July 8, 2026 · 5 min read

How to Tell if an Image Is AI-Generated (The Reliable Way)

Forget guessing by looking at hands. Every AI image carries hidden markers — C2PA credentials and generator tags. Here's how to check any image for free.

"Look at the hands" stopped working a while ago. Modern AI images are clean enough that the eye can't reliably tell. But there's a method that doesn't depend on looking at all: many AI tools embed invisible markers inside the file that say exactly how it was made. If they're there, it's provable — not a guess.

What's hidden inside an AI image

• C2PA / Content Credentials — a cryptographic manifest written by Adobe Firefly, Photoshop AI, DALL·E and others.
• Generator tags — the name of the tool (Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL·E) in EXIF/XMP metadata.
• PNG generation parameters — Stable Diffusion tools save the prompt, seed and sampler right in the file.

How to check any image for free

• Step 1 — Open Skrubly's AI Image Checker and drop in the image (or a video).
• Step 2 — It reads the file's markers and tells you if AI provenance data is present, and from which tool.
• Step 3 — Get a clear verdict in seconds, all in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Important: what markers can and can't tell you

If markers are present, the image was almost certainly made or edited with that AI tool — strong, deterministic evidence. But the reverse isn't proof: markers can be stripped (a screenshot removes them; so does re-saving), so a clean result means "no markers found," not "definitely real." It's the most reliable signal available, used honestly.