Features |
Blog |
Get Support
ImageCraft is your all-in-one WordPress image optimizer — it handles every image task in one plugin.
Compress images without losing quality,
convert to WebP & AVIF, fix
broken images with fallbacks, generate SEO-optimized
alt text and titles with AI,
rename files for SEO, and
audit your media library health — no need to juggle multiple plugins.
Two pillars, one workflow:
- Image Optimization — smart compression, WebP & AVIF conversion, and image fallbacks, all running 100% locally on your server with no external service.
- AI Image SEO — alt text, titles, descriptions, and file renaming written automatically using OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, or the WordPress 7.0 native AI Client.
Optimize your entire media library in minutes — compress, convert, and generate SEO metadata — all while keeping your pages fast and search-engine friendly.
Why ImageCraft?
Most plugins do one thing — either compression
or alt text — and many charge monthly subscriptions or per-image credits through their own proxy service. ImageCraft does everything in one plugin: compression, WebP/AVIF conversion, and image fallbacks run locally on your server for free, while AI generation connects directly to your provider (you pay only the standard API rate with zero markup).
Core Features
- Smart Image Compression — quality-preserving, runs locally, with one-click restore
- WebP & AVIF Conversion — next-gen copies served via
<picture>, originals untouched
- PNG → JPG Conversion — convert opaque PNGs to smaller JPGs with transparency detection, backup, and one-click restore
- HEIC → JPG Conversion — auto-convert iPhone HEIC uploads to JPG so every browser can display them
- Image Fallbacks — replace broken images for visitors and set a default featured image for posts without one (non-destructive)
- AI Image Alt Text Generator (SEO optimized)
- AI Image Title & Description Generator
- AI-powered File Renamer for better image SEO
- Image SEO Audit Dashboard with quality scoring
- SEO keyphrase integration — works with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO, and SEOPress
- WooCommerce product-aware alt text generation
- WP-CLI support — manage compression, conversion, alt text, and more from the command line
- Batch processing for compression, conversion, alt text, and titles with real-time progress
Key Features
- Smart image compression — Reduce image file size with a built-in, quality-preserving compressor that runs locally on your server. Bulk-optimize your library, compress from the media modal, and restore originals anytime. Smaller images mean faster pages and better Core Web Vitals.
- WebP & AVIF conversion — Generate next-gen copies beside your originals and serve them through a
<picture> element. Fully reversible, covers every thumbnail size, and discards any copy larger than the source.
- PNG → JPG conversion — Convert opaque PNG images to smaller JPGs. ImageCraft detects transparency automatically and skips transparent PNGs. Originals are backed up for one-click restore, and all URLs in your posts are updated. Available as a per-image button, bulk action, or automatic on upload.
- HEIC → JPG conversion — iPhone and iPad photos upload as HEIC, which most browsers cannot display. ImageCraft auto-converts them to JPG on upload (default on) so they work everywhere. Requires Imagick with HEIC support; a capability badge shows whether your server supports it.
- Image fallbacks (never show a broken image) — Pick one fallback image and ImageCraft shows it whenever an image on your site fails to load, and as the featured image for posts that don't have one. It even carries proper alt text, and a broken-image scan on the dashboard tells you which media files are missing. Nothing is written to your content — turn it off and everything reverts.
- AI alt text, titles & descriptions — Generate all three in a single AI call with 3 providers and 17+ models. Choose from Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, and Google Gemini. Switch providers and models anytime.
- Gutenberg, Kadence, Spectra & Media Modal integration — Generate alt text with one click from the block editor sidebar, Kadence image block, Spectra image block, or WordPress media modal. Preview, accept, or reject without leaving the editor.
- Spectra Block support — Full integration with Spectra image block: generate alt text and title directly from the block inspector sidebar.
- Kadence Blocks support — Full integration with Kadence image block: generate alt text, title attribute, and link title directly from the block inspector sidebar.
- AI-powered file renaming — AI generates SEO-friendly filenames directly from image content. Independent from alt text and title — each is a separate AI call.
- SEO keyphrase integration — Pulls the focus keyphrase from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, or SEOPress and naturally weaves it into generated alt text.
- FileBird integration — Filter the scanner by FileBird folders and use folder context to generate more specific alt text prompts.
- Image SEO audit dashboard — Scores your media library health. Detects missing, generic/placeholder, and too-long alt text with a visual breakdown.
- WooCommerce product awareness — Sends product name, SKU, categories, and price as context. Includes 3 dedicated product tones (SEO, Descriptive, Lifestyle) plus custom prompt support.
- Batch processing — Compress, convert, generate alt text and titles for your whole library with chunked processing and real-time progress.
- 65+ languages — Generate alt text in your site's language. Supports English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Korean, and 55+ more.
Smart Image Compression
ImageCraft includes a built-in image compressor that reduces file size while preserving visual quality — no external service, no uploads to a third party. Everything runs locally on your server using the image libraries WordPress already uses (Imagick/GD).
- Visually-lossless compression — strips bloated metadata and optimizes JPG, PNG, GIF, and WebP with no noticeable quality loss
- Automatic downscaling — oversized images are scaled down to a sensible maximum dimension
- One-click bulk compression — optimize your whole media library from the dashboard
- Compress from the media modal — a Compress button right where you manage your images
- Safe by default — every original is backed up, so you can restore any image with one click
- Never enlarges — only keeps the result when it is actually smaller than the original
- Faster pages, better SEO — smaller images improve load time and Core Web Vitals, which Google rewards in search rankings
Next-Gen Formats (WebP & AVIF)
Modern browsers load WebP and AVIF significantly faster than JPEG or PNG. ImageCraft generates next-gen copies
beside your originals and serves them through a standard
<picture> element, so supporting browsers get the smaller file and everything else falls back to the original automatically.
- Nothing is overwritten — your original files, URLs, and media library entries are untouched; the converted copies sit alongside them
- Fully reversible — remove every generated file in one click and your site is exactly as it was
- Covers every size — full size plus all the thumbnail sizes WordPress generates
- Never bigger — if a converted copy would be larger than the source, it is discarded
- Bulk convert — process your whole media library, with a scan showing what is left
- Off by default — enable WebP and/or AVIF under Performance → Next-gen Formats when you are ready
- Pro: automatic conversion on upload
Format Conversion (PNG → JPG, HEIC → JPG)
Many PNG images are photographs or graphics without transparency — storing them as PNG wastes space. ImageCraft detects whether a PNG uses transparency and converts opaque ones to JPG, often cutting the file size in half. For HEIC images (common from iPhones), ImageCraft auto-converts them to JPG on upload so every browser can display them.
- Transparency detection — only converts PNGs that have no transparent pixels; transparent PNGs are automatically skipped
- Backup & restore — originals are backed up and can be restored with one click
- URL rewriting — all references in your post content are updated to the new filename
- Never-enlarge guard — if the JPG would be larger than the PNG, the conversion is skipped
- HEIC auto-convert — enabled by default; converts HEIC/HEIF uploads to JPG automatically
- Bulk convert — process your whole media library from the Performance screen
- Capability badge — shows whether your server supports HEIC conversion (requires Imagick with HEIC support)
WP-CLI
Manage ImageCraft from the command line with
wp icais. Every command respects the shared 50-action/24h usage pool.
wp icais compress <id|all> — compress images (with --force to recompress)
wp icais restore <id> — restore an image from backup
wp icais generate <id|all> — generate alt text, title, or description
wp icais scan — scan the media library (with --filter and --format options)
wp icais convert <id|all> — WebP/AVIF conversion
wp icais rename <id|all> — SEO file rename
wp icais png-to-jpg <id|all> — PNG → JPG conversion (with --dry-run)
wp icais heic-to-jpg <id|all> — HEIC → JPG conversion
wp icais stats — show usage and compression stats
wp icais settings get|set <key> [value] — read or write settings
wp icais fallback-scan — run the broken-image scan
All action commands require
--user=<id> for usage-limit tracking.
Boost Google Image Rankings
ImageCraft covers every image SEO factor in one place: AI alt text helps search engines understand your images, AI file renaming gives them descriptive, keyword-rich URLs, and image compression speeds up your pages for better Core Web Vitals. Together they improve your chances of ranking in Google Image Search and drive more organic traffic to your site.
Free to Start, No Lock-in
- 50 free actions per day — shared across AI generation and compression, no account or signup required
- Compression, WebP/AVIF conversion, and image fallbacks run locally and free — no per-image credits or proxy services
- AI features work with WordPress' built-in AI or your own API key — pay your provider directly, no markup
- Full control over your data
Who Is This For?
- Performance-focused site owners — Compress, convert to WebP/AVIF, and fix broken images to speed up page loads and improve Core Web Vitals — no account, no credits, no external service
- Bloggers & content creators — Optimize oversized images and fix hundreds of missing alt texts in minutes, not hours
- SEO professionals — Compression, keyphrase-aware alt text, and file renaming that cover the full image SEO checklist
- WooCommerce store owners — Lighter product images for faster stores, plus product-aware alt text with name, category, and SKU context
- Agencies — Batch process and optimize entire media libraries for client sites. No per-site licensing or middleman fees
- Accessibility-conscious site owners — Improve WCAG compliance and screen reader experience across your entire site
How It Works
- Install & go — Compression, WebP/AVIF conversion, image fallbacks, and the SEO audit work immediately — no API key, no account, no credits. Skip the wizard if that is all you need.
- Optimize — Compress images, convert to WebP/AVIF, and set up fallbacks for broken images — all running locally on your server, completely free.
- Connect AI (optional) — For alt text, titles, and file renaming, use your site's built-in WordPress AI or paste your own Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google Gemini key. You pay your provider directly, at their rate.
- Batch process — Work image by image or process your whole library: compression, conversion, alt text, titles, and descriptions in one go with real-time progress and resume after browser close.
Typical API Costs
You pay only for API usage directly to your chosen provider. Because you connect your site's built-in WordPress AI or your own provider, there is no markup — you get the same rate as any developer using the API directly. Check your provider's pricing page for current rates:
ImageCraft vs Other Plugins
- vs subscription plugins — No monthly fees, no credit packs, no account to create. Image optimization runs locally for free; AI costs go straight to your provider at their rate.
- vs single-provider plugins — 3 providers, 17+ models. Switch anytime without losing data or reconfiguring.
- vs alt-text-only plugins — ImageCraft is a full optimizer: it also compresses images, converts to WebP/AVIF, provides image fallbacks, renames files for SEO, runs an SEO audit, and integrates with your SEO plugin's focus keyphrase.
- vs separate compression plugins — No second plugin to install or external service to trust. Compression, WebP/AVIF/PNG→JPG/HEIC conversion, fallbacks, and AI alt text in one dashboard — one plugin for every image task.
- vs plugins without CLI — ImageCraft includes full WP-CLI support (
wp icais) so you can compress, convert, generate, and scan from the command line or automate with cron scripts.
Privacy & Security
- API keys encrypted with AES-256-CBC using WordPress salts (or stored in wp-config.php for file-based security)
- Images sent only to your chosen AI provider when you trigger generation
- Image compression runs entirely on your own server — images are never sent to an external compression service
- SSRF protection on image URL fetching
- No data routed through third-party proxy services
1.6.5 (5 November, 2026)
- Improvement: Faster navigation between ImageCraft screens — moving between pages no longer waits on a settings request
- Improvement: Cleaner Image SEO filters — Alt Text, Title and Description are now tabs that expand to their filters
- Improvement: Cleaner Dashboard cards
- Improvement: Added Softminal Cache to "More from Softminal" on the Help page
1.6.4 (11 October, 2026)
- Improvement: Updated internal framework to v2.0.0 for improved stability and performance
- Improvement: Tested up to WordPress 7.1
1.6.3 (13 September, 2026)
- Fix: AI Rename button now appears for images without alt text — the AI generates filenames directly from the image
1.6.2 (2 September, 2026)
- New: PNG → JPG conversion — convert opaque PNG images to smaller JPGs with automatic transparency detection. Available as a per-image button, bulk action, batch processing, and optional auto-convert on upload. Originals backed up for one-click restore; all post content URLs updated automatically.
- New: HEIC → JPG conversion — auto-convert iPhone/iPad HEIC uploads to browser-compatible JPG (enabled by default). Requires Imagick with HEIC support; a capability badge in settings shows server support.
- New: WP-CLI support — full command-line interface via
wp icais with 12 subcommands: compress, restore, generate, scan, convert, convert-clean, rename, png-to-jpg, heic-to-jpg, stats, settings, and fallback-scan. All action commands respect the shared 50-action/24h usage pool.
- New: PNG and HEIC scan endpoints — dedicated scans show which images are eligible for format conversion
- New: Format restore — revert any PNG→JPG or HEIC→JPG conversion back to the original format
- New: Batch processing support for PNG→JPG and HEIC→JPG conversions
- New: Docker-based PHPUnit test suite with 127 tests covering all plugin features
1.6.1 (26 August, 2026)
- New: AVIF conversion is now free — generate AVIF copies alongside WebP, gated only by server capability (no longer requires Pro)
- Improvement: Plugin renamed to "ImageCraft - Image Optimizer, WebP/AVIF & AI Alt Text"
- Improvement: Redesigned active licence card in Settings
- Improvement: Tested up to WordPress 7.1
1.6.0 (7 August, 2026)
- New: ImageCraft speaks your language — complete built-in translations for Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic, Japanese and Dutch, covering every screen of the plugin
- New: Redesigned setup wizard — clearer steps with a progress indicator, per-image cost comparison for the AI providers, full keyboard accessibility, and a "start without AI" path that takes you straight to the features that need no API key
- New: A one-time notice introduces the new WebP and Image Fallback features after updating — dismiss it once and it never returns
- Improvement: Plugin renamed to "ImageCraft - Image Optimizer, WebP/AVIF & AI Alt Text" to better reflect what it does (nothing else changes — same plugin, same settings)
- Improvement: The "add API key" prompts on the Dashboard and Image SEO screens are now polished cards; the Dashboard one can be dismissed
- Privacy: Tutorial videos now load from YouTube's privacy-enhanced domain, and only after you click play — nothing is loaded from YouTube automatically
- Fix: Bundled translations are now actually loaded (previously the shipped language files were never read)
- Fix: The setup wizard no longer allows saving an API key that was not successfully tested
- New: Next-gen formats (WebP, AVIF) — generate WebP copies of your images and serve them to browsers that support them, with the original as an automatic fallback. Your original files, URLs and media library entries are never touched, and the whole thing is reversible in one click. Off by default; enable it under Performance → Next-gen Formats
- New: Bulk convert — convert your whole media library to WebP from the Compress screen, with a scan that shows how much is left to do
- New: Redesigned interface built around two areas — Image SEO (alt text, titles, descriptions, file names) and Performance (compression, next-gen formats, image fallbacks) — so related tools live together instead of being scattered through Settings
- New: Contextual sub-navigation and a rebuilt dashboard with per-area health cards, feature status at a glance, and quick actions
- Improvement: Fallbacks and Next-gen Formats now have their own pages inside Performance, with settings that save as you change them
- Improvement: New ImageCraft logo and admin menu icon
- Improvement: The AI provider dropdown now shows "Select Provider" when no provider is connected, instead of implying Anthropic is already set up
- Improvement: Added a Help page section listing our other plugins
- Fix: Removed the blue focus outline that WordPress painted around links inside the ImageCraft screens (keyboard focus is still clearly visible)
For older versions, see the full changelog on our blog.