Yandex Images

$0

Cost per search

yandex.com/images

3

Result groups: similar images, same image, sites with the image

Yandex Images interface, Nov 2026

RU

Jurisdiction of the operator and its data laws

Yandex privacy policy

What does Yandex Images do?

Yandex Images has a camera icon in its search box. Upload a picture, paste a URL or drag an image in, and the page returns three things: visually similar images, copies of the same image in other sizes, and the sites where the image is found. Like Google Lens and TinEye it is a reverse image search: it compares pictures, not a face embedding built from a face.

What sets it apart in practice is the similarity model. Guides and comparisons since 2018 have reported that a portrait uploaded to Yandex often returns other photos of the same person, not only copies of the same picture, especially for people with a presence on Russian-language sites. Yandex has not published how its similarity ranking treats faces, and there is no independent, dated test of its hit rate; figures quoted in blog posts (for example a "65 to 75 percent" success rate) have no methodology behind them and are not repeated here.

How do you use it?

1. Step 1

   Open yandex.com/images

   Click the camera icon in the search box.

   ›
2. Step 2

   Submit a picture

   Upload a file, paste an image address, or drag the image onto the page. The Yandex app and Yandex Browser add a camera mode.

   ›
3. Step 3

   Read the groups

   Similar images, copies in other sizes, and sites with the image. Crop the picture to a face or an object to narrow the search.

   ›
4. Step 4

   Open the source

   Each site result links to the page that carries the picture.

What are the privacy questions?

Two. First, uploading a photo of another person to any search engine processes their image without their knowledge; with Yandex the practical effect is closer to a face search than with Google, which is why consumer-privacy writers have criticised it as an unregulated face matcher open to anyone. Second, Yandex is a Russian company, and uploaded images are processed on servers subject to Russian data-retention law; Yandex's privacy policy governs how long they are kept. People searching for their own photos accept that trade-off knowingly; searching someone else's photo through Yandex raises the same questions as any other engine, and the laws section covers where that stands (EU GDPR, UK GDPR).

Can you remove your photos from Yandex?

There is no face opt-out because Yandex does not declare a face index. Removal of a specific image from Yandex search results is requested through Yandex Support, and the hosting site has to be asked separately; the same split as with Google. The opt-out routes directory lists both.