Emojipedia is a resource for learning more about emoji which uses images from a variety of platforms in an educational manner to document this fascinating and ever-growing collection of characters.

Emoji licensing is a question which we are often asked. "Can I use emoji images for free?" or "How do I license Apple emojis?" (or other vendors)

Emoji characters displayed on Emojipedia belong to their respective font creators. What you can and cannot do with emoji images varies depending on which images you are looking to use.

How to License Emoji Images

Multiple options exist for licensing emoji images. For display on the web, "fair use" may apply when referencing emoji related topics.

Emojipedia Sample Images

Emojipedia permits using our original sample images under the usual fair use provisions, to use when discussing new emoji releases. In fact, we welcome this! Please feel free to use our images to illustrate a story or article; with a link provided back here for attribution.

Note: this is not the same as using in a commercial product, for which you will need to use a licensed emoji set (see below).

Vendor Emoji Designs

Many emoji projects exist with various licensing options clearly listed online. Some, but not all, are free or open source. Licensing information about the following emoji sets are linked below:

• 📝 Google Noto Emoji
• 📝 Microsoft Font FAQ
• 📝 Twitter Twemoji
• 📝 JoyPixels
• 📝 OpenMoji
• 📝 emojidex

Each of the above projects have different conditions for how they can be used (online only, print, commercial, etc); and whether there are specific terms for attribution or distribution.

Emojipedia is not involved in the licensing of emoji images from any vendors listed on this site.

We do not provide licensing information or services for third party vendors. This includes Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, HTC, LG, Twitter, Facebook, JoyPixels, OpenMoji and emojidex.

To the best of our knowledge, specific information about licensing emojis from Apple, Facebook, WhatsApp or Samsung is not publicly available.

Additional Notes

• 👉 Unless otherwise stated, emoji images are © copyright, and enquiries about commercial licensing of emoji images should be directed to their respective font vendors.
• 📃 Unicode has additional guidance on the use of emoji images which may be helpful.
• 📧 We are unable to provide contact details for emoji vendors, or further information about licensing third party emoji images.
• 🧑‍⚖️ We are also not lawyers, so cannot give specific advice on which scenarios might be considered an acceptable fair use of emoji images. We advise you to use your judgement in this area.
• 🧳 More details about who owns emoji can be found on our blog.

Emojipedia creates original images in a glossy style for the Emojipedia Sample Image Collection, which you are welcome to use in articles with attribution to Emojipedia 👍