CheckerAIHighlighted passages
The AI essay checker highlights passages that may be AI-written. Read them alongside the surrounding sentences in your essay.
Free AI Essay Checker
Check essays, papers, and assignments for AI-generated writing before you submit. No sign-up needed.
PDF, Word or text files · Up to 20 MB
0 characters
How to check an essay for AI writing
Use the AI essay checker above. You can paste your essay or upload a file, and no account is needed.
1. Add your essay:
Paste your draft, or upload a PDF, Word (.docx), TXT, or Markdown file. Each file can be up to 20 MB.
2. Run the check:
Select Detect AI. Longer papers are checked in sections, and the overall score appears when every section is finished.
3. Read the highlights:
View the score, then read any passages highlighted in your original essay and decide what to revise before you submit.
Not sure what a result looks like? Select "Try a sample essay" first.
Common signs of AI writing in essays
AI writing tools often produce fluent, well-organized essays, but they leave recognizable patterns. These are common signs, not proof. People write this way too, and an edited AI draft may show none of them.
A vague thesis.
Openings like "Throughout history" or "In today's society" announce a topic without taking a clear position.
Missing course details.
The essay could have been written for any class. It doesn't mention the assigned reading, a lecture, or a question from the prompt.
Citations that don't hold up.
Sources are missing, too generic ("researchers have found"), or hard to verify.
Even, predictable structure.
Paragraphs of similar length, three supporting points, and a tidy summary that restates the introduction.
No real examples.
The essay makes broad claims with few examples from the writer's own experience or research.
Repeated phrasing.
The same idea is restated in slightly different words to reach the word count.
If you spot several of these in a draft, run it through the checker above and look closely at the highlighted passages.
What your AI essay checker result means
Essay excerpt
Learning beyond the classroom
Our class visited the community garden last Friday. Education plays a vital role in shaping responsible citizens who contribute to society. I interviewed a volunteer who showed us how the compost bins work.
Highlighted passage to review
Overall score
The score shows how closely the text resembles AI writing. It's an estimate, not proof that an AI tool wrote the paper or any particular sentence. Highlights point to passages worth rereading; they don't give each sentence its own score.
Guidance for students and teachers
Use highlighted passages to review a draft, check sources, and discuss the writing process.
For students: check before you submit
Run your draft through the AI essay checker before you submit it. If a passage is highlighted, reread it and be ready to explain your examples, sources, and wording.
Keep your notes and earlier drafts; they're the best record of how you wrote the essay.
If you used an AI tool, rewrite the flagged parts in your own voice and follow your school's rules.
For teachers: a second look at submissions
Flagged passages can help you choose what to discuss with a student.
Compare the essay with their earlier work, and ask about their drafts and sources before you decide what the result means.
Don't base a grade or an academic integrity decision on the score alone.
Essays, ChatGPT, and other AI tools
You can check essays written with ChatGPT, GPT-5, GPT-6, Claude, Gemini, and other writing tools.
Results can vary from model to model, and the detector can't reliably tell you which one was used.
Questions about checking an essay for AI
Is the AI essay checker free?
Yes, this essay checker is free. You don't need an account or a subscription. If the page asks you to wait, just try again a bit later.
Do I need to sign up?
No. Just paste your essay or upload a file and run the check right here.
Can I upload a PDF or Word file?
Yes. PDF, Word (.docx), TXT, and Markdown files up to 20 MB are supported, and you can paste text instead. Review the extracted PDF or Word text before you start the check. A scanned PDF with no selectable text may not produce readable text.
Can teachers tell if an essay is AI-written?
Sometimes. Teachers often notice when an essay doesn't sound like a student's earlier work, skips details from class, or uses very generic phrasing. Many also use a detector as one more signal. No detector is proof on its own, so a fair review also looks at drafts, notes, and a talk with the student.
Can Turnitin detect ChatGPT essays?
Turnitin has its own AI writing check, and whether you see it depends on your school's setup. We're not connected to Turnitin, so we can't show you what it will report. You can still run a check here to see which parts of your essay read as AI-written. This isn't a substitute for Turnitin or for your school's own process.
Why was my essay flagged as AI if I wrote it?
Your own writing can have these features too, such as a vague thesis or paragraphs of similar length. If you wrote it, your drafts, notes, and version history are the best way to show your work. Reread the highlighted passages and revise anything that doesn't sound like you.
Is an AI essay checker the same as a plagiarism checker?
No. This tool looks for patterns that are common in AI writing. It doesn't compare your essay with published work or other students' papers, so it can't tell you whether a passage was copied. A plagiarism checker looks for copied text.
Is my essay stored?
We don't publish your text or keep a history of your checks. Results only stay on this page, so they're gone if you reload or leave.
To run a check, we send your text to an outside detection service.
Uploaded PDF and Word files go to temporary storage set to expire after one day, though deletion can take longer, and outside services may keep their own copies. See the Privacy Policy for details.