This guide takes you from a fresh install to a featured image on every new post. If you haven’t installed the plugin yet, start with the Installation page.
Step 1 — Create your first template
- Go to Image Generator → Image Templates → Add New. The Template Studio opens with a choice of ready-made designs.
- Pick one — Bold headline or Classic centered are good first choices — or start from a blank canvas.
- Make it yours: click a layer on the canvas or in the Layers panel and change its colors, font or position in the panel on the right. Add your logo with an Image layer set to the site logo.
- Use Preview with to check how it looks with a short title, a very long title, or one of your real posts.
- Give it a name and click Save (or press Ctrl/⌘ + S).
Everything about the Studio is on the Template Studio page.
Tip: Template images are drawn on your own server — no API key, no cost, nothing sent anywhere. Build 3–5 templates and every post gets a branded image even if you never touch AI.
Step 2 — Turn on automatic featured images
Go to Image Generator → Settings → Automatic Featured Images:
- Tick Enable Post Thumbnails (and Enable Page Thumbnails if you want pages covered too).
- Leave Generate With on Image template.
- Under Image Template, pick the template you just made, or leave A random template to rotate through all your published templates.
- Click Save Changes.
Now write a post, leave the featured image empty and click Publish. Reload the editor — the post has a featured image with its title on it, saved in your Media Library. Posts that already have a featured image are never touched. Details on the Automatic Featured Images page.
Step 3 — Try the block editor tools
Open any post in the block editor:
- In the document sidebar, open the AI Featured Image panel and click Generate to create the featured image with your automatic method, or Choose a template, a stock photo or a prompt… to open the image modal.
- Add an Image block and click the ✨ button in its toolbar to fill it from a template, a stock photo or an AI prompt.
See Block Editor & Media Library.
Step 4 — Add stock photos (optional, free)
- Get a free API key from Unsplash, Pexels or Pixabay — you only need one.
- Paste it under Image Generator → Settings → Stock Photos and click Test Connection.
A tab for that library appears in the image modal. You can also use stock photos for automatic featured images, or as the background of a template — see Stock Photos and Photo Templates.
Step 5 — Add AI images (optional)
- Create an API key at OpenAI and make sure billing is set up on your OpenAI account.
- Paste it under Image Generator → Settings → AI Service → API Key and save.
- In the editor, open the image modal’s Custom Prompt tab, describe an image, and click Generate.
AI images are paid for with your key, so the plugin lets you decide who can use them and how many each user may create per hour. See AI Images.
Where to go next
- Template Studio — layers, text that fits its box, fonts and previews in depth.
- Merge Tags — put the category, author, date or a custom field on your images.
- Pro Features — rating, progress and badge layers, WooCommerce tags and premium designs.