Generate missing alt text
The AI Alt Text screen lists Images without alt text by default. Switch the filter to All Images or Has Alt Text to see the others. The numbers at the top show your total images, how many are missing alt text, and how far along you are.
Generate alt text for one image
- Go to AI → Alt Text.
- Check the Model under API configuration. The tools use the site's OpenRouter key; see Getting started if none is saved.
- Find the image.
- Click Generate Alt Text. The description appears on the card but isn't saved yet.
- Edit the wording if you want.
- Click Save Alt Text.
The description is saved to the image's Alternative Text field. You can change it later in Media → Library.
The AI sees the image plus its Title, Caption and Description from the Media Library and the page it was uploaded to, and writes in your site's language. A caption that names the people or place in a photo gives better alt text.
Generated or written by hand
Each card with alt text shows who wrote it: Generated (the AI wrote it and nobody has changed it since) or Manual (a person wrote or edited it). Alt text that was there before this label was added counts as Manual.
Generate alt text for all images
Generate All Alt Text writes a description for every image on the list and saves each one right away, working on a few images at a time. Click Refresh List to update the count.
It never replaces alt text marked Manual: those images are skipped, and the summary at the end says how many. With the filter on All Images or Has Alt Text, it rewrites alt text marked Generated. To replace a Manual description, click Generate Alt Text on that card.
If the AI service is busy, it waits and tries that image again. It stops early, and says why, when the API key isn't accepted, the OpenRouter account is out of credits, or the model isn't available.
There's no approval step. To read descriptions before they go live, generate and save one image at a time. Or generate them all, then check your most important images (homepage photos, logos, products) in the Media Library.
When the AI can't describe an image
Now and then the AI answers with an error message instead of a description, such as "Please provide the image you would like me to describe." Dirigible AI Alt Text never saves that as alt text. The card says what happened and stays empty, so you can click Generate Alt Text again or pick another Model. Generate All Alt Text skips that image and carries on.
After three failed tries Dirigible AI Alt Text marks the image Skipped, on its card here and in Media → Library. Write that image's alt text yourself, or try Generate Alt Text with another model.
Error messages saved by earlier versions
Older versions could save an AI error message as an image's Media Library alt text. Its card says the alt text looks like an AI error message: replace it, or clear it and click Generate Alt Text.
If an Image block already copied the error message into a page or post, that text stays until you edit the block: select the image, then replace or clear Alternative Text in the block settings.
If such text turns up later, the card and the Media Library note that it looks like an AI error message. Replace it, or clear it and click Generate Alt Text.
Tips
- Leave the filter on Missing Alt Text so you only work on images that need it.
- For advice on phrasing, see Writing alt text for images.
