Honest PhotoGPT AI Review: Is It Really As Good As They Say?

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Ok, I admit – I’m not the most photogenic person and I hate taking selfies. I’m shy when there’s a stranger with a camera in front of me and I’m too frugal to splurge on regular photoshoots. Also, my husband hated his role of “Instagram husband” back when I was a travel blogger.

Based on all that, you can probably see why I wanted to try PhotoGPT AI. This is one of the areas where AI is a total lifesaver! I’ve used a bunch of AI photo tools before – Artflow AI has been my favorite so far – but after hearing all the hype about how realistic PhotoGPT’s pictures look, I figured it was time to give it a proper test.

Here’s my honest PhotoGPT AI review. I’ll share what I like and don’t like about this app, give you my best tips on getting the best outputs, and show you a bunch of surprisingly realistic photos it generated for me!

Note to avoid confusion

Make sure you are typing the URL correctly. This tool’s website is NOT photoGPT.ai but photogptai.com.

AI Photography Tool
photogptai logo

PhotoGPT Overview

4.2
  • Good professional headshots
  • Natural-looking photos (actually!)
  • No complicated prompting
  • Use photo as a reference
  • Lots of gorgeous presets

Use code CAPTURE20 for 20% off!


Quick summary of my experience with PhotoGPT

I LOVE some of the images PhotoGPT made me and when the AI gets it right, the quality is better than any other AI headshot generator I’ve seen! I will keep using it for both personal and business socials. At the same time, about half the time images don’t look like me, which is why I had to take one star off.

If you are wondering about the generated images being realistic-looking, they very much are! (See samples below.) They don’t have that typical plastic AI look, but they do look like a professionally retouched photo.

In fact, sometimes it’s too realistic and I wouldn’t mind if AI missed some of my neck lines. Oh well. Not AI’s fault. PhotoGPT is 100% worth trying!

What is PhotoGPT AI?

PhotoGPT AI is an AI-powered photo generation tool that creates realistic portraits using machine learning models trained on your own face.

You upload a batch of selfies – ideally with different lighting, angles, and expressions – and it creates dozens of stylized images in different themes, from “professional headshots” to “glamorous vacation.”

PhotoGPT ai homepage
PhotoGPT AI homepage in 2025

It’s blowing up online right now because the results are surprisingly lifelike. Think LinkedIn-worthy headshots, dating profile pics, or even influencer-level travel photos… all without leaving your couch and for the tiny fraction of price of a traditional photoshoot.

Who is PhotoGPT for?

PhotoGPT AI is for anyone who needs eye-catching photos but doesn’t want to deal with awkward poses, expensive shoots, or editing apps that take forever.

Whether you’re posting to Instagram, building a brand, or just having fun with creative content, it’s packed with templates that make your photos stand out.

photogpt ai samples
PhotoGPT’s Community Gallery has lots of samples for inspiration

You’ll probably love it if you’re:

  • A creator or influencer who wants scroll-worthy Instagram content
  • A job seeker needing professional headshots on a budget
  • An entrepreneur building a personal brand
  • An online dater who wants photos that actually look like them – but better
  • Someone who hates being in front of a camera
  • A YouTuber designing bold, thumbnail-ready shots
  • A small business owner who needs on-brand visuals without always being the face
  • A marketer testing creative ad concepts using pre-built actors
  • A fan of themed content (yep, they’ve got Harry Potter, Star Wars, luxury events, and more)

Best PhotoGPT AI features (with samples)

Let’s get to the most exciting part – actual testing!

Here I will show you which PhotoGPT use cases I tried after training the AI on my photos and many of the resulting images.

I noticed most of the other reviewers don’t show you any actual photo generations of themselves, so hopefully this will be useful to get a real idea of what PhotoGPT AI is capable of!

AI vs Reality

Before we start looking at the AI version of me, feel free to visit my About page to get a general idea of what I look like in real life.

1. Professional headshots

If you need a headshot for LinkedIn, your website, or even just a decent Zoom profile pic, PhotoGPT has templates that give you that polished, professional look without needing to book a studio session.

You can prompt it further if you want a specific outfit or background of a certain color, but this is what I got out of the box:

photogpt ai sample headshot
My professional headshot generated with PhotoGPT

It also generated a few horrible ones that didn’t look like me at all, but this one was spot on!

It looks every bit like me in real life, and I would totally use it for my LinkedIn profile or CV if I ever decide to go back to the corporate world.

PRO tip

Make sure you have a bit of variety in emotions when you upload the images for training. I was wondering why many of my smiling photos turned out creepy, and then I realized I didn’t upload a single photo of me fully smiling with teeth!

So of course AI had no idea how my teeth look like, and I ended up with someone else’s teeth lol

2. Travel photos

If you’ve ever wished you had more photos from past trips – or wanted to fake a getaway for your feed (no judgment here, I’m just showing you what’s possible) – PhotoGPT has a bunch of travel-inspired styles that make it easy.

You don’t need to be in Portugal or Morocco to get those colorful street shots or vacation vibes. Just pick a prompt, upload your selfies, and let AI do the traveling for you.

For example, I had a Portugal trip planned in the past that never happened, so I put the AI me in Lisbon. I think I fit in!

photogpt ai sample travel
Me traveling in Portugal generated with PhotoGPT

Also, I’ve never worn a jumpsuit or a neckline like this in my entire life, but I might just try it now! This is another good use case for AI portrait generators – you can try on different clothing styles without spending hours in the mall.

PRO tip: Use a reference image

If you are trying to replicate a certain image from the gallery and it doesn’t turn out quite like you want it, try using a reference image. It made such a drastic difference for me, instantly switching some photos from meh to wow!

Just download the image from the gallery that you like and upload it with the prompt before clicking on Generate.

3. Casual selfies

Sometimes you just want a nice, everyday photo – something you’d post on Instagram or use for a bio that doesn’t feel overly posed.

PhotoGPT AI can “take” photos of you that feel more laid-back: cafés, nature, cozy corners. It’s like your camera roll on a really good day.

This pic of me in the café looks relaxed and natural, but definitely better than anything I’ve taken myself:

photogpt ai sample instagram
Instagram-friendly pic of me in a cafe generated with PhotoGPT

You may have noticed that my hair is lighter in this one – that’s because the reference image I gave AI had this hair color. I think sometimes AI considers hair part of the outfit and replicates it closely. I still love it though!

4. Get a car

You can totally use PhotoGPT to create lifestyle content that matches the vibe you want – even if it’s not your reality (yet).

If you’re building a personal brand, running a coaching biz, or just love vision boards, this is a fun way to get photos that reflect the future version of you.

Here’s me in my car:

photogpt ai sample lifestyle
A photo of me in my car generated with PhotoGPT

By the way, I don’t have a car! This totally goes on my vision board now.

5. Go to Hogwarts

Ok guys, my dream finally came true. Two decades too late, but who’s counting.

PhotoGPT has a bunch of themed templates that are pure fun – like Harry Potter, Star Wars, and fantasy worlds. If you’re into cosplay, storytelling, or just want to live out a childhood dream for a minute, these are great for that.

Look at me hanging out on Hogwarts grounds!

photogpt ai sample harry potter
A photo of me in Hogwarts generated with PhotoGPT

This photo is probably the least natural-looking out of all pics I generated with PhotoGPT. But considering it’s an imaginary world, I still think it did a great job!

It also looks like a bit younger version of me, which I guess makes sense considering that you are supposed to finish Hogwarts at 17 and not still hang out there in your 30s.

6. Go to Coachella

Want that festival photo without the crowds, dust, and $500 ticket? No problem!

I picked this template just for fun because I’ve always wanted to go to Coachella (I’ve only been to European music festivals so far).

photogpt ai sample coachella
A photo of me at Coachella generated with PhotoGPT

It nailed the outfit and vibe, and even the hair I had last time I was at a festival – and let me skip the part where I stand in the sun for six hours waiting to hear that one band I know.

7. Try futuristic style

PhotoGPT isn’t just for everyday looks – some of the templates go all in with cyberpunk, sci-fi, or futuristic aesthetics.

These are cool if you want something bold for your feed, a creative project, or just to see what AI-you would look like in another universe.

So here’s me:

photogpt ai sample futuristic
A futuristic photo of me generated with PhotoGPT

This one came out way cooler than I expected! Definitely not my usual vibe, but it’s so much fun to play around with, especially if you love sci-fi like I do.

Note on managing expectations

The goal of this PhotoGPT AI review is to show you what’s possible to achieve using this photo generator.

All the images I chose for this post look very much like me, even my husband was impressed. But I want to make it clear that I also had multiple generations that didn’t look like me at all, made me look 40+ or fat or ugly or twice taller than I am in real life (no joke). I chose not to publish those images because there’s no value in it.

I just wanted to say that no AI tool will get it right 100% of the time, and thankfully PhotoGPT gives you more than enough credits to experiment and tweak until you get exactly what you need!

7. Add text behind you

If you’ve ever tried creating a Youtube thumbnail or any kind of marketing pic where the text goes between the person and the background, you know it’s not an easy task.

It only took me a minute to add this text behind me, and it looks like I’m on a magazine cover!

juliety photogpt ai sample
A futuristic photo of me generated with PhotoGPT

The Text In Image tool is super simple and pretty flexible – you can choose fonts, styles, text position, transparency, and more.

Other things I like about PhotoGPT AI

Great variety of templates

Even on the entry level plan, PhotoGPT has dozens of fun presets you can use!

You can refer to their Gallery to see lots of samples for all presets, but here are some of the coolest ones (in my opinion):

Realistic hair

I imagine if you’re AI, you consider me difficult to work with when it comes to hair – I had all colors you can think of over the years (think red, blue, black, and everything in between) and my training photo mix reflects that as well. However, PhotoGPT surprised me in this department!

photogpt hair sample
PhotoGPT generated these without any prompting after training my AI actor

My hair look and structure are very consistent across all generations, and the colors are spot-on! Even the ones with black and blue ombre look EXACTLY how it looked in real life. Can’t ask for a better representation – I think this is the best AI hair I’ve seen across photo generators so far.

Enhancing prompts with AI

This is a great feature that makes PhotoGPT really easy to use for regular people without AI prompting skills!

You can write a oneliner desription of what you need, click Enhance, and AI will expand your prompt with details that are important for good-quality generation.

Using a reference image

If it wasn’t for this feature, I probably wouldn’t like PhotoGPT as much as I do.

Adding a reference image allows you to basically recreate someone else’s photo with you in it. I tried it with their Gallery images and some random pics from Pinterest that I like – and I got exactly what I had in mind 90% of the time.

Here’s an example of me using a reference image to get myself a photoshoot at sunset:

sunset photoshoot juliety created with photogpt

You don’t need a reference image for LinkedIn headshots but it’ll make a major improvement if you have something specific in mind. PhotoGPT will try to match the setting, pose, outfit, all of it.

I’m actually gonna use PhotoGPT to create my vision board next year!

Just imagine having a dream board that literally has you in every photo instead of a random person. You in front of your dream house, you driving your dream car, you in a pretty outfit exploring your dream destination, you accepting an Oscar… whatever floats your boat.

I also love that this feature is included even on the smallest plan – other tools I tried only let you upload a reference pic on higher tier plans.

Easy AI model training

I like that they guide you through the process easily, show examples of good and bad images for AI model training, and warn you when you need to pay attention in order to not mess it up and potentially lose credits.

In my tests, training one AI model in PhotoGPT took 15 minutes and 1500 credits. I uploaded 16 photos of myself, mostly portraits. I tried to include different lighting conditions and face angles so AI would get a full picture of my features.

Specific features for each AI model

As part of the training, I had to specify my gender, ethnicity, age bracket and eye color.

I think this is great – other AI image tools I tried guess this automatically based on the photos you upload, and it’s not uncommon to see different eye color or even ethnicity in generated variations.

20 generated images included

I heard that training a new AI actor on your photos costs 1500 credits, and I was ready for that, but I didn’t know that you get a bunch of photos right away!

When training was finished and I went to the Generate Images tab, I found that PhotoGPT already created 20 new photos of me – formal, casual, gym, etc – that I could use right away without any prompting. That also gave me a good idea of what it’s capable of before I even generated my first photo.

PhotoGPT pricing

PhotoGPT has three subscription plans, and you can choose to be billed monthly, every 3 months, or every 6 months – with discounts if you commit to longer terms.

photogpt pricing
This is how much PhotoGPT costs in 2025

The main differences between plans come down to how many credits you get, how many people you can create models for, and a couple of extra features.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • Starter Plan – $16.66/month
    A solid option for solopreneurs, personal branding, or small-scale content creation. You get 5000 credits per month, which covers training for up to 3 AI people or generating around 1000 images. It also includes 25 curated presets, text-to-image generation, and the AI prompt enhancement feature.
  • Hobby Plan – $25/month
    For those creating more daily content or managing multiple projects. This plan includes 9000 credits monthly, training up to 5 AI models, 1800 image generations, and adds more aspect ratios plus upscaling to the toolkit.
  • Pro Plan – $33.33/month
    Designed for heavy users or agencies. You get 16,000 monthly credits, can train up to 10 AI people every month, and access to 100+ curated templates.
Before you buy

Keep in mind that training one AI model on your photos takes 1500 credits, so you may have fewer credits for the actual image generation in the first month.

Generating one image costs 5 credits with default settings.

Does PhotoGPT AI have a lifetime deal?

Yes! As of summer 2025, PhotoGPT offers a 3-tier lifetime deal on AppSumo.

Here’s what you should know:

  • License Tier 1 comes with very limited aspect ratios, so if you want to create, say 9:16 images for Instagram stories, you need at least Tier 2.
  • If you aren’t good at prompting AI, consider Tier 3 cause it comes with 100+ curated presets you can use as-is for your own professional-looking images.
  • Training one AI model on your photos costs 1500 credits, which on the Tier 1 (2000 credits per month) will leave you with only 500 credits left for image generation in the first month (~100 images).
    Many people may be annoyed by that but honestly that depends on your needs. If you only need a few pics for your Linkedin or socials every month, Tier 1 is a pretty good deal, giving you lifetime access with 2000 monthly credits for a single payment of $69.

Room for improvement

Considering that PhotoGPT was only launched recently, in 2023, it has impressive picture quality and overall a decent app I can confidently recommend trying.

That said, here are a few things that I think can be improved:

  • There’s 7 pre-defined actors you can make images of (which is great), but there’s no way to know how they look until you try to generate something. They just give you a list of model names and ethnicities. Would be nice to see a little avatar or some kind of preview of each model before choosing. Same issue with presets.
    Another thing is that there’s variety in ethnicity but all models are 22-25 years old, which I imagine will not result in very authentic photos if you are 60.
  • I had high expectations for the feature called “generate similar” but it didn’t work at all as I expected. I thought it would be similar to “Vary” function in Midjourney where you get slight variations of the image – instead, it gave me a red-background “variation” for a white-background headshot with a completely different angle and face. There’s literally nothing similar about it other than “Professional theme”.
  • Some of the generations are hit and miss. For example, I got a bunch of amazing, realistic-looking images of me in a gorgeous cocktail dress with the only caveat – they didn’t look like me at all (I mean, I wish I looked like that!).
    I noticed that PhotoGPT mostly got it right with similar styles to my uploaded images, which is casual or travel pics, but had a hard time putting me in a gym (lol) or a fancy formal event. (Update: I was able to get much better results after I figured out how to use this tool properly! Take advantage of features like reference image, enhance prompt and enhanced face.)
  • Minor inconsistencies with fingers. Most AI tools mess it up every once in a while, so no surprises here – but if you are new, don’t expect 100% of the images to be perfect.
  • I’ve seen exact duplicates being generated when you rerun with the same instructions.
  • Would be nice if PhotoGPT was saving my settings from the last generation so I don’t have to re-enter things like steps, seed and number of images every time.
photogpt ai logo

Final verdict: Is PhotoGPT worth it?

Overall, PhotoGPT is a solid option for generating professional-looking headshots and realistic self-portraits. It actually creates crisp, natural images of you across various scenarios and it’s really good with hair. Worth trying for sure!

For best results, I recommend to always use a reference image, generate several images at a time (I do 3) and have the Enhance Face feature turned on. I didn’t notice much of a difference in credit usage but a huge difference in how your pics turn out!

Overall Rating:
4.2 / 5

Pros

  • Realistic-looking photos
  • Professional quality headshots
  • Reference image feature
  • No AI prompting skills needed
  • Fast AI model training
  • Responsive, helpful support
  • Affordable lifetime deals

Cons

  • Inconsistent likeness (sometimes photos don’t look like you)
  • No preset previews (but there’s a gallery with examples)
  • Training eats a big chunk of credits if you are on a lower plan

(Use code CAPTURE20 for 20% off)

Frequently asked questions

Does PhotoGPT AI have a free trial?

No, PhotoGPT AI doesn’t offer a free trial. The plans start at $16.66 per month and the lifetime deal costs $69.

How many credits does one generation use?

One PhotoGPT generation uses 5 credits by default. It’s supposed to take more credits if you increase the number of steps (AI accuracy metric), but I tried generating 2 images with 100 steps instead of the default 50 and it still ate 10 credits.

Do you have a discount code I can use?

Yes! Sign up for PhotoGPT AI through this link and apply the code CAPTURE20 on checkout to get 20% off any plan.

How many credits does it take to train AI on my photos?

Training one AI model with PhotoGPT costs 1500 credits.

How many photos do I need to upload to train an AI model?

PhotoGPT is asking you to upload at least 12 images of yourself to give AI a good grasp on your look. For best results, upload 12-15 images with a variety of angles and poses in different lighting conditions.

How long does it take PhotoGPT to generate one image?

In my tests, each generation took 20-30 seconds plus 20 additional seconds if I used Enhance Face.

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