Alt Text Studio · Documentation

Bulk generate alt text for your catalog

Scan every product for missing alt text, then work through the queue with live progress.

Bulk generate is the way to clear a backlog. It scans your whole catalog for images with no alt text, tells you what it will cost, and then works through them one product at a time so you can stop whenever you like.

1

Scan your catalog

Open Bulk generate and click Scan catalog. The scan runs on Shopify's bulk operations API, so a large catalog can take a few minutes — you can leave the page and come back, and the results are kept for you. Cancel scan stops one in progress, and Scan again refreshes the results later.

2

Check the numbers before you start

When the scan finishes, three badges summarize it: how many products have missing alt text, how many images that adds up to, and how many credits you have. The credit badge turns amber when your balance is lower than the number of images queued.

3

Decide whether to overwrite

Overwrite existing alt text is off by default, which means only images that currently have no alt text are touched. Turn it on to re-do images that already have alt text — useful after changing your defaults, but it costs credits for every image it rewrites.

4

Start, watch, and stop

Click Start bulk generation. Products are processed one at a time behind a progress bar, with each finished product listed underneath and the one being worked on marked *in progress*. Stop after current finishes the product in flight and then halts; everything already generated is saved and charged, and the rest stays queued for the next run.

A large catalog can use a lot of credits. Cost per image is 1 credit per language for Normal text, or 2 credits per language for Detailed — check the estimate against your balance before starting.

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