A blog post with only a featured image at the top looks amateur next to competitors that have images distributed throughout the body. Google’s Helpful Content system likes body-level images too — they signal that the article was assembled with care rather than dumped as a wall of text. AI Content Generator handles this natively through the Images inside the post sub-section of the Featured image metabox: enable inline images and pick a Placement pattern (After each H2, After every other H2, or Disabled).
This tutorial covers the inline-images system end-to-end: where the settings live, what each Placement option does, how inline images interact with the Featured image and the Featured image source (Media Library random vs AI-generated), the cost math when using AI-generated inline images, and the operational tips to keep the visual layer consistent across a campaign.
By the end you’ll have campaigns producing WordPress posts with inline images at the right positions — automatically, without any manual image editing on every post — and a clear sense of when to pay the extra cost for AI-generated inline images vs when to reuse Media Library assets.
Where inline images live
Inside any campaign editor, open the Featured image (Media Library, random) metabox. Scroll past the cover-image settings until you reach a sub-section titled Images inside the post. It has three controls: a “Insert images inside the post” toggle, a Placement dropdown, and an Inline image selection method dropdown.
Placement 1 — After each H2 (at the beginning of the paragraph)
The most visually rich option. Every H2 section starts with an image between the heading and the first paragraph. A 2000-word article with 8 H2 sections gets 7 inline images (the first H2 doesn’t repeat the cover).
Right for cornerstone content, long-form pillar articles, and visual niches (design, food, travel, product roundups) where images carry as much information as words. Wrong for short articles (under 800 words) where the images crowd the text, and for pure text-focused niches (legal analysis, opinion pieces) where visuals feel decorative rather than useful.
Placement 2 — After every other H2
The balanced middle option. Every other H2 section starts with an image. On an 8-H2 article you get 3–4 inline images — enough to break up the text without overwhelming.
Right for typical editorial blog content: how-to tutorials, comparison articles, industry commentary. The alternating pattern creates a natural visual rhythm — text, image, text, image — that most readers find pleasant without being image-heavy.
Placement 3 — Disabled
No inline images. Only the featured image (cover) is set. Right for text-focused niches, short articles, high-volume news publishing where cost matters, and campaigns where you’ll manually add images during editorial review.
Disabled is the correct default for new campaigns until you’re sure you want the image cost. You can turn it on later without any content regeneration required.
Step 1 — Enable inline images on a campaign
Open the campaign editor. In the Featured image metabox, scroll to Images inside the post. Tick the Insert images inside the post (in addition to the cover) checkbox. The Placement dropdown becomes active.
Pick Placement based on the article length band configured in SEO brief (content). For Min/Max words below 800: leave Disabled. For 800–1500: pick After every other H2. For 1500+: pick After each H2 or After every other H2 depending on visual density preference.
Step 2 — Pick the inline image selection method
Two options: Media Library (random) or AI (generate automatically). Each has different cost implications and quality trade-offs.
- Media Library (random) — the plugin picks random existing images from your WordPress Media Library. Free (no AI cost), but requires you to have a well-curated Media Library with tagged images. Good for niches where you have a stock of on-brand imagery.
- AI (generate automatically) — the plugin generates each inline image on the fly using your configured image AI provider (DALL-E 3 typically). Costs $0.04–$0.08 per image but produces perfectly on-topic visuals every time.
Step 3 — Enable thematic H2 matching (Media Library mode)
When you use Media Library mode, the plugin normally picks random images. There’s a checkbox — Select images thematically (H2 match) instead of random — that changes the behaviour: the plugin looks at each H2 heading text and picks the Media Library image whose title or alt text is most semantically similar.
Enable this if your Media Library images have descriptive titles/alt text. Disable if the library is generic (random stock photos) — thematic matching only helps when the metadata is meaningful.
Step 4 — Set Max inline images per post
The last control in the Images inside the post section: Max inline images per post. This is a hard cap regardless of Placement. Even if Placement is “After each H2” and the article has 12 H2s, if Max inline is set to 4, only the first 4 sections get images.
Two roles for this cap. First, cost control on AI-generated inline images (4 images × $0.08 = $0.32/post is the cap on total image cost). Second, visual density control — some layouts break with too many images per article.
Cost math for AI-generated inline images
DALL-E 3 at Standard quality wide costs $0.04/image; HD wide costs $0.08. For a campaign publishing 30 articles/month with Placement “After every other H2” (~3 images/post) and Max inline = 4, at HD:
- 30 articles × 3 inline images × $0.08 = $7.20/month for inline images.
- Plus 30 articles × $0.08 for the featured images = $2.40/month for covers.
- Total DALL-E cost: ~$9.60/month.
For higher publishing volume the math scales linearly. If you can’t justify the cost, Media Library mode is free once you build a library of 30–50 on-brand images — a one-time investment that pays off across all subsequent campaigns.
Combining featured + inline images
Best practice: use AI-generated for the featured image (one high-impact cover per post justifies the cost), Media Library for inline images (bulk visual filler doesn’t need the AI cost). Configure this by picking different sources in the two panels — top half of the metabox for the featured, bottom half for inline.
Alternative: all Media Library. Cheapest, but requires the well-curated library. Alternative 2: all AI-generated. Highest quality, highest cost — right for cornerstone content only.
Troubleshooting
- Inline images don’t appear despite Placement being set — the “Insert images inside the post” checkbox is unticked. Tick it.
- Same Media Library image reused in multiple articles — small library. Add more tagged images.
- AI-generated inline images take too long — DALL-E 3 has rate limits. Lower Max inline images per post or upgrade OpenAI tier.
- Thematic matching produces off-topic images — Media Library titles/alt are generic. Rename them descriptively.
- Cost spike after enabling inline images — expected. Do the cost math above and adjust Max inline images per post.
You’re done
That’s the inline images system: enable via the checkbox in Featured image metabox, pick Placement (After each H2 for visual-heavy niches, After every other H2 for balanced blogs, Disabled for text-focused content), choose the selection method (Media Library random for free, AI-generated for perfect on-topic visuals), cap with Max inline images per post.
From here every article the campaign produces ships with the right density of body images — automatically placed at natural section breaks, matched thematically when possible, capped at your budget. Readers get a visually richer article; Google gets a stronger Helpful Content signal; you get zero additional editorial effort per post.