Get every product image captioned.
AltGenie generates descriptive, keyword-rich alt text for your Shopify product images using AI — improving SEO and making your store accessible to everyone. This guide covers everything from your first task to recurring automations.
Last updated June 14, 2026 · ~7 min read
Getting started
After installing AltGenie from the Shopify App Store, open it from Apps → AltGeniein your Shopify admin. On first launch you'll see a short setup flow:
Review how it works
You'll see a quick overview and confirm you're on the Free plan (125 image credits per month, no card required).
Set your defaults
Choose the alt-text language, generation style, and any keywords to emphasize. These can be changed any time in Settings.
Run your first scan
Pick the whole catalog, your best sellers, or skip and explore. AltGenie inventories your images and gets to work.
You stay in control
AltGenie never overwrites your existing alt text unless you explicitly turn on "Overwrite existing alt text" when creating a task.
How AltGenie works
AltGenie reads each product image together with the context you allow — product title, tags, type and vendor — and asks a vision-capable AI model to write alt text that is accurate, concise, and SEO-friendly. The result is written back to your product images in Shopify automatically.
1. Scan
We inventory every product image and flag which ones are missing alt text.
2. Generate
AI writes descriptive alt text using your products and preferences.
3. Score
Each caption gets a quality score so weak ones never slip through.
4. Apply
Alt text is saved back to Shopify — no manual copy-paste.
Creating a task
A task is a single bulk run. From the dashboard or History page, click New alt-text task and follow the four-step wizard.
Scope
Choose All products, Specific collections, or Specific products.
Select
If you picked collections or products, search and check the ones you want. The footer shows how many images will be processed.
Configure
Set filters and image-handling options (below).
Review
Name the task, optionally make it recurring, and confirm the estimated credit cost before submitting.
Filters & options
- Only process published products — skip products not visible in your Online Store.
- Only process active products — skip drafts and archived products.
- Overwrite existing alt text — replace older or human-written alt text. Off by default.
- Skip previously processed images — avoid reprocessing images from earlier tasks (saves credits).
- Vendor filter — limit the task to a single vendor.
When a product has multiple images
- Unique alt text per image — most descriptive; recommended (default).
- Shared alt text — one caption applied to all images of the product.
- Featured image only — caption just the main image.
- First N images — process only the first few images per product.
Scheduling & automation
On the Review step you can toggle Make this task repeat automatically and choose a cadence — daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. AltGenie will re-run the task on schedule so newly added products and images never go uncaptioned.
You can also enable Auto-process new images and Auto-process new matching products in the Configure step for hands-off coverage. Manage all recurring tasks from History → Scheduled automations.
AltGenie advantage
Recurring automations and credit rollover come standard on every paid plan — and unused credits never expire.
Quality scoring
Unlike tools that only check whether alt text exists, AltGenie scores how good it is. Every generated caption gets a 0–100 score across four dimensions:
- Descriptiveness — does it convey what the image actually shows?
- Keyword relevance — are your target keywords present and natural?
- Length & readability — concise and screen-reader friendly.
- Brand/context match— consistent with your store's voice.
Open any completed task to review per-image before/after captions, scores, and the keywords each caption used. Quality scoring can be toggled in Settings → Quality scoring.
Generation settings
In Settings you control the voice of every caption:
- Output language and generation style (Concise, Default, Descriptive, SEO-focused, Accessibility-first).
- Keywords to emphasize and negative keywords to avoid.
- Custom prompt for special instructions on every generation.
- Context sources — let AltGenie read product title, tags, type and vendor.
- Shop name — optionally append your store name for brand reinforcement.
- Email notifications when tasks complete or fail.
Plans & credits
One image processed = one credit. Plans renew monthly (or yearly for ~2 months free). Every plan — including Free — includes credit rollover: unused credits carry to the next month and never expire.
| Plan | Images / month | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 125 | $0 |
| Starter | 1,125 | $25/mo |
| Professional | 3,300 | $55/mo |
| Enterprise | 13,000 | $115/mo |
Need a one-off top-up? Pay as you go credit packs start at $1 per 50 images. Redeem gift or affiliate codes on the Plans page for bonus credits.
Troubleshooting
My task is stuck on "Pending"
Pending tasks are queued and usually begin within 5–10 minutes. Large catalogs process in the background — you'll get an email when it's done if notifications are on.
Alt text wasn't updated on some products
Check your task filters. If "Only process published products" or "Skip previously processed images" was on, some products are intentionally skipped. Re-run with adjusted filters or enable "Overwrite existing alt text".
I ran out of credits
Upgrade your plan or buy a pay-as-you-go pack on the Plans page. Remaining and rolled-over credits are always shown there.
Still stuck? Email support or check the FAQ.