Lightweight digital asset management for Google Drive

Tag your photos.
Find them in seconds.

Arkyvst turns Google Drive into a lightweight digital asset manager. Tag photos, videos and audio from a sidebar — by artist, product, or whether they're cleared to post — then find exactly the right asset in seconds. Works on any file too.

Free tier No credit card Tags live in your Drive
Features

A lightweight DAM that lives in your Drive

The organizing power of a digital asset manager — for photos, videos and audio — without leaving Google Drive or paying for enterprise software.

Built for photos, video & audio

Tag media right from the Drive sidebar — by artist, product, shoot, or whether it's cleared to post. Works just as well on Docs, Sheets, Slides and PDFs when you need it.

Untagged inbox

Point Arkyvst at the folders where media piles up. Every still-untagged photo and clip lands in one inbox — work through it in batches, thumbnail by thumbnail, until you hit inbox zero.

Search by tag

Find the exact asset across folders and shared drives instantly. Combine tags any way you want — "ad-approved + canvas-tote + sarah-chen" — and the right shots surface in seconds. Local-first and fast.

Preview in place

Confirm you've got the right shot before you tag it. Arkyvst plays audio and video and shows image and PDF previews right in the sidebar — no extra tab, no guessing from IMG_4821.jpg.

Saved-tag library

Build a vocabulary of artists, products and statuses once. Group tags into categories, color-code them, and reuse them with a click so everything's labelled the same way every time.

Built for teams

Share one tag library across your team. Everyone labels artists and products consistently from day one — no more "is it 'sarah-chen' or 'SarahC'?"

Privacy-first

Your tags live inside Drive's own per-app metadata, scoped to Arkyvst. We never read your file contents and never store which tags are on which file.

Free to start

Tag your first batch of files for free. Upgrade only when you outgrow the limit — no credit card needed to sign up.

Why Arkyvst

Sound familiar?

If you collect photos, clips and audio in Drive, you've probably hit every one of these.

"Which of these am I actually cleared to post?"

Customer sends a great photo, you ask permission, they say yes — and three weeks later you can't remember which ones got the green light. Tag photos ad-approved or approval-pending the moment you hear back, and never second-guess what's safe to publish again.

"Whose artwork is in this shot again?"

You work with a roster of artists and need to credit the right one — or pull everything they've ever made. Tag each asset with the artist, then click that tag to see their entire body of work across every folder in one view.

"I need an ad-ready tote shot by Sarah — now."

Drive can't search a photo's contents, so finding the right asset means scrolling through thousands of IMG_ files. Stack tags instead — product + artist + status — and the exact shots you need surface in seconds, ready to drop into an ad.

"Albums and folders just don't cut it."

Google Photos albums, broken Photos-to-Drive sync, a file can only live in one folder — none of it scales when an asset is several things at once. Tags let one photo be a tote, a Sarah-Chen, customer UGC and ad-approved all at once, right where your files already live.

"Real DAM software is overkill — and pricey."

Enterprise asset managers mean a new platform, a migration, and a bill to match. Arkyvst is a lightweight layer on the Drive you already use — nothing to migrate, free to start, and your assets never leave your own Google account.

"Everyone on the team tags things differently."

One person writes sarah-chen, another writes SarahC, and now nothing's findable. A shared tag library keeps the whole team on one vocabulary, so a search turns up every matching asset no matter who filed it.

How it works

Three steps to a searchable media library

Install once. Tag your photos and clips. Find any asset later.

1

Install the extension

One click from the Chrome Web Store. Sign in with Google to enable cross-device sync — or skip sign-in and use it locally.

2

Tag your media

Open any photo or clip in Drive. The Arkyvst sidebar pops up — tag the artist, product and status, hit enter, done. Build a saved library you can chip-click next time. Got a backlog of shots? The Untagged Inbox clears it in batches.

3

Find any asset, anywhere

Click a saved tag — or stack a few — to surface every matching photo and clip across folders, shared drives, account-wide. No more "I know we shot it last summer…"

Pricing

Simple, honest pricing

Try the full product free. Upgrade only when you actually outgrow it.

Free
$0 forever

The full product for a single user — capped at 500 tagged files.

  • Up to 500 tagged files
  • Saved-tag library, categories & colors
  • Search by tag + Untagged Inbox
  • Sync across devices
  • Single user
Get started — free
Team
$7.99 / month

plus $2.99 per teammate / month

Keep a whole team tagging from one shared vocabulary.

  • Unlimited tagged files
  • Shared tag library across the team
  • One workspace, invite teammates
  • Tags on shared files visible to all
  • Priority support
Start a Team
FAQ

Questions, answered

Can't find what you're looking for? Email toschroy@gmail.com.

Where are my tags actually stored?
Inside Google Drive. Arkyvst writes tags into a per-app metadata field called appProperties on each file, which is scoped to Arkyvst — other apps and other Drive users can't read it. Your saved-tag library (the chips that appear in the sidebar) lives in our backend so it syncs across devices. We never store which tags are on which file.
I have a backlog of untagged files. Is there a faster way?
Yes — the Untagged Inbox. In Settings, pick the folders where new files land (Arkyvst watches every subfolder beneath them too). Everything that still needs tags gets gathered into one place and shown as thumbnails. Work through it in batches — by most-recently-added or by subfolder — selecting several at once and applying shared tags in a single click. Files that don't need any tags get marked reviewed so they drop out of the inbox. It's built for clearing a pile without opening files one at a time.
Does Arkyvst read my file contents?
No. Arkyvst only reads file metadata (name, type, modified time, thumbnail) for the files you're looking at or searching. The actual documents, spreadsheets, slides, images — we never read them. See the Privacy Policy for the full breakdown of what we collect and what we don't.
What happens to my tags if I uninstall the extension?
They stay in Drive. Because tags live in Drive's appProperties, they survive uninstall — reinstall later and you'll see them all again. If you also delete your Arkyvst account, your saved-tag library is removed from our backend, but file-level tags remain in your Drive until you remove them yourself.
Can my teammates see my tags?
On the free tier: no. Each user's tags are private to their own Google account, even if you share files. On the Team tier, you can invite teammates into a shared workspace where everyone tags from the same library — and tags on shared files become visible to other workspace members.
How does billing work?
We use LemonSqueezy for checkout and recurring billing. They handle all card processing — Arkyvst never sees or stores card details. Cancel anytime from the LemonSqueezy customer portal (link in your purchase email). Full refund within 14 days of your initial purchase if it's not a fit.
Does Arkyvst work with Shared Drives / team drives?
Yes. Arkyvst works on any file your Google account has access to, whether it's in My Drive, a Shared Drive, or shared with you directly. Tags you add are visible to you on every device you sign into.
Is Arkyvst only for photos and videos?
No — it's built with media in mind, but it tags anything Drive can hold. Photos, videos and audio are where it shines (Drive can't search inside them, so tags are the only way to make them findable), but it works just as well on Docs, Sheets, Slides and PDFs. Tag a contract, a brand guideline, an invoice — whatever you need to find again.
Is there a desktop app, or just Chrome?
Chrome only for now. Arkyvst is a Chrome extension because Drive is where the work happens. A separate desktop app isn't on the roadmap — but we'd consider Firefox or Edge if there's demand. Email us if you'd use it.
Who's behind Arkyvst?
Arkyvst is built by Tosch Roy, a sole proprietor working out of Bend, Oregon. Reach out anytime at toschroy@gmail.com — you'll get a real response from a real person.

Stop hunting for that photo.

Install Arkyvst, tag a few assets, and turn your Drive into a media library you can actually search.

Add to Chrome — Free