You have the script and the voiceover. Now the faceless video needs forty seconds of footage that is not a static image, and free stock is messier than it looks: some sites are free with no strings, some want a credit line, some mix free and paid clips in one result set, and almost all are built around 16:9 while you publish in 9:16.
The best free stock footage sites for faceless videos in 2026 are Pexels and Pixabay (the largest free libraries, commercial use allowed, no attribution required), Mixkit (curated, with a clean license), Coverr (loopable background clips), Videvo (a free tier with mixed licenses, so read the tag), Vecteezy and Videezy (free with attribution), Mazwai's former library (now inside Freepik, rebranded Magnific), and four public-domain sources: NASA's Image and Video Library, the Prelinger Archives, the wider Internet Archive, and Wikimedia Commons. When none of them have the exact shot, AI-generated B-roll is now the practical fallback.
Below, each site gets its best use, its license in plain English, its vertical footage situation, one limitation, and a search tip. Then: an at-a-glance summary, how to find 9:16 clips (and what to do when there are none), the rules that still apply to “free” footage, how to build a B-roll library, and when to generate the shot instead. If you would rather not source clips by hand, Vidpal pulls visuals automatically as part of its faceless pipeline.
How we chose these sites
We scored every site on five things. License clarity: can you tell on the clip page whether commercial use is allowed and whether a credit is required. Vertical availability: is there an orientation filter or a 9:16 section. Search quality: does a specific query return that, or forty drone shots. Download resolution: is 4K available, because you will crop most landscape clips to vertical and 1080p does not survive that. Volume: can your third video avoid reusing your first video's clips.
We left out sites that need an account to download a free clip, and one site that no longer operates under its own name (see Mazwai). Every license below was checked against the site's own terms in August 2026; licenses change, so recheck before building a workflow on any of them.
Pexels
Pexels is the best all-round free stock footage site for faceless channels: a large, community-uploaded library of HD and 4K clips, free for commercial use, no attribution required. The restrictions are common sense: do not sell unaltered copies, do not redistribute clips on other stock platforms, do not show identifiable people in a bad light, do not imply that people or brands in a clip endorse your product, and do not use a clip in your logo.
The Pexels videos section has the best filters on any free site: orientation (horizontal, vertical, square), resolution (1080p, 4K, 8K), duration, and frame rate. The limitation is popularity; its top results are the drone passes and coffee pours every channel in your niche uses. Search tip: set orientation to vertical first and search actions rather than nouns (“hands typing at night”, not “technology”).
Pixabay
Pixabay is the closest rival to Pexels and the other site every faceless creator should bookmark. At the time of writing its homepage advertised more than six million free assets across images, video, music, and sound effects, all under one Pixabay Content License allowing commercial use with no attribution. It is slightly tighter than Pexels: no selling or distributing content on a standalone basis, no commercial use of content showing recognizable brands, no printing content on merchandise for sale, and no misleading or offensive use of identifiable people.
The Pixabay video library has a vertical checkbox in the search sidebar, and clips are tagged 4K, HD, or SD. Its weakness is consistency: Pixabay accepts a wide range of uploads, including AI-generated clips. Search tip: combine the vertical filter with a subject and a mood (“rain window night”), and check the tags if you want camera-shot footage.
Mixkit
Mixkit has the cleanest free license on this list. Run by Envato, it offers a curated library of free HD and 4K stock video, music, sound effects, and templates with no signup, no watermark, and no attribution. The Stock Video Free License allows personal and commercial use; you cannot sell the clips as they are, upload them to other stock platforms, or build a competing service with them. A smaller set of clips carries the Restricted License, personal and non-commercial only, so check the label on the clip page.
The trade-off is volume: Mixkit is far smaller than Pexels or Pixabay, so niche searches often return nothing. It has a vertical category small enough to scan in one sitting. Search tip: use Mixkit first for generic ambience (cities, nature, workspaces, abstract) and the bigger libraries for specifics.
Coverr
Coverr began as a source of looping background video for website headers, and its clips are still calm, clean, and often built to loop, exactly what you want under a voiceover or behind a text overlay. Coverr is free for commercial and non-commercial use with no attribution, and the paid Coverr+ tier uses the same license. You may not resell or redistribute the clips, and, unusually explicit for a free site, you may not use them to train AI models. Coverr holds no releases for brands, landmarks, or people in its clips, so a recognizable face or logo in commercial use is your responsibility.
The library is small and skews ambient (slow drone passes, hands at work, textures). It has a vertical section. Search tip: search movement words (“loop”, “slow”, “drift”) rather than subjects; Coverr's best clips hold the screen for ten seconds without demanding attention.
Videvo
Videvo is a large free-and-premium library of HD and 4K footage, motion graphics, music, and sound effects, and a strong source of faceless B-roll as long as you read the tag on each clip. Free clips come under three licenses: the Videvo Standard License (commercial use, no credit), the Videvo Attribution License (commercial use, credit the author), and Creative Commons 3.0 (commercial use, credit the author). Redistributing raw clips is prohibited under every tier; confirm current wording on Videvo's help center before building a library around it.
Search has an orientation filter (portrait, horizontal, square), and clip pages show aspect ratio, duration, and frame rate. The catch is that free and premium clips share the same results. Search tip: set the license filter to free and orientation to portrait before you search, then check the tag once more before downloading.
Vecteezy
Vecteezy is best known for vectors, but its video section is a genuinely large source of HD and 4K clips with a dedicated portrait-orientation category. The catch is the license: the Free License allows personal and commercial use, but attribution is mandatory and Vecteezy enforces it; a Pro subscription removes the credit. Its licensing page also caps free use: at the time of writing, video, film, or production projects with budgets up to $1,000, no products for resale, and print runs of up to 50 copies. Editorial-use-only content is marked and can be filtered out.
A workable attribution is a description line naming Vecteezy and the creator with a link to the clip page. Search tip: browse the portrait-orientation category directly, and toggle the free-only filter so Pro clips do not crowd out the results.
Mazwai (now part of Freepik, rebranded Magnific)
Mazwai was a small, hand-picked library of cinematic free clips. As of 2026 it no longer exists as a standalone site: mazwai.com redirects to Freepik's stock video section, and the company behind Freepik rebranded as Magnific on April 28, 2026, though the stock library itself still lives at freepik.com at the time of writing. The license you get is Freepik's: Free and Essential users must include attribution (in the credits, at the end of the video, or in the description with a link), Premium users do not, and nobody may redistribute or resell the files. Nothing official says whether the original Mazwai clips survive in the catalog, so treat this as a pointer to Freepik's free videos, not a way back to the old collection.
The upside is scale: the library is far larger than Mazwai ever was, with 4K and vertical footage, next to AI image and video generators. The downside is that AI-generated and camera-shot content are mixed, so check the label if you want real footage. Search tip: add “vertical” to the query or use the orientation filter where offered, and read the attribution line on the download screen.
Videezy
Videezy is Vecteezy's video-focused sibling (both are run by Eezy), with free HD and 4K clips and motion templates. Free clips fall under the Videezy Standard License, which requires attribution; a Pro membership lifts the credit and unlocks Pro-only clips. In plain English: free clips are fine on monetized channels as long as you credit Videezy and the creator in the form its support pages specify, and you do not resell or redistribute them.
It has a vertical category and a deeper 4K section than you would expect from a site this size. The limitation matches Vecteezy's: attribution, and a search that mixes Pro and free results. Search tip: filter to free clips first, then open the vertical category.
NASA Image and Video Library
The NASA Image and Video Library is the best free source of space, launch, Earth-from-orbit, and aeronautics footage, and most of it can be used commercially without a fee. NASA content is generally not copyrighted, but NASA's media usage guidelines add real restrictions: do not state or imply that NASA endorses your product or channel; NASA logos and insignia may need clearance for promotional use; identifiable people, including astronauts, have privacy and publicity rights that commercial use can infringe; some items are copyrighted third-party material and are marked as such; and NASA asks to be acknowledged as the source.
Nearly everything is 16:9 or older 4:3, so plan to reframe (see the 9:16 section below). Search tip: add “4K” or “ultra HD” to the subject, and use the mission name (“Artemis launch”) rather than generic words like “space”.
Prelinger Archives
The Prelinger Archives, hosted on the Internet Archive, is a collection of “ephemeral” American films (advertising, educational, industrial, and home movies, mostly mid-twentieth century), and thousands of them are public domain, free to download and reuse without restriction or credit. Not every item is public domain; some titles are licensed through a stock agency, so read the rights statement on each item page.
The limitation is technical: 4:3, standard definition, often scratched. Use it deliberately, as a vintage clip under a modern caption, not as filler. Search tip: search inside the collection with a subject plus a decade (“kitchen 1950s”), sort by views, and take the highest-resolution MPEG-4 file.
Internet Archive Moving Image Archive
Beyond Prelinger, the Internet Archive's wider Moving Image Archive holds public-domain feature films, US government and military films, educational material, and a large Community Video section uploaded by members. It is the deepest free source of historical footage on the web and the least curated: licensing is set per item, so trust the rights statement, not the fact that a file is downloadable. Works produced by the US federal government are public domain in the United States, which makes government films the safest bet.
Vertical footage does not exist here; you are reframing everything. Search tip: start from a sub-collection (government films, feature films) rather than a bare keyword search, check the rights field on the item page, and download the MPEG-4 derivative rather than the original.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is the media library behind Wikipedia, and its video collection is the best free source for specific real-world subjects: landmarks, species, processes, historical events. Almost everything is public domain or under a free license, and each file page says which. CC0 and public domain need no credit; CC BY needs a credit to the creator in the form they specify; CC BY-SA needs the credit and requires your modifications to be shared under the same license, a commitment many monetized channels would rather avoid. Commons gives no warranty that a file's license is correct, and personality rights and trademarks still apply.
The limitation is format: many videos are WebM or Ogg, resolutions vary wildly, and vertical clips are rare. Run them through a free video converter and expect to reframe. Search tip: set the file type to video in Commons search, and reach for CC0 or CC BY files first to keep attribution simple.
The 12 sites at a glance
Pexels: free for commercial use, no attribution. Vertical filter, 4K and 8K. Best all-round library with the best filters.
Pixabay: free for commercial use, no attribution. Vertical checkbox, clips tagged 4K/HD/SD. Best second library when Pexels comes up empty.
Mixkit: free for commercial use, no attribution (Restricted License clips are personal-use only). Vertical category. Best for polished, curated ambience.
Coverr: free for commercial use, no attribution, no AI training. Vertical section. Best for loopable background clips.
Videvo: commercial use allowed; Standard License needs no credit, Attribution and Creative Commons clips do. Orientation filter. Best for volume, if you read every tag.
Vecteezy: free with mandatory attribution; free use capped at $1,000 production budgets, no products for resale. Portrait category. Best large catalog when a credit is fine.
Mazwai (now Freepik, rebranded Magnific): free with attribution; Premium removes the credit. Vertical available. Best big general library with AI generation built in.
Videezy: free with attribution under the Standard License; Pro removes it. Vertical category. Best for 4K clips and motion templates.
NASA Image and Video Library: mostly public domain, commercial use allowed, no implied endorsement, credit requested. No vertical. Best for space and launches.
Prelinger Archives: public domain (check each item), no credit required. No vertical, 4:3 standard definition. Best for vintage footage.
Internet Archive Moving Image Archive: license varies per item; public-domain government films are the safe core. No vertical. Best for historical footage.
Wikimedia Commons: CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA, or public domain, per file. Rare vertical, mixed formats. Best for specific real-world subjects.
How do you find free vertical (9:16) stock footage?
The fastest way to find free vertical stock footage is to set the orientation filter before you type a query: Pexels (Orientation: Vertical), Pixabay (the Vertical checkbox), Videvo (portrait), and Vecteezy (its portrait-orientation category), while Mixkit, Coverr, and Videezy each have a browsable vertical section. Vertical clips are a minority on every site, so filtering first saves you from scrolling past forty landscape clips to find one portrait one.
Vocabulary helps too. Contributors tag native vertical clips “vertical”, “portrait”, “9:16”, and “phone”, and most true 9:16 footage is lifestyle content shot on phones. Check the pixel dimensions on the clip page: some clips tagged vertical are 4:5 or 1:1, and only 1080x1920 or 2160x3840 fills the frame edge to edge. Our guide to video aspect ratios covers the safe zones where captions and buttons cover the edges of a vertical clip.
What do you do when there is no vertical version?
When there is no vertical version, the standard move is to crop a 4K landscape clip to 9:16. The math is why 4K matters: a 1920x1080 clip cropped to 9:16 leaves 608x1080 pixels, which looks soft when a phone stretches it to full screen, but a 3840x2160 clip cropped to 9:16 gives 1215x2160, more than enough for a clean 1080x1920 export. The free crop video tool picks which slice of the frame to keep, and resize video sets the output to exact platform dimensions.
Three other layouts work when a crop would cut off the subject. The blurred-background frame: the 16:9 clip sits in the middle third of a 9:16 canvas with a blurred, enlarged copy filling the top and bottom. Split-screen stacking: two 16:9 clips fill the top and bottom halves. The caption-heavy layout: clip in the middle, hook text above, running captions below, so the letterboxing becomes design. A cropped 4K master produces a large file, so run the render through the free video compressor before uploading; for trimming and converting, see our free tools for video creators roundup.
Which licensing rules still apply to “free” footage?
Free means you do not pay; it does not mean anything goes. Across all twelve sites, the same five rules keep showing up: you cannot resell or redistribute the clips themselves; you cannot use them as your logo, trademark, or business name; you cannot imply that the people or brands in a shot endorse your product; identifiable people cannot be shown in a misleading, offensive, or defamatory way; and anything marked editorial-use-only stays out of ads and sponsored content.
Attribution, where required, has to be visible to the viewer: a line in the YouTube description or TikTok caption. Keep receipts: for every clip, save the source URL, license name, and download date, because if a Content ID claim lands from someone who registered a video containing the same stock clip, a dated record is what makes the dispute quick. Music is a separate license from footage everywhere. Our guide to copyright rules for short-form video in 2026 walks through claims, disputes, and what changed this year.
One more rule sits outside copyright. YouTube's Partner Program policy on inauthentic content, clarified on July 15, 2025, says content must not be “mass-produced, generic, repetitive, or manipulative”, and that channels where content feels interchangeable from video to video cannot monetize. Read the YouTube channel monetization policies and our breakdown of the YouTube AI content monetization policy before you scale a stock-only format.
How do you build a B-roll library you can reuse?
A reusable B-roll library is a folder tree plus a spreadsheet. Sort clips by subject and mood, name each file so the source and orientation are visible at a glance, and log the source URL, license, and attribution string on the day you download, because reconstructing that six months later, when a claim lands, is close to impossible.
A structure that scales: one folder per broad subject (city, nature, tech, people, money, abstract), a sub-folder per orientation, and a filename that packs in the metadata, for example pexels_8749321_hands-typing-night_9x16_4k.mp4. Tag moods in the spreadsheet (calm, urgent, upbeat) so you can pull “urgent, vertical, city” in seconds. Keep the 4K master plus a 1080x1920 proxy, and save the license page as a PDF, since terms change. For where this fits alongside script, voice, and caption tools, see the faceless creator tech stack; for the craft of cutting clips in well, see what B-roll is.
When should you use AI B-roll instead of stock?
Use AI B-roll when the shot you need is too specific for stock: a concept your niche talks about but nobody films, a consistent visual style across a series, or a sequence that must match your script beat for beat. Stock is still better for real places, people, and events, and faster when a generic shot will do.
The lightweight version is a still image with motion. Generate a frame with the free text to image tool, add a slow push-in, and you have five seconds of on-topic B-roll for a line no stock library covers. The fuller version is a dedicated AI B-roll generator that turns a script line into a matching clip. In Vidpal's pipeline that step is automatic: it writes the script, generates the voiceover, then selects or generates visuals for each segment and renders at 9:16 with captions, which removes the clip hunt entirely. If you enjoy hand-picking every shot, a manual stock workflow will feel more like yours.
Two honest caveats. Generated clips can look synthetic in ways viewers notice, especially hands, text, and crowds, so review before publishing, and label AI footage where platforms require it. For the wider landscape, see how to make faceless videos with AI and our comparison of the best faceless video generators.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pexels really free for monetized YouTube videos? Yes. The Pexels license allows commercial use with no attribution, and a monetized YouTube video, Short, or ad counts as commercial use. The rules you still follow are not about payment: do not resell the clips, do not imply the people or brands in them endorse you, and do not use a clip as your logo.
Do I need to credit Pixabay? No. The Pixabay Content License lets you use content without attributing the author, although the site says credit is appreciated. You still cannot sell or distribute content on a standalone basis, use content showing recognizable brands commercially, or print it on merchandise for sale.
Can I use the same stock clip other channels use? Legally, yes; non-exclusive licenses mean thousands of channels can use one clip. The risk is monetization, not copyright. YouTube's inauthentic content policy targets channels whose videos feel interchangeable and mass-produced, so if your format is a voiceover over the same trending clips everyone else uses, change the visuals, the structure, or both.
Pexels vs Pixabay, which is better for faceless videos? Pexels has the better search filters (orientation, resolution, duration, frame rate) and a more consistent modern look, which makes it the faster first stop for vertical B-roll. Pixabay has a broader mix, including music and sound effects under the same license. Both are free for commercial use with no attribution, so use both.
What is the best free site for vertical stock footage? Pexels, because its orientation filter and 4K and 8K options make native 9:16 clips easiest to find and check. Pixabay's vertical checkbox is a close second. Every free library still has far more landscape than portrait footage, so plan to crop 4K landscape clips for anything specific.
Can I use free stock footage in TikTok and Instagram Reels? Yes. All twelve sources here allow use on social platforms, and the no-attribution sites (Pexels, Pixabay, Mixkit, Coverr) need nothing beyond the download. For attribution sites, put the credit in the caption. Footage and music are separate licenses: the music you add inside TikTok or Instagram is governed by that platform's own terms.
Stop hunting for clips one video at a time
The short version: Pexels and Pixabay for volume with no strings, Mixkit and Coverr for curated clips with a clean license, Videvo, Vecteezy, Videezy, and Freepik when you will read a tag or add a credit, and NASA, Prelinger, the Internet Archive, and Wikimedia Commons for public-domain footage. Filter for vertical first, crop 4K when you must, keep a license receipt for every clip, and generate the shots stock cannot supply.
If the clip hunt is the part of faceless video you want gone, Vidpal runs the whole pipeline on a schedule: it researches trending topics in your niche from Reddit, X, RSS feeds, and Hacker News, writes a script in your brand voice, generates an AI voiceover, pulls relevant visuals and B-roll, burns in word-level animated captions, renders at 9:16, and auto-publishes to Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook, Pinterest, and X, then feeds performance data back into the next batch. There is a free plan to try it on a single channel; see pricing for volume plans, browse the use cases to find your niche, or start with the free tools and keep sourcing footage yourself.
