What is alt text and why should you use it on social media?

Alt text is a short description of an image that helps people with visual disabilities understand its content through screen readers.

But its usefulness doesn’t stop there:

• It also helps assistive technologies and search engines better understand your content.
• Instagram has started indexing images with alt text on Google.

What does this mean? If your Instagram images include alt text, they can appear in Google search results when someone looks for related content. This makes alt text a powerful tool to increase your content’s visibility outside the platform. It's a great way to reach more people and strengthen your social strategy through SEO.

AI-generated alt text in Metricool

Metricool can automatically generate alt text for your images using artificial intelligence.

The AI analyzes the image and creates a clear, social-media-friendly description, saving you time and helping improve content quality.

📱This feature is also available in the mobile app from Metricool.

Which social networks support this feature?

You can add Alt Text to your images for Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and X.

Which plans include this feature?

• Advanced or Custom plans: feature included with no limits.
• Starter and Free plans: available using AI credits.

How to add Alt Text

To add alt text, follow these steps:

1. Go to Planning and click on ‘Create post’ or select a time slot in the calendar.
2. Choose the network(s) you want to post to.
3. Attach the image (you can upload it from your device, a URL, or use the image bank).
4. Click the three dots on the image and select “Generate alt text with AI”.
5. Review and edit if needed.
6. Click Accept to finish.

Done! You’ll see "Alt" on the image thumbnail. You can delete or edit the alt text by clicking the three dots again.

Images from the image bank include default alt text.

💡 You can also rate the result using the 👍 or 👎 icons to let us know if the generated text was helpful. Your feedback helps us keep improving the results.

Need to generate the alt text in another language?

Once the alt text has been generated, you can easily translate it into another language.

Click on the robot icon 🤖 next to the text and select "Generate text in another language".

A dropdown will appear with several available languages and a search bar to help you find the one you need. Select the language, click Accept, and the translated version will be generated automatically.

❓​FAQs

Can I add alt text manually without using AI?

Right now, you can only generate alt text with AI and then edit it. There’s no option to type in alt text directly without generating it first.

To edit the generated text, click on the three dots on the image after generating the alt text, select “Edit alt text,” and write your custom text.

Why can’t I see the alt text on my Instagram or Facebook post?

Alt text isn’t visually displayed on your profile or post. Its purpose is to make your content accessible to people using screen readers and to improve SEO.

You can only check it using assistive technologies or by inspecting the post’s source code. The “ALT” label you see in Metricool’s preview is just an indicator that the image has alt text assigned.

Does alt text work in carousels, stories, or reels?

You can add alt text to images in your reels. For carousels, you can generate alt text for each image individually.

Alt text is not supported in Stories.

Can I add alt text from Autolists?

No. At the moment, it’s not possible to add alt text when scheduling content through Autolists.

What happens to alt text if I edit, reschedule, or duplicate a post?

Alt text stays linked to the image. If you edit a scheduled post, the alt text is kept. If you duplicate a post, the alt text is also copied to the new one.

Related articles

• Edit images and videos while scheduling your content
• Mention and tag other accounts
• How to schedule a first comment
• How to schedule content in multiple social networks?
• Content planning: full guide & FAQs

Updated on: 02/02/2026