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It's been fascinating to watch the rise of AI over the past few years. In such a short time, AI portraits have gone from mind-bending monstrosities to being such realistic depictions of actual people that you have to examine them closely to find any problems. As the trend continues, it won't be long before AI smooths out the few remaining tells that show the faces you see in headshots aren't real photos.
AI is helping in ways we never thought imaginable just a few years ago; in the professional world, it's being used to help young people get a head start on their career goals and assisting seasoned veterans with advancing their careers by giving everyone access to great-looking headshots without having to spend the time and money hiring a talented photographer.
A great headshot can have a large impact on a person's professional endeavors. Below are reviews of nine of the best AI headshot generators. For reference, the images used to train each of these AI headshot generators are also included.
Portrait Pal offers a strong start, quickly and painlessly providing users with great results. Each generated image looks realistic and has likenesses almost spot-on, with high-quality backgrounds that are clear and detailed, unlike some other generators. Even with a thorough analysis, it is hard to tell that these images are AI-generated.
The headshots also range in style from professional, complete with a suit and tie, to more of a casual vibe, allowing them to be used for a range of purposes. The slight smile Portrait Pal generates is friendly without showing too much excitement. And the colors are subtle, providing a professional look. These images could be used on a professional web page, for LinkedIn, or on social media.
As a service, Portrait Pal is one of the most popular AI headshot generators out there. When you start, you choose between three pricing tiers, each with its own fair cost. Aside from faster processing, each higher tier provides you with more photos and more backgrounds, outfits, and options.
Then, with a little help from the stable diffusion AI model, a little fine-tuning, and the photos you've provided (the more variety, the better), in just a couple of hours -- only 30 minutes if you pay for the highest tier -- you'll receive a variety of headshots, perfect for your needs.
While other choices on the list also provide some fantastic options, Portrait Pal offers great quality photos and a fast and simple process of uploading your images and choosing which tier you want.
2. PixelPose
The next AI headshot generator is PixelPose, which has an impressive level of quality and realism. One of the great things about PixelPose is that the service just launched, so the AI generator it uses is state of the art.
This cutting-edge AI model was able to capture the likeness exceedingly well in most of the pics. While some generators out there might nail certain aspects of your appearance from certain angles or in certain situations, PixelPose did an exceedingly great job of capturing likeness across the board.
These images also make for great professional headshots, with most of the images that PixelPost generated providing professional poses, with great looking suits. It was hard to spot any telltale AI distortions. The model does a great job of hiding hands, and when they are visible, they look natural. Clothing also came out quite well, with no signs of any miscalculations in the different layers. You'll notice some obvious issues with clothing further down this list.
Depending on which of the three pricing tiers that you choose, you'll get an increasing number of HD images and in more styles. At least this lack of customization makes PixelPose simple and easy to use. All you have to do is upload your photos and let the AI model do its thing. Then, you can pick the ones you like the most, and the rest will be archived.
Overall, PixelPose's great images, combined with its easy-to-use process, easily makes it one of the best AI headshot generators out there.
3. Remini
Many users are impressed with the next headshot generator on this list, Remini. The images came out looking nearly as realistic as those Portrait Pal generated, although the service didn't quite capture the likeness. Regardless, much like Portrait Pal, these images could easily be mistaken for real photos.
However, a few things prevented users from giving this generator the top spot. For starters, as you might imagine, AI generators still struggle with creating realistic hands, so don't look too closely at them, especially the left hand in the fourth image.
Also, if you haven't already noticed, the images look wet -- glistening, like someone just finished working out and then had to sprint three blocks to get to their photoshoot. This effect is least noticeable in the images with the brightest lighting.
The images are more stylized, with lots of loose collars and turtlenecks where the clothing is concerned. And the poses, although varied, come across as more relaxed. This isn't necessarily negative, but these headshots might not be the best option if you're looking for something hyper-professional.
Remini, however, allows you to choose models with poses that you can base your AI-generated images around. So maybe if you choose the most professional-looking models, you'll receive images more tailored for that goal. Either way, the colors and contrast both come out great, and the images look even more professional and realistic when you use a static background, like in most of these.
As a service, Remini offers the ability to enhance photos or to create a wide range of AI-generated settings, not just headshots. So, while you may come to Remini for some professional-looking headshots, you might find yourself diving into their image enhancement as well. Do note, however, that while you can enhance images online from the web, the AI image generator is only available on mobile devices.
Aragon.ai gives a really great first impression, granting it fourth place on this list. Although the headshots came out a little bright, almost as though they were real photos that someone applied a filter to, they looked realistic and captured likeness well.
Users also liked the variety of outfits and facial expressions. Many of the generators produced a single facial expression in different angles and backgrounds. Aragon.ai, however, did a great job of providing plenty of variety, from slight smiles to bigger grins. The generator also provides a nice mix of professional-looking shots with suits and ties and some more casual ones. You would be able to do just about anything with these headshots.
Aragon.ai's service is also exceedingly easy to use, and it has options for not only general professionals, but also students, teachers, doctors, and other careers. Next to the headshot generator, Aragon.ai also has an AI editor to allow you to clean up and alter pre-existing photos that you've taken. So, if you like this service's style, then it can be your one-stop shop for all things AI image generation.
Much like Portrait Pal, Aragon.ai allows you to choose between three price points, something it has in common with most other AI headshot generators of 2024. This seems to be industry standard for the most part, and the more you pay, the more poses and backgrounds you get. Aragon.ai also has an option for teams to create a batch of AI-generated headshots to give some consistency to an organization's about page.
Fifth on this list, and the choice providing quite possibly the warmest pictures out of all the AI generators, is The Multiverse AI. If you want your photos to look like they were taken under the warm gaze of the summer sun, then The Multiverse AI is a great option.
While each image is excellent, The Multiverse AI seems to lean toward generally providing one look in a variety of angles, backgrounds, and poses. These examples show lighter-colored clothing -- lots of tans and whites -- which does seem to be the predominant option, but there are some darker blues available as well.
However, there's something oddly unsettling about looking at eight versions of yourself, all making roughly the same face. But The Multiverse AI does one thing, and it does that one thing quite well -- and in many poses and backgrounds. So, if you like what you see here, chances are the generator will give you plenty of great headshots to use. Just don't try counting the fingers on the hands in the fourth image; it's a fool's errand.
The Multiverse AI bucks the trend by offering just one pricing point. After paying, you'll receive an email with a link directing you to a page where you upload between 12 and 20 images. After a couple of hours, you'll get another email link that takes you to the generated headshots.
With only one price point, and little in the way of customization, The Multiverse AI isn't the most flexible of options, even if it does provide some great headshots. However, in addition to the 100 images you'll be sent, you're given the option to provide a prompt for 20 custom photos. So, if you want to see yourself in a specific career or job role, The Multiverse AI has you covered. There's also a group option for teams, so if your organization wants to have similar headshots made of everyone, you can do that pretty easily with The Multiverse AI.
Next to the warmer and brighter options provided by Aragon.ai and The Multiverse AI, there are some cooler options with InstaHeadshots claiming the halfway point of this list.
InstaHeadshots provides a pleasant mix of blues and greens. The colors and the higher contrast of the image in the bottom right with the green suit really make it pop. Although there is some slight variation in facial expressions, the differences are too subtle, so it looks like a similar face is being made in all of them.
The images still resemble what the person looks like, but not to the accuracy of Portrait Pal or other options higher on this list. And, in a few spots, they've begun to look more like art than photographs -- which might be your preference, subjectively, but may not be great for professional headshots. Regardless, at a glance, they'd work great for LinkedIn and other sites.
If you've visited the other generators on this list, you'll find that InstaHeadshots has a similar platform. There are three price points, each providing more headshots in more styles and with a turnaround of 1-2 hours. Teams can also benefit from batch pricing, allowing organizations to quickly and easily generate headshots for each team member.
While other AI headshot generators might provide slightly better and more consistent results, InstaHeadshots certainly has its own vibe going for it. And out of the dozens of headshots generated, a few of them could easily strike your fancy.
ProPhotos struggles a bit with capturing likeness, but ultimately, ProPhotos was able to generate realistic images, with the clothes and face coming out almost indistinguishable from real photos.
The seventh photo captured likeness the best while looking the most realistic. It's a little overexposed, which works great to hide that it was AI-generated, and that sort of lighting also makes sense for being outside on a balcony in a city. On top of that, the complexion and skin also came out great.
While many of these generators have gotten great at avoiding obvious distortions, sometimes they still slip through, as with a couple of finger issues pointed out earlier. If you look closely at the third photo, you can see that the shirt morphs into a vest. And it's buttoned at the top but open immediately below. These are just some things to keep an eye out for when you're searching for the most professional AI-generated headshots possible.
Overall, though, ProPhotos provides plenty of variety in facial expressions, backgrounds, clothing, and poses. In a typical batch of images, you'll have one or two absolute winners.
As a service, ProPhotos uses the typical three-tiered pricing system found in many of its competitors. It doesn't have much in the way of image editing or customization once the images are generated, but the medium and high tiers offer a free background changer. At the end of the day, ProPhotos is a "what you see is what you get" generator. And what you get seems to have a high chance of being great.
At first glance, BetterPic's photos felt very utilitarian, with the grays and blues; in many ways, the service offers something slightly different than the previous entries. You could say that the sixth photo gives Bond villain vibes.
Overall, the images came out fairly realistic. The face is a bit too red, and in some of the images, it looks a little too shiny and unnatural. However, a few of the pics came out great, including the Bond villain one, as well as the third.
Fortunately, BetterPic gives you plenty of opportunities to customize the generated pics; one differentiating factor here is the Studio AI, where you can customize your headshots. Once photographs are submitted and outfits and styles are selected, the generator gives the option to customize a wide range of factors, like changes to the clothing, background, and hair.
This customization comes at the cost of credits, which you get depending on the pricing tier you choose; it seems like AI headshot generators have found a sweet spot in three-tiered pricing structures.
Ultimately, BetterPic is impressive with its customization more so than with the generated images themselves. But of course, with great customization comes a great ability to alter the images to your liking. So, with a little luck and effort, BetterPic can provide some amazing results.
HeadshotPro left a pretty great first impression considering the realistic images it produces, but a couple of factors prevent it from being placed higher on this list. For starters, this generator doesn't capture likeness as well as Portrait Pal or some of the other options; it widens the face. But of course, maybe with different photos or a bit of AI luck, you'd have different results.
HeadshotPro suffers from same-face syndrome, where every image it produces, it shows the same facial expression at slightly different angles. There are additional customization options for poses and backgrounds, but they're all variations on a very specific theme.
Clothing, for the most part, comes out great and realistic. The overall result, of course, is a great headshot. But if you're looking for an option with a little more variety, then there are other better choices on this list.
Model-wise, HeadshotPro is competitive with all the other generators on this list: choose from the three tiers, upload your photos, and receive your images within 1-3 hours.
Rounding out this list of the best AI headshot generators of 2024 comes Dreamwave. While there were some great pics that came out of the service, overall, impressions were on the mixed side.
Both the fourth and fifth images came out great, although the fourth one bulked the subject up a little. Regardless, those two images look great and natural, but the other images are kind of a mixed bag. Overall, they're good, but the generator has softened the look and reduced facial detail, giving the images an almost airbrushed/photoshopped quality.
Dreamwave does include an AI image editor, so you can take your favorite pics, or the ones that came close, and make changes to get them to where you want.
Pricing for Dreamwave isn't revealed upfront. You must upload your images before you can see what's offered. The Dreamwave offers an awful lot of photos -- 120 at the lowest tier and 500 at the highest. That highest tier will also get you unlimited touch-ups by Dreamwave experts, so that might be a way to end up with a pretty great headshot. But when the service goes through lengths like that, at some point, it stops being AI-generated.
However, that doesn't stop Dreamwave from making the list.
No one would have guessed that within a few short years, AI-generated headshots would not only be a thing, but also a viable alternative to professional photoshoots. You can practically watch the quality grow in real-time. Sooner rather than later, it's likely that these AI headshots will become completely indistinguishable from real photos.
At a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional photographer, you can get a host of images that could easily be mistaken for actual photographs perfect for a variety of uses, from LinkedIn to simple profile images across a range of social media sites.
Ultimately, AI headshots are a cheap and effective way to put your best professional foot forward, especially if you're looking for a promotion or new career opportunities. A great photo will improve your chances of landing you the job you want.
