Short answer
- Start with the source: who posted it first, and does an original exist?
- Look for physical errors in hands, text, reflections, shadows and backgrounds.
- Check metadata and content credentials, but remember they are easy to remove.
- Use a detector as a second opinion, especially for images that will be shared or used as evidence.
Check where the image came from
The most reliable test has nothing to do with pixels. Run a reverse image search with Google Lens, Bing Visual Search or TinEye. If the picture shows a real event, you will usually find earlier copies, other angles or news coverage. If the earliest copy comes from an account that posts AI art, or there is no trace of the scene anywhere else, be careful.
Look at the account that shared it, too. New accounts, accounts that only post dramatic images and posts that never credit a photographer all deserve extra caution.
Look closely at the details
Zoom in on the places where generators still make mistakes:
- Hands, teeth, ears and jewellery: extra or merged parts, odd joints, earrings that do not match.
- Text: signs, labels and logos with warped letters or words that do not exist.
- Physics: shadows pointing different ways, reflections that do not match, objects melting into each other.
- Backgrounds: repeated faces in a crowd, bent railings, windows and tiles that do not line up.
- Texture: skin that is too smooth, hair dissolving into blur, a glossy, airbrushed look over the whole picture.
Newer models make fewer of these mistakes, so a picture without errors is not proof that it is real.
Check metadata and content credentials
Photos from a camera or phone usually carry EXIF data: the camera model, lens, exposure settings and sometimes the location. AI images usually have none, or name the generator or editing app. Some tools, including those from OpenAI and Adobe, also attach C2PA content credentials stating that the image was made with AI. You can inspect them at contentcredentials.org/verify.
Metadata is a useful clue but a weak one. Social networks strip it on upload, screenshots remove it and anyone can edit it. Missing metadata is normal for real photos too. File traits such as the square sizes many generators use are hints, not evidence.
Use an AI image checker
An image checker gives you a second opinion that does not get tired or miss details. AI Checker Lab combines a vision model that looks for visual signs of generation with a review of the file itself, such as dimensions and compression, and explains which clues it found.
Like text detectors, image checkers can be wrong, especially with small, heavily compressed or edited images and with screenshots. Use the result together with the source and detail checks above.
When it really matters
If an image could affect a news story, a legal case, an insurance claim or someone’s reputation, do not rely on any single method. Ask whoever shared it for the original file, look for other pictures of the same moment and, where possible, contact a professional fact-checking organisation.
Check an image
Upload a PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF with a free account and see which visual and file clues the checker found.
Open the image checker