Photo AI (formerly AvatarAI) review: fast, cheap AI photos with one real catch

Photo AI (listed here under its original name, AvatarAI) sells a blunt promise on its homepage: "Fire your photographer." You upload a batch of selfies, it trains a model of your face, and then you generate photos of yourself in poses, outfits, and places you never actually visited. It is the work of one person, the Dutch indie hacker Pieter Levels, who also built Nomads.com and Remote OK. Since launching in 2023 it has become one of the most recognized tools in its category, with more than 30 million photos generated and, by widely reported figures, around $132K in monthly revenue from a single founder.

That solo origin shapes both what is good about Photo AI and what is frustrating about it, so it is worth keeping in mind throughout.

How it works

The core loop is simple. Upload roughly a dozen selfies, wait for the model to train, then pick a ready-made "pack" or write your own prompt to generate images of yourself. Training used to take a while; the site now claims your first photos in under a minute. Newer builds add video too, including AI mocap clips that put your trained likeness in motion and slideshow generators aimed at TikTok and Instagram. The current version runs on Google's Nano Banana Pro image model, which Photo AI puts front and center.

Levels has been unusually candid about output quality. By his own account, roughly three of every four generated photos are good enough to use and only about one in ten reaches "exceptional." That honesty sets the right expectation: you are buying volume and variety, then curating, not receiving a folder of flawless portraits. The app is also famously held together by one enormous PHP file rather than a polished stack, which is part of its indie legend and, occasionally, its rough edges.

The packs are the real product

Breadth is where Photo AI pulls ahead. The pack menu runs from professional headshots (actor, author, doctor, lawyer, real-estate agent) to dating-profile sets tuned for Hinge, Tinder, and Bumble, plus travel backdrops like Paris and Tokyo, fashion and virtual clothing try-on, and an AI influencer generator for people building a synthetic persona. Alongside those sit plain utility tools that work on any image, not just your trained model: background remover, upscaler, face swap, photo restoration, and a standalone headshot generator.

That range is what keeps people subscribed. A job seeker wants one clean LinkedIn headshot, someone rebuilding a dating profile wants ten natural-looking casual shots, and a small brand wants product-in-scene images without booking a studio. Photo AI handles all three from one login, which is genuinely useful and hard to reproduce by stitching together single-purpose apps.

What it costs

Paid plans start at $19 per month, with higher tiers and annual options that raise how many models and photos you can create.

At the time of writing the site runs an aggressive "6 months free" banner that counts down on nearly every page. Read that offer carefully before committing, because the discount is tied to a longer billing term. For the output you get, the entry price is fair: a single traditional headshot session usually costs more than a month of Photo AI, and you can regenerate as often as your plan allows.

The catch: billing and support

Here is the honest part. The most consistent complaint about Photo AI is not the images, it is billing and support. Hacker News hosts a well-upvoted "Ask HN: Impossible to get a refund from Pieter Levels?" thread, and Photo AI's own FAQ tellingly includes entries like "I cancelled Photo AI but am still being charged," "I accidentally signed up for the yearly plan," and "Can I get a refund?" Independent review write-ups repeat the theme: some users report being charged after cancelling, with no staffed support desk to escalate to, since the only contact route is a link on the site.

This does not make the product a scam. A solo operator running a business at this scale cannot offer the support team a venture-backed rival can, and the same one-person setup is why the tool ships new features so quickly. But it does mean you should treat the subscription like any self-serve service: note the renewal date, keep a record of your cancellation, and stay on the monthly plan until you are sure. Handled that way, most of the friction goes away.

Who it is for, and the verdict

Photo AI suits people who want a large volume of varied, on-brand photos quickly and cheaply and who are happy to curate the good from the average themselves: content creators, job seekers, dating-app users, and founders building a personal brand. It is a weaker fit if you need one or two perfect, high-stakes images, or if responsive human support matters to you, in which case a boutique AI-headshot service or an actual photographer is the safer choice.

Overall I would put Photo AI at 4 out of 5. The value, the speed, and the sheer breadth of packs are real, and the founder's transparency about quality counts in its favor. The billing and support friction is the one thing holding it back from an unqualified recommendation. Go in with the right expectations and manage your subscription, and it earns its place.

Sources consulted

• Photo AI — homepage — the product pitch, the model-training workflow, the pack and tool menu, the 30M-photo counter, and Nano Banana Pro
• Photo AI — pricing — plans from $19 per month and the "6 months free" promotion
• Indie Hackers — Photo AI: $0 to $132K MRR case study — founder background, revenue and traction, and the roughly three-in-four quality hit rate
• ppc.land — how one photo AI app generates $132K monthly — corroboration of the revenue figures
• Hacker News (Algolia search for "photoai") — the refund discussion, the single-file PHP architecture, and the 2023 launch timeline
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine — longevity signal, archived since its early days