AI Image Detector
Upload a photo to check whether it was AI-generated or heavily edited, and see what gave it away. Takes a few seconds, and one credit.
What the AI Image Detector Looks At
Most AI detectors hand back a single percentage and leave you to trust it. This one shows its work: which signals it found, how strong they were, and what they usually mean — so you can decide how much weight to give them.
Generation artifacts
Warped hands, mismatched earrings, melted background text, and the too-smooth skin texture that diffusion models produce.
Lighting and geometry
Shadows falling in impossible directions, reflections that do not match the scene, and perspective that quietly bends.
Editing traces
Signs of retouching, splicing, and face swaps — the everyday manipulation that matters more often than full generation.
A readable explanation
You get the reasoning, not just a percentage, so you can judge whether the evidence actually applies to your photo.
When to Check if a Photo is AI-Generated
Check a dating profile photo
AI-generated faces are now the cheapest way to build a convincing fake profile. Run the picture through the AI image detector before you invest any more time, and check whether it looks generated rather than merely flattering.
Verify a marketplace listing
Rendered product shots and AI-invented rooms show up constantly in listings and rental ads. A quick check tells you whether you are looking at a photograph of something real.
Vet an image before you share it
Viral photos of breaking news and public figures are increasingly synthetic. Checking before reposting keeps you from amplifying a fake.
Review submitted work
Editors, moderators, and teachers use AI detection to flag images that need a second look before they are accepted as original.
An AI check answers whether a photo was made, not whether it was stolen. To find out where else a picture appears online, run a reverse image search, or look up the account behind it with our Instagram profile viewer.
AI Image Detector FAQ
How does an AI image detector work?
An AI image detector looks for traces that generators and editors leave behind: inconsistent lighting and shadows, warped hands and teeth, smeared background text, unnatural skin and hair texture, and statistical patterns in the pixels that human cameras do not produce. Sherlock weighs those signals together and tells you which ones it found, rather than just returning a number.
Can you tell if a photo was made by Midjourney, DALL·E, or Stable Diffusion?
The detector reports how strongly a photo looks AI-generated and what gave it away, rather than naming a specific model. Generators are updated constantly and increasingly imitate each other, so a confident model attribution would be guesswork. The signals we surface are the ones that hold across tools.
Is the AI image detector accurate?
It is a strong indicator, not a verdict. Modern generators can produce images that pass most checks, and heavy compression, filters, or screenshotting can strip the traces the detector relies on. Treat a high score as a reason to look closer, and pair it with a reverse image search to see where the picture has appeared before.
Does it also detect edited or photoshopped photos?
Yes. Alongside AI generation, the check flags signs of heavy manipulation: retouching, splicing, face swapping, and region-level edits. That matters for dating profiles and marketplace listings, where a real photo has often been altered rather than invented outright.
How much does an AI image check cost?
One credit per check. Credits come from a plan — 60 a week — or from a pack you buy once, which never expires. The daily free search applies to reverse image search rather than AI detection, so a detection check always uses a credit.
Do you keep the photos I upload?
The photo is used to run the check and is not published or shared. Your results are saved to your own device history so you can reopen them, and you can clear that at any time.
What image formats can I check?
JPEG, PNG, and WebP all work, from a camera photo, a screenshot, or a saved image. Uploading the original file rather than a screenshot of it gives the detector more to work with, because re-compression destroys some of the signals.
Can I use the AI detector on my phone?
Yes. It runs in the browser on iPhone, Android, and desktop, with no app to install. Take or upload a photo and the check runs on our servers.