Dragon Auto Alt

AI-generated image alt text with your own API key - OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini. No credits to buy, no account with us.

#Getting started

1. Media → Auto Alt: pick a provider and paste your API key (stored encrypted, used only for your images).
2. Enable generate on upload, and/or open Media → Bulk Alt Text to fill in the existing library.
3. Fine-tune the prompt if you want a specific tone. The default prompt asks for alt text in your site's language (Settings → General → Site Language); a prompt you have customised is sent exactly as you saved it, so name the language in it yourself.

#Models

Each provider offers a low-cost default and a higher-quality option:

When a provider retires a model, Auto Alt moves your settings to that provider's current default and says so on the settings screen. Each provider keeps its own API key, so switching provider never sends one provider's key to another.

#Bulk Alt Text

Choose how many images to process (or All remaining) and how many go in each request; the default request size is the Batch Size setting. A run works through your whole library a page at a time until it reaches the count you chose, so it is not limited to the images shown on screen. Images that fail are reported and skipped, not retried in the same run. Images in a format your provider cannot read (AVIF or SVG, for example) are left out, and the screen says how many. The same applies to images picked with the Media Library Generate Alt Text (AI) bulk action: every readable image you selected is processed, whatever Total to process is set to. The bulk action is offered to administrators (users who can manage options), because the Bulk Alt Text screen it opens needs that capability. Pause stops after the batch already sent; press Start Processing again to carry on with the images still queued. An image is never sent to the provider by two requests at once: if another tab, a batch or a background job is already working on it, it is reported as skipped.

#Costs

You pay your provider directly at raw API prices - typically a fraction of a cent per image with the default models. There is no markup and no middleman.

#Data & privacy

Your images are sent to the provider you chose for captioning - and nowhere else. They are read from your uploads folder and sent inline, so staging and password-protected sites work. The key is stored encrypted and only ever sent to its own provider, in a request header.

#Troubleshooting

• "Invalid key" - OpenAI keys start sk-, Anthropic sk-ant-, Google keys come from AI Studio. Validate checks the key by listing the provider's models, so it does not depend on any one model. Make sure billing is enabled with the provider.
• "This image format cannot be sent" - the provider does not accept that file type (AVIF, for example). Convert the image to JPEG, PNG or WebP, or switch to a provider that accepts it.
• Generic alt text - customise the prompt; adding your site's subject ("a woodworking blog") sharpens results dramatically.