Documentation

Pihlfelt Image Assistant

AI alt text and image optimization — in any language, with an undo button

Pihlfelt Image Assistant keeps your media library in top shape: alt text (manual or AI), scaling, compression and WebP — always with a backup before every change. Here you find guides for every part of the plugin. The big picture:

Images is the main view — your whole media library with filters like "Missing alt" and "Oversized", inline editing and bulk actions.
Every destructive action takes a backup first. Undo step by step or restore the original at any time.
AI is strictly opt-in — nothing leaves your site before you explicitly approve it, and alt text is generated in your site's language.
Free vs Pro: everything manual and all local optimization is free, including 10 AI alt texts per month. Pro adds large AI quotas, all metadata fields, bulk AI and server-side optimization.

The guides below cover installation, optimization, backups, the CSV workflow, AI features, license management and troubleshooting. Can't find your answer? Contact support.

Guides

Getting Started

Getting started with Pihlfelt Image Assistant

Installation, your first scan and your first alt texts.

Scaling, compression and WebP

How to optimize images safely — one by one or in bulk.

Backups and restore

Undo single steps or restore the original image completely.

CSV export and import

Edit metadata in Excel and import it back safely.

AI, credits and quotas

How AI generation, consent and monthly quotas work.

WebP and picture-tag delivery

Create WebP versions and serve them to visitors — no server configuration needed.

License and Pro activation

Activate your license, manage sites and move the license.

Scanning the media library

What the scan measures, what the statuses mean and when to rescan.

The image list — filters, search and bulk actions

How to work efficiently in the main view.

Alt text — manually and with AI

Why alt text matters and how to fix it fast.

Dashboard — what needs doing?

The overview that shows your image health at a glance.

The settings explained

What each tab controls — and what is defaults versus per-run choices.

WooCommerce and product images

Optimize your store's images and let the AI understand your products.

Troubleshooting

Jobs that will not start, failed images and the diagnostics report.

Questions & answers

Common Questions

Only the image you actively request metadata for, together with the context you have enabled (file name, page title, product data). Nothing is sent without your explicit consent, and images are never stored on our servers — they are processed in memory and discarded immediately.

The free version includes 10 AI-generated alt texts per month. The counter resets on the first of each month (UTC). The quota is tracked on our server, so reinstalling does not affect it.

AI features pause until the quota resets at the start of the next month. All manual features — editing, optimization, backups, CSV — keep working exactly as before.

Yes, always. Every destructive change takes a backup first. You can undo step by step or restore the original image directly, no matter how many actions have run since.

The free version optimizes with the tools available on your host (GD/Imagick). Pro sends images to our optimization server running mozjpeg, pngquant and cwebp — specialist tools most hosts lack — for better compression without loading your server.

No. The AI quota only applies to AI-generated metadata. Server-side optimization is unlimited within fair use (up to 1,000 images per day per site).

Yes, the quota is pooled. All sites on the license draw from the same monthly pool, so a busy site can use more and a quiet one less.

Absolutely. All manual metadata management, scaling, compression, WebP, backups and CSV work fully without AI ever being enabled — AI is strictly opt-in.

All of them. Alt text is generated in your site's language automatically — a German site gets German, an English site English. You can also choose a different language globally in the settings or per run.

No. The plugin serves WebP via picture tags in the page HTML, which works on every server (Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed) without .htaccess rules or server configuration. Browsers without WebP support automatically get the original image.

Yes. Product images are handled like any other image, and in Pro the AI can additionally use the product name as context for more accurate alt text — perfect for stores with many product images.

Nothing is deleted by default — images, backups and settings are preserved so you can reinstall without losing anything. If you want a full cleanup, enable "Delete all data on uninstall" under Settings → Advanced.

Need help?

Need more help?

Our support team is happy to help you with questions about the plugin.