Google Image Search by Image

What happens when you search Google by image

When you search with a picture, Google Lens studies it the way a person would. It picks out objects, reads any text, and compares the whole image against the billions of pictures Google has indexed. Then it groups what it finds into a few kinds of results.

The tool on this page sends your photo to Google's image-matching technology and shows the matches here, so you don't have to switch tabs. When you want Google's full results page, open Google Lens from the engine cards that appear after you search.

Understanding the results Google gives you

Google's results page can look busy. Here's what each part is for:

• Visual matches - pictures that look like yours. This is what you want for identifying an object, plant or product
• Exact matches - pages that use this exact picture, the fastest way to trace a photo back to its source
• Products - shopping listings when Google spots something you can buy
• About this image - for many pictures, when Google first saw it and how other sites describe it, which helps you spot an old photo shared as new
• Text - words Google read in the image, which you can copy, translate or search

Search by image in Chrome without saving the picture

In Chrome on a computer, right-click any image on a web page and choose Search image with Google. Lens opens in a side panel with matches, so you never have to download the file. In Chrome on a phone, touch and hold the image and choose the same option.

Other browsers don't have that shortcut, but you can still use images.google.com or the tool above.

Make your Google image search more accurate

A few small changes make a big difference:

• Crop out clutter so the main subject fills the frame
• Use the largest, sharpest version of the picture you have
• Once Lens finds matches, add a few words to narrow them down - a color, a brand, or a word like 'recipe' or 'price'
• Try a second engine. Bing and Yandex index the web differently and often find pages Google misses

Google image search on your phone

On Android, open the Google app or Chrome and tap the Lens icon. On iPhone, the Google app and Chrome include Lens but Safari doesn't. In any mobile browser, you can also upload a photo from your camera roll to the tool above.