9 BEST Facial Recognition Search Engines for Face Search

By : Alyssa Walker Alyssa Walker
Hours Updated

Most facial recognition search engines cannot accurately identify faces. Moreover, some search engines may have relatively small databases and an inability to perform deep scans, which may result in unsatisfactory results. In contrast, the best facial recognition search engines utilize advanced algorithms and techniques to provide complete search results within seconds. These tools can also help you resolve any unauthorized use of your images online.

That’s why you should always choose from the best face recognition tools online. We’ve handpicked 9 of the best face recognition search engines for your needs. Our research evaluated services based on database size, filtering/sorting capabilities, privacy features, and deep scans.

Best Face Recognition Search Engines (Free/Paid)

Facial Recognition Search Engine Additional Searching Capabilities API Support Free Trial Link
Social Catfish Provides data about image size, date, camera used, etc. Yes 3-day Trial for just $6.87 Learn More
Google Image Search Detects faces, objects, scenes, etc. Yes, But Lacks support for facial recognition Lifetime Free Learn More
PimEyes Capable of finding obscure images in PDFs, webpages, libraries, etc. Yes No Learn More
TinEye Capable of suggesting images similar/relevant to your existing image No Lifetime Free Basic Plan Learn More
FaceCheck.ID Finds, scammers, and fake social media accounts of people using the image. Yes Lifetime Free Learn More

1) Social Catfish

Best for utilizing critical image metadata

Social Catfish is an ideal face recognition search engine that can search people based on face recognition, name, email, address, and username. You can discover images with similar faces/objects on social media, which helps find misuse of your photos or reuse of your intellectual properties without permission.

Social Catfish uses an extensive database to recognize patterns and suggest similar images that might be relevant to you. It utilizes proprietary technologies to scan and match millions of social media profiles and websites with your uploaded photos.

Social Catfish

Features:

  • Sites Scanned: The robust algorithm scans through images on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Match, Tinder, Reddit, and LinkedIn.
  • Verify Image: You can use it to verify if an account you met online is an actual human or some scammer/bot.
  • Product Search: While shopping online, you can perform a reverse image search of your product to see if it is available on other websites.

Pros

  • Maintains a history of past searches to assist in research.
  • It helps you discover the public criminal records of anyone.
  • It allows you to filter search to a country or region.

Cons

  • No method for requesting your personal image removal.

Pricing :

Here are some of the best pricing plans offered by Social Catfish:

Plan Name Price Searching Capability
3-day Trial $6.87 unlimited reverse image-matching searches online
Unlimited Social Search $28.94 per month Searching Names, phone numbers, usernames, email addresses
Unlimited Image Search $6.87 per month Reverse Image Search Options
Search Specialist $397 one-time Search everything and get assisted by a dedicated search specialist.

Visit Social Catfish

2) Google Image Search

Best for searching through the largest database of images worldwide

Google Image Search Engine utilizes the powerful Google Bot to scan all the publicly available websites for images to create the largest and most frequently updated database of images globally. Advanced computer vision technology recognizes objects in your image and suggests ideas with similar things.

All Google Images search results show metadata, including image size, source website, and upload date. For products, additional information like price may also be shown. You can filter and sort images based on file type, upload date, size, and color.

Google Image Search

Features:

  • Search: You can easily search images based on keywords or perform a reverse facial recognition image search.
  • Lens: Google Lens can identify objects and faces in the image. Specific regions in the image can be selected to find more specific results.
  • Save: You can save search results and conveniently view all saved versions of searched images at a single location.
  • Recommendations: Recommends similar topics and images that you might be interested in.
  • Keywords: Directly search the internet for specific images by specifying a particular keyword. Images can be further filtered based on size, recency, transparency, and usage rights.

Pros

  • It finds links for purchasing objects, tools, and clothes.
  • Automatically recognizes and identifies famous faces showing similar images.
  • Safe search ensures the results are safe for all ages/ethnic groups.

Cons

  • Not ideal for identifying scammers/fake accounts.

Pricing :

Lifetime Free

Link: https://images.google.com/

3) PimEyes

Best for performing deep internet searches involving obscure

PimEyes is one of the best face recognition search engine tools that allow you to perform in-depth image searches to find images online. Advanced convoluted neural networks study your uploaded image to find objects and other details to match it with the database.

PimEyes helps protect your copyrights by identifying images on the internet that violate your intellectual property. You can custom configure alerts to be notified whenever a new image with your face is discovered online.

PimEyes

Features:

  • Results: All image searches result in detailed results of websites with the image URL and relevant metadata.
  • Photo Erasure: Mitigate the risks of unauthorized use of your face by erasing your photos online.
  • Notices: Helps formulate and send 80 DMCA and GDPR takedown notices for your media.
  • Free Trial: No

Pros

  • Tools to perform a deeper search for all resources on the internet.
  • Allows you to export search reports in the form of CSVs and PDFs.
  • Notifies you about any newly discovered images that may be relevant to you.

Cons

  • Lacks options for reverse image search apart from facial recognition.

Pricing :

Some of the best pricing plans from PimEyes include:

Plan Name Price Daily Searches Alerts
Open Plus €33.99 25 3
Protect €90.99 25 15
Advanced €338.99 Unlimited 500

Link: https://pimeyes.com/

4) TinEye

Best for tracking your image usage online

TinEye is an ideal reverse face search engine for discovering and tracking your image misuse online. It uses advanced computer vision and image recognition algorithms to classify and identify critical objects in your image. All typed objects/faces are then compared with an extensive database of images for misuse and fraud detection.

You can use it as a reverse image search engine to identify images with your face or intellectual properties on the internet. The unique color search tools help determine the dominant color for you. It can be used later to retrieve images with specific colors easily.

TinEye

Features:

  • Label Matching: It also provides tools for particular use cases, like label matching for categorizing drinks in the beverage industry.
  • Copyrights: You can use this software to check for copyrights and ensure that all images comply with copyrights.
  • Filters: You can filter facial recognition search results based on file size, image dimensions, format, and watermarks.
  • Compare Images: The compare image tools lets you compare any image with your uploaded photo. This is ideal for identifying cropped, skewed, or photoshopped images.
  • Free Trial: No

Pros

  • Native Google Chrome extension for convenient face recognition search.
  • Robust API for integrating with your services and tech stack.
  • This service sends you alerts when it discovers any new images with your face in it.

Cons

  • Lacks support for using multiple images in a single search.

Pricing :

TinEye offers the following plans for its API usage:

Plan Name Price Searches
Starter $200 5,000
Basic $300 10,000
Corporate $1,000 50,000
Enterprise $10,000 1,000,000

Link: https://tineye.com/

5) FaceCheck.ID

Best API for integrating with your applications and services

FaceCheck.ID is among the best reverse image search tools for facial recognition. You can use it to find images of a particular person. It identifies faces in your uploaded photo and then finds similar faces in Social Media posts, online videos, scam accounts, websites, news and blog pages, and product marketing.

This tool is an ideal choice for programmatic applications as well. The native face search API is available to build custom integrations with your apps and services. Proper documentations help developers speed up the integration process.

FaceCheck.ID

Features:

  • Categorization: All search results are categorized based on the confidence software has in the result being the right match for your image.
  • Privacy: All your search data and uploaded images are automatically deleted within 24 hours of your search completion.
  • Fake Account discovery: It is ideal to confirm the identity of individuals and detect scammers/counterfeit accounts misusing someone else’s photos.

Pros

  • You can request your face’s removal from their search results.
  • Native Google Chrome extension for performing one-click facial recognition search.
  • It allows you to search multiple photos of a person in a single search.

Cons

  • Relatively smaller database for searching images.

Pricing Lifetime Free

API Pricing: Each search costs 3 credits. Buy credits with Bitcoin for $0.10 per credit.

Link: https://facecheck.id/

6) Bing Image Search

Best for filtering and finding images of suitable format and size

Bing Images is well known for reverse image searching capabilities and AI-driven Image generation. It has one of the largest databases of images for scanning. The robust image creation tool powered by DALL-E can generate new AI-driven ideas from any text prompt from you.

Bing is one of the best free facial recognition search engines that use advanced recognition to recognize and identify famous personalities from images and relevant information about them. It has one of the best community-driven feedback systems to ensure inappropriate/fake/scam images can be flagged and removed immediately.

Bing Image Search

Features:

  • Text-based Search: Bing allows you to perform text-based searches to find images relevant to your textual prompt.
  • Object Detection: Its Computer Vision is advanced enough to use the image for pinpointing locations, detecting animals, finding similar products, shopping, and seeing similar faces.
  • Safe Search: The secure search feature ensures the resulting images are identical for all audiences.

Pros

  • It can fetch images through drag and drop, direct upload, URL, or direct file pasting.
  • Visual Search also comes integrated into Samsung Bixby and Huawei HiVision.
  • Sort and filter search results based on parameters like data, size, and format.

Cons

  • Ignores all websites that have marked themselves “noindex.”

Pricing : Lifetime Free

Link: https://www.bing.com/images/feed

7) Berify

Best for finding your stolen videos/images

Berify utilizes custom algorithms and searching techniques to build a proprietary solution for performing facial recognition searches. It maximizes the chances of image discovery by using its algorithm and results from sites like Google, Yandex, and Bing to provide combined results for all possible matches.

Photographers, content creators, and artists can keep an eye on the use of their intellectual properties online. They get notified about unauthorized use immediately and can act accordingly. You can quickly sort and filter out results per your needs and relevant use case.

Berify

Features:

  • Discovery: It can be used to discover duplicate, edited, and resized images of individuals. You can easily use it to uncover all social media accounts and online presence.
  • Reputation: Businesses and celebrities can better understand how their images are being used online and can use it to manage their reputation online.
  • Notifications: You can configure email notifications to be sent to you for any image found on the internet relevant to your searches.
  • Free Trial: Yes, upto 5 images

Pros

  • Performs searches of faces in images as well as videos.
  • You can import images from website links, usernames, and feeds.
  • Provides you notifications for misuse of your identity in images online.

Cons

  • Relatively time-consuming scans are not ideal for people in a hurry.

Pricing :

Here are some of the best plans for API calls from Berify

Price (per month) API Calls
$150 2,500 Calls
$600 10,000 Calls
$2750 50,000 Calls
$5000 100,000 Calls
Custom Pricing 100,000+ Calls

Link: https://berify.com/

8) Clearview

Best used by law enforcement for face recognition

Clearview is one of the best facial recognition search engines that helps perform reverse image searches for law enforcement and security purposes. Utilizes a state-of-the-art patented algorithm for completely unbiased detection of faces online.

Clearview provides specially designed software for mobiles that is quick and requires fewer resources to process the data. It can be used for almost instantaneous search identifications. You can use its built-in tools to compare the input image and results side-by-side. This is ideal for detecting cropping, resizing, or morphing on the images.

Clearview

Features:

  • Security: Maintains your data security and privacy by following the highest security standards and policies.
  • Law Enforcement: Clearview Investigative platform is ideal for law enforcement to find criminals and generate leads from more extensive media databases.
  • Demographics: Its algorithms are trained on an all-inclusive dataset ideal for bias-free detection of faces and identification of suspects.
  • Free Trial: Yes, 30 Days (Subject to approvals)

Pros

  • Uses over 650 algorithms to find the perfect match for your images.
  • Provides customized scalable pricing plans that adapt to your changing needs.
  • It helps mitigate financial fraud, identity theft, and crimes online.

Cons

  • Not very useful for personal usage as it focuses on business/government use cases.

Pricing :

Here are the pricing plans offered by Clearview:

Plan Name Features Price
Basic • Access a database of 30+ billion images
• Assigned Customer Success Manager 		Contact Customer Support For Pricing
Pro • Image enhancement tools to achieve better results
• Extract quality images from frames of videos. 		Contact Customer Support For Pricing

Link: https://www.clearview.ai/

9) Pinterest Reverse Image Search

Best to reverse-search any existing pins and find similar faces

Pinterest is one of the best facial recognition sites that maintains an extensive database of original photos and videos that can be used to perform in-depth image searches on the site. You can utilize its reverse image search engine to find similar images across Pinterest.

Pinterest maintains user privacy as the historical data of reverse image searches is never stored. Besides, you can request removals if your personal images appear on their site without permission. Its advanced systems can help identify any products that might be featured in the photos and provide you with relevant information.

Pinterest Reverse Image Search

Features:

  • Speed: It requires no additional setup. You can directly search by clicking on the “Magnify Icon” button on each pin.
  • Target: You can use a draggable point to clearly identify a target in any image. This target would be the focal point when Pinterest finds similar photos.
  • Appropriate Content: Pinterest’s algorithms automatically filter out unsafe content ensuring only safe images are available.

Pros

  • It uses computer vision to understand images’ context and provide relevant keywords.
  • More like this section provides images similar to your input image.
  • You can use it to find the original image from a variety of copies.

Cons

  • It is limited to images on Pinterest only.

Pricing :

Lifetime Free

Link: https://pinterest.com/

How to do Reverse Image Search?

Here are the steps to perform a reverse image search using Social Catfish:

Step 1) Open Social Catfish Site

Open the Social Catfish Reverse Image Search page.

Step 2) Upload image in Search box

In the Search bar, the “browse and upload the image here” button on the screen.

Reverse Image Search

Step 3) Select and upload an image.

Select an image from your device for which you want to perform a reverse image search. Wait till uploading is complete.

Reverse Image Search

Step 4) Wait for Processing

Wait until Social Catfish performs the scans and gathers the results.

Reverse Image Search

Step 5) Provide Consent

After processing, it will show you the total number of results found. Give your consent to view by clicking “Yes, I Understand.”

Reverse Image Search

Step 6) Select Plan and Pay

You will be asked to choose a plan and make payment. By default, you are offered a 3-Day Trial for $6.87. Pay using PayPal or your Credit Card.

Reverse Image Search

Step 7) Enjoy Results

After payment is completed, your Trial will be activated, and you can see results for similar images.

FAQs

Facial recognition search engines identify faces in your existing image and find similar images online. Various neural networks recognize faces in your uploaded images, and these faces are then compared with a vast database to find similar images from multiple news, social media, and dating websites.

Some of the best sites with image recognition technology for face detection are:

Some of the critical factors that must be considered while choosing a reverse face search engine are:

  • Database: Choosing a service with a large database that covers almost the entire internet for finding images is always recommended.
  • Scans: You should always prefer services capable of performing in-depth scans, including PDFs and obscure websites, to find someone’ all social media accounts and online presence.
  • Security: Always choose a service that maintains your data privacy and ensures complete security while surfing the internet.
  • Pricing: It is always recommended to check the pricing plans of services and find the best value for money for your needs.

Yes, most face search engines have user privacy and safety in mind. Any images uploaded to search engines for facial recognition are deleted from their database almost instantly. Besides, if a face finder has your photos in their index, you can request removals for your privacy. All good quality facial recognition tools use standards like HTTPS and TLS for security.

The Verdict

Till now, you read about some of the world’s best facial recognition software solutions that let you find someone by face recognition. We’ll help you further narrow down the choices as our final verdict highlights the best tools for some everyday use cases.

  • Google Image Search is an ideal choice if you want to use the most extensive image database in the world for searching images.
  • If you want to search the internet deeply and detect faces even in PDFs and old sites, then PimEyes is best for you.
  • It would help if you went with FaceCheck.ID, in case you want to utilize their robust API for building custom programs/integrations.
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