Clearview AI Review

Clearview AI is an investigative search platform for police and government agencies. An investigator uploads a probe image, fills in a required intake form with a case number and crime type, and gets back matching faces from what Clearview describes as a database of more than 100 billion facial images collected from public web sources, including news media, mugshot websites and public social media. Clearview says it cannot search private or protected accounts, that results are leads which must be followed up with independent investigation, and that every agency must have an administrator who can review its users' search history.

Clearview's FAQ states that the product is not available to the general public and is not offered to private companies: only to vetted law enforcement and government agencies and their contractors, approved by Clearview's legal department. Its collection method has drawn regulators and courts. The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Clearview EUR 30.5 million in September 2024, ruling that it built an illegal database of biometric data and warning Dutch organisations that using Clearview is itself prohibited. In the United States, a federal judge in Chicago approved a nationwide class settlement over the Illinois biometric privacy law in March 2025 that gives the class a 23% equity stake in the company rather than a cash payout.

Pricing not published; contact sales. Clearview AI does not sell to individuals or private companies, and its website only describes "scalable pricing for agencies and organizations". Eligible law enforcement and government agencies request access through Clearview's contact page, and access follows a review by Clearview's legal department.

Prices checked on the vendor's pricing page on November 12, 2026. Clearview has no public pricing page; see Clearview AI contact.

What Clearview AI lists on its law enforcement, FAQ and legal pages:

Only vetted law enforcement and government agencies can buy Clearview AI, and in some places using it is restricted: the Dutch regulator says Dutch organisations that use it can expect fines, and Clearview itself blocks results it can associate with Illinois. Clearview tells customers that a match is a lead, not proof. In a Cleveland murder case reported by The Record in January 2025, a judge threw out evidence after police relied on a Clearview match that Clearview's own terms say should not be the sole basis for an arrest.

If you are an individual, the practical question is whether Clearview holds your face and how to get it removed. Clearview's privacy and requests page has access, deletion and opt-out request links for residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Utah, plus an opt-out webform for Illinois residents. People elsewhere can write to privacy-requests@clearview.ai; EU residents also have access and erasure rights under the GDPR, which the Dutch regulator found Clearview did not honour. To check where your own face appears on the public web, consumer tools such as PimEyes or Lenso.ai show results to you and offer opt-outs.

Coverage of Clearview is mostly legal and policy reporting rather than product reviews. The Dutch Data Protection Authority called facial recognition "a highly intrusive technology" and said Clearview did not cooperate with access requests. Reuters reported the March 2025 settlement approval, and in October 2025 reported a criminal complaint filed in Austria by the privacy group noyb. Biometric Update covered a 2025 report that the NYPD obtained a Clearview search through another city agency despite its own limits. Clearview's side, on its legal page, is that it searches only public information, is a post-event investigative tool rather than surveillance, and helps identify victims and exonerate the innocent.