The short version: WordPress.org publishes its own AI plugin, simply called AI. It is free, it passed 50,000 active installs, and version 1.4.0 landed this week. It puts AI help directly inside the WordPress editor instead of making you paste things into ChatGPT and back.
If you run a WordPress site — and if you sell anything in Kenya, you probably do — this is the cheapest AI upgrade available to you right now.
What it does
- Writes alt text for your images. Including a command that does your entire existing media library in one go. This alone is worth the install for SEO and accessibility.
- Titles, excerpts and summaries generated from the post you have already written.
- Meta descriptions and URL slugs suggested for you.
- Translation inside the editor — useful if you want Swahili versions of key pages.
- Resizes content — make a paragraph shorter or longer without leaving the page.
- Reviews your draft for grammar, readability, accessibility and SEO, with a one-click apply.
- Handles your comments. Flags toxic comments, reads sentiment, and suggests replies. Good if you moderate a busy blog.
- Generates and edits images from inside the admin.
- Keeps a log. Every AI request is recorded, and admins can control which AI providers the plugin may use. That matters if a client asks what you are sending where.
What it costs — read this part carefully
- The plugin is free. No subscription, no licence key.
- But it ships with no AI brain. You install a separate free “AI Connector” plugin for OpenAI, Google or Anthropic, and you supply your own API key.
- That API key is pay-as-you-go. For blog-sized work — titles, excerpts, alt text, meta descriptions — you are typically looking at a few hundred shillings a month, not a subscription. Google’s Gemini API also has a free tier that many small sites never exhaust.
- Requirements: WordPress 7.0.3 or newer, PHP 7.4+, and the Block editor. Classic Editor sites will not run it.
Why this beats a paid AI plugin for most Kenyan sites
- Paid AI WordPress plugins commonly charge $15–$49 a month (KSh 1,950–6,360). This is free, and you pay only for the AI you actually use.
- It is maintained by WordPress itself, so it is far less likely to be abandoned or sold to someone who starts charging.
- The request log means you can show a client exactly what was generated and when.
Do this today
- Check your WordPress version. Below 7.0.3, update first — on a staging copy if the site earns money.
- Install the AI plugin, then install one AI Connector plugin and add your API key.
- Turn on only alt text generation to start. Run the bulk alt text command on your media library.
- Check twenty of the generated alt texts by hand. If they are good, add the next feature. If not, you have lost nothing.
- Leave comment moderation and auto-apply switched off until you trust it.
Tool link: WordPress AI plugin on WordPress.org