Arno Welzel

This plugin integrates PhotoSwipe to WordPress. All linked images in a post or page will be displayed using PhotoSwipe, regardless if they are part of a gallery or single images.
More about the original version of PhotoSwipe see here: <a href="http://photoswipe.com" rel="nofollow ugc">http://photoswipe.com</a>
You can also display EXIF data from supported image types.
As of version 4.0.0 this plugin requires at least WordPress 5.3 and PHP 7.0. Older PHP version will cause problems. In this case you have to upgrade your PHP version or ask your hoster to do so. Please note that WordPress itself also recommends at least PHP 7.4 – see <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/" rel="ugc">https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/</a>.
Please keep in mind: not the visible thumbnail is relevant, but only the image link. Images should always be linked to the file and not to the attachment page. Since version 5.6.1 there is an option to fix attachment links which can be enabled if needed – however this may slow down your website since then all links on a page will be checked if they are attachment links.

Lightbox with PhotoSwipe

Amazing lightbox plugin

Integration of PhotoSwipe (http://photoswipe.com) for WordPress.

Global AI

Global AI Gallery creates clean, functional galleries on any WordPress site:
<ul>
<li>Dedicated Custom Post Types for Galleries and Albums</li>
<li>Responsive Grid layout (1–6 configurable columns)</li>
<li>PhotoSwipe 5 lightbox with keyboard, arrow and touch swipe navigation</li>
<li>YouTube support — paste a URL and the plugin handles the thumbnail and playback</li>
<li>Native Elementor widget</li>
<li>Schema.org ImageGallery markup for SEO</li>
<li>Accessible — ARIA, focus trap, screen-reader friendly</li>
<li>Multi-language ready — Polylang/WPML compatible, .pot file included</li>
<li>No external dependencies — everything is vendored, no CDN calls</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pro Version</h4>
The Pro add-on (sold separately) adds Masonry, Justified and Carousel layouts, Vimeo and self-hosted videos, premium lightbox with zoom/share/download, animated filters, interactive albums, and premium templates. Learn more at https://globalai.software/plugin-global-ai-gallery
<h3>External services</h3>
This plugin connects to YouTube to display video content that the site administrator has chosen to add to a gallery or album. No data is sent unless an admin explicitly adds a YouTube URL to a gallery item.
YouTube thumbnail lookup (i.ytimg.com) 
When a gallery item is a YouTube video, the plugin requests the thumbnail URL from <code>https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<video-id>/maxresdefault.jpg</code> (with a fallback to <code>hqdefault.jpg</code>) using <code>wp_remote_head()</code>. Only the video ID is sent in the URL. The result (a URL string) is cached locally for 24 hours via WordPress transients to avoid repeat requests. 
– Data sent: the YouTube video ID that the administrator added. 
– When: the first time a gallery containing that video is rendered, and every 24 hours after the cache expires. 
– Service provider: Google LLC. 
– Terms of service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms 
– Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
YouTube embed iframe (youtube.com or youtube-nocookie.com) 
When a visitor opens a YouTube video in the lightbox, the browser loads the embed from <code>https://www.youtube.com/embed/<video-id></code> — or, if the “Use youtube-nocookie.com” setting is enabled (Settings → Global AI Gallery), from <code>https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/<video-id></code>. This is a standard browser iframe; the plugin does not perform any server-side request. 
– Data sent: the YouTube video ID, plus whatever YouTube itself collects from the visitor’s browser (User-Agent, Referer, cookies — unless the cookieless host is used). 
– When: only when a visitor actually plays a YouTube video on the page. 
– Service provider: Google LLC. 
– Terms and privacy: same links as above.
The plugin does not contact any other external service. No telemetry, analytics, license servers, or auto-update endpoints are called by this Free version.
<h3>Security</h3>
This plugin exposes one public REST endpoint to support deferred rendering of galleries from the frontend without requiring a logged-in user:
<pre><code>GET /wp-json/global-ai-gallery/v1/render/<id> — returns the HTML for a single published gallery. The endpoint declares `permission_callback => __return_true` (public) because a published gallery is public content by definition, exactly like the post that embeds it. The handler then enforces a real read-permission check before rendering anything:
</code></pre>
1. <code><id></code> is sanitised with <code>absint()</code> and validated to be a positive integer before reaching the handler. 
2. The post must exist and be of the <code>gawpg_gallery</code> custom post type; otherwise a 404 <code>WP_Error</code> is returned. 
3. Read access is checked the same way WordPress core checks it (<code>WP_REST_Posts_Controller::check_read_permission()</code>): a <code>publish</code> gallery is readable by anyone, but any non-public status (draft, pending, private, future, trash) only renders when the current user actually has read access to that specific post (<code>current_user_can( 'read_post', $id )</code>) — otherwise 404. 
4. Password-protected galleries are never rendered without the password. <code>post_password_required()</code> is honoured (respecting the <code>wp-postpass</code> cookie), returning a 401/403 <code>WP_Error</code> when the password has not been entered. 
5. The endpoint only returns rendered HTML; it never reads or writes user data, options, transients, or any other server state.
This is the same content the visitor can already see by visiting the gallery’s public page or any post that embeds it via the shortcode, so making the endpoint authenticated would add no privacy or security benefit.

Global AI Gallery

Image and video gallery with premium PhotoSwipe lightbox and a native Elementor widget. Accessible, SEO-ready, YouTube support.

Lightbox with PhotoSwipe vs Global AI Gallery