Private images are images that are not accessible to any end-user. Since much effort goes into producing an original image, there might be scenarios where original images must be protected and made inaccessible to anyone.

For example, a paid image gallery that shares original images with its customers only when the payment is completed.

Private Images with ImageKit.io

Any original image that is marked private cannot be accessed directly through a standard image URL. Private Original Images can only be accessed through a valid signed URL.​

The same logic applies when a private image is being resized using real-time transformation parameters. A valid signed URL is required to access the transformation of a private image.

However, if there are named transformations specified within the dashboard, these named transformations can be used to transform your images. Named transformations can be used with private images without generating a valid signed URL.

Marking Your Images Private

1. If you are uploading images to the Media library, pass the parameter isPrivateFile as true in the image upload request. The uploaded image within the Media Library would be marked as private.

2. If you are delivering images from your S3 bucket added as an origin, set the object metadata x-amz-meta-isprivatefile as true to mark the image as private. This documentation from AWS provides an overview of adding metadata to an object within S3.

3. If you are delivering images from an HTTP Server added as an origin, add Is-Private-File as true within the server response to mark the image as private.

Upload Private Images using Upload API

You can mark images as private while uploading using the Upload API.