Ai headshot generators seems to be the latest craze, both for Linkedin PFP and other professional/business job sites and board.
Alright, so I needed new headshots. My LinkedIn photo was from 2019 and I looked like I was being held hostage. My company website still had a grainy photo from my phone that made me look like a potato. I kept putting off booking a real photographer because honestly? $300+ for photos felt insane, and the idea of sitting in a studio making awkward faces at a stranger for two hours made me want to die.
Then I started seeing ads for AI headshot generators everywhere. "Professional headshots for $29!" sounded too good to be true, but I was desperate enough to try it. Spoiler: I ended up testing SIX different platforms because I'm apparently incapable of making decisions and also a masochist.
The Setup - Or How I Took 50 Selfies Like a Lunatic
Every platform wants 10-30 photos of you. Sounds simple until you're actually doing it. I spent a genuinely embarrassing amount of time in my apartment taking selfies from every possible angle. My roommate walked in on me posing with different expressions in front of our kitchen window and I've never seen him look more concerned.
Here's what I learned: these platforms are NOT joking about photo quality. My first attempt, I uploaded a bunch of random photos from my camera roll - some from parties, a few gym selfies, whatever. The results were absolutely cursed. Like horror movie stuff. The AI gave me three eyes in one photo. THREE.
Second attempt, I actually followed the guidelines. Natural light, multiple angles, different expressions, clear shots of my face. Took maybe 20 minutes to get good photos. Results were like 10x better. So yeah, don't skip this part unless you enjoy nightmares.
HeadshotPro - The One Everyone Recommends
Cost: $29 for 120 photos Wait time: 2.5 hours My rating: 8/10
I started with HeadshotPro because every Reddit thread mentioned it. Uploaded my photos, paid my $29, and then immediately had buyer's remorse. What if they were all terrible? What if I just wasted money? What if—
Two and a half hours later, I got an email. Opened it nervously. And... holy shit, they were actually good? Like genuinely professional-looking? I'm not gonna lie, I was shocked.
Out of 120 photos, maybe 15-20 were straight-up perfect. Another 40-50 were totally usable. The rest ranged from "slightly off" to "why does my hair look like it's made of plastic?" But honestly? Getting 15 legitimately great headshots for $29 felt like stealing.
The backgrounds were solid - office settings, neutral walls, some outdoor professional vibes. The lighting looked natural. My face actually looked like my face, just... better? More polished? Like I'd gotten eight hours of sleep and hired a professional photographer.
The weird stuff: In about 30% of photos, my hair had this weird texture thing going on. Not terrible, but if you zoomed in, it looked kinda painted. Also got a few where my collar looked impossible, like my shirt was defying physics. But at normal viewing distance on LinkedIn? Totally fine.
Profile Picture AI - Fast But Chaotic
Cost: $29 for 100+ photos Wait time: 1 hour 45 minutes My rating: 6.5/10
Next up was Profile Picture AI because I'm impatient and they promised the fastest turnaround. They delivered on speed - got results in under two hours.
The variety was insane. They gave me everything from ultra-corporate "I'm a Fortune 500 CEO" vibes to casual "I work at a startup" looks to some artsy stylized stuff that honestly looked like album covers. Cool in theory, but in practice, it meant sorting through way more options to find the actually professional ones.
Quality was all over the place. I'd get three photos in a row that looked amazing, then five that looked like the AI had a stroke. My favorite was one where I appeared to have six fingers on one hand. I don't even know how that happened since the photo was cropped at my shoulders.
The good: When it hit, it HIT. Some of my favorite individual photos came from this platform. The creative styles were actually pretty cool if you need variety beyond just standard headshots.
The bad: You earn your money by spending time curating. I spent like 45 minutes going through everything and flagging the good ones. Also, the super corporate/professional category had fewer winners than HeadshotPro.
Verdict: Good if you want variety and options. Not as reliable if you just need standard professional headshots and don't want to sort through a hundred images.
Aragon AI - The Corporate One
Cost: $29 for 40 photos Wait time: 2 hours My rating: 7/10
Aragon felt more... serious? The whole vibe was "I wear suits to work." Which, I don't, but whatever.
Only 40 photos felt stingy compared to other platforms, but the quality was consistent. These looked CORPORATE. Like if you told me these were official company headshots for a law firm or consulting company, I'd believe you.
The AI was really good at rendering business attire. My suit jacket looked crisp and real. The backgrounds were tasteful and professional without being boring. Everything had this polished, "I have my life together" energy that was honestly aspirational.
Downside: Not much variety. If you want casual or creative options, look elsewhere. Also, at 40 photos versus everyone else's 100+, the value felt less compelling. But if you need one really solid corporate headshot? This might be your move.
I also noticed they have team packages, which makes sense. I could totally see a company using this to standardize employee photos without dragging everyone to a photographer.
Try It On AI - The Budget Option
Cost: $25 for 200 photos Wait time: 3.5 hours My rating: 5/10
This was the cheapest option and boy, you could tell. Not saying it was BAD, but it was definitely the "you get what you pay for" experience.
200 photos sounds great until you realize maybe 10-15 are actually good. The AI seemed less refined - more weird facial distortions, more obvious fake-looking backgrounds, more uncanny valley vibes.
My hair looked like a helmet in probably half the photos. The lighting was often flat or harsh. Backgrounds had weird blurry artifacts if you looked closely. Several photos had this eerie over-smoothed skin effect like I'd been run through a beauty filter designed by someone who'd never seen a human face.
BUT: I did get a handful of perfectly usable headshots. And for $25? I mean, what do you expect, magic? If you're on a tight budget and willing to dig through a lot of mediocre options, it works.
Best for: Students, people just starting their careers, anyone who needs "good enough" for a LinkedIn profile and doesn't want to spend much.
Secta AI - The Overpriced Disappointment
Cost: $49 for 300+ photos Wait time: 4 hours My rating: 5.5/10
This one hurt because I paid almost double what I paid for others, expecting premium results. What I got was... fine? Just fine?
The industry-specific thing sounded cool. I selected "consultant" hoping for something polished and professional. What I got was a lot of generic business casual photos that could've come from any platform. Nothing felt particularly tailored or special.
300+ photos sounds amazing but honestly felt overwhelming. By photo 200 I was just clicking through mindlessly. Quality was decent but not noticeably better than cheaper options.
Processing took forever. Four full hours, which was annoying when other platforms delivered in two.
The only thing I liked was that some of the photos had this slightly warmer, more approachable vibe that worked well. But was it worth $49? Hell no. Save your money.
StudioShot - For Control Freaks
Cost: $34 for 150+ photos Wait time: 2.5 hours My rating: 7.5/10
This one let you choose specific styles before generation - background type, lighting style, overall vibe. Cool feature, but also kind of overwhelming if you don't know what you want.
I picked "natural window light" and "modern office background" for one batch, then "outdoor professional" for another. The results actually matched what I selected, which was impressive.
The lighting was consistently good - maybe the best of all the platforms I tried. Everything looked naturally lit rather than artificially bright or weirdly shadowed.
Downside: The customization added time and complexity. You can't just upload photos and get everything - you have to make choices upfront. If you don't know what you want, this is annoying. If you DO know what you want, it's actually pretty useful.
Got some really solid options from this one. Not the most, but the hit rate was good.
The Honest Truth After Testing Everything
Here's what nobody tells you: ALL of these platforms will give you some weird, unusable photos. You will see your face rendered in ways that haunt your dreams. You will get photos where your hair looks like it's from a video game. You will find images where something is just... off... in a way you can't quite explain.
But here's the thing - you only need a few GOOD photos. And every platform I tested gave me at least a handful of legitimately professional-looking headshots that I now use on LinkedIn, my company website, and my email signature.
My Actual Recommendations
If you want the safest bet: HeadshotPro. Consistently good quality, reasonable price, reliable results. This is the Honda Civic of AI headshots - not exciting, but it works.
If you want variety and don't mind sorting: Profile Picture AI. Fast, lots of options, some really great individual shots mixed in with the chaos.
If you need corporate/formal: Aragon AI. Less quantity but the quality is reliably professional and polished.
If you're broke: Try It On AI. It's not amazing but you'll get something usable for $25.
If you're a control freak who knows what they want: StudioShot. The customization is actually useful if you have specific requirements.
If you value your money: Skip Secta AI. Not worth the premium price.
Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting
1. Your input photos matter MORE than the platform. Seriously. Good photos on a cheaper platform beat bad photos on an expensive one.
2. You'll need time to review results. Don't do this the night before you need the photos. Give yourself time to generate, review, maybe regenerate if needed.
3. Some photos look great on screens but weird when you look close. That's fine. Nobody's zooming in on your LinkedIn photo to 400% to check if your hair texture is realistic.
4. The AI is better at some things than others. Faces? Pretty good. Hair? Hit or miss. Glasses? Often weird. Hands? Terrible, but most headshots don't show hands anyway.
5. This isn't replacing professional photography for everything. But for LinkedIn, website team pages, email signatures? Totally fine. For your book cover or major magazine profile? Maybe hire a human.
Would I Do This Again?
Yes, absolutely. I now have like 30+ professional-looking headshots that I can rotate through for different purposes. Total spent: around $200 testing everything (don't be like me, just pick one). Time invested: maybe 4-5 hours including taking photos and reviewing results.
Compare that to hiring a photographer: $300-500, scheduling nightmare, 2-hour session making awkward faces at a stranger, weeks waiting for results. Yeah, I'll take the AI option.
Are they perfect? No. Do they look exactly like me? Mostly. Are they good enough for professional use? Absolutely.
The technology is wild and honestly kind of creepy when you think about it too hard. But it works, it's cheap, and it saved me from my potato-quality 2019 LinkedIn photo.
If you need headshots and don't want to spend hundreds on a photographer, just try HeadshotPro. Take good input photos. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised. And if you're not, you're only out $29 and you can blame me in the comments.
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