Copernicus Browser: how to download free Sentinel-2 images

How to find and download free Sentinel-2 images in the Copernicus Browser: account, area, cloud cover, GeoTIFF export, full products, quotas and APIs.

To download free Sentinel-2 images, open the Copernicus Browser, sign in with a free Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem account, draw your area of interest, pick Sentinel-2 and a date range, and use the download button on a result. You can save a ready-made picture (JPG, PNG, KMZ or GeoTIFF) or the full product as a downloadable package. Everything below reflects the official documentation as of October 2026.

What the Copernicus Browser is

The Browser is the web viewer of the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the European Union's open access point for Sentinel satellite data. It replaced the older SciHub downloads that many tutorials still describe, so older screenshots and links may not match what you see today. The Browser documentation describes a sidebar for searching, visualising and downloading, a map in the middle and a toolbar on the right.

Sentinel-2 is the mission most people want. According to the mission page, its instrument records 13 spectral bands at 10, 20 and 60 m resolution, with a swath 290 km wide. That is sharp enough for farmland, forests, coastlines, urban growth and water bodies, but not for individual cars or houses.

Step by step: find and download a Sentinel-2 image

Create an account. The Browser needs a free registration. Search and download both require you to be signed in.
Set your area. In the Search tab, draw a rectangle or polygon, or upload a KML, KMZ, GPX, WKT or GeoJSON file. The "Find products for current view" option uses whatever the map currently shows.
Choose the data source and dates. Select Sentinel-2 and set a date range. A wider range returns more scenes to choose from.
Filter by cloud cover. The visualisation default is 30 percent cloud cover. For optical imagery, lower it if you need a clear view, or raise it if the region is cloudy for most of the year.
Pick a product level. Sentinel-2 comes as L1C (top-of-atmosphere reflectance) and L2A (atmospherically corrected surface reflectance). For most analysis, L2A is the more convenient choice. L1C is available globally from 2015.
Preview it. Open the Visualize tab and check the scene before downloading anything large.
Download. Use the product download for the full package, or the image download tool on the right for a rendered picture or GeoTIFF.

Results load 50 at a time, so use "Load more" if the scene you want is not on the first screen.

Visualise before you download

The Visualize tab offers ready-made renderings and lets you adjust gain, gamma and the RGB channels. You can also build custom band composites and indices. Typical choices are:

True colour: what the scene would look like to the eye. Good for orientation and presentations.
False colour: shifts near-infrared into the visible range, which makes vegetation stand out.
NDVI: a vegetation index. The Browser can draw histograms and time-series statistics for index layers, which helps when you track crop or forest health over a season.

Other tools in the Browser include a compare panel (split or opacity mode), a timelapse export as GIF or MPEG4, a measuring tool and a 3D terrain view. A Spectral Explorer is available for Sentinel-2 only.

Download an image or the full product

The two routes suit different jobs.

Rendered image (Basic, Analytical, High-res)

The image download tool exports what you see on the map. The Basic option gives JPG or PNG with optional captions, legends and cropping to your area. The Analytical option adds KMZ and GeoTIFF, with a choice of resolution and coordinate system, and can pack several layers into one ZIP. GeoTIFF is the format to pick if you want to open the result in QGIS or other GIS software. The High-res print option sets size and DPI for posters and reports.

Full product

The product download gives you the original scene with all its bands, which is what you need for your own processing. These files are large, so check the size before starting. You can also download single files from inside a product, and the Browser keeps downloading while you work. Selected products can be added to your Workspace for further processing.

Quotas and limits

Limits are set per user. As of October 2026, the quotas page lists these main figures:

Immediately available data (S3, OData, STAC): 12 TB transfer on a rolling 30-day window, 4 concurrent connections and 20 MB/s per connection. Beyond the transfer limit, speed drops to 1 MB/s with one connection.
Offline (deferred) data: one concurrent order and 0.1 TB per month, ordered through the Workspace.
Sentinel Hub APIs: 10,000 requests and 10,000 processing units per month.
openEO: 12 requests per minute (for synchronous and batch execution requests) and 10,000 credits per month, which the documentation describes as a temporary boost.

Quotas change, so check the page before you plan a large batch job.

When to move from the Browser to an API

The Browser is the right tool for a handful of scenes. If you need dozens of dates or many locations, the API options save time:

OData and STAC for searching the catalogue and downloading products from scripts.
Sentinel Hub for processing imagery on the server and getting back only the pixels you need.
openEO for analysing data cubes without downloading the raw scenes.
S3 for fast parallel access from your own applications.

API calls need an access token that expires after a short time. The documentation says you then refresh it with your refresh token or generate a new one, so long jobs need a refresh step in the script.

Why founders and hackers use it

Free Earth observation data lowers the cost of a first prototype. Teams in climate tech use satellite imagery to monitor crops, forests, water and land use before they invest in their own sensors. For an early startup, a working demo on public data is often enough to show an idea. If you are turning such a prototype into a funded product, the technology readiness levels guide and the EIC Accelerator guide explain how funders judge maturity. Space and data hackathons are listed under conferences and events.

Practical tips

Check the acquisition date and the cloud cover of the specific scene, not only the filter value, because clouds can still sit over your exact area.
Crop to your area of interest when exporting images to keep files small.
Keep the coordinate system consistent if you combine several exports in a GIS.
Credit the data. Copernicus Sentinel data is free to use, but attribution is expected; check the current terms on the Data Space site.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Copernicus Browser free?

Yes. A free account is required, and the data is open, subject to the per-user quotas in the documentation.

How do I download a GeoTIFF from the Copernicus Browser?

Use the image download tool in the right-hand toolbar and choose the Analytical option. There you can select GeoTIFF, the resolution and the coordinate system.

What is the resolution of Sentinel-2 images?

Sentinel-2 records at 10 m for four bands, 20 m for six bands and 60 m for three bands. The common true-colour view uses the 10 m bands.

What is the difference between L1C and L2A?

L1C is top-of-atmosphere reflectance, while L2A is corrected for atmospheric effects to give surface reflectance. L2A is usually the better start for land analysis.

Can I download Sentinel-2 data with Python?

Yes. The OData and STAC APIs, Sentinel Hub and openEO can all be called from scripts after you create an account and authenticate.