Unsplash is one of the best free blogging resources. You can rely on it to fulfill the image needs for your blog. Recently, the Unsplash developer team has just released a WordPress plugin that allows WordPress users (self-hosted) to insert a photo from Unsplash right from the WordPress dashboard without needing to download it first. This is great if you often add some images to your blog posts to insist on your message or story.

The plugin works as a Gutenberg block. After installing and activating the plugin, you will see a block called Unsplash on the Gutenberg block library. Clicking the Unsplash block will open the image library window whereby you can search for an Unsplash photo. You can simply click the image you like and it will be added to your blog post.

An Unsplash account is required to use the plugin as you will need to provide a secret key to make the plugin work.

How to install the Unsplash plugin on your WordPress site

You can install the Unsplash plugin just like when you are installing other WordPress plugins. From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins -> Add New. Type “unsplash” on the search box on the upper-right corner to search for the Unsplash plugin. Once you found it, click the Install Now button. Activate the plugin right away once installed.

Once the plugin is activated, go to the plugins manager (Plugins -> Installed Plugins) and click the Settings link on the Unsplash plugin.

You will be prompted to enter an Unsplash access key. To get an Unsplash access key, visit the Unsplash website and login with your account. Click the three-dot icon next to the Submit a photo button and select API/Developers.

On the Unsplash Developers page, click the Your apps button to see your Unsplash apps list.

If you have no app yet, click New Application to create a new Unsplash application.

Accept all of the terms and click the Accept terms button.

Give your app a name and description and click the Create Application button.

You will be directed to your app page after clicking the Create application above. Scroll down to the Keys section and copy the access key.

Switch back to your WordPress dashboard and paste the access key you have just copied. Click the Save Changes button.

If you see a “Unable to authenticate due to an error with the access key” error message, simply click the Restart setup button.

Once the setup is complete, you can start using the plugin. Create a new blog post. On the Gutenberg editor, add a new block by clicking the plus icon and search for Unsplash and select it.

Click the Search Unsplash button to open the image library window. Type the image keyboard on the available search field to find a photo. Once you find a photo you like, click it and click the Select button. Before clicking the Select button, you can also edit the metadata of the image on the right panel within the window.

The Unsplash WordPress plugin is quite helpful to help add the supporting images to a blog post. In addition to adding images to the content body, you can also use to set a featured image.