Short answer: the search is free — the answers are not. PimEyes lets anyone upload a photo and run a face search at no cost, and it will happily tell you it found matches. What it won't show you for free is where those matches live. The thumbnails come back blurred, the source links stay hidden, and both sit behind a subscription.

We checked every plan at pimeyes.com's live pricing page on August 6, 2026 — the same way we verify every price in the directory. Here's what free actually gets you, what the paid tiers cost month to month, and which alternatives are worth knowing about.

What the free search actually shows

A free PimEyes search runs against its full index and returns real matches — you'll see how many photos of your face exist on the open web, and roughly what they look like. But the results are deliberately incomplete:

  • Blurred previews. Blur-free images are listed as a paid feature on every PimEyes plan — the free tier never shows a clean thumbnail.
  • No source URLs. Free results won't tell you which site a photo appears on, which is the entire point of checking.
  • CAPTCHA friction. Skipping CAPTCHA verification is likewise a paid perk; free searches gate you repeatedly.

So the free tier answers exactly one question: does my face appear somewhere I don't know about? If the answer worries you, finding out where costs money.

PimEyes pricing, verified

Prices below are billed monthly, checked at the live checkout on August 6, 2026. Yearly billing is offered at a discount, and a single-search pass exists if you truly need one look — but the monthly figure is the honest number to plan around (we've written before about why advertised prices often assume annual billing).

  • Open Plus — $29.99/mo. Up to 75 searches a day, 10 PimEyes Alerts, blur-free results, no CAPTCHA.
  • PROtect — $34.99/mo. 125 searches a day, 20 alerts, AI-generated reports, and result management. A takedown-agent service is a further $12.99/mo add-on.
  • Advanced — $299.99/mo. Unlimited searches, 500 alerts, and full Deep Search access — priced for investigators, not individuals.

The realistic budget for a personal audit: one month of Open Plus, then cancel — $29.99 to see every match, grab the source URLs, and file removal requests. PimEyes also operates a free opt-out flow that removes your face from its public search results without a subscription; if your goal is simply not to be findable there, start with that.

A note on using it responsibly

PimEyes is built and marketed for searching your own face — auditing your digital footprint, catching stolen photos, spotting deepfakes. Running searches on other people without their consent is where the tool gets legally and ethically murky, and in some jurisdictions it can cross into unlawful processing of biometric data. Treat it as a mirror, not a telescope.

Real PimEyes alternatives

True face-search engines are rare — most so-called alternatives are reverse-image tools, which find copies of the same photo rather than new photos of the same face. Knowing the difference saves you a subscription:

  • FaceCheck ID — the closest real alternative in our index, and listed free. Face-based like PimEyes, oriented toward vetting strangers (scam and catfish checks) rather than auditing yourself.
  • Google Lens — free, and excellent at finding exact copies and near-duplicates of a photo you already have. It will not surface different photos of the same face.
  • TinEye — the veteran reverse-image engine. Free, exact-match only; useful for tracing where a specific image spread.
  • Yandex Images — historically the strongest free reverse-image search for faces, though results skew toward Eastern European sites and it offers no monitoring.

We keep the wider field — identity, people-search, and research tools — under Research and Search Engine in the directory.

Frequently asked questions

Is PimEyes free?

Searching is free; seeing is not. Free searches return blurred previews with no source links. Clean results start at $29.99/mo (Open Plus), verified August 2026.

How much does PimEyes cost?

$29.99/mo (Open Plus), $34.99/mo (PROtect), or $299.99/mo (Advanced), billed monthly — with a yearly discount and a single-search pass also offered. The takedown-agent service adds $12.99/mo.

Can I remove my photos from PimEyes?

Yes — PimEyes operates a free opt-out that excludes your face from public search results. Removal from the source websites themselves is what the paid alerts and takedown add-on are for.

Is there a free PimEyes alternative?

For exact copies of a known photo: Google Lens or TinEye, free. For genuine face search on the open web, FaceCheck ID is the nearest thing — and it's listed free in our index.

Prices verified at the live pricing page on August 6, 2026. If PimEyes changes its plans, the listing in our directory is where we track it.