TinEye

TinEye launched in 2008 and is widely known as one of the earliest reverse image search engines.

It lets you upload or paste an image URL and will search across its huge database of indexed images to find matches, modified versions, and source versions.

Unlike standard image search, TinEye focuses on image recognition, visual fingerprinting, and identifying derivative images (cropped, resized, color-adjusted).

It doesn’t store your uploads permanently (your privacy is preserved).

You can use it free (within limits) for personal or non-commercial use. For commercial or high volume use, TinEye offers API / MatchEngine / MobileEngine options.

Have a look at accurate AI & plagiarism detection

How it works (core features & use cases)

When you submit an image (via upload, URL, drag-and-drop), TinEye extracts a visual fingerprint a unique signature based on shapes, colors, textures, etc.

Then it matches that fingerprint against its huge index.

It can detect exact matches, near duplicates, resized or cropped versions, altered colors, and more.

It’s smart enough to find where your image has been reused, even if edited.

You can filter results by “best match,” “most changed,” “biggest image,” “newest,” or “oldest.” For example, the “Biggest Image” filter helps you find the highest resolution version.

Another feature, TinEye Alerts, lets you track where your images appear over time and sends notifications on new matches.

They also offer MatchEngine, a private image search API. You feed your collection of images, and it can flag duplicates or derivatives.

It’s useful for fraud detection, content verification, AI generated content moderation, and more.

The MobileEngine offering handles image recognition for augmented reality, color extraction, etc.

You don’t need to commit to a yearly license plans are month-to-month, and you can upgrade or cancel anytime.

Traffic & landscape data

• TinEye receives around 5.3 million visits monthly (SimilarWeb estimate)
• According to Semrush, it gets ~9.91 million visits across all devices.
• In the competitive space, top competitors include PimEyes, Lens.Google, Reversely.ai, Labnol.org.
• Their authority score is ~67 (in SEO tools) and they have tens of millions of backlinks.

From analyzing competitor sites, many of them rank using terms like “reverse image search,” “image matching,” “image recognition API,” “duplicate image detection,” “image tracking,” “visual search tool,” etc. Use those kinds of phrases naturally in your own piece.

Pricing & cost structure (in text)

For casual users, TinEye is free (non-commercial) with a cap of 100 searches/day and 300 searches/week.

For commercial or API use, here’s how pricing breaks down:

• Starter: ~$200 per month for up to 5,000 searches (≈ $0.04 per search)
• Basic: ~$300 per month for 10,000 searches (~ $0.03 per search)
• Corporate: ~$1,000 per month for 50,000 searches (~ $0.02 per search)
• Enterprise / large scale: e.g. 1,000,000 searches for ~$10,000 (≈ $0.01 per search)
• For image indexing or extra usage beyond your limit, there are additional fees (per image, per search) in some plans.

You start with a certain bundle, and if you exceed the bundle, extra searches are billed.

Pros

• Solid image recognition engine that can find modified or derivative versions
• Big index / wide coverage (billions of images)
• Privacy: uploaded images are not stored permanently
• Flexible API / MatchEngine for custom use
• Filters and sorting (biggest, changed, new) help refine results
• Alerts let you monitor your images over time

Cons

• Free version has strict usage limits
• No bulk upload in free mode
• High cost if your usage scales a lot
• Some matches may miss heavily altered images
• Learning curve if you are new to image API integration

Final Thoughts

TinEye stands out as a reliable and straightforward reverse image search tool built for both personal and business use.

It’s one of those AI tools that quietly does its job without much fuss. You upload an image, and within seconds, you see where that image appears across the web. Simple, fast, and accurate.