Public Domain Videos: 150,000 Free Clips You Can Use With No Credit

Public domain video is footage with no copyright left. You can cut it, remix it, put it in a paid course or a monetized video, and you don’t owe anyone a credit.

Most of page 1 for this search explains what public domain means and then links to a stock site, or to “public domain” collections on paid footage sites. A few point at archive.org and old Vimeo channels. What none of them do is let you filter to public domain only, see the length and size, and grab a batch.

Wikimedia Commons has about 150,000 video files marked public domain or CC0. I built a free Google Sheet that filters to just those with one dropdown.

TL;DR

Commons had 151,711 public domain or CC0 videos when I checked, out of 415,288 videos in total.
Set License to “Public domain & CC0” and every result says CREDIT NEEDED: No.
Public domain is about copyright; trademarks and the people in the shot can still matter for ads.

Who this is for

Documentary and history YouTuber: old films, newsreels and archive footage with no license fees.
Video essayist: clips you can cut and remix freely, without share alike rules.
Course creator: footage for paid lessons where you don’t want a credit list on every slide.
Ad or promo editor: cutaways you can use in commercial work, once you’ve checked the people and logos in shot.
Teacher: real footage for class with nothing to cite (though citing is still good practice).

What makes a video public domain

There are three common ways footage ends up with no copyright:

The copyright expired. In the United States, works published before 1931 are in the public domain as of 2026. Early films like the 1906 “A Trip Down Market Street” are on Commons for that reason.
It was never copyrighted. Works made by US federal government employees as part of their job have no US copyright. That’s why so much NASA footage is public domain.
The owner gave it away. CC0 is a tool where a creator waives their rights, so the file works like public domain.

Copyright rules differ by country. Commons notes which rule a file falls under on its page, like “public domain in the United States because it was published before 1931”. If you publish mostly outside the US, read that line.

How to find public domain videos in the sheet

Get Free Image Finder and make your copy.
Click 🖼️ Free Image Finder > Quick setup.
On the Search tab, set Media type to Videos.
Set License to Public domain & CC0.
Type a subject in the yellow Search cell.
Check the Matches on Commons number, then scroll the gallery. Each card shows the license and length.
Tick Save on the ones you want.

What I found

These are counts with Media type Videos and License Public domain & CC0, on 2026-10-26:

rocket launch: 1,318 of the 1,779 videos were public domain or CC0. Lots of NASA and SpaceX launch footage.
Blank words, just the two filters: 151,711 videos.
"A Trip Down Market Street": the 1906 San Francisco cable car film. 11 minutes 30 seconds, by the Miles Brothers, public domain.

There’s also a Commons category called “Videos of films in the public domain”. Switch Mode to Category and type Videos of films in the public domain to see it. It had 83 files when I looked. Category mode lists everything in the category and ignores the other filters.

Sort it differently

The Sort dropdown changes what you see first:

Oldest uploads and Newest uploads sort by when the file was added to Commons, not when it was filmed.
Random gives you a new set every time. Good for browsing a big pool.
Best match is the default.

Download and credit (or not)

Public domain clips need no credit. If you want to say where it came from anyway, the Export tab has a CREDIT LINES column ready to paste into a video description.

To grab the files, the Export tab’s DOWNLOAD SCRIPT column saves every saved file into a commons-downloads folder on a Mac or Linux computer. On Windows, paste the FILE URLS column into a bulk downloader. More on that in how to download images from a list of URLs.

Most files are WebM or Ogg. Convert to MP4 with HandBrake or ffmpeg if your editor won’t open them.

Public domain doesn’t mean anything goes

People in the shot. Using a recognizable person to sell something can need their permission, whatever the copyright.
Logos and trademarks. A brand in the shot is still a brand.
NASA and other agencies. NASA footage is generally free of copyright, but NASA asks that you don’t use it to suggest NASA endorses you, and its logo has its own rules.
Someone else’s claim. Old public domain footage sometimes gets claimed by a company that uploaded the same clip somewhere. Keep the Commons page link (PAGE URL column) as your record.

Common pitfalls

Trusting the label without reading the page: the sheet shows what Commons lists. Click Open on Commons and read the license box for anything important.
Mixing up upload date and film date: “Oldest uploads” means oldest on Commons. A 1906 film might have been uploaded last year.
Expecting high resolution from old film: “A Trip Down Market Street” is 654 pixels wide. Old footage is old.
Forgetting country rules: “public domain in the US” isn’t always public domain everywhere. Read the reason on the file page.
Ignoring people and logos: public domain covers copyright only. Be careful with ads.
Downloading huge files you don’t need: check MB and LENGTH on the Results tab first.

Learn the Google Sheets formulas in this post

IMAGE formula: how each video gets a still in the gallery.
FILTER formula: pull only the public domain rows out of a bigger list.
6 Ways to Make Your Checkboxes Better: the Save boxes are just checkboxes.

Better Sheets has hundreds more tutorials like these. If you want to get better at Google Sheets, join Better Sheets.

FAQ

Can I use public domain videos on YouTube and monetize them?

Yes. Public domain footage has no copyright, so you can use it in monetized videos. YouTube’s own rules on reused content still apply, so add your own commentary or editing.

Do I need to credit public domain videos?

No. Public domain and CC0 files need no credit. Adding one anyway helps if anyone ever asks where the clip came from.

What’s the difference between public domain and CC0?

Public domain means there’s no copyright, because it expired or never existed. CC0 means the creator gave up their rights on purpose. For you, both work the same: no credit needed.

Is all NASA footage public domain?

Most NASA footage made by NASA staff is not copyrighted in the US. Some files on NASA sites come from partners and do have copyright, so check the file page. Don’t use the NASA logo or imply NASA endorses you.

What’s the difference between this and free B-roll?

Free B-roll includes licenses that need a credit. Public domain is the no-credit subset. If you’re fine writing credits, see free B-roll footage that isn’t stock or AI for the bigger pool.

Get the sheet

Free Image Finder is free. Set Media type to Videos and License to Public domain & CC0, and every clip in the gallery is yours to use. See everything it does on the tool page.