Can I Use AI Images Commercially? What You Need To Know

These are some of the most common and important questions we hear from creators: Can I use the AI art I generate for my website? Can I use it to design T-shirts? What about for a client’s social media campaign?

While thousands of creatives are already using AI art successfully for commercial purposes, the answer depends on a few key factors, including the specific Terms of Service of the platform you’re using, the laws in your region, and what the image itself contains.

That’s why we created this guide. We’ll help you understand these factors and explain, with practical examples, what you need to know to use generative AI as a powerful and safe partner for your business.

This guide is for general information only and is not legal advice. You must always check the specific terms of your platform and consider the laws in your jurisdiction before using any AI-generated content for a commercial project.

Can You Use AI-Generated Art Commercially?

The rules for commercial use are not one-size-fits-all. The right to use an image depends on a combination of factors.

Because the legal landscape is complex and varies from country to country, one of the clearest and safest paths for a creator is to start with the factor you have the most control over: the platform’s Terms of Service (ToS).

The ToS is the legally binding agreement you have with the tool you’re using. It is the first and one of the most important documents to check. It answers key questions, such as:

• Does the platform grant you a license for commercial use?
• Who owns the intellectual property (IP) of the images you create?
• Are there different rules for free and paid users?

What’s in your image also matters. For example, third party IP should only be used if appropriate rights have been obtained.

Here is a quick breakdown of the main factors to consider:

How Commercial Use Works on Leonardo.Ai

At Leonardo.Ai, our commercial use policy is designed to be straightforward. We’ll break down the two main scenarios here. This information is accurate as of November 2025, but for the most detailed and up-to-date information, we encourage you to read our official Terms of Service.

For Free Users (The “Public” Model)

You can use images and videos you generate on our free plan for commercial purposes.

The key distinction is that, as a free user, the images and videos you generate are public, and, as between you and Leonardo.Ai, Leonardo.Ai owns the assets. Because they are public, other users can also see and use them. This means you might see the work you generate being used by others.

It’s also worth noting (for both free and paid plans) that as the creator, you are responsible for the ideas and prompts you use. We encourage you to create freely, while always being mindful that your work doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights or break any laws.

Who It’s For

This plan is perfect for experimenting, brainstorming concepts, and creating designs where you don’t need exclusive rights.

A Practical Example

Think of “Alex,” a free user who wants to create a design for his T-shirt business. He can use our tools to create a concept, download it, and sell it on T-shirts. However, his design is public, so other users might be inspired by it or remix it for their own projects.

For Paid Subscribers (The “Private” Model)

Paid subscribers can also use content for commercial purposes, with one critical addition: as between you and Leonardo.Ai, you have full ownership of your assets.

As a paid subscriber, you have the choice to set your content as “private” or “public”:

This is how your exercise of rights can change depending on whether your creation is private or public:

• When you create private content: Your generations are visible only to you and your authorized users. We will not use your private content to train our models or for any other purpose without your express written consent. This is the recommended setting for any confidential or proprietary work.
• When you create public content: If you are a paid subscriber and choose to mark your content as “public,” as between you and Leonardo.Ai, you still own the content. However, by making it public, you grant Leonardo.Ai a license to use, copy, display, and distribute that specific content for any purpose. You also make it available for all other users on the platform. In short: you still own your generations, but you make them available for others to use.

It’s good to remember that AI models can sometimes produce similar creations for different users. This means that while you have full ownership of your specific image, that ownership doesn’t apply to a separate, similar image that another user might create.

Who Is It For

This plan is essential for any freelancer, designer, agency, or business that needs to create exclusive, proprietary assets for their brand or for client projects.

A Practical Example

Think of “Olivia,” a paid user creating designs for her sticker business. She keeps all her core product designs private, so only she has the right to use them. However, she might create a fun promotional image and share it publicly to engage with the community, understanding that others might remix it.

Can You Sell AI-Generated Art?

As we’ve covered, the right to sell your AI art depends on the same key factors: your jurisdiction, the inputs you use, the output you get, and your platform’s specific Terms of Service (ToS).

Once you’ve considered those factors, the real question isn’t if you can sell it, but what kind of rights you have over the art you are selling. Are you selling an exclusive design that no one else can use? Or are you selling a design that is publicly available for anyone to copy and sell themselves? This is where reading the platform’s ToS is so important.

At Leonardo.Ai, the answer is clear and depends on your plan:

• As a paid subscriber, as between you and Leonardo.Ai, you have full ownership of the images and videos you create privately. You can sell them with the confidence that they are your exclusive property.
• As a free user, Leonardo.Ai grants you a license to use creations for commercial purposes, which includes selling them. However, as we discussed, those creations are public and, as between you and Leonardo.Ai, are owned by Leonardo.Ai. This means another person could use that same design for their own T-shirt or poster.

Best Ways to Use AI-Generated Art for Your Business

Generative AI can be a creative partner that can enhance your projects and speed up your workflow. Many hobbyists and creatives are already using AI to get high-quality results faster. Here are a few practical ways you can use AI art for commercial reasons:

• Marketing and advertising: Quickly create a wide variety of unique and on-brand visuals for your social media posts, blog headers, email newsletters, and digital ad campaigns.
• Product and merchandise design: Design unique graphics for T-shirts, posters, mugs, and other print-on-demand merchandise. You can also generate professional-looking mockups to see how your designs will look on real products.
• Client pitching and storyboards: Generate high-quality concept art and AI storyboards to help a client visualize a project’s direction. This allows you to present multiple creative options in a fraction of the time.
• Website and brand development: Create a library of custom icons, logos, and background textures for a new website or branding project, ensuring a consistent style.
• Prototyping and ideation: Rapidly visualize product ideas, app interfaces, book covers, or packaging designs. This lets you experiment with different concepts before investing time and resources into a final design.

A Practical Example

Let’s demonstrate quickly how we can use AI for commercial purposes. Let’s say we have a software product called “Vortex” and we need to create a simple, animated shot of its packaging for a marketing video.

First, we’d generate the static product image using Lucid Origin:

A clean, white 3D software box standing on a reflective surface. On the front of the box is a logo of a sleek, minimalist ‘V’ shape, glowing with a purple-to-blue gradient, with the word “Vortex” underneath.

Next, we use this image as the starting frame of the video we’ll create using Veo 3.1 (check our Veo 3 prompting guide and Sora 2 prompting guide for more practical tips on creating videos):

A soft, purple light animates from the ‘V’ logo, casting a brief glow on the reflective surface below. The camera slowly zooms out, revealing more of the box. Audio: A futuristic, low-energy “vwoom” sound, followed by a soft, digital confirmation beep.

With these two steps, we’ve created an on-brand animated asset that’s ready for a website, social media post, or commercial. By creating these assets in private mode, we retain full ownership and exclusivity of the final product.

Conclusion

The answer to ‘Can I use AI-generated images commercially?’ is a clear yes when working with Leonardo.Ai. Of course, this positive answer is built on the foundation of the other key factors we discussed: it assumes you are mindful of the laws in your region and are using inputs and creating outputs that are original and safe to use.

Policies and technology change quickly. The information in this article is what is true as of November 2025. For the most up-to-date information on our policies, we always encourage you to refer to our official Terms of Service.

Now you can get started with the confidence that you’re building your business on the right foundation. We’re excited to see what you create!