Quick answer: PicMonkey is still available in October 2026 as a browser-based photo editor and graphic design tool, with iPhone and Android apps. Shutterstock bought it in 2021, and its stock photos now come from Shutterstock’s library. There is no free plan: you get a 7-day free trial, then pay for Basic (US$72 a year), Pro (US$120 a year) or Business (US$228 a year per user). PicMonkey suits people making social media graphics, thumbnails and simple marketing designs who also want solid photo retouching tools.
This review is based on PicMonkey’s website and pricing page and published information about the company. We have not tested the service ourselves. An earlier version of this article opened with an unsourced statistic about Instagram uploads and listed prices that were garbled and out of date. We have removed both and updated the review for October 2026.
About PicMonkey
- Founded: in 2012 in Seattle, Washington, by former employees of Picnik, an online photo editor that Google had bought and then shut down in early 2012.
- Owner: Shutterstock acquired PicMonkey in September 2021 for about US$110 million in cash, according to Wikipedia’s account. PicMonkey’s site now says its stock photos and videos come from Shutterstock.
Plans and pricing (as of October 2026)
As of October 2026, per PicMonkey’s pricing page (US dollars):
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Main features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $72 a year | $7.99 a month | 1 GB storage, JPG and PNG export, fonts, effects, templates and touch-up tools |
| Pro | $120 a year | $12.99 a month | Unlimited storage, Smart Resize, Brand Kit, one-click background remover, premium stock photos, PDF export, your own fonts, priority email support |
| Business | $228 a year per user | $23 a month | Pro features plus multiple brand kits, searchable tags, real-time co-editing, comments, shared folders and seat management |
Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, though the background remover and the premium stock library are not available during the trial. The original article said you could edit for free and pay only to save, share and export. Today PicMonkey works on a trial-then-subscribe basis, so check the trial terms before you start. The prices in the original article are out of date.
Features PicMonkey documents today
- Photo editor: cropping, exposure and colour adjustments, filters and effects, a colour changer, a background remover and artistic effects such as Edge Sketch and Posterize. The original article described the same basics, plus a paint brush to apply effects to only part of a photo.
- Touch Up: retouching tools for portraits and selfies. The original article listed tools such as Wrinkle Remover, Blemish Fix, Mascara and Lip Tint.
- Templates: thousands of templates for flyers, Instagram posts and stories, YouTube thumbnails and banners, presentations, logos, invitations, business cards and collages.
- Graphics and fonts: more than 9,000 graphics and textures that you can recolour and animate, hundreds of fonts and the option to upload your own (on Pro).
- Branding: logo and business-card templates, watermarks and a Brand Kit for your colours, fonts and logos.
- Video and animation: PicMonkey has added the ability to add and trim videos and to animate elements in a design.
- Collaboration: real-time co-editing, comments and shared folders on the Business plan. The original article described PicMonkey’s shared spaces for teams.
- Apps: PicMonkey runs in a web browser, with apps for iPhone and Android.
The original article listed upload sources including OneDrive, Facebook, Dropbox and Flickr, and size limits of 16 megapixels with automatic resizing to 4,000 x 4,000 pixels. We could not confirm these limits on PicMonkey’s current pages, so check its help centre if you work with very large images.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Strong mix of photo retouching and design templates | No free plan after the 7-day trial |
| Shutterstock stock library on Pro and Business | Background remover and premium stock not in the trial |
| Brand kits, Smart Resize and team collaboration | Only 1 GB of storage and no PDF export on Basic |
| Works in the browser and on phones | Not a full professional editor like Photoshop |
PicMonkey compared with Canva
Both are browser-based design tools with templates and stock content. PicMonkey grew out of photo editing and has a deeper set of retouching tools, while Canva covers a wider range of formats, such as documents, presentations, websites and video, and has a free plan. See our Canva review for details. Other options include Snappa and Fotor, and our list of photo editing software compares more.
Frequently asked questions
Is PicMonkey free?
No. PicMonkey offers a 7-day free trial, then a paid subscription from US$72 a year or US$7.99 a month, according to its pricing page in October 2026.
Who owns PicMonkey?
Shutterstock, which bought PicMonkey in 2021.
Does PicMonkey have a mobile app?
Yes. PicMonkey has apps for iPhone and Android as well as its web editor.
Can PicMonkey remove backgrounds?
Yes, with a one-click background remover on the Pro and Business plans. It is not available during the free trial.
Checked in October 2026 against PicMonkey’s homepage and pricing page and Wikipedia’s account of the company’s history and 2021 acquisition. We have not tested PicMonkey ourselves, so confirm current prices and features before you subscribe.
