized or slightly edited.
Step-by-step: finding the source of any image
Step 1: Get the image file or URL
You can search with: - A file downloaded to your computer (JPG, PNG, GIF, or WebP) - A direct image URL (the URL that ends in .jpg or .png, not the page containing the image) - A screenshot — paste it directly from your clipboard
Step 2: Upload to a reverse image search tool
Go to FindSource.io and drop your image into the upload zone. You can drag and drop, click to browse, paste from clipboard with Ctrl/Cmd+V, or paste a URL.
The search runs automatically. Results typically appear within 10 seconds.
Step 3: Review the results
You'll see a list of pages where your image appears — news sites, blogs, social media, stock libraries, and more. Each result shows a thumbnail, the page title, and the source URL.
Tips for getting better results
Use a higher-resolution version when possible. The clearer the image, the better the match. If you only have a tiny 100×100px thumbnail, results will be limited.
Crop out irrelevant parts. If your image shows a person in front of a busy background and you want to find that person specifically, crop to focus on the relevant subject.
Try a URL instead of uploading. If the image is publicly hosted and you have the direct URL, pasting it is faster and avoids any upload size limitations.
Check multiple tools. Different search tools index different content. FindSource scans billions of pages to find where your image appears, which is the most comprehensive approach for general web content.
What to do with the results
Once you have a list of source pages:
- If it's your image being used without credit: document the URLs, then contact the site owner or file a DMCA takedown notice.
- If you're checking authenticity: look at the earliest publication date. If a "breaking news" photo was published years ago in a completely different context, it's probably recycled.
- If you're looking for the original creator: the earliest result with the highest-quality version of the image is usually a good starting point.
Common scenarios
"I found a meme but don't know the original context." Upload the image. You'll likely find the original post or news article it came from.
"Someone sent me a photo — is it real?" Reverse search it. If the same image appears years earlier in a different context, it's been repurposed.
"I want to use this photo — who do I credit?" Find the original source, then check for a photographer credit, watermark, or copyright notice on that page.
Reverse image search is one of those tools that once you start using it, you use it constantly. Give it a try on FindSource.io.