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Imgur is a great website for hosting images, but are they keeping those images forever?

If not, for how long?

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3 Answers 3

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Stated by Imgur under Imgur help → Support → Images

How long do you keep the images?

Forever! An image is only removed if deletion is requested.

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    They also offer one time deletion links when you upload an image not tied to an account. You can find it on the right hand side with the BB and HTML formatted links
    – Kade
    Apr 14, 2015 at 18:41
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    dead link. I have spent several minutes trying to find the answer to this question, and there seems to be no reference anywhere anymore. I would sincerely appreciate an updated answer. thanks!
    – Jeff Puckett
    Aug 1, 2016 at 21:23
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Imgur used to delete uploaded images that haven't got any views in six months: https://wayback.archive.org/web/20141212172016/http://imgur.com/faq#long
Since February 2015, when Imgur Pro service was discontinued, Imgur claims to preserve all images: https://blog.imgur.com/2015/02/09/imgur-pro-for-everyone/

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    Free image store forever? So how does the economics work then? How can this be real?
    – Pacerier
    Jul 10, 2017 at 21:16
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    @Pacerier They redirect bare image URLs to a page with ads whenever they can, and encourage people to download their mobile app, which also shows ads. Imgur was created as a "user experience first" image host, apparently the founder realized at some point that that statement is an economic impossibility.
    – Maximillian Laumeister
    Nov 16, 2018 at 0:53
  • @MaximillianLaumeister They all start out so naive and innocent, but the world is not all sunshine and rainbows, and it beats them down relentlessly until they cross over to the dark side. It's quite sad, really.
    – NoName
    Sep 14, 2021 at 11:05
  • @NoName It was an unusual sunset. Having sat behind opaque drapery all day, I had not realized that a storm was pushing in and that much of the sky was the precise shade of old suits of armor one finds in museums.
    – Frank Schwieterman
    Nov 1, 2022 at 4:54
  • This can't be right. Most >2 year old reddit threads have imgur links that return 404. Threads on /top are the exception.
    – Navin
    Dec 9, 2022 at 20:49
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On April 19, 2023, Imgur announced a policy change. Along with NSFW images being deleted, they will also start deleting images not tied to a user account on May 15, 2023.

So the answer is: Forever, but only if you uploaded it with a user account. Otherwise, it will eventually be deleted.

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