# Stop Image Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft > Stop other sites embedding your images and stealing bandwidth. One-click hotlink protection for WordPress, no manual .htaccess editing required. - Canonical URL: - Markdown URL: Category: Control feature Block other websites from embedding your images and spending your bandwidth - protection you turn on with a single toggle, no .htaccess editing by hand. ## Other Sites Shouldn't Run on Your Bandwidth Hotlinking lets any site use your images while your server foots the bill. ### Bandwidth Theft Another site points an image tag straight at your files. Every visit they get spends your bandwidth, not theirs. Impact: You pay for traffic that isn't yours ### Server Load & Cost Hotlinked images pile extra requests onto your server, which can slow your site and push your hosting bill higher. Impact: Someone else's traffic on your bill ### Content Used Without Credit Your images end up on pages you don't control, still served from your server and eating your resources. Impact: Your images, hosted on your dime ## How Hotlink Protection Works Every image request is checked against where it came from. ### Steps 1. **Enable** — Flip the single toggle in ThumbPress - no rules to write or files to edit. 2. **Route** — ThumbPress adds referrer-checking rules for your server, whether it runs Apache or Nginx. 3. **Filter** — Requests from your site load normally with long cache; other domains get blocked with a 403. ### Protect Your Image Bandwidth Block other websites from displaying your images while they continue loading normally on your own site. #### Hotlink Protection Prevent other websites from displaying your images and consuming your bandwidth. Your images continue loading normally on your own site while unauthorized external requests are automatically blocked. ## Protection Without the Config Managed from your dashboard, running on your own server. - Blocks other domains with a 403 - Your own pages load normally, cached - Works on both Apache and Nginx - Path-traversal safe by design - One toggle - no manual .htaccess editing - Free and runs on your server ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is image hotlinking and why is it bad? Hotlinking is when another site embeds your image with a direct link. The image shows on their page while your server delivers the file and pays the bandwidth. ### How do I enable it without editing .htaccess? Flip the one toggle in ThumbPress. It writes and manages the referrer-checking rules in your .htaccess file for you - no manual editing, and switching it off removes them again cleanly. ### Will my own site still load its images? Yes. Requests from your own domain pass the referrer check and load normally, with long cache. Only other domains are blocked with a 403. ### Does it affect Google Images or social previews? Hotlink protection blocks external domains from loading your images directly, which can affect some services that fetch them. Enable it, then test your previews - and toggle it off if you rely on a service that needs access. ### Does it work on Nginx? The rules are written to .htaccess, so they take effect on Apache and LiteSpeed. On Nginx, .htaccess is ignored - you would need the equivalent referrer rules added to your server config, which your host can usually do for you. ### What does a hotlinked request actually see? A 403 Forbidden instead of your image, so the offending page renders a broken image rather than quietly using your bandwidth. ### How do I know if my images are being hotlinked? Unexplained bandwidth in your hosting stats, or referrer entries in your access logs pointing at domains that are not yours, are the usual giveaways. ### Will it stop people downloading my images? No - anyone visiting your site can still save what they see. Hotlink protection stops other sites embedding your files on their pages; pair it with right-click disable if you also want to deter casual saving. ## Ready to Stop Bandwidth Theft? Install ThumbPress free and turn on hotlink protection in one click. ## About ThumbPress ThumbPress is a WordPress plugin for image optimization and thumbnail management, built by Codexpert. It runs on your own server: compression, WebP/AVIF conversion and cleanup all happen locally, with no third-party image API and no per-image credits. - All features: - Pricing: - Documentation: - Blog: - Support: - WordPress.org listing: