How to register your photos with the US Copyright Office

In the US Copyright Office's online system (eCO), you register one photograph with the Standard or Single Application, or up to 750 photographs in one group application of published or of unpublished photos (37 CFR 202.4). As of October 2026 the group fee is $55; the Office has proposed $85.

Published October 30, 2026. Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources linked on this page. How we write our guides.

Why register photos with the Copyright Office

This guide covers US law only. Registration is voluntary, and a photo is protected without it; see does a watermark protect your photos. Two rules explain why people register:

• 17 U.S.C. 411(a): apart from an action under section 106A(a), no civil action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work may be instituted until preregistration or registration. If registration was refused after the deposit, application and fee were delivered in proper form, the applicant is entitled to sue by serving notice and a copy of the complaint on the Register of Copyrights. The Office's Circular 1 says the Office must approve or refuse your application before you can file such a lawsuit, except in cases involving a non-US work.
• 17 U.S.C. 412: no award of statutory damages or of attorney's fees is made for infringement that begins before the effective date of registration, unless registration is made within three months after first publication of the work. The section opens with exceptions.

Circular 1 also says registration establishes prima facie evidence of the validity of the copyright and the facts in the certificate when it is made before or within five years of publication. It says the effective date of registration is the day the Office receives all required elements in proper form. Registration does not itself award money and does not stop copying. Information you give on an application is public: the Office's FAQ says it is available to the public and will be available on the Internet, and Circular 2 says the deposit becomes part of the public record.

Registering photographs: single photos and group options

For one photograph, the Office's Circular 2 says that to apply online you complete the online application, pay the fee, and upload an electronic copy of the work or send a physical copy. The Office's photographs page offers video tutorials for two applications for one photograph: the Standard Application, for individuals, companies and organizations, and the Single Application, for individuals. Circular 4 says the Single Application fee applies only if you register one work, not made for hire, and you are the only author and claimant.

For many photos, the Office offers a group option, with the rules in 37 CFR 202.4(h) and (i) and in Circular 42. As of October 2026:

• Published and unpublished photographs are separate options, and a group may not contain both. Other works may not be combined with photographs.
• A group may include no more than 750 photographs.
• All the photographs must be created by the same author, and the claimant must be the same for all of them. Work made for hire is allowed if all the photographs are identified in the application as such.
• For a published group, all the photographs must be published within the same calendar year.
• The deposit is one copy of each photograph in JPEG, GIF or TIFF format, with a sequentially numbered list giving the title and file name of each photograph. For a published group the list also gives each photograph's month and year of publication. Each uploaded file must not exceed 500 megabytes.

The Office's July 2026 fee analysis says it plans changes that would allow published and unpublished photos in one submission and larger numbers of photographs. Those are plans, not rules in force as of October 2026. Circular 42 also says the "Unpublished Collection" option is no longer available for photographic works.

Copyright Office registration fees for photos

The in-force amounts are in 37 CFR 201.3 and on the Office's fee page. The proposed amounts are in the Office's proposed fee schedule, submitted to Congress on July 14, 2026, which says the Office seeks to implement them in the fall of 2026. The Fee Study 2026 page says Congress has 120 days to respond to the proposal with legislation disapproving it. Under 17 U.S.C. 708(b) proposed fees may be instituted after the end of 120 days after the schedule is submitted to Congress, unless within that period a law is enacted stating that Congress does not approve it. By our count that period ends on November 11, 2026. Check the fee page before you pay.

The Office reports that for claims closed from April 1, 2026 to September 30, 2026, the average processing time for all claims is 4.1 months, and 3.4 months on average for online claims with an uploaded deposit that needed no correspondence.

Steps in the Copyright Office's online system

For a group of photographs in the eCO registration system, in the Office's order (steps checked October 2026 against Circular 42 and the Office's application preview, whose sample screen is dated January 24, 2024; the live screens may differ):

1. Log into your eCO account. If you have none, Circular 2 says you establish a user ID and password and provide contact information.
2. Choose Register a Group of Photographs under the Copyright Registration heading on the upper left side of the home page.
3. On the Registration Process Overview screen, select Start Registration.
4. For Type of Group, choose Published Photographs or Unpublished Photographs. Circular 42 says that if you select the wrong option, you will need to start over.
5. Tick the box that reads "I agree that I have read, understood, and I meet all eligibility requirements described above", then select Continue.
6. Complete the screens in turn: Titles, Author, Claimants, Rights & Permissions Information (optional), Correspondent Information, Certificate Mailing Address, Special Handling (optional) and Certification.
7. Pay the required fee.
8. Upload the photographs and the title list. Circular 42 says the list's file name must contain the title of the group and the case number assigned to the application.

The preview shows the tabs Form, Pay and Submit Work. The Office's registration FAQ says its current system only accepts titles containing Roman letters and/or Arabic numerals, without diacritical marks. The Office's pages we read do not say whether to deposit copies with or without a visible mark.

Once your photos are registered, we suggest keeping a notice on the pictures as well; see how to write a copyright notice for your photos. To put your name and notice into the files first, use the copyright metadata tool. Free, no limit. Your pixels are not touched; only the metadata changes.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

Checked October 30, 2026.

• www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/411
• www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
• www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/412
• www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-register.html
• www.copyright.gov/circs/circ02.pdf
• www.copyright.gov/registration/photographs
• www.copyright.gov/circs/circ04.pdf
• www.ecfr.gov/current/title-37/section-202.4
• www.copyright.gov/circs/circ42.pdf
• www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/feestudy2026/proposed-fee-schedule.pdf
• www.ecfr.gov/current/title-37/section-201.3
• www.copyright.gov/about/fees.html
• www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/feestudy2026
• www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/708
• www.copyright.gov/registration/docs/processing-times-faqs.pdf
• www.copyright.gov/registration/docs/grpph-preview.pdf