CLUB ANSWER
Do You Have to Credit the Image Library When You Use a Picture?
No. Nothing in the Cheap Image Library license asks you to name the source, link back, or add a caption. Download the JPG, use it, and move on. Attribution is optional, and the choice is entirely yours.
That answer is short, so the rest of this page is about the situations where the question keeps coming up anyway: client contracts that demand a credit for every asset, publishers with house rules, and designers who simply want to be transparent about where an image came from.
Why attribution is not required
Attribution is a condition some licenses attach as the "price" of a free image. The image library here does not need it. There is no photographer whose portfolio depends on the credit, no agency counting brand mentions, and no advertising model that runs on links. The permission on /license/ is complete without a caption, so adding one earns you nothing and omitting one costs you nothing.
This matters in places where a credit would be awkward or impossible: a product label, a billboard, a phone-app splash screen, a printed menu. You should never have to redesign a layout to fit a footnote, and with this image library you do not.
When you might credit anyway
There are honest reasons to add a line even when the license does not ask for it.
- A client or publisher requires it. Some brands log every third-party asset. If their template has a "source" field, fill it in.
- Transparency about AI. Every image in the image library is AI-assisted. Some outlets prefer to flag that for readers. A short note next to the image or in the colophon does the job.
- Helping colleagues find more. A credit in an internal design system tells the next designer where the collection is.
None of these are legal obligations. They are courtesy or house policy, and you can satisfy them however you like.
A credit format that works
If you do add a line, keep it plain. Any of these is fine:
Image: Cheap Image LibraryBackground image via cheapimagelibrary.spaceAI-assisted stock image, Cheap Image Library
Do not invent a photographer's name. There is not one to name, and attributing an AI-assisted image to a person would be wrong on the facts. Do not add a copyright symbol followed by your own company name on top of the image, either. Your layout is yours; the picture inside it is licensed, not owned.
What clients usually mean when they ask
When a client asks "do we need to credit this?", they are rarely asking about etiquette. They are asking whether the image is safe to use. The useful reply is: the image comes from a public image library under a royalty-free license that requires no attribution, and the full terms are at the license URL. Send them the link. Most legal reviews close at that point, because the question they cared about was permission, not credit.
If they want to see the source themselves, send the image page. It shows the resolution, the tag chips that describe the picture and the Download JPG button. They can verify there is no watermark on the kept file and that no account or purchase was involved.
Credit does not expand the license
One caveat. Adding a credit line does not unlock uses the license excludes. Writing "image via Cheap Image Library" under a print you are selling does not make resale allowed. Crediting the site on a logo does not make the trademark use permitted. The exclusions in the license stand regardless of how generously you attribute.
So the practical rule is simple. Credit if you want to or if a client asks. Skip it when it would clutter a design. Either way, browse all images or jump into a search like forest, and use what you find without a caption hanging over your head.