Face Index
Sentient Labs · Image · Marketing
FaceIndex is a web based facial recognition search engine. Upload a photo and it scans public pages and its own thumbnail index for matching faces, then returns the links it finds.
About Face Index
What Is FaceIndex
FaceIndex is a reverse face search service run by Sentient Labs. You upload a portrait or paste an image URL, the engine builds a face signature, and it compares that signature with faces cached from public pages. The output is a list of links: social profiles, news photos, mugshot galleries, video stills.
It sits in the same category as PimEyes and the other face search engines that appeared after Clearview AI made scraped face databases a public argument. The workflow is short. Upload, wait a few seconds, read the report. Plans run from a single $1 lookup to a $129 monthly account, and a separate portal handles verified government and law enforcement users.
Calling it a background check tool oversells what you get. Matches arrive as candidates with confidence scores, and the same face can show up in photos of different people. Blurry uploads, heavy filters, aging and lookalikes all cause misses and false hits. The service also attracts privacy criticism, and the rules differ by country: Illinois BIPA and Texas CUBI require consent before collecting biometric identifiers, the EU AI Act bans untargeted scraping to build face databases, and GDPR limits how personal data can be processed. FaceIndex terms of use forbid stalking, harassment and screening for credit, employment, insurance or housing, and require users to be 18 or older.
Getting Started
- Create an account on faceindex.co with an email address and password. Search stays locked until you sign in.
- Use the two free searches that come with a new account, or buy a single search for $1 if you want to test more photos.
- Upload a clear, front facing picture in SVG, PNG, JPG or GIF format, up to 6MB each and up to four photos per search. Pasting an image URL works too.
- Start the scan and wait a few seconds. Results open as a report with each potential match and the page it came from.
- Open the source links and compare faces yourself, then export the list to CSV or Excel if your plan includes it.
Product Information
A quick look at Face Index's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- People vetting a dating profile
- Private investigators and researchers
- Small business owners doing light due diligence
- Anyone checking their own image footprint
Tasks
- Verifying that a profile picture belongs to the person using it
- Finding other accounts that use the same portrait
- Tracing where a picture was reposted
- Spotting a scam listing
Scenarios
- A stranger from a marketplace app wants a deposit before meeting
- An investigator works through a folder of photos
- You find your own photo on an unfamiliar account
- A newsroom checks a submitted photo
Key features
Photo Upload and Reverse Face Search
You upload a portrait, up to 6MB in SVG, PNG, JPG or GIF, and the engine extracts the face before running the search. Up to four photos can go into a single query, which helps when you have several shots of the same person. The original file is discarded once the face is extracted, according to the site.
Public Web and Thumbnail Index
The index holds small thumbnails of faces plus the URL of the page they came from. FaceIndex says it stores nothing else: no names, no addresses, no criminal records. Matching runs against that index, and paid monthly plans add access to a wider extended database.
Match Reports with Source Links
Each result pairs a potential match with a link to its source page. You open the page and decide whether the face is the same person. That link does most of the work here, since a picture alone tells you very little without context.
Multi-Face and URL Input
One photo can hold several people and the engine processes each face separately, so a group shot returns more than one result set. Pasting an image address skips the download step when the picture lives on a listing, a dating profile or a news page.
API Access and Bulk Export
Professional and Enterprise plans include API access, and both tiers export results to CSV or Excel. That combination matters for anyone running the same check across a stack of photos instead of one at a time.
Plans Built Around Search Volume
Basic search costs $1 per lookup on the basic database. Premium at $19.99 a month covers 50 searches, removes queue waits and unlocks the extended database. Professional at $49.99 adds the API and bulk export, and Enterprise at $129 removes the search cap.
Retention Limits and Privacy Controls
FaceIndex says uploads are dropped after face extraction, cached thumbnails and results are deleted within 24 hours, and IP addresses aren't logged. It also says its AI is trained not to index or search children's faces. The matching itself runs through a third party API, so the photo leaves the site during a search.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Two free searches and $1 single lookups let you test the engine before committing to a subscription.
- Every match comes with a source link, so you can check the page instead of trusting a similarity score.
- Professional and Enterprise tiers add API access plus CSV or Excel export for repeat and batch work.
- Setup is minimal: a browser, a photo and an account, with no software to install.
- The stated retention policy is short, with uploads discarded and cached thumbnails cleared inside a day.
Cons
- A result is a lead, not proof. Lookalikes, old photos and heavy filters all produce false matches.
- The $1 single search uses the basic database, so the extended index requires a monthly plan.
- Face search is restricted or banned in several jurisdictions, and the user carries the legal risk of each query.
- No independent benchmark exists, which leaves the 99.9% accuracy figure as a vendor claim.
- Consumer face search draws privacy complaints, and a report can identify someone who never agreed to be searched.
Frequently asked questions
It runs a reverse face search. You give it a photo, it compares the extracted face with thumbnails it has cached from public web pages, and it returns links to pages where a similar face appears. It doesn't hand you a name or an address.
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