Frequently asked questions

What is Montage Engine?

A hosted studio for making slideshow carousels — the swipeable, portrait, photo-mode posts that do a lot of the work on TikTok and Instagram. You write the slides, art-direct the photography, and render the deck on a theme you designed once. If you connect a TikTok account, you can also send finished carousels there as drafts and track how they perform.

Who is it for?

Anyone who publishes carousels regularly and is tired of rebuilding the same layout in a design tool every time: creators running an account, small brands, agencies and freelancers making content for clients, people running a niche page as a side project.

Do I need design skills?

No. The design decisions live in a theme, and you can build a theme by describing what you want or by uploading screenshots of a look you like. After that, making a carousel is writing.

Do I need a TikTok account to use it?

No. The TikTok connection is optional. Without it you still get the whole studio and can download every carousel as a zip of 1080×1350 PNGs to post wherever you like.

Is there an app?

Montage Engine runs in the browser at app.montageengine.com. There's no download and nothing to install.

Will Montage Engine post to my TikTok for me?

No — and it can't. We use TikTok's official Content Posting API in draft mode only. A carousel you send arrives in your TikTok inbox as a draft; TikTok notifies you, you open the app, choose your sound, change anything you want, and post it yourself. There is no feature in the product that publishes to your profile.

What does connecting my TikTok account actually allow?

You authorise us on TikTok's own login screen, and you can see exactly what you're granting. It covers four things: reading your basic profile so we can show you which account is connected, reading your follower and like counts for the trend chart, listing your own posts and their public engagement counts for analytics, and delivering drafts to your inbox. Nothing else.

Can you see my private data, my DMs, or other people's accounts?

No. We can only see what the permissions above cover, for the account you connected, and only for as long as it stays connected.

How do I disconnect?

One click in Settings. It revokes our access tokens with TikTok and deletes the TikTok data we hold for that account — the connection, the post records, and the metrics history. The rest of your workspace is untouched. You can also revoke access from inside TikTok's own settings at any time.

Why did my draft not arrive?

Two usual causes. TikTok limits how many drafts can sit unposted in an inbox at once (five in any 24 hours), so clear the ones you already have. And drafts sent through the API need a reasonably current version of the TikTok mobile app — if yours is old, update it.

Can I connect more than one account?

The workspace is built for multiple connected accounts. Bear in mind TikTok's own per-account limits apply to each one separately.

What size are the slides?

1080 × 1350 PNG — the 4:5 portrait frame TikTok photo mode and Instagram both want.

Can I use my own photos?

Yes, two ways. For the full-bleed photograph behind a slide's text, upload an image directly on that slide. For artwork you want to place on top — a product shot, a cut-out, a mark of your own — add it to your workspace image library and drop it on as an overlay, where it can be moved, resized, rotated, and faded. Photography you don't supply comes from Pexels' free library, with photographer credit tracked on every image.

Can I use it for Instagram, LinkedIn, or anywhere else?

Yes. Every carousel downloads as a zip of numbered PNGs (plus the deck's definition file, which you can ignore). The TikTok integration is a convenience, not a requirement.

Can I change a deck after it's rendered?

Always. Edit any slide, add or remove slides, reorder them, swap a photo, or point the whole deck at a different theme. Rewriting one slide's text redraws just that slide; structural changes like reordering, page numbers, or a new theme rebuild the deck, because they move other slides' pixels too. Either way you're not waiting long, and re-rendering doesn't count against your monthly cap.

Does it put a watermark on my slides?

No Montage Engine branding, ever — not our name, our logo, a link, or promotional text, on anything you make.

There is one mark, and it's yours: carousels sent to TikTok are re-rendered with the connected account's own @handle added — always on the cover, and on the remaining slides for themes that carry a footer line — so a post that gets reposted still points back at you. Your stored deck, the editor previews, and the download zip are never stamped; only the copy that goes to TikTok. It's a checkbox in the send dialog, so you can switch it off any time you'd rather send the slides exactly as you made them.

Which parts use AI?

Building a deck: pressing Generate on an idea writes the slide-by-slide script, picks the photo queries, and composes the deck against a theme. Generating idea angles, pulling new ideas out of a deck that worked, generating a theme, and swapping a deck onto a different theme all go through the same step. None of it touches TikTok.

Everything the generate step produces lands in the editor as a draft you rewrite. Editing, rendering, publishing, and analytics don't touch your AI account at all. (Background removal runs an image model on our side, at no cost to you.)

Do I need my own AI key?

Yes — connecting an OpenRouter account is part of setup, because generating is how decks get made here. It takes one click.

Why bring my own key instead of paying you for it?

Because it's the honest shape. Model prices vary wildly and move fast. You pick your models, pay the providers directly at cost, and cap your spend on OpenRouter's side rather than trusting our margin. We never mark up tokens. The $5 covers everything else — rendering, storage, the image library, publishing, analytics.

Do you train models on my content?

No. We don't use your content to train anything, and we don't sell or publish it.

Do I need to label AI-assisted posts?

That's between you and the platform you post on, and TikTok has its own rules about disclosing AI-generated content. Since you're the one who reviews, edits, and publishes each carousel, you're the one responsible for labelling it appropriately. Treat the assists as a first draft, not a publish button.

How much is it?

$5 per month. One plan, no tiers. See pricing for what's included and the fair-use caps.

Is there a free trial?

Not yet — at $5 the subscription is the trial. Cancel in one click from the Billing screen and export everything on the way out.

How do cancellation and refunds work?

Cancel any time from Billing — no email, no retention gauntlet. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the month you've already paid for and you keep full access until then. Payments are non-refundable, including partial months, but if something went wrong write to support@montageengine.com and we'll look at it case by case. Full detail in the Terms of Service.

My workspace went read-only.

A payment failed. Open Billing → manage billing and update your card; access returns as soon as the payment clears. Reading and exporting stay available the whole time.

Can anyone else see my work?

No. Every account gets its own private workspace, and projects, themes, images, decks, and connections are scoped to it.

How do I get my data out?

Settings → Export downloads a zip of every record and every rendered slide your workspace owns. No support ticket, no waiting.

How do I delete everything?

Settings → Delete removes your content, your rendered files, your TikTok connection (tokens revoked), your subscription, and your login. If you cancel without deleting, your workspace stays viewable and exportable for 30 days and is then permanently deleted.

Where is my data stored?

The Service is hosted in the United States. Every processor we use, and the legal bases we rely on for international transfers, are set out in the Privacy Policy.