Once I upload one of my photos to Unsplash, I no longer have any control over how it is used. Still, I am curious to see where my images end up and for what purpose they are being used.
A paid plagiarism checker used to be one possible route for this kind of search. Today, though, I would no longer recommend naming that specific service here, because the old Plaghunter domain no longer appears to point to a trustworthy image search product. So instead, it makes more sense to focus on the free options that are still practical today.
Three free alternatives
Google Lens
The easiest option today is Google Lens. In Chrome or in the Google app, an image can be searched directly with Lens, either from a website or by uploading an image from your device. Google also lets you refine the result further and, in some cases, offers additional context through features like “About this image”.
TinEye
The second option is TinEye. TinEye still offers browser extensions and currently documents support for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera. According to TinEye, Safari support is limited because of changes made by Apple. Just like with Google Lens, the process starts with a right click on an image and then selecting the TinEye search option.
Text search
A third option is still a normal text search on Google. Search terms such as “Claudio Schwarz Unsplash” or “Photo by Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash” can be surprisingly effective. This method does not usually find one exact image in the same way a reverse image search does, but it can still reveal websites that properly credit the photographer. That makes it especially useful when an image search misses a result but a visible credit line is present.
In practice, the best results usually come from combining all three approaches. Google Lens is often the best starting point, TinEye can uncover additional matches, and a text search helps when a site credits the image but the visual search does not catch it.