Is PimEyes Safe? What Happens to Your Photo, Your Money and Your Privacy

PimEyes is the best-known face search engine on the web: upload a photo, and it shows you web pages with similar-looking faces. Because it works with something as personal as your face, "is PimEyes safe?" is one of the most common questions people ask before using it.

The honest answer depends on what you mean by safe: safe for the photo you upload, safe for your money, or safe for the people being searched. This guide covers all three, based on what PimEyes itself says and what independent journalists have reported.

What happens to the photo you upload

This is the main privacy question, since you're handing over a picture of a face. According to PimEyes's privacy and ethics page:

• Images uploaded for a search are processed only to perform that search and are removed after a limited period. The page also mentions automatic data purging after 30 days.
• PimEyes says it doesn't identify people or attach names to faces. It returns links to web pages that contain similar-looking images.
• It says it searches images that are already publicly available on the internet, and doesn't access private databases or restricted platforms.
• You can ask for your data to be deleted.

These are PimEyes's own statements; outsiders can't verify them independently. That's true of every face search engine, including Protevio, so it's worth reading the privacy policy of any service before you upload a face.

Is PimEyes safe for your wallet?

PimEyes is a legitimate paid service with a free tier:

• Free: up to 10 searches a day, but the links to where matches were found are locked.
• Paid plans: more daily searches, alerts that notify you about new matches, and on the higher tiers, help with takedowns. Our PimEyes pricing breakdown covers the plans.

One safety tip matters more than the price: PimEyes says it's available only through its own website, and that it doesn't offer Telegram bots, mobile apps or subscriptions through third-party platforms. Apps and bots that use the PimEyes name aren't official, so don't give them your photo or payment details.

Is PimEyes safe for the people being searched?

This is where most of the criticism has come from. A face search engine can be used to protect yourself, but anyone with a photo of you can search for you too.

• PimEyes's rules prohibit searching for people without their knowledge, including tracking someone or monitoring ex-partners or romantic interests, and it says it monitors for misuse.
• Journalists have still raised concerns. In 2020, the German outlet netzpolitik.org published an investigation into its potential for abuse. In 2022, the New York Times tested PimEyes on its own journalists, with their consent: it found photos of every one of them, but for some of the women, incorrect matches came from pornography sites, showing how a false match can be harmful.
• PimEyes doesn't guarantee that it finds every image of you, since results depend on what's publicly available.

Those concerns apply to face search in general, not only to PimEyes. Whatever tool you use: search for your own face, or someone else's only with their consent, and never treat a similar face as proof of who someone is.

How to remove your face from PimEyes

PimEyes offers a free opt-out that hides your face from its public search results. It asks for photos of your face, an anonymized scan of your ID or passport, and an email address. Opting out doesn't remove the photos from the websites where they're published; for that, you need to contact those sites. Our step-by-step guide to opting out of face search engines covers PimEyes, FaceCheck.ID, Lenso.ai and Protevio.

So, is PimEyes safe to use?

For searching your own face, PimEyes is a legitimate service, and its published policies say uploaded photos are deleted after a limited period. Use only the official website, read the plan details before you pay, and remember that the bigger risk isn't to you as a user: it's that anyone can search for your face. Checking what's out there and opting out where you can is the best protection.

If you'd rather use a service built in the EU, with prices in euros and takedown tools included, our guide to PimEyes alternatives compares the main options, including free ones.

Sources: PimEyes: privacy and ethics; PimEyes pricing; PimEyes opt-out; PimEyes FAQ; netzpolitik.org investigation (2020); New York Times test (2022), via beSpacific. Checked October 2026.

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