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August 27, 2026
Answered

How can I transfer Adobe Stock licenses to a client for future use?

  • August 27, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 52 views

I have an Adobe Stock monthly subscription that includes 10 paid downloads per month (Standard licenses).

I recently designed and typeset a book for a client. The book is not for commercial sale. I downloaded around 20 images from Adobe Stock for use in the book. Some of the images are from the Free Collection, but most of them are paid Standard assets.

Now the client would like to obtain the rights to use the same collection of images in the future, for example on their website, social media, and other communications/marketing materials.

In other words, they would like to pay me for the time and cost involved in finding and licensing these images, and then continue using the images themselves.

I understand that Adobe's terms allow a Stock asset to be licensed on behalf of a client, but I am not completely sure how this works in practice when the images have already been licensed through my own subscription.

Has anyone had a similar situation?

What would be the correct way to handle this? Can I transfer the licenses for these already-licensed images to the client, and if so, what exactly do I need to provide or do to make the transfer valid?

Also, can I charge the client for the work involved in finding, licensing, documenting and transferring these images, or would that be considered reselling Adobe Stock licenses?

Any practical advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.

    Correct answer Nancy OShea

    The cleanest way forward:

    Tell your client to buy sufficient Credit Packs and license the Stock assets in their name for their own use. Credits can be redeemed for any type of asset (premium, standard, video, etc..) for up to 12 months from date of purchase.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/web/common-questions/credit-packs.html

     

    If client decides to publish & sell the book later, they’ll need to buy the appropriate license: Standard, Extended or Enhanced.

    https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

    This separates you from any future involvement in how they choose to use the assets later. It’s much cleaner that way.

     

    As for your time, charge the client whatever hourly rate you think is reasonable. But you can’t charge them for the assets you purchased because those still belong to you. 

     

    Hope that makes sense.

     

    4 replies

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2026

    You incorrectly posted this in the Contributors forum. 

    This topic belongs in the Stock buyers forum below. 

    https://community.adobe.com/stock-29

    I’ll ask an employee moderator to move it there for you.

     

    Good luck. 

     

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Nancy OSheaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2026

    The cleanest way forward:

    Tell your client to buy sufficient Credit Packs and license the Stock assets in their name for their own use. Credits can be redeemed for any type of asset (premium, standard, video, etc..) for up to 12 months from date of purchase.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/web/common-questions/credit-packs.html

     

    If client decides to publish & sell the book later, they’ll need to buy the appropriate license: Standard, Extended or Enhanced.

    https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

    This separates you from any future involvement in how they choose to use the assets later. It’s much cleaner that way.

     

    As for your time, charge the client whatever hourly rate you think is reasonable. But you can’t charge them for the assets you purchased because those still belong to you. 

     

    Hope that makes sense.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Abambo
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2026

    You can charge the customer any amount of money that you and the customer agree upon. To "transfer" the license, the customer has to agree to Adobe’s terms and conditions or to your conditions that need at least to be as stringent as Adobe's.

    That’s the theory. Practically, for the for-pay assets, you do as described above. 

    For the free assets, however, it is best that the customer licenses those also. This will give you the opportunity to use those assets for a different project again, as free assets can’t be licensed once more, and using the asset will lock that license to that specific customer.

    Please note that you will be responsible for the customer’s use of the licensed assets by you, according to the terms. So to have a clean situation, you may want to get them to license also the for-pay assets. They just need to take the correct subscription that does not lock them into a one-year contract (i.e., monthly subscription), and they will need to cancel in time!

    ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
    RALPH_L
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2026

    You need to contact customer support.