Royalty-free image sources
The free stock image sources Aimogen Pro can pull from, how images are matched to content, attribution requirements and image quality settings.
Royalty-free images cost nothing per image, which makes them the economical choice for illustrative imagery at volume. Aimogen Pro searches several libraries and picks a match for your content.
Settings › Royalty Free Images
Sources#
| Source | Credential | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pixabay | Pixabay App ID | Also supports direct scraping without a key |
| Pexels | Pexels App ID | |
| Unsplash | Unsplash Access Key | |
| Flickr | Flickr App ID, plus licence and ordering options | Licence filtering matters here |
| Openverse | Email Address To Be Used With OpenVerse | Aggregates several libraries |
| Morguefile | none | Built in |
| Google Images | Uses the Google SERP API | See the warning below |
Get keys from pixabay.com/api/docs, pexels.com/api, unsplash.com/documentation, flickr.com/services/apps/create and openverse.org/developers.
How an image is matched#
- Keywords are extracted from the article title or the section heading.
- The configured sources are searched.
- A result is selected and imported.
Step 1 is where quality is decided. Improve Royalty Free Featured Image Precision Using This Service chooses how keywords are extracted:
| Option | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Disabled | The raw title is used as the search query. Usually poor |
| An AI model | A model extracts search keywords. Good, costs a small request |
| TextRazor | Entity extraction. The settings help text says it "can greatly improve royalty free image accuracy" |
The plugin ships a well-considered default extraction prompt. Its key instruction is worth understanding: it asks for the specific keyword combined with the article niche — so an article about dogs with a heading about food yields "dog food", not "food". That single behaviour is the difference between relevant images and stock photos of unrelated salads.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
Model For Keyword Extraction For Royalty Free Images | Which model extracts |
Keyword Prompts | The extraction prompt |
Search Query Repetition | How the query is repeated across attempts |
Enable Broad Search For Royalty Free Images | Widens the search when a narrow one fails |
Do Not Skip Importing The Article If No Royalty Free Image Found | Publish anyway rather than skipping the post |
Random Image Sources | Randomise which source is tried first |
Random Results Order | Randomise which result is chosen |
Translate Image Query To English | Search in English regardless of content language, which usually returns far more results |
Image Pool | Size of the candidate pool |
Since 2.8.8, each royalty-free image is used only once per created post, so a multi-image article does not repeat the same picture.
Filtering#
Per-source options control image type, orientation, ordering, category and minimum dimensions —
imgtype, img_order, img_cat, img_width, img_mwidth, img_ss, img_editor, img_language, and
the scrapeimg_* equivalents for scraping.
Setting a minimum width is worth doing. A featured image that arrives at 400px wide looks poor in a modern theme.
Attribution#
Placeholders that produce the correct credit text:
| Placeholder | Contains |
|---|---|
%%royalty_free_image_attribution%% | The formatted attribution |
%%image_attribution%% | The attribution |
%%image_source_name%% | The source name |
%%image_source_url%% | The source URL |
%%image_source_website%% | The source website |
Add it to your content with the append field, or to the image caption. Attribution Text under
Settings › Royalty Free Images sets the format.
Royalty-free versus AI generated#
| Royalty-free | AI generated | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per image | Free | Per image |
| Relevance | Approximate — you get the closest available photo | Exact — the image is made for the article |
| Uniqueness | Shared with everyone else using the library | Unique |
| Realism | Real photographs | Improving, still imperfect for people and hands |
| Attribution | Often required | Not required |
| Speed | Fast | Slower |
A sensible mix: AI generation for the featured image, where uniqueness matters, and royalty-free for in-article section images, where cost matters.
Common problems#
No image found. The query is too specific. Enable broad search, or improve keyword extraction.
Posts are skipped when no image is found. Enable
Do Not Skip Importing The Article If No Royalty Free Image Found.
Images are irrelevant. Keyword extraction is disabled or poor. Switch to an AI model or TextRazor.
Images are low resolution. Set a minimum width.
The same image keeps appearing. Enable random results order, and widen the image pool.
Non-English content returns nothing. Enable Translate Image Query To English.
Related#
Still stuck? Open a support ticket and include the diagnostics from Aimogen Pro › System & Logs › System Info.