WordPress Alt Text Generator: OpenAI Vision + Google Sheets

Automatically generate missing WordPress image alt text with OpenAI Vision—then review or apply it via Google Sheets

If your WordPress media library has images missing alt text, this n8n workflow helps you fix it fast. It scans your WordPress media for empty alt attributes, uses OpenAI Vision with the attached post/page context to generate accurate alt text, and records suggestions in Google Sheets for review or applies them automatically.

What this workflow does

• Runs on a schedule: it can generate alt text suggestions daily (or manually), and then apply approved suggestions hourly.
• Scans your WordPress media library via the WordPress REST API media endpoint page-by-page.
• Filters candidates: keeps only JPEG, PNG, WebP, and GIF images with empty alt text, skips media IDs already logged in Google Sheets, and respects a configured batch size limit.
• Builds context: fetches the title and excerpt of the WordPress post/page the image is attached to (or uses media metadata if unattached).
• Uses OpenAI Vision: downloads the medium image and sends it with context to an OpenAI vision chat model to return structured alt text, a decorative flag, and a confidence score.
• Logs results to Google Sheets: in review mode, it appends a pending row; in auto mode, it updates alt text in WordPress and logs applied results.
• Hourly application: reads rows marked approved, updates WordPress alt text, and updates the row status to applied.

Use cases

• Improve accessibility (WCAG-minded alt text) across an existing WordPress content backlog.
• Reduce manual image SEO work by generating consistent, context-aware alt text suggestions.
• Use Google Sheets as an approval queue for QA before updating WordPress.

Technical details

• Integrations: WordPress REST API (media endpoint), OpenAI Vision, Google Sheets.
• n8n logic nodes: if, set, code, limit, filter, sticky note.
• Setup includes creating a WordPress Application Password and configuring WordPress API access.