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Generating an image

Pricing an image plan before anything is charged, choosing a model, and what happens when no image provider is active.

Updated

The image journey turns a short brief into a priced, editable plan, and only charges when you ask for the finished picture. Previewing a plan reserves nothing and costs nothing; credits move when you choose "Generate this image".

Image generation has to be switched on by an operator before any of this produces a picture. Until then you can still price a plan and hand the price to someone who can act on it.

BEFORE YOU START

  • An image provider activated on this deployment. That is a staff-only action in the Provider Centre, and saving a credential is not enough on its own - it also has to be verified and explicitly enabled for production.
  • The "generate" permission to price and to generate. The "view" permission is enough to read whether the feature is active.
  • Credits, for the generation only.
  • The facts you want on the picture. Social Studio will not invent an offer, a price or a claim you have not given it.

STEPS

  1. Open Create and choose "Create one image", or go to /app/create/image.
  2. Write the brief in "What are you promoting?", in your own words.
  3. Pick the "Kind of post": product launch, offer, event announcement, new service, seasonal or business update.
  4. If you picked an offer, type the offer itself in the field that appears. This is the field the product will not fill in for you.
  5. Choose "Preview plan". Nothing is reserved and nothing is charged.
  6. Check "Language and price". Change the "Model" if you want; changing it re-prices the plan, so the estimate always matches what is selected.
  7. Compare "Estimated credits" against "Credits you have".
  8. Choose "Generate this image" on the composition you want.
  9. Add alt text before exporting. The image cannot be published accessibly without it.

WHAT YOU SHOULD SEE

An alert reading "Image generated", with the number of credits it settled at. If the provider did not report a figure, the page says so and tells you to check your balance rather than quoting a number it does not have.

WORTH KNOWING

Media Studio at /app/media-studio is a plainer, older surface onto the same generation path, and it also offers video and voice. Each of those is a separate provider with its own activation, and none of them is active in a stock deployment. When one is missing, Media Studio says so directly rather than failing at the point of use.

WHAT THIS WILL NOT DO

  • It will not invent a fact. Offers, prices and claims come from what you typed.
  • It will not substitute a more expensive model behind your back. The plan's estimate is passed through as a ceiling, and anything above it is refused rather than charged.
  • It will not charge you for a picture that was never produced. Every refusal path releases or never takes a reservation.
  • The language choice only appears when more than one language is enabled for the workspace.

IF IT DOES NOT WORK

  • "Image generation is not active on this deployment yet, so nothing was generated and nothing was charged. An administrator can check the Provider Centre." is the standing state on a fresh deployment.
  • "We could not check whether image generation is active" is not the same as it being switched off. The page says so on purpose.
  • "Your role can't generate images. You can still price a plan and hand it, with its price, to someone who can."
  • "The model you chose cannot run this image. Nothing was charged." means pick a different model.
  • "This image could not be priced, so it was not generated and nothing was charged." means the chosen model has no credit formula set. That is an owner decision, not something you can change.
  • "The image provider did not respond, so nothing was generated. Your reserved credits were released."
  • "This needs approval before it can run. Nothing was charged." means your organisation's action gate stopped it.
  • "Add alt text before exporting" means the export is blocked until the image has an accessible description.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Does previewing a plan cost anything?

No. Nothing reserves a credit until you generate.

Why is a model listed as unavailable?

Because it is not approved on this deployment, or the active provider cannot run it. Models are seeded inactive and unverified and have to be turned on deliberately.

  • Writing posts with AI

    Generating a first draft from a brief, checking what it will cost first, and what the output is and is not.

  • Managing your media library

    Registering assets with their rights and consent, organising them into folders, and what "ready" means when a post publishes.

  • Following a render

    The renders page, what each render state means, and the rule that a render is charged only when a provider produced something.