Aragon AI Review [2024]: I Tried this AI Headshot Generator

I’ve always disliked getting my picture taken. Plus, it’s the middle of winter in Canada and I’d rather not leave my house unless I absolutely have to. Unfortunately, I don’t have the right kind of setup for taking professional headshots at home. So I figured, why not, I’ll take Aragon AI for a spin and see how it goes.

In this review, I share my personal experience using the tool, along with examples of my own AI-generated headshots and some tips for getting the most out of your own portraits.

Before we get into this deep dive, I’ll say that my first impression was one of surprise at how far the technology has come in the past year or two. It wasn’t too long ago that you’d upload some charming photos of yourself to an AI face app and get back something resembling this scene from The Matrix:

I’m happy to say that wasn’t my experience with Aragon. While the AI isn’t yet perfect, there were a couple of photos that nailed it – i.e., friends and family wouldn’t be able to tell the difference and I’d be comfortable using them on my website. I also used one of my favorite Aragon headshots on a resume I generated with Rezi.

So let’s get into it.

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info.

What is Aragon AI and why use it?

Aragon is an AI headshot generator that “learns” from photos of you and uses that information to create professional headshots in your likeness.

You can use your AI headshots for a lot of different use cases. For example:

• LinkedIn and other social media profile pictures
• Resumes, cover letters, and job applications (see my post on the best AI resume builders)
• Business cards and marketing collateral
• Professional websites
• Email signatures
• Acting profiles
• Online dating profiles (be careful with this one, ladies and gents!)

It’s important to note that Aragon and other headshot generators aren’t simply face swap apps that copy-paste your face onto different background settings. Instead, they use deep learning algorithms to create professional headshots by analyzing the facial features, expressions, and backgrounds in your original photos.

Once the tool has learned how your face looks from a variety of angles, it can adapt that info into a wide variety of new background settings and styles, giving you a bit of a glam-up in the process. It’s quite amazing when you think about it!

Using a tool like Aragon AI can save you hundreds of dollars in professional photography fees, plus the cost of getting your hair done and the hassle of getting your photos taken.

Features and benefits

• Get up to 100 high-quality headshots in 75+ different styles
• Fast 30- to 60-minute turnaround
• Supports PNG, JPG, and HEIC file formats (up to 20 MB)
• Upload images from your computer or import photos from social accounts or cloud storage
• Receive HD photos with a resolution of 1024×1824 pixels, so you can use them on social media platforms or your website (LinkedIn requires 400×400 pixels, so there’s plenty of wiggle room)
• Pay securely via Stripe, a trusted payment platform
• Advanced AES256 encryption – Aragon won’t sell your data to third parties or use the AI model trained with your likeness without your explicit permission
• The AI models that are trained with your likeness are automatically deleted after 30 days, and you can also request to delete both your uploaded and generated photos sooner
• Prompt support – I had a question when uploading my photos, and the team was quick to respond
• You get full commercial license and ownership of the photos, so you can use them however you like
• 30-day refund policy if you’re not 100% satisfied

Pricing

Aragon AI offers three standard pricing packages:

Starter ($29 per person):

• 20 headshots
• 10+ styles
• 60-minute turnaround

Basic ($39 per person):

• 40 headshots
• 20+ styles
• 45-minute turnaround

Premium ($69 per person):

• 100 headshots
• 75+ styles
• 30-minute turnaround

Aragon also offers discounted team packages for businesses and corporates.

For this review, I selected the Premium plan and got 100 headshots.

How does Aragon AI work?

When you have a good selection of photos ready, follow these simple steps for using Aragon AI to create your headshots:

Step 1. Provide some basic info

After you create an account and purchase your headshot package, Aragon will ask you a few questions, like your profession and intended use case for the headshot (LinkedIn profile, website, etc.). I chose marketing as my profession and website photos for my use case.

You’ll also need to provide a few details about your ethnicity, hair color, eye color, gender, and age, to help the AI produce more accurate results. This process only takes a few seconds.

Step 2. Upload your photos

Once you’ve provided your user information, Aragon will give you some examples of the types of photos you should use for best results, as well as types of photos to avoid.

Now it’s time to upload your photos. You can either drag and drop them into the interface, use the file picker, or import them from your social media or cloud storage accounts. Aragon accepts PNG, JPEG, and HEIC file types of up to 20 MB.

Aragon will select the best images for you and remove images that are low quality or too similar. I ran into a bit of trouble here – unfortunately for me, I recently sunk my phone at the bottom of a lake in British Columbia and lost all my recent photos. (This is what happens when you ignore notifications to upgrade your cloud storage for two years.) So I uploaded the bare minimum quantity of hastily taken selfies.

On my first upload, a lot of my photos were rejected for being too similar because most of them were taken at the same time on the same day and around the same indoor location. Yes, I did change outfits multiple times specifically for this purpose!

You are required to upload a minimum of six images, and they recommend at least eight for the best results.

After Aragon culled my original selection of images, I had fewer than eight. So I had to take a few more photos over the next couple of days to make sure there was enough diverse data to train the AI.

Even so, I still had trouble finding enough unique locations within that short period of time, so I only ended up with a total of eight accepted images out of the 16 or so images that I uploaded over both attempts.

Step 3. Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and wait

After you’ve successfully uploaded the required number of images, it’s time to run the tool! In most cases, you’ll get your AI-generated headshots back within 60 minutes, taken in a variety of poses, outfits, and indoor and outdoor settings.

Note that turnaround can take an extra hour or two if the server is really busy. In my case, it only took around 45 minutes.

Case study: My headshot results

I selected the Premium package, so I got back 100 HD headshots. While most of them looked more like a twin sister than an exact replica of me, a select few could have fooled my mother.

Below is a sampling of my results.

My experience and key takeaways

Here are a few things that stood out about my experience with Aragon:

Pros

I loved that it made my hair and outfits look really put together. Post pandemic, my wardrobe consists primarily of pajama pants and man-sized Molson Canadian T-shirts, with very little of anything that passes as corporate. I think the last time I wore a blazer and dress pants in real life was for a band concert circa 2005. Thankfully, this sad fact is not reflected in my AI avatars. So don’t feel like you need to go out and buy a set of office clothes for your AI headshots – Aragon’s got you covered.

Aragon didn’t add eye makeup or lip color to my portraits. This came as a pleasant surprise, as some AI image generators are known to add a ton of makeup to women’s faces. I almost never wear lipstick or eyeliner, so this was a plus for me. If you do prefer a full glam-up for your photos, you’ll need to apply it beforehand.

The tool emulates your facial expressions and, somewhat, your background settings. It’s winter here in Canada, which means it’s too cold to go outside without 800 layers of clothing. As a result, all of my selfies were taken indoors. Interestingly, virtual me also appears most often in a homey-type setting, minus the clutter. The backgrounds look straight out of a Country Living magazine! While in my case it wasn’t intentional, this feature can give you a degree of control over how your final photos turn out.

Aragon will give you a few different hairstyles, especially if you’re a woman. I have black hair and baby bangs in real life and wore my hair down in all of my input selfies, so this style was represented in most of my output photos. However, in a few of the AI photos, I’m shown without bangs or with different colors, lengths, and styles of hair.

Cons

A few of the photos made me look older. I’m 36 and I selected the 35-40 age group. So if you’re on the lower end of a given age range, you may want to go down one age bracket unless you already have a baby face.

As expected, the AI wasn’t perfect. Although a few of the photos pretty well nailed it, most of the above photos look more like they could be my close relative with enviable hair. Plus, there are a few photos where, if you look closely, there’s a funny AI artifact – e.g., two different eye colors, weird fingers. To be fair, this isn’t peculiar to Aragon; it’s a common occurrence with generative AI technology in its current state, though the technology is continually improving.

Tips for improving your AI output

Today’s AI headshot generators are capable of creating high-quality headshots that exude confidence and a professional image. To maximize your odds of receiving back stunning headshots, keep the following tips in mind:

• Aragon requires a minimum of six input images but recommends at least eight for the best results. The more high-quality photos you provide, the more accurate the results will be.
  
• You should be the only one in the photo, and your face should be clearly and fully visible. Selfies are okay, but no mirror selfies. Avoid photographs with other people, animals, or busy backgrounds. No silly faces.
  
• Prescription glasses are optional, but it’s best to stay consistent (same goes for hairstyles and facial hair). Avoid sunglasses.
  
• Use a diverse selection of images featuring you in different outfits, settings, and lighting conditions. For best results, use photographs taken on different days. Keep in mind that the AI trains on elements that appear frequently in your photos, including facial expressions, lighting, and backgrounds.
  
• Aragon will select the best photos for you, and pictures that are low quality or too similar may be rejected. Avoid uploading blurry photos, AI-generated photos, or images containing text or watermarks.
  
• Keep a natural distance and look straight at the camera. (Note: I did submit a couple of pictures with my head turned slightly to the side, and those photographs were accepted.)

Aragon AI FAQ

Should I use an AI-generated headshot?

Whether to use an AI-generated headshot depends on your context and purpose. In certain industries like marketing, tech, and real estate, AI headshots are becoming more widely adopted. For instance, an organization may use them to achieve a consistent look for a team page on a website.

In other cases, a traditional photoshoot may be more appropriate. Whatever your purpose, it’s recommended to use AI-generated images that represent you accurately. When in doubt, be transparent, especially with prospective employers or dates.

• Legitimate reasons for using AI headshots: Convenience, saving money on a professional photographer, presenting a professional image on a business card or LinkedIn profile, creating a consistent-looking team page on a website
  
• Not recommended: Misrepresenting yourself to potential employers or dates by using AI avatars that look like a completely different person

Are Aragon headshots legit?

I can testify that Aragon AI is indeed legit, as you can see from my own real-life headshot examples in this review. One of the reasons I chose to use them over other headshot generators is because they’re endorsed by founders and executives at verifiable companies.

The startup also has an interesting backstory, having organically grown to hundreds of thousands of users, including many businesses, in just a few months.

Aragon founder Wesley Tian studied AI at the University of Michigan. His company is backed by angels from OpenAI, Vanta, Scale, Niantic, and many other companies. The company also received an offer from Y Combinator. Aragon currently has over 235,000 users and is generating 1.4 million headshots monthly.

Which AI headshot generator is best?

Having tried Aragon, I can now personally recommend it as one of the top AI headshot companies on the scene right now. However, GenAI is a tremendously fast-growing market, so it’s very likely that competition in this space will heat up over the next few months.

What are some Aragon alternatives?

Some of Aragon’s top competitors are Secta AI, HeadshotPro, Try it on AI, and StudioShot AI. For a complete overview, see my article here.

Final thoughts

On the whole, I was impressed with the portraits I received from Aragon. This time around, I selected website photos for the use case, and I got a couple of usable studio-quality headshots out of the deal.

I plan to try the tool again when the weather warms up so I can take some pictures in different outdoor locations. Next time, I plan to use a larger number of input photos – maybe 20 or so – and select LinkedIn as the use case. Stay tuned for my next review!