How to Tell if an Image is AI Generated

Why Detecting AI Images Matters

In 2024, generative AI image tools produced an estimated 15 billion images — more than in the entire history of human photography combined. Midjourney, DALL-E 3, Stable Diffusion, Adobe Firefly, and dozens of other generators can create photorealistic scenes, portraits, and documents that are visually indistinguishable from real photographs at a glance.

The consequences range from everyday misinformation — a fake product review with a fake photo — to serious harm: fabricated evidence in legal disputes, synthetic identity fraud, fake news about political events, and manipulated scientific imagery. Knowing how to tell if an image is AI generated has become an essential digital literacy skill.

The 6 Forensic Signals to Look For

AI image generators are not designed to be covert. They leave behind identifiable traces — some deliberate (like C2PA credentials), some unintentional (like missing camera EXIF). A forensic scan checks for all of them simultaneously.

How to Check an Image Manually (Without a Tool)

Step 1 — View EXIF data on Windows

Right-click any image → Properties → Details tab. Look under Origin for "Program name" or "Author" — AI tools often write their name here. Scroll through all fields and note what is missing: camera model, lens, aperture, shutter speed, and GPS should all be present in a genuine photograph.

Step 2 — View EXIF data on Mac

Open the image in Preview → Tools → Show Inspector → tap the (i) icon → switch to the EXIF tab. Look for the same camera hardware fields. On a Mac you can also use the Terminal: exiftool -all filename.jpg for the complete metadata dump.

Step 3 — Check the file size and dimensions

AI generators output at exact power-of-two resolutions. If the image is exactly 1024×1024, 1344×768, 2048×2048, or other perfectly round numbers — and the file size is suspiciously uniform — that is a flag. Real photos come in irregular dimensions reflecting the camera sensor.

Step 4 — Use a forensic tool for PNG text chunks

PNG files from Stable Diffusion and ComfyUI hide the generation prompt, seed, and model inside compressed text chunks. These are invisible when you view the image but are embedded in the binary file. A proper forensic scanner reads and displays these. The EZEPDFTOOLS detector automatically extracts and shows these hidden chunks if present.

Which AI Models Leave the Most Evidence?

What the Score Means

EZEPDFTOOLS AI Image Detector returns a confidence score from 0 to 100:

• 80–100 Strong evidence of AI generation. Multiple signatures found. Treat as synthetic unless you have other confirmation.
• 50–79 Suspicious. Some AI signals present but not conclusive — may be a screenshotted AI image or a heavily edited real photo.
• 0–49 No strong evidence of AI generation found in the metadata. Does not guarantee the image is real — metadata can be stripped.

Limitations: What Metadata Analysis Cannot Catch

Forensic metadata scanning is powerful but not infallible. There are cases where detection is reduced:

• Metadata stripping tools — ExifTool can erase all EXIF in one command. A stripped AI image may score low even though it is synthetic.
• Platform re-encoding — Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter strip metadata on upload. Images downloaded from these platforms lose their signatures.
• Pixel-level analysis — Some advanced deepfakes require neural network pixel analysis to detect. Metadata forensics alone cannot catch highly processed composites with clean metadata.

For high-stakes decisions (journalism, legal proceedings, academic integrity), metadata analysis should be combined with visual inspection, reverse image search, and expert review. Our detector is a first-pass forensic tool — fast, free, and highly effective for the majority of AI images in the wild.