How Long Should Client Galleries Stay Online? Expiry Dates, Archives and What to Put in Your Contract (2026)
Six months, a year, or forever? How long to keep client photo galleries online, what actually happens when a gallery expires on Pixieset, Pic-Time and WeTransfer, what it costs to keep them up, the privacy angle, and a contract clause and reminder messages you can copy.
Short answer
There is no single right length, but there should always be a stated one. Many photographers keep galleries online for six to twelve months and keep an offline archive of the final images for longer; wedding galleries deserve the longest window because couples return to them for years. Whatever you choose, put the date in the contract and the delivery message, send reminders before it passes, and treat expiry as hiding the gallery rather than deleting the photos.
September and October are the busiest delivery weeks of the year for wedding photographers. The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study, which covers weddings held in 2025, found that 88% of couples hired a photographer, and a large share of those weddings fall in the autumn. That means a lot of galleries going out right now, and with every one of them comes a quiet decision most photographers make by default rather than on purpose: how long will this link keep working?
This guide is about making that decision deliberately. It covers the three common approaches, the numbers photographers actually use, what really happens when a gallery expires on the major platforms, what it costs to keep galleries online, the privacy angle, and the contract wording and reminder messages that stop an expiry date from turning into an awkward email a year later.
Table of Contents
- 1. Why the gallery lifetime matters more than it looks
- 2. Three ways to handle it
- 3. The numbers photographers actually use
- 4. What "expired" means on each platform
- 5. What keeping galleries online really costs
- 6. The privacy angle
- 7. A sensible lifetime by type of job
- 8. What to put in your contract
- 9. Reminders, reactivation and the client's own backup
- 10. A checklist
- 11. Message templates you can copy
1. Why the gallery lifetime matters more than it looks
A gallery link does three jobs, and each one has a different timescale:
- Delivery. The client views and downloads the photos. This mostly happens in the first days and weeks.
- Selection and orders. Album picks, print orders and "can we have this one for the grandparents" requests. These trickle in over months.
- Memory and marketing. The couple opens the link again on their anniversary, forwards it to a friend who is getting engaged, or orders a canvas years later. This can last indefinitely.
An expiry date that suits the first job can quietly kill the other two. A gallery that disappears after a month is fine for delivery, but it removes the anniversary visit and the referral that comes with it. On the other hand, a gallery nobody has opened in three years still costs storage on many platforms and still holds photos of people you are responsible for. Neither extreme is wrong. Choosing without thinking is.
2. Three ways to handle it
| Expire and hide | Expire, archive, then delete | Keep online indefinitely | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | The link stops working on a set date; the photos stay in your account and can be republished | The link stops working, you keep an offline archive of the finals for a stated period, then delete | The link keeps working for as long as you keep the account |
| Client experience | Clear deadline; can ask for it back | Clear deadline; recovery possible within the archive window | Best: the link always works |
| Your cost | Often unchanged, since hidden galleries can still count towards storage | Lower over time | Depends entirely on how your platform charges |
| Privacy | Photos still held | Clear end date for holding personal data | You hold photos of people for years; say so |
| Referrals and late orders | Lost after the date unless reactivated | Lost after the date | Kept |
Most photographers end up with a mix: a long online window for weddings, shorter ones for events, an offline archive of final JPEGs behind all of it, and raw files kept only briefly.
3. The numbers photographers actually use
There is no industry standard, and photographers' own threads show everything from a couple of weeks to "forever". Published policies are the most useful reference because they are the ones clients actually agree to. As one clear example, Amsterdam photographer Joanna Pantigoso publishes her policy in full: galleries are online for 6 months, then kept in an offline archive for up to 2 years, and only the final edited JPEGs are archived, while raw working files are deleted 30 days after delivery. Her reasoning is worth borrowing too: storage "is part of the service, but it is not unlimited", and the client is asked to download the photos and keep their own backup in more than one place.
That structure (a clear online window, a longer archive of finals, a short life for raws, and an explicit request that the client backs up) is a good template whatever numbers you choose.
4. What "expired" means on each platform
"Expired" rarely means deleted. It usually means hidden, and the difference matters for both your storage bill and what you can promise a client who comes back late.
| Platform | What happens at expiry | Photos deleted? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pixieset | A collection with an Auto Expiry date is set to Hidden at 11:59pm local time on that date; clients can no longer view it, and you can republish it | No | Pixieset Help Center |
| Pic-Time | The gallery switches to Offline; it stays in your account and still counts towards your storage. The main client is emailed 7, 4 and 1 days before, and a "Project Expired" email is sent after | No | Pic-Time Help Center |
| WeTransfer | On the Free and Starter plans, uploads stay online for up to 3 days; on Ultimate you can keep transfers active as long as you like | The transfer is gone for the recipient | WeTransfer Help Center |
| GalleryLink | Free galleries on accounts created from 28 September 2026 stay online for clients for 3 days; after that clients see an expired page and the owner still sees everything. Pro galleries stay online while you are subscribed | No | GalleryLink pricing |
Two practical points follow. First, on platforms that charge by storage, hiding a gallery does not necessarily save you anything, because the photos are still stored; Pic-Time says so explicitly. Second, because expired usually means hidden, you can offer clients a way back, and you should decide in advance whether that is free or paid.
5. What keeping galleries online really costs
The honest answer is that it depends on how your gallery platform charges, and that is worth checking before you promise anything.
- Storage-priced platforms. Most upload-based platforms price plans by how much you store. Every gallery you keep, online or hidden, uses part of that allowance, so a growing archive eventually pushes you up a tier. Our guide to how much storage wedding photography needs has the numbers.
- Galleries that read from your own storage. If the gallery reads photos from a folder you already keep, such as Google Drive, keeping the link alive costs nothing extra: your archive is the gallery. This is how Drive-linked galleries work on GalleryLink, and the Google Drive guide for photographers covers the storage side.
- Your time. Every reactivation request, "can you resend the link" email and lost-password message costs a few minutes. A clear lifetime and good reminders cut these down more than any storage saving.
6. The privacy angle
If you work with clients in the EU or UK, photographs of identifiable people are personal data. The GDPR's storage-limitation principle, Article 5(1)(e), says personal data should be "kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed".
In practice this does not force you to take galleries down quickly. It asks you to decide how long you keep client photos, and why, and to be open about it. A written gallery lifetime and archive period does exactly that. Keeping a wedding gallery online for years can be entirely reasonable when the couple has agreed to it and it serves them. This is general information, not legal advice; if you are unsure, ask a professional in your country.
7. A sensible lifetime by type of job
These are our suggestions, not rules. Adjust them to your platform, your prices and your clients.
| Type of job | Suggested online window | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Weddings | 12 months at least, or indefinitely if your storage allows | Album selection takes months, and anniversaries and referrals come back to the link |
| Family and portrait sessions | 3 to 6 months | Downloads and print orders happen early; holiday cards set a hard deadline (see our holiday mini session guide) |
| Events and parties | 1 to 3 months | Guests view and download within days; a short window keeps strangers' photos from lingering |
| Sports and school | 30 to 90 days | Parents download quickly; photos of children are a reason not to keep them up longer than needed |
| Commercial and real estate | As agreed with the client | The client usually downloads everything into their own systems on delivery |
8. What to put in your contract
Most disputes about expired galleries are expectation problems. A short clause prevents nearly all of them. Adapt this to your own terms:
Online gallery. Your final images will be delivered in a private online gallery, available for [12 months] from the delivery date. You will receive reminders before it expires. Please download your images and keep your own backup in at least two places.
Archive. After the gallery expires, [Studio name] keeps an offline copy of the final edited images for [2 years]. Raw files are kept for [30 days] after delivery and then deleted.
Reactivation. An expired gallery can be reactivated for [30 days] for a fee of [amount], while the archive exists.
Put the same dates in the delivery message, so the client does not have to find the contract to know them. The wedding delivery guide covers the rest of the delivery terms worth writing down.
9. Reminders, reactivation and the client's own backup
- Remind more than once. Pic-Time's automatic schedule of emails 7, 4 and 1 days before expiry is a good model even if you send them yourself. One reminder a month before and one a week before is a sensible minimum.
- Make downloading easy before the date. A download-all option or a clear download button on each photo means clients act on the reminder instead of putting it off.
- Decide the reactivation terms in advance. Free, paid or not offered at all are all fine, as long as the contract says which.
- Ask for the client's own backup. The gallery is a delivery method, not the couple's archive. Our piece on what to do with wedding photos after the wedding is a useful link to send them, and your own backup workflow covers your side.
- Protect what is private. A long-lived link is more likely to be forwarded. For sensitive galleries, a password makes a long lifetime much safer.
10. A checklist
- Choose an online window for each type of job you shoot.
- Choose an archive period for final images and a shorter one for raw files.
- Check how your gallery platform charges for hidden galleries before promising long windows.
- Write the gallery lifetime, archive period and reactivation terms into the contract.
- Put the expiry date in the delivery message.
- Send reminders a month and a week before expiry.
- Ask every client to download and back up their photos.
- Password-protect galleries that should not travel far.
- Delete archives when the stated period ends, and keep a note that you did.
11. Message templates you can copy
Delivery
Your photos are ready: [link]. The gallery will stay online until [date], so please download everything you would like to keep and save a copy in two places, for example your computer and a cloud drive. I will remind you before it expires.
One month before expiry
A friendly reminder that your gallery ([link]) will be online until [date]. If you have not downloaded your photos yet, now is a good time. Anything you would like printed? Just reply.
One week before expiry
Your gallery closes on [date], one week from today: [link]. After that I keep an archive copy of your final images until [date], and I can reactivate the gallery for [terms] if you need it.
After expiry, when a client asks for it back
Lovely to hear from you! Your gallery expired on [date], but I still have your final images in my archive. I can reactivate it for [30 days] for [amount]. Shall I go ahead?
A gallery lifetime is a small decision that shapes your storage bill, your privacy obligations and whether a couple can still find their photos on their tenth anniversary. Choose it on purpose, write it down, and remind people before it passes. If you would like galleries that stay online without a storage bill growing behind them, GalleryLink Pro keeps Drive-linked galleries live for as long as you are subscribed, and the wedding photographers page shows how the rest of delivery fits together.