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PhotoAI

AI photo studio, built by one person

About PhotoAI

Photo AI is a web-based AI photo and video studio: users upload a dozen-plus selfies to train a model of themselves, then generate headshots, dating-app photos, outfit shots and short videos from prompts or ready-made packs. Pieter Levels built it; predecessor AvatarAI.me launched on 2022-10-28, Photo AI on 2023-02-10. As of 2026-10-25 it is subscription-only at $19–199 a month, metered in credits; the refund FAQ allows refunds only for accounts with no model, under 20 photos and no referral sign-up. Headshot services such as HeadshotPro and Aragon charge one-time fees (as of 2026-10-25).

EditorialUpdated 11 min read

What it is

Photo AI is an AI photo studio that runs in the browser. The core flow has three steps: the user uploads a set of photos of themselves and the system trains a model of their face; the user then picks a pack or writes a prompt to generate photos of themselves in different settings, outfits and lighting; the photos they like can be edited further, upscaled, relit, or turned into videos with sound.

The homepage lists the use cases: LinkedIn and resume headshots, dating-app photos, social media content, outfit ideas, and designing an "AI influencer" who does not exist. The homepage counter showed 30,996,285 photos generated on 2026-10-25 (as reported by the vendor).

Pieter Levels built the product. The FAQ entry "Who created Photo AI?" says it is a business fully owned by its founder, with no investors, run by the founder alone; the same maker's other products include Nomads.com, Remote OK and Interior AI. The site footer says "Formerly known as Avatar AI", and Photo AI is a trademark.

Photo AI is not open source; photoai.com/api returned 404 on 2026-10-25. The iOS app has been discontinued, so the website is the way in.

I really wanted to double down on high quality photorealism instead of just avatars, which means the tech is very different!

Pieter Levels, Photo AI launch post

Core capabilities

Personal model training. Uploaded photos train a personal model, and every generation uses it to keep the face consistent. The FAQ on what to upload asks for variety: a mix of close-up selfies and full-body shots across places, angles, clothes and expressions, and no group photos, sunglasses, hats, or photos where the face is cut off. A fictional AI influencer needs no uploads at all.

Packs and custom prompts. Each new model gets 48 free auto-generated photos: Halloween photos, profile pics, professional headshots, dating app photos, outfit ideas and social media posts, 8 of each. The "free photos" FAQ says Pro, Max and Ultra get this. Pro and up can write their own prompts, import photos, and Remix any reference photo.

Editing tools. Max and up add editing, cropping, zoom-out, relighting, combining photos, the upscaler, and virtual try-on for Shopify (pricing page, 2026-10-25).

Video. The Seedance 2.5 FAQ says every video feature on the site now runs on ByteDance's Seedance 2.5: a video starring the user straight from a prompt, image-to-video from any gallery photo, extending, re-rendering a whole clip with a text edit, and an in-site video editor. Clips run up to 30 seconds in one take, with audio generated together with the picture. There are also talking videos, motion-capture videos and 3D models of people.

Generation pipeline. The FAQ on models says the main photo pipeline is an in-house system called "Hyper Realism", with many outside models used for post-processing, upscaling, video and voice, and ongoing improvement through reinforcement learning from user feedback (as reported by the vendor). The pricing page also lists Nano Banana 2 and Seedream 4 as models, and the credit table prices Nano Banana Pro photos.

Who it's for / Not for

For:

People who need lots of photos, again and again. For example, anyone refreshing dating-app or social media pictures often, or wanting photos across seasons and settings all year. Subscription credits refresh monthly.

Creators and small online shops. Pro and up include a commercial license; Max and up add try-on, relighting and videos with sound.

People building a fictional persona. An AI influencer can be designed without uploading any photos, and that persona can keep being generated.

Not for:

Anyone who wants one set of headshots. Headshot services such as HeadshotPro and Aragon charge once and do not auto-renew.

Anyone expecting a refund. Once a user has created a model or generated more than 20 photos, refunds are off the table, and the terms say fees are non-refundable.

The privacy-sensitive. The terms ask users to grant Photo AI a perpetual, irrevocable license to what they upload.

Anyone making photos of someone else. The terms allow models only of the user or of people who gave explicit written consent; minors and politically exposed persons are excluded.

Organizations that need a mobile app, team management or an enterprise contract. The iOS app is gone, and operations depend on one founder.

How it compares

Against one-time headshot services. HeadshotPro's pricing page (as of 2026-10-25) is a one-time purchase: Basic at $29 for 30 headshots in about 2 hours; Professional at $39 for 50 in about 30 minutes; Executive at $59 for 70 in about 15 minutes with 46 edit credits and a free redo within 14 days. Aragon's pricing page (as of 2026-10-25) shows a limited-time 20% discount: Basic $35 (was $44) for 40, Standard $45 (was $56) for 60, Executive $75 (was $94) for 100.

Photo AI takes a different approach and sells an ongoing subscription. The cheapest tier, Starter, is $19 a month with 50 credits; per the credit table a Hyper Realism photo costs 2 credits; Starter is the "low quality, low likeness" tier. The HeadshotPro and Aragon pricing pages list one-time payments (as of 2026-10-25).

Photo AI's range: it is not limited to headshots, and it supports prompts, editing, videos and 3D models, with one model reusable for as long as the subscription lasts. The two headshot services' pricing pages cover professional headshots only.

Against general AI image tools. Photo AI claims the "highest resemblance of any AI apps" (as reported by the vendor).

The Photo AI homepage also carries a ranking of similar products with itself in first place, which is the vendor's own marketing.

Getting started

Step 1: sign-up and subscription. photoai.com supports login with Google or email. There is no free tier; generating requires a subscription first. The "free photos" on the homepage are the ones auto-generated for each new model after subscribing, which the FAQ says come with Pro and up.

Step 2: preparing photos. The FAQ asks for a varied set: close-ups and full-body shots across places, angles, outfits and expressions, with no group photos, sunglasses, hats or photos with a partly hidden face.

Step 3: model training. The FAQ on training time says higher tiers take about 90 seconds and lower tiers 30 minutes to 2 hours. The homepage promises first photos "in less than a minute"; the two do not match.

Step 4: generating and choosing. Beyond the 48 auto-generated pack photos, more can be made from packs or custom prompts (Pro and up). Credits show in the top right: the large number is this month's subscription credits, the small one purchased extra credits.

Step 5: video and editing (Max and up). "Make a video" in the sidebar makes a prompt-to-video clip, and "Make video" on a gallery photo makes a video from that photo. One video with sound costs 300 credits.

Step 6: managing the subscription. Billing runs on Stripe; cancelling takes a login to the Stripe customer portal at photoai.com/billing, which is separate from the site login. The FAQ says that in every case where someone was charged after cancelling, a second subscription was running under another email address (as reported by the vendor).

Pricing & license

Subscription prices (pricing page, as of 2026-10-25, USD):

Starter: $19 monthly or $99 yearly (shown as $9 a month); 50 credits a month; low quality, low likeness, one photo at a time, slow processing, personal use only.

Pro: $49 monthly or $349 yearly (shown as $29 a month); 1,000 credits a month; medium quality, up to 4 photos in parallel, photo import, custom prompts, Remix, commercial license.

Max: $99 monthly or $599 yearly (shown as $49 a month); 3,000 credits a month; high quality, up to 8 in parallel, plus editing, zoom-out, relight, combine, upscaler, video, try-on and early access. Marked "Most popular".

Ultra: $199 monthly or $1,199 yearly (shown as $99 a month); 10,000 credits a month; top quality, up to 16 in parallel, unlimited photo storage, priority processing.

The pricing page says "48 free photos per model" on every tier, with totals of 48, 144, 480 and 2,400; yet the Starter column also says "No free auto-generated photos", and the free-photos FAQ only mentions Pro, Max and Ultra.

Credit costs (FAQ, 2026-10-25): Hyper Realism photo 2, Nano Banana Pro photo 10, import 1, video with sound 300, talking video 3 per 100 characters, 3D model 25, upscale 5, motion capture 50, zoom-out 5, relight 15, grain 1, combine 1. Credits on yearly plans also refresh monthly and unused ones lapse; purchased extra credits expire after 2 years, with bigger discounts for bigger packs.

Yearly discount (pricing page, 2026-10-31): Starter is $99 a year, about 57% less than $19 × 12 monthly; Pro is $349 a year, about 41% less than $49 × 12; Max is $599 a year, about 50% less than $99 × 12; Ultra is $1,199 a year, about 50% less than $199 × 12. The pricing page labels the yearly Starter and Ultra plans "6+ months free", Pro "~5 months free" and Max "~6 months free". The FAQ says the yearly discount is not a time-limited promotion.

License: Photo AI is a closed-source hosted service with no open-source license, so there is no license-introducing commit to trace. The terms of service apply (last updated and effective 2024-10-10): users own their outputs, Pro and up may use them commercially, and Starter is personal use only.

Risks & limits

Refund conditions. The refund FAQ allows a self-service refund only if the user has never created a model, has generated fewer than 20 photos in total, and did not sign up through a referral link. The terms go further: because of GPU costs, paying waives the right of withdrawal, fees already paid are not refunded, and subscriptions auto-renew for the same period. The two sources differ.

A perpetual license over uploads. The terms say that by using the service users grant Photo AI and Interior AI, and their successors, a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicensable, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to use, copy, modify and publish their uploads and prompts. Users own their outputs, but the company can keep using the selfies and prompts they hand over. The terms also extend GDPR and CCPA rights and say personal information is not sold (as reported by the vendor).

Deletion takes time. Deleted photos are permanently removed after 30 days; after cancellation, account data is fully deleted after 90 days (FAQ, 2026-10-25).

Likeness and deepfake risk. The terms require users to be 18 or older, allow models only of the user or of people who gave explicit written consent, bar models of politically exposed persons and minors, ban nudity and non-consensual intimate imagery, and say unsafe content is detected automatically.

Credit costs. One video with sound costs 300 credits, and Pro has 1,000 credits a month; a Nano Banana Pro photo costs 10 credits and a Hyper Realism photo 2. The homepage talks of "unlimited photos", but credits cap real use.

Tier differences. The pricing page labels Starter "low quality, low likeness, slow processing"; it cannot use custom prompts or commercial use, and training time also depends on tier.

Old plan names. Several FAQ entries still say "Premium and Ultra", while the current tiers are Starter, Pro, Max and Ultra, and Ultra's feature list says "All Premium features".

One operator, and possibly for sale. In the FAQ the founder says the business has no employees and is fully automated, and also that it is for sale "for the right price".

Revenue figures. In a 2026-03-06 post the founder reported $105,000 monthly revenue and $80,000 monthly profit; the X profile bio (as of 2026-10-25) lists Photo AI at $86K a month. Both numbers come from the founder.

Dispute resolution. The terms include binding arbitration and a class-action waiver, so disputes cannot go to ordinary court or a class action.

No mobile app. The iOS app has been discontinued and existing iOS subscriptions ended automatically; the FAQ warns that any app-store app called Photo AI is unrelated.

How it got here

On 2022-10-28 Pieter Levels posted a "mini project" called AvatarAI.me: users uploaded a few photos, trained a model, and got 30 AI avatars in different styles. The post called it a "very very basic MVP" to test demand.

A 2022-11-07 post said AvatarAI.me sold $100,000 in its first 10 days, across 2,943 sales at an average of $33 (as reported by the founder).

Photo AI launched on 2023-02-10. The launch post says the founder spent two months building a photorealistic AI photo studio, an "evolution" of AvatarAI.me, which was still running; the new product aimed at high-quality photorealism rather than avatars, so the tech was very different. The site footer later took on the line "Formerly known as Avatar AI".

The product then grew from photos into video and 3D models of people. In the founder's August 2026 post list, an entry dated 2026-08-01 says a full video editor was added to Photo AI that generates and edits videos with users' trained models. As of 2026-10-25 all video features run on Seedance 2.5.

There was also an iOS app, now discontinued; the FAQ says this keeps the focus on the website.

On 2026-03-06 the founder posted that photoai.com is a 40,870-line index.php file making $105,000 a month in revenue and $80,000 in profit (as reported by the founder). The X bio (as of 2026-10-25) lists Photo AI at $86K a month.

The FAQ "Is Photo AI for sale?" says yes, for the right price, but the founder is not seeking venture funding and is in no rush to sell; the roadmap runs from photos and video toward "a fully interactive virtual world live generated by AI", with profit margins given as 75% to 90% (as reported by the vendor).

Our verdict

Photo AI is a founder-run AI photo subscription with self-reported public revenue, covering everything from headshots to video and 3D models.

Its commercial terms: no free tier, refunds only for accounts that never created a model, generated fewer than 20 photos and did not use a referral link, auto-renewal, a perpetual license over uploads, and a bottom tier the vendor itself calls "low quality". Several FAQ entries still use old plan names and disagree with each other.

Why it stands out

PhotoAI takes a handful of your photos, trains a model, and produces images of you in any setting or style. It is one of the largest AI photo products in the world and is run by one person who publishes its revenue in public.

Pieter Levels builds in PHP and jQuery, ships several times a day, and has demonstrated for a decade that a solo founder with distribution can outlast funded competitors. PhotoAI is his most technically involved product, and the pipeline behind it is unusually thoughtful about prompts and fine-tuning.

It is run by one person, Pieter Levels, who publishes its revenue in public.

Sources

Official

  1. Photo AI — AI Photo Generator & AI Photographerphotoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  2. Photo AI: Pricingphotoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  3. Photo AI FAQ: How much does it cost to generate on Photo AI, and how do credits work?photoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  4. Photo AI FAQ: Can I get a refund?photoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  5. Photo AI FAQ: I cancelled Photo AI but am still being chargedphotoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  6. Photo AI FAQ: Can I delete my data?photoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  7. Photo AI: Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (last updated 2024-10-10)photoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  8. Photo AI FAQ: What AI model do you use?photoai.com · Accessed Oct 25, 2026

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