Already have a keyword CSV? Drop it in and every row comes back with keywords iStock search indexes, written out as an iStock upload sheet that downloads on its own when the run finishes. Your original layout is one click away too. Built for the batch of five hundred you are about to submit, not for editing one photo at a time.
The iStock CSV Keyword Optimizer is part of PixelKeyAI. Give it a CSV of titles and keywords, and every row comes back with keywords iStock search accepts and finds, while every other column stays as it was. You see the total before anything is charged.
You give it a CSV, it finds your keywords column, sends each row's keywords through the same engine that powers iStock Precision, and returns terms iStock's search actually indexes.
Two files come out of it. The iStock sheet downloads by itself the moment the run finishes: their eight columns, their keyword limit, ready to upload. It is byte for byte the same format the rest of PixelKeyAI exports for iStock. The original layout is your own file back with only the keywords column rewritten, same columns, same order, same header. Both stay on screen afterwards, so you can take either one, or the same one twice.
Filename,Title,Keywords,Category dolomites_01.jpg,Sunrise ridge,"mountains, hiking, sunrise",Nature market_04.jpg,Fruit stall,"fruits, vendor, buying",Food
Filename,Title,Keywords,Category dolomites_01.jpg,Sunrise ridge,"mountain, hiking, dawn",Nature market_04.jpg,Fruit stall,"fruit, market vendor, buying",Food
Most contributors do not keyword one photo at a time. You keyword a shoot, export a CSV, and submit the batch. If those keywords were written with Adobe Stock or Shutterstock in mind, a good share of them mean nothing to iStock. The terms are not wrong. They are just not the words iStock indexes on, so the file sits there getting fewer views than it earned.
Before this, the only fix was to re-upload every photo with Precision turned on. That works, but you are moving the images again and paying to generate keywords you already have.
Nothing is charged until you press the button.
It reads the file in your browser and finds the keywords column, whether it is called Keywords, Keyword, Subject or Tags. If it picks the wrong one, choose the right one from the dropdown. Comma, semicolon and tab delimited files all work, and the byte order mark and line endings are kept so the download opens the way the original did.
You see how many rows have keywords, how many are skipped because that cell is empty, how many are over the fifty keyword limit and will be trimmed, what the whole thing costs, and roughly how long it will take. Rows with an empty keywords cell are never charged.
Large files are processed in batches with a progress bar and a live count of credits used. You can stop partway. What has been done stays done, and the rows that were not reached keep their original keywords.
The iStock sheet lands in your downloads the moment the run finishes, so there is nothing to go looking for. If you would rather have your own columns back, that button is right beside it, and neither one goes away.
The CSV is parsed in your browser and rebuilt there for download. Only the keywords are sent.
If your CSV carries them, switch them on. Knowing what the photo is of means terms that do not match the subject get dropped instead of passed along. Slower, and the price is the same.
Which is iStock's own limit. Anything longer is trimmed to the first fifty, and you are told how many rows that affects before you spend anything.
The same as optimizing a file you already keyworded, so no route here is cheaper than another. Empty rows are free.
The iStock upload sheet or your own layout, either one, as many times as you like. A stopped run still gives you both, with the rows it did not reach left untouched.
Up to fifty thousand rows. The estimate tells you what a file that size will take before you commit to it.
They solve different problems, and it is worth knowing which one you want.
| Image Metadata Editor | iStock CSV Optimizer | |
|---|---|---|
| You bring | Images, with their EXIF and IPTC | One CSV |
| You work on | A card per file, every field editable by hand | Nothing. One column is rewritten for you |
| You get back | Agency CSVs in their fixed formats, or an ExifTool script | An iStock upload sheet, automatically, plus your own layout on request |
| Suits | Five to a hundred files you are finishing | Five hundred to twenty thousand rows already exported |
| Costs | Free to edit and check | Two credits per row |
If you want to open images, read their metadata, and fix titles and captions by hand, use the Image Metadata Editor. Its free keyword check will also tell you how much of a keyword set iStock already indexes, which is a reasonable way to find out whether a batch is worth optimizing at all.
See the row count and the cost before you spend anything.
Open the Optimizer