Help / FAQ / Free Accounts, Upgrading and Gifts
How many photos and videos can I upload for free?
When you have a free Flickr account, you can upload 2 videos and 300MB worth of photos each calendar month.
While the 300MB bandwidth limit for photos is firm, we do allow a little leeway for video in case you encounter transcoding errors, sound sync weirdness, etc. You will be able to delete and upload a new video. Please note, that if we determine you’re abusing your free video upload privileges, we may block your ability to share video.
Your upload limits are reset to zero at midnight in Pacific Time Zone (Flickr headquarters time) on the first of each calendar month. You can't recover any of your monthly allowance by deleting photos. If you have a free account, you'll see your limit on the upload page.
If you find yourself hitting your limit, try a pro account. Or, you can shoot your photos at a lower resolution or resize them to be more "web-friendly" (like 300KB instead of 5MB).
What do I get with a Pro account?
When you upgrade to a Pro account for just US$24.95 a year (or R$45.90 if you’re in Brazil ) you get all this:
- Unlimited photo uploads (20MB per photo)
- Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)
- The ability to show HD Video
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Archiving of high-resolution original images
- The ability to replace a photo
- Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
- Ad-free browsing and sharing
- View count and referrer statistics
Compare that to what you get with a Free Account:
- 300 MB monthly photo upload limit (15MB per photo)
- 2 video uploads each month (90 seconds max, 150MB per video)
- Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
- Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools
- Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)
For more information, visit our upgrade page.
Is there a page where I can keep track of upgrades I've purchased?
As a matter of fact, there is. Under Your Account, there's an Order History page that gives you an overview of all the upgrade-related transactions on your account.
I have a free account. Some of my photos aren't showing up. Why?
On a free account, Flickr limits the number of photos displayed.
If you have fewer than 200 photos, we display them all. If you have more than 200 photos, only the most recent 200 are displayed.
Your photos are not removed from Flickr, only from the list of your photos. If you blogged a photo and it no longer appears in your list, it will still appear on your blog, and the photo's Flickr page will still work just fine.
If some of your photos aren't showing up, don't panic! Just upload some fresh ones. Or upgrade to a Pro Account.
Note: If your free account is inactive for 90 consecutive days, it may be deleted.
What happens if my Pro Account expires?
If your Pro account expires, don't panic! None of your photos or videos have been deleted!
This means instead of enjoying the super-duper capacity of your Pro account, you're now subject to the limits of a free account. If you upgrade again, all of your photos will be waiting for you.
Any of your sets that disappeared will magically reappear when you renew or upgrade.
Are my photos ever deleted?
No, your photos will not be deleted, unless you do it yourself, or fail to play by our Community Guidelines.
What's the Gift of Flickr?
We're glad you asked! The gift of Flickr is an activation code that gives the recipient the awesome power of Flickr Pro.
Let's say you bought a gift code. After the payment goes through, you'll receive the gift code (and an email receipt of your order). When you have the gift code, you can either print one of our gift cards or email the code to your friend. The recipient then goes to the gift activation page and types in the code. Easy!
(If your friend doesn't have a Flickr account, we'll help them set one up as part of the activation process.)
To manage or send gifts you've bought, go to the Gift History page in your account.
To view your orders, go to your Order History page.
Can I buy someone a Gift Pro Account?
Absolutely! The more, the merrier!
Here's what buying a gift pro account means:
- You're buying an activation code that you can give to anyone— even someone who doesn't have a Flickr account:
- Current members must sign into their accounts and go to the activation page to activate their code.
- People who don't have an account can create an account as part of the activation process.
- Gift codes remain active until they are either activated, or they are applied to your account.
- If a gift code hasn't been used within 12 months of the date of purchase, we'll credit your account with the value of the gift. (For example, if you bought one year, then one year will be added to your account.)
- You can buy more than one gift at a time, and send them whenever you like (before they expire!).
- If you send a gift code to someone who doesn't want it, you can send the same code to someone else—as long as the first recipient didn't activate it.
Gifts are the same price as regular upgrades.
Can I buy a gift Pro Account for someone who doesn't have an account?
Yes! You can give the gift of Flickr to anyone—member or not!
Here's how it works:
- Go to the main Gift page to find out what it's all about,
- Click the big "Buy Now" button
- Choose the number of gifts you want to buy. When you're done, we'll send you over to Yahoo! Wallet to make your payment*
- Go back to Flickr, where you'll see a list of the gifts you bought
- Choose to either print a PDF Gift Card (to print out and scribble on), or email the gift. The recipient only needs to know where to go to activate the gift and the special magic gift code.
Note: Gifts can only be used once and by one person.
How do I activate my gift?
Yay! It's easy! Find the activation code you received from your friend (as a gift card or in an email) and go to the Activate your Gift Code page.
If you don't have a Flickr account, we'll help you set one up.