Here is how you can get an image randomly from a directory and display it in a webpage using PHP and jQuery: 1. getimage.php: <?php $files = glob('/path-to-dir/*.*'); $file = array_rand($files); echo $files[$file]; ?> and call that script with jquery AJAX : 2. index.html: <div id="my-img"> </div> <script> function get_random_image() { $.ajax({ url: 'getimage.php' }).done(function( filename ) { jQuery('#my-img').css('background', 'url('+filename+')'); }); } setInterval(get_random_image, 5000); </script> The background will be replaced by a random image from /path-to-dir/ directory every 5 seconds.