HappyCoders Smart Image Alt Text
Find and fill the missing ALT text in your Media Library — in bulk, not one image at a time. Better accessibility, and image search that can actually see your pictures.
What it does
On a site that has been running for a few years, the Media Library holds thousands of images and most of them have no ALT text. Fixing that by hand is not a job anyone finishes.
Fix them in bulk
Generate ALT text for many media items in one run, or limit the run to the images you select.
Or as they arrive
Turn on auto-generate on upload and every new image gets ALT text the moment it lands, so the backlog never rebuilds.
Leave good work alone
With skip if exists on, images that already have ALT text are untouched — nothing you wrote by hand is overwritten.
Prefix, suffix and length
Wrap the generated text in your own wording and cap how long it can get, so it stays a description and not a sentence.
No duplicates
Duplicate ALT text is detected, and duplicate saves can be blocked outright.
A frontend fallback
Optionally display ALT text on the frontend for images whose ALT attribute is still empty, so nothing on the live site is left bare while you work through the library.
Setting it up
Three steps. Run it on a staging copy first if the library is large — it writes to every image it touches.
- Install and activate the plugin from Plugins → Add New, or upload the folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
- Go to Tools → HappyCoders Smart Image Alt Text.
- Turn on skip if exists, set your prefix, suffix and maximum length, then run the bulk generation — on a selection first, to see what the output looks like.
What you can change
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Skip if exists | Leaves images that already have ALT text completely alone |
| Auto-generate on upload | Fills ALT text on every new image as it is added |
| Live display mode | Shows ALT text on the frontend for images whose ALT attribute is empty |
| Prefix and suffix | Your own wording around the generated text |
| Maximum length | Caps how long the generated ALT text can be |
| Duplicate detection | Finds duplicate ALT text and can block saves that would create more |
| Filter and paginate | Work through the media list by empty or duplicate ALT values |
Requirements
| Version | 1.0.1 |
| Requires WordPress | 6.0 or higher |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 or higher |
| Tested up to | WordPress 7.0 |
| Works on | Any WordPress Media Library |
| Price | Free |
Who it is for
- Sites with years of uploaded images and no ALT text on any of them
- Anyone working towards an accessibility standard, or responding to an audit
- Stores and blogs that want their images found in image search
- Agencies taking over a site somebody else ran for five years
Questions people ask
Will it overwrite ALT text I already wrote?
Not with skip if exists switched on. Leave it on for the first run.
Can it run on new uploads automatically?
Yes, with auto-generate on upload turned on.
Can it stop duplicate ALT text?
Yes. It detects duplicates and can block saves that would create them.
Is it free?
Yes, and there is no paid version waiting behind it.
Should I run it on a live site straight away?
Run it on a selection first and look at the output. It writes to every image it processes, so on a large library it is worth seeing a sample before committing to the whole thing.
Free on the WordPress plugin directory
Install it from your dashboard, or download the ZIP from WordPress.org.
