Auto Featured Image (Premium) 1.4.8

Auto Featured Image (Premium) is a robust automation plugin for WordPress that solves the problem of posts appearing without thumbnails. It is primarily used to either generate branded title-based images automatically or to fetch relevant images from the web (Google, Unsplash, etc.) without manual intervention.

In 2026, the plugin (often referred to as AFI PRO or APT Premium) is widely used by high-volume news sites and niche blogs to maintain visual consistency.

🚀 Key Premium Features

The Premium version adds several layers of automation and customization that are not available in the free "Lite" version:

Google & Stock Search: Automatically searches Google Images, Unsplash, and Pixabay based on your post title to find a relevant background.

Neural Network Recommendations: Uses AI to suggest the most visually appropriate images from your post's content to use as the thumbnail.

Bulk Generation: Scan your entire historical library of posts and generate featured images for thousands of articles in a single click.

Cron/Scheduled Jobs: Set up a background task that automatically checks for missing thumbnails and fixes them every hour or day.

Custom Typography & Branding: Upload your own TTF/OTF fonts and watermarks/logos to ensure every generated image matches your brand's DNA.

Filters & Logic: Only generate images for specific Categories, Tags, or Custom Post Types while ignoring others.

🎨 Generation Modes

The plugin typically operates in three distinct ways, which you can switch between in the settings:

Mode

How it Works

Best For

Title Overlay

Writes the post title over a random or fixed background image.

Branded, uniform blog feeds.

First Image Extraction

Automatically pulls the first <img> tag from your post content and sets it as the thumbnail.

Content-rich sites with many photos.

AI/External Search

Queries the web for an image matching the title and saves it to your Media Library.

News aggregators or automated sites.

🛠 How to Set It Up (Premium Workflow)

Configure API Keys: Go to Settings > Auto Featured Image and connect your Unsplash or Google Search API keys (if using external search).

Define the Template: In the "Image Settings" tab, select your preferred background colors, font size, and text alignment.

Run a Bulk Scan: If you have existing posts without images, navigate to the Tools > Auto Featured Image section and click "Generate All."

Auto-Generation: Toggle the switch for "Generate on Publish" so that every new article automatically gets its thumbnail the moment it goes live.

⚖️ Is it Right for You?

Choose Premium if: You run a multi-author blog where users often forget to set images, or if you are migrating a site with thousands of posts that lack thumbnails.

Stick to Lite if: You only want to set the "first post image" as the featured image and don't care about AI search or custom fonts.

Would you like me to find the specific settings to help you add a "Play Button" overlay to featured images for your video posts?