What "AI image" can mean
The question hides three different cases, and the checker tells them apart where it can:
- Made entirely by a generator. A text prompt in, a picture out: ChatGPT, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Gemini, Firefly and the like. When the file still carries the generator's data, you see "AI-made: the file says so" and the name of the tool.
- A real photo with AI used on part of it. Generative fill, Apple's Clean Up, an extended background. Tools like these declare the edit in the file, and the checker says "Partly AI". It cannot say how much of the picture changed.
- A real photo, untouched. If the file has the records only a camera writes (make, lens, settings, the exact time), the checker says it looks like a real camera photo.
Ten seconds to an answer
- Drop the picture on the page. The check starts by itself.
- If the file settles it (a prompt, a workflow, Content Credentials, an AI label, a Stable Diffusion watermark), the card is red and says so. No detector is downloaded for these.
- If not, the page downloads a detector model once (57 MB), looks at the pixels, the size and the noise, and shows a score from 0 to 100 with what it is based on.
- Open How sure is this? to see what the score meant in our tests.
Reading the colors
| Card | What it means |
|---|---|
| Red | The file says an AI made it, or the picture is "very likely" or "probably" AI-made by the estimate. Only the first kind is certain. |
| Amber | Partly AI, mixed signals (camera records but a high score), or "could be either". |
| Green | Camera records, or no clear sign of AI. Never "proven real". |
| Gray | No evidence either way: a flat-color drawing, a very small picture, or a stripped file with nothing to measure. |
When the answer is "no clear sign"
It is the most common result for pictures that have been passed around, and it is the hardest one to read. In our test, 14% of the AI pictures scored in this band, usually pictures that had lost their metadata and came from services built to look like photographs. So it is a reason to keep looking, not to stop. Ask where the picture first appeared, whether a larger or earlier copy exists, and whether a reverse image search finds it elsewhere. Our guide to telling if an image is AI-generated has the routine and the numbers.
What we tested it on
We measured the score on 249 pictures: 142 from 18 AI services and generators, 107 real ones (phone and camera photos, paintings, anime art), each both as the original file and as a reposted copy shrunk to 1080 pixels and re-saved as JPEG. All came from Wikimedia Commons. The detector flagged 85% of the AI pictures and 25% of the real ones, and was weakest on drawings and on Firefly pictures (a third caught). Those are the numbers you should hold in mind when you see a score.
Your pictures
Everything is checked in your browser. Like every tool on this site, the page also sends a copy of each picture and its result to our server (see the privacy policy), so do not add pictures you would not want stored.
Frequently asked questions
Can I tell if an image is AI just by looking?
Less reliably than most people expect. Odd hands, melted jewelry and garbled text were common in older generators, and newer ones make fewer of them. Check the file first, then the context, and use the look of the picture last.
Why does my iPhone photo say "partly AI"?
Because it was edited with a tool that declares AI use in the file, such as Apple's Clean Up. The rest of the picture may be an ordinary photograph. The checker reports the declared edit and cannot measure its size.
Does a reverse image search help?
Yes. It does not detect AI, but it shows where a picture appeared first and whether the same photo is used under another name. Upload it to a search service yourself: this page does not do that for you.
Why can a score be high for a real picture?
The detector learned how AI pictures tend to look, and some real pictures look like that: smooth drawings, heavy editing, glossy product shots. About one real picture in four was flagged in our test, so look at the reasons and not only at the number.