5 Best AI Content Detectors of 2023 [Tested & Reviewed]

Introduction

Do you write blog posts using AI content generators like ChatGPT, Jasper, or Frase?

Google has penalized auto-generated content for a long time. While they are OK with AI content now, they could easily change their position in the future. It’s important to ensure your content is unique, and the best AI content detectors can help you do that.

Using an AI content detector is essential if you use AI writing tools and want to ensure you’re creating original content. With them, you can be sure that you’re creating unique, human-driven content that adds value to your readers.

In this post, we outlined the five best AI content detection tools and tested them for accuracy using ChatGPT outputs. Keep reading to discover which AI content detector is right for you!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Feel free to visit my Affiliate Disclaimer page for more information!

Originality.AI: Most Accurate Based On Our Testing, But With Significant False Positives

Overview

Based on our original testing, the most accurate tool for detecting ChatGPT’s content is Originality.AI.

We tested five ChatGPT outputs across each of the AI content detection tools outlined here, and Originality.AI had the best overall results.

However, my testing was done before a huge update that the company made in April 2023.  While it still detects content directly from ChatGPT accurately, it now gives off a ton of false positives.  Human writers are now losing work because their content gets falsely flagged as AI.  That’s a huge problem, because this tool is legitimately affecting people’s livelihoods.

The update was so bad that I took down a review I did of the company.  With the update, I couldn’t stand behind anything I wrote, nor could I recommend that users pay money to a company that is creating fear and damaging livelihoods.

If you’re using the tool for your own content or writers, it’s important to be aware of the limitations of the tool before making any big decisions based off of it. For more detail on the limitations of Originality.AI, check out this blog post.

Here are some examples of false positives:

Elna Cain is one of the top freelance writers today.  I’m even a student of her Write to 1K Course!  Her content is highly original and value-added (I’ve read a ton of it), yet even she’s running into issues:

The US Founding Fathers may have been ahead of their time, but I’m pretty confident they didn’t use AI to write the US Constitution:

I can promise you that the Bible was not written by AI:

Even top authority sites have their content detected as AI. Many of these posts are from before AI writing tools hit the mainstream, so there are some clear inaccuracies.

Originality.AI’s own blog posts got flagged as AI – in some cases, the score was 100% AI!

If you can get a moderately high “% human” score here, your content will certainly be in the clear from an AI perspective.

Highlights

• In my testing, Originality.AI had the best results of all of the AI detection tools on this list.
• Even so, thanks to their recent update, the tool oftens flags human content as AI content – there are a lot of false positives.
• The tool provides a percentage estimate of originality (for example, the tool has 70% confidence that the content is original). Like the other tools on the list, it only provides a score and doesn’t tell you which parts of the content it flagged as AI-generated.
• It has a simple, easy-to-use interface – paste your text and get an originality score.
• It offers the ability to see your past scans.
• You can check your content for plagiarism at the same time.
• The pricing system is based on credits. Each credit costs $0.01 and can scan 100 words of content for either AI usage or plagiarism. That means checking a 2,000-word blog post for AI usage can cost just $0.20.

Pricing

As mentioned, Originality AI’s pricing is exceptionally cheap compared to the cost of writing a post. To put it in perspective, you can scan a website with 100 posts of 2,000 words each for just $20.  

However, even though it’s hard, I wouldn’t give into the fear this company has created in the marketplace.  Use one of the free AI detectors that have a lower false positive rate.

Bottom Line

Originality.AI is highly accurate at detecting AI content, but with high false positive rates, it needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Best Free AI Content Detector: Content at Scale AI Content Detector

Overview

Content at Scale is an AI content generation service that promises to produce full-length, SEO-optimized blog posts in just a few clicks without human intervention.

Given that they focus on creating content that can pass AI detection tests, they have a vested interest in creating an accurate AI detection tool. They’ve made that tool available on their website for everyone to use. As far as free tools go, it’s pretty great.

Highlights

Content at Scale’s AI detector is super simple: it contains a simple text box to input your content and outputs a percentage real / percentage fake score.

Like most tools on this list, there are no details on which part of your content is AI-generated.

I had decent success with the tool detecting ChatGPT outputs. The five outputs I tested had human content scores of 0%, 75%, 26%, 0%, and 100%, respectively.

It can be a fantastic tool, especially if you don’t want to deal with Originality.AI’s false positives. Here are the top benefits of using it:

• It’s free. Enough said.
• It has a simple user interface. With one text box, one button, and one score, it’s impossible to get confused or lost.
• It had the second-most accurate results from my testing and the best among 100% free tools.
• There’s no cap on how often you can use it.
• Content at Scale’s AI-generated content technology is pretty advanced, so its AI detector will likely keep improving over time.

Pricing

As mentioned above, Content at Scale offers their AI detector completely free. They use it as a lead generator for their AI content generation service. That service ranges from $150/month (for four posts) to $1,500/month (for 100 posts).

Bottom Line

Content at Scale offers one of the best AI content detectors if you’re looking for something quick, easy, and most importantly, free. This makes it useful for anyone who needs to check a few quick pages.

Best Free Tool for Full-Length Content: Copyleaks AI Content Detector

Overview

Copyleaks offers a full suite of services to help content marketers, agencies, and companies create and manage high-quality content. While the tool wasn’t super accurate in our testing, it is the only free tool with no word count limits.

Highlights

Copyleak’s easy-to-use AI content checker claims it can find content generated by any AI bot, including ChatGPT. However, it doesn’t state whether it detects GPT-2 or GPT-3 content, which means it may not always be accurate.

The site claims a 99.12% success rate, but as you’ll see in the table below, that wasn’t accurate in my testing:

That said, here are the top benefits of Copyleaks.

• Like Content at Scale, Copyleaks’ AI detector is free. This makes it great for anyone working on a budget.
• It doesn’t have a word limit, so you can check long documents without splitting them up to accommodate word limits.
• It has a simple user interface, with one text box and one button to check your content

Pricing

While detecting AI content with Copyleaks is free, they also offer a plagiarism checker at a sliding scale that starts at $10.99/month for 100 pages.

They also offer a variety of other AI and plagiarism-checking products, some of which are free (such as their AI-checking Chrome extension).

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a full-length AI detection tool that’s free and easy to use, Copyleaks is one of the better options out there. However, it’s not as accurate, and as a result, I prefer Content at Scale among the free options.

Best Free Option for a Second Opinion: Writer.com’s AI Content Detector

Overview

Writer.com‘s AI content detector provides a simple, easy-to-understand report. It was the second-most accurate free tool, so it doesn’t hurt to paste your content in here for a second opinion on your content originality.

Highlights

Here are the biggest highlights of writer.com‘s AI content detection tool.

• It’s free, without a paid version. You can use it as much as you want without spending a dime.
• It was the second-most accurate free tool in our testing (ahead of Copyleaks). As a result, it can be an excellent second opinion on top of Content at Scale or Copyleaks.
• It’s intuitive. With a minimalist design, Writer.com‘s AI detector leaves little room for user error.
• It gives you a precise percentage showing how much of your content is AI-generated.

Pricing

While Writer.com‘s AI checker is free, they offer a suite of more comprehensive content-oriented products and services at a fairly reasonable price. Pricing for features like automated content generation and quality reports starts at $18/user/month for up to five people, with larger plans for enterprise-level customers.

Bottom Line

Considering it takes seconds to get a score, Writer.com‘s AI content detector can be a great way to get a second opinion on your content originality.

Best AI Content Detector with Suggestions for Changes: GLTR

Overview

GLTR, standing for Giant Language model Test Room, is a project jointly developed by the MIT-IBM Watson AI lab and Harvard Natural Language Processing group. It’s a highly detailed, technical tool that gives you unique insights into the parts of your content that are likely AI-generated.

Highlights

One of the most detailed AI content detectors, GLTR compensates for the lack of user-friendliness with highly informative data.

Using a color-coded system ranging from green to purple, GLTR analyzes each word in a text to determine how likely it is that it would be used in that place. Green words are the most likely, followed by yellow, red, and purple.

While this is counter-intuitive, the more red and purple your content has, the more unique it is. AI language models typically use more common words, so unique words can help your content pass AI detection tests.

You can look at your text with this tool and add synonyms for green words where appropriate. This will likely improve your AI detection scores.

The tool appears super challenging, but it’s actually pretty simple. You paste in your content and click “analyze.” Then, it will show you a color-coded output, which you can use to make changes to your content.

Here are the key highlights of GLTR:

• It’s the only tool that gives you insights into the text to change in your content.
• The interface is deceptively simple – you paste in text, then click “analyze.”
• It’s a fantastic tool if you want a deep understanding of your content originality.
• It doesn’t give a “percent original” score like other tools.
• It’s free. This is an excellent deal for how technically advanced it is and how much data it gives you.

Pricing

Because it’s a science project, GLTR is free to use as you see fit.

Bottom Line

GLTR is incredibly detailed and offers a gold mine of information you can use to make your content more original.

It takes some time to get familiar with the tool, but it can be a valuable asset alongside the other detectors on this list.

What Are AI Content Detectors?

AI content detectors are specialized tools that use artificial intelligence and natural language processing algorithms to analyze the language and syntax of written content.

Most AI content detectors output a score, predicting whether the content is original or generated by an AI writer. These tools can help you ensure high content originality, readability, and quality.

How Do AI Content Detectors Work?

AI content detectors analyze the words and syntax of a text, looking for patterns within it. When they spot patterns similar to those seen in AI-generated content, they flag it as AI-generated.

The tools likely base their score on how AI-generated content uses more predictable, repetitive, and less contextually dependent words, while humans use more random, creative words.

What Are the Best AI Content Creation Tools?

ChatGPT leads the way as the most advanced AI writing software. The outputs it provides are super realistic, leading to it getting 1,000,000 users within five days of launching!

However, since it’s not specifically geared towards helping you create content, many writers and content creators prefer to use copy-centric tools like Jasper, Frase, or Copy.AI.

Can Google Detect AI-Generated Content?

Google appears to have the ability to detect AI-generated content.

Doy Nguyen from Google’s search quality team said that Google has algorithms to go after “AI-plagiarized content.” Given the company’s intensive focus on AI, natural language processing, and machine learning, it’s only a matter of time before they create the best AI detection tool on the market.

I expect they will continue improving their capabilities and introduce content originality updates to improve search results.

Will Google Penalize Content Created by AI Tools?

As per Google’s webmaster guidelines, Google penalizes auto-generated content. Google’s John Mueller mentioned that AI-generated content would fall into that category. However, Google seems to have recently changed their stance on AI content, and is now OK with it provided that it adds value to the reader.

Their position could easily change in the future, though. As a result, creating human-driven content is likely lower risk.

Conclusion

Now, you should have a great understanding of what’s out there in the AI content detection landscape. Checking for originality will likely be a huge part of content creation in the future, so it’s a great idea to explore these tools and integrate them into your workflow.

Originality.AI had the best results from our testing, but it has a huge false positive rate and is causing enormous issues within the industry. Free options are available and less likely to give off false positives. Content at Scale’s AI detector was the most accurate free tool and is a great way to get started.