Google Docs now uses Imagen 3 for custom image generation, but there’s a catch

What you need to know

• Google is adding Imagen 3 support to Google Docs for paid Gemini in Workspace users.
• The feature will allow users to generate custom inline images that can be used anywhere in their Google Doc — without leaving the site.
• Google Docs previously supported generating full-bleed cover images, but not inline images.

Google is leveraging its latest image generation model, Imagen 3, to bring custom images to your Google Docs, it announced in a blog post today. The company calls these images “photorealistic,” and they could be a replacement for stock images in some situations. However, in order to create your own images with Imagen 3 in Google Docs, you’ll need to be a paid Workspace user or a Google One AI Premium subscriber.

Before the rollout of Imagen 3 in Docs, Google was already experimenting with image generation in Workspace. It first added support for generating full-bleed cover images in Google Docs and image generation in Google Slides. Now, there’s support in Google Docs for unabridged inline image generation. A quick prompt is all it takes to create a cover or in-text image, as you can see in the example from Google below.

To start using Imagen 3 in Google Docs, navigate to the Insert menu and click Image or Cover image. Then, select Help me create an image. From there, you can use a text prompt to help Imagen 3 create the image you’re looking for, and manually choose a style to further refine your prompt. After your image is created, you can pick from three aspect ratios to find the one that best suits your document.