Image optimization API

Featherweight images, every pixel that matters.

helloIMG converts, compresses, and smart-crops your images in the background — WebP, AVIF, and beyond. Use it as an API directly, through the LW Image WordPress plugin, or add AI alt text, SEO metadata, and background removal on top.

Find your way in

Six pages cover the whole surface, from installing the WordPress plugin to generating AI alt text.

Introduction
What helloIMG does and how the async optimize flow works.
WordPress plugin
Install LW Image, paste an API key, and auto-convert every upload.
API quickstart
Optimize an image end to end with curl, from upload to polling.
Optimize API
POST /v1/optimize — quality levels, formats, resize options.
Plans & limits
Free, Unlimited, and Unlimited + AI — what each includes.
AI alt text & SEO
Generate alt text, captions, descriptions, and titles from an image URL.

Upload once, get back a smaller image

Every optimize call runs the same way: send an image, get a job back, poll until it's done — or let the request wait for you.

Upload

Send the image as multipart/form-data to /v1/optimize with your API key. helloIMG checks the cache and starts processing it in the background.

Process

The image is compressed at the level you asked for — normal, aggressive, ultra, or lossless — and converted to the target format if you asked for one.

Poll or wait

Pass ?async=true and poll /v1/jobs/{job_id} yourself, or leave it out and the request blocks until the job finishes (or times out).

Optimize your first image

Install the WordPress plugin, or call the API directly with an API key from the dashboard. Either way, it takes a few minutes.