Every generated post can get a featured image automatically — a matching stock photo from a free provider, or (with Pro) a unique AI-generated image.
Choosing an image source
Go to AI Content Writer → Settings → API Settings → Image Settings and pick an Image Source:
| Source | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Pexels | Free API | High-quality stock photos matched to the post title |
| Unsplash | Free API | Editorial-style stock photography |
| Pixabay | Free API | Large free photo library |
| DALL·E (Pro) | OpenAI API usage | A unique image generated for each post’s exact topic — no stock photo reuse |
Paste the matching API key below the selector (DALL·E uses the ChatGPT/OpenAI key you’ve already saved) and click Test Connection to verify.
How it works in the pipeline
When a campaign post’s content is finished and the campaign’s Generate Thumbnail option is on:
- An image is fetched (or generated) for the post’s title.
- It’s sideloaded into your media library and set as the featured image.
- Alt text is filled in from the image’s description (or the post title) — good for accessibility and image SEO.
- The photographer credit is stored as the image caption and the source URL saved in meta — keeping you compliant with the stock services’ attribution terms.
For Instant Generation, you get a visual picker instead: a grid of matching images to choose from before the post is finished.
DALL·E specifics (Pro)
- Images are generated at 1792×1024 (wide, blog-header format) with a photorealistic, no-text-in-image prompt built from the post title.
- Each image costs OpenAI API credits (roughly $0.08 at current DALL·E 3 pricing) — one image is generated per post.
- Developers can customize the image prompt with the
aicwp_image_promptfilter — see the Developer Reference.
When an image can’t be fetched
A post that’s set to get a featured image waits until it has one — it won’t publish half-finished with the image missing. So if the image source isn’t configured, that campaign’s posts sit at the image step instead of going live.
The reason is always written to AI Content Writer → Logs, together with the provider’s own error message:
Featured image not generated for post ID 412 with title “5 Retinol Myths, Debunked” due to a misconfiguration. Please enter a valid image generation API key, or uncheck “Generate Thumbnail” for this campaign.
Two ways to clear it:
- Add a valid key for the selected image source under Settings → API Settings → Image Settings, and click Test Connection to confirm it works. The waiting posts pick up their images on the next run and publish normally.
- Turn images off for that campaign (below). The posts publish on the next run without a featured image.
The same applies to a key that stops working — an expired key or an exhausted quota is logged with the provider’s exact message, so check Logs first.
Turning images off
- Globally: Settings → General → Enable Image Generation.
- Per campaign: the Generate Thumbnail checkbox on the campaign.