Wiki Loves Monuments

What you will actually pay

Entry costs, explained.

Free UK entry; no entry charge stated in the US route. National entry windows differ.

The UK explicitly confirms free participation; the US publishes an upload process with no priced judging tier. Travel, access permits and your time remain separate costs. A licence described as free concerns reuse permission too: the absence of an entry charge does not preserve exclusive control of the image. [8][2][3]

A competition built around public usefulness

The project is run through local Wikimedia communities and heritage volunteers, rather than one uniform global entry form. Each country defines eligible monuments and administers its round. The international team provides infrastructure and a final selection. An obscure registered site can be as relevant to the project as a famous landmark. [7]

The global FAQ permits photographs from multiple participating countries, including pictures made on earlier trips. That makes an existing archive a useful starting point. Select frames whose location you can identify accurately and whose authorship and permissions are clear; a beautiful but unidentifiable building is a weak contribution. [7]

Public reuse plus documented press attention

PetaPixel published an illustrated gallery of the 2025 competition’s international winners in April 2026, including Hossein Pourakbarian’s photograph near Iran’s Dayr-e Gachin Caravanserai. That demonstrates independent attention to successful entries. The ordinary entrant’s more tangible outcome is a reusable Commons record, not a guarantee of press coverage or of appearing in a Wikipedia article. [5][1]

Judging values accuracy as well as aesthetics. The published international jury report for 2025 describes technical quality, originality and encyclopedic usefulness, with multiple selection rounds. Read that as evidence of the previous process, not a promise of a specific 2026 panel. The US 2026 rules likewise explicitly value usefulness to Wikipedia. [4][2]

Country-specific awards; no single global cash headline

National prizes differ, and some countries give symbolic recognition only. The international awards page still labels its package 2025: its first prize was up to €2,000 in an approved photographic or editing-related item or a compatible donation, not unrestricted cash. This review does not carry that package forward into 2026. [6]

For a concrete current example, the US 2026 competition advertises $500, $300 and $200 for its top three, plus $50 for fourth through tenth and separate special awards. These amounts are delivered as gift cards. They apply to the US round; they are neither a worldwide entitlement nor an extra payment to every international finalist. [2]

Choose to enter because the contribution and photographic challenge make sense without winning. Prizes can be a welcome addition, but an open licence is a lasting decision whose scope is not reduced when the competition ends. [3][6]

The upload date and monument list matter

The 2026 calendar spans national rounds during September and October. The UK round was September; the US is October; France runs 15 September–15 October. Check the country containing the monument, rather than assuming one global deadline. Belarus and Russia are specifically marked as not forwarding photographs to the international round. [1]

The US permits older photographs but requires the competition upload during October 2026, ending at the close of 31 October in Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time. The work must be your own and identify a recognised historical site. Corrective editing is allowed; deceptive manipulation is not. Other countries may impose additional restrictions. [2]

An open licence reaches far beyond the award

The usual CC BY-SA 4.0 licence lets others copy, redistribute and adapt a photograph, including commercially. Users must provide appropriate attribution and a licence link, indicate changes, and distribute adaptations under the same licence. Compliant users retain those freedoms even if the photographer later changes their mind. [3]

This is a deliberate public contribution, not a temporary permission for an awards gallery. Keeping copyright does not reserve every use for later negotiation. Only upload pictures you are willing and entitled to release this way; an exclusive client contract or unresolved rights in depicted material can make a photograph unsuitable. [3][7]

Start with the local campaign

Use the international participation page to find the national rules and monument list. Create or use a Commons account, enable contact email and follow the local uploader so the image receives the correct competition tags and monument identifier. Check the completed file page instead of assuming that any ordinary upload automatically entered the contest. [1][7]

Give the monument its proper name and a useful description. Think about the reader who needs to understand a building’s layout or a distinctive architectural detail, rather than only the visual effect in a competition thumbnail. A considered selection can add more value than many near-duplicates. [4][7]