
How to Tell If an Image Is AI-Generated: 9 Signs + Free Tools
The obvious tells are fading. How to tell if an image is AI generated in 2026: lighting physics, texture patterns, C2PA metadata checks and detector tools.
Jul 6, 2026 · 8 min read
AI Image Detector
Three independent checks in one scan: a machine-learning classifier, provenance metadata inspection (C2PA Content Credentials, EXIF, embedded generation parameters) and likely-generator attribution — so you see not just if, but why and probably by which tool.
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF or HEIC up to 15 MB. Files are private to your account.
Classifier score + provenance metadata + generator fingerprint run in parallel.
Verdict with confidence level, evidence list and downloadable PDF report.
Classifiers alone can be fooled — independent tests show accuracy drops sharply on compressed social-media images. That's why every scan also inspects the file itself: C2PA Content Credentials (embedded by OpenAI, Adobe Firefly, Microsoft and Google image tools), IPTC digitalSourceType declarations, and generation parameters that tools like Stable Diffusion write into PNG files.
When provenance data says "created by AI", that's near-certain evidence. When it's absent, we say so honestly — absence proves nothing, because platforms strip metadata on upload.
On clean, uncompressed images modern detectors achieve 90%+ accuracy in benchmarks, but performance drops on heavily compressed or edited images. That is why we combine a classifier with provenance metadata checks and always show a confidence level rather than pretending certainty.
Often, yes. Generator attribution compares the image against known model fingerprints (Midjourney, DALL·E, Stable Diffusion, Flux and others) and reports the closest match with its own confidence score.
Yes — images containing faces get an additional deepfake check that looks for swapped or synthetically generated faces, separate from the general AI-generation score.
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and HEIC up to 15 MB. Each image scan costs 5 credits; free accounts receive 300 credits monthly.

The obvious tells are fading. How to tell if an image is AI generated in 2026: lighting physics, texture patterns, C2PA metadata checks and detector tools.
Jul 6, 2026 · 8 min read
Free account includes 300 credits every month — enough for ~3,000 words of checks. No credit card.
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