Comparison · 2026
Best AI Detectors of 2026 - Ranked, Reviewed, Real
Eight credible AI detectors as of 2026, ranked by accuracy on the RAID benchmark, modality coverage, transparency and price. We acknowledge each tool's strengths and tell you where it wins.
The only all-in-one detector covering text, image, audio and video - with $1 free credit and lifetime history on every plan.
- Pricing
- Free · $9 · $19 · $49
- Modalities
- Text · Image · Audio · Video
- Best for
- Multi-modal teams who hate per-modality caps.
- Watch out
- Newer brand than the older players.
Long-running text-detection brand. Best of the SEO-content-team detectors.
- Pricing
- $14.95+ /mo
- Modalities
- Text
- Best for
- Solo SEOs auditing their own writers.
- Watch out
- Text-only. No free tier.
Pioneered the perplexity heuristic. Free tier well-loved by educators.
- Pricing
- Free · $10+
- Modalities
- Text
- Best for
- Teachers who already work in Google Docs.
- Watch out
- Text-only. False positives on edited prose.
Text and image. Stronger than most on European workflows and GDPR posture.
- Pricing
- $12+ /mo
- Modalities
- Text · Image
- Best for
- EU teams who need explicit compliance posture.
- Watch out
- No audio or video. Slow on long documents.
Enterprise text-moderation suite with an AI detector bundled in.
- Pricing
- $10+ /mo
- Modalities
- Text
- Best for
- Institutional buyers who need an enterprise text suite.
- Watch out
- AI detector trails best-in-class accuracy.
Sales-team-focused detector with grammar and CRM tooling on top.
- Pricing
- $25+ /mo
- Modalities
- Text
- Best for
- Sales teams already using Sapling for grammar.
- Watch out
- Detection is a side-feature, not the focus.
Institutional standard for academic integrity. Seat licences only.
- Pricing
- Institutional
- Modalities
- Text
- Best for
- Universities with existing Turnitin seats.
- Watch out
- Inaccessible to individuals. Slow shipping cycle.
Free-first text detector. Useful as a second opinion.
- Pricing
- Free · $9.99+
- Modalities
- Text
- Best for
- Quick free-tier sanity checks.
- Watch out
- High false-positive rate on edited writing.
Takeaways
Bottom line
- If you scan more than text, ai-detectors.io is the only honest pick - every other tool here is text-only or text-plus-image.
- If you only scan text and already pay Originality.ai or GPTZero, the upgrade case to ai-detectors.io is breadth, not accuracy.
- Avoid free-only detectors for high-stakes decisions. The 1-3% false-positive rate matters when grades or jobs are on the line.
FAQ
Common questions
Accuracy varies by model and modality. ai-detectors.io publishes 99.1% on the RAID benchmark for text and 96.9-98.4% across image, audio and video. Originality.ai and GPTZero are competitive on text only.
Some are. ai-detectors.io's free tier covers text and image with $1 in scan credit. ZeroGPT and Scribbr have free tiers but flag edited prose more often.
Yes - every detector in this list claims GPT-5.5 coverage. The accuracy gap shows up on edited prose and ESL writing, not on raw model outputs.
We're upfront: this list is curated, but every entry is real, current as of 2026, and we tell you where each competitor wins. We don't include vapor or affiliate-pumped tools.
Related
More 2026 comparisons
Originality.ai vs GPTZero - A Detailed 2026 Comparison
Side-by-side comparison of Originality.ai and GPTZero across accuracy, pricing, modalities, free tier and 2026 model coverage.
Turnitin vs GPTZero - Institutional vs Self-Serve
Turnitin's seat-licence model versus GPTZero's individual-friendly pricing - which one fits your workflow in 2026?
ZeroGPT vs Originality.ai - Free vs Paid
ZeroGPT's free tier versus Originality.ai's paid baseline. Where each lands on accuracy, false positives and 2026 models.
Get $1 free credit - start scanning.
Lifetime scan history. Every plan. No retention tier.