Free tool
AI-tell checker
Paste your copy and get a flag on every pattern readers have learned to associate with AI writing: em dashes at high density, words like 'delve', openers like 'in today's fast-paced world', 'it's not just X, it's Y' framings, stacked connectives such as 'moreover' and 'furthermore', and suspiciously perfect three-part lists. These are heuristics, and good human writers trip some of them. The flags exist so nothing ships unread.
Why AI-sounding copy costs you
Readers have pattern-matched. After three years of ChatGPT output flooding feeds and inboxes, phrases that were once neutral now read as machine-made, and the reaction is a trust discount before your argument even lands. The shift is measurable in formal writing too: Stanford researchers led by Weixin Liang estimated in 2024 that up to 17.5 percent of computer science paper abstracts showed signs of LLM involvement, and separate analyses found usage of 'delve' in PubMed abstracts spiking sharply after ChatGPT launched.
Engines are pricing it in as well. Google's March 2024 core update targeted scaled content abuse, and Google said the changes cut low-quality, unoriginal content in results by around 45 percent. Copy that pattern-matches to mass-produced text is competing for space that raters and classifiers are actively trying to close.
How to use the flags
Read each flag as a question rather than a conviction. The em dash is legitimate punctuation, 'moreover' has been in scholarly prose for centuries, and a parallel triad can be exactly right. The pattern worth worrying about is density: several tells clustered in one passage usually means the passage was generated and shipped without an edit.
Fix flagged copy by adding what generators avoid: specific numbers, named sources, first-hand experience and actual opinions. Swapping 'delve' for 'explore' fools nobody, because the tell was never one word. Rewriting the sentence around a concrete claim removes the pattern and improves the sentence at the same time.
Honest limits
There is no reliable AI detector, this tool included. OpenAI retired its own AI text classifier in 2023 for low accuracy, and academic testing of commercial detectors keeps finding false positives, which land hardest on writers working in a second language. This checker deliberately makes a weaker claim: it flags surface patterns readers react to, whoever wrote them.
A clean report means your copy avoids the current cliches. It says nothing about whether the content is true, useful or worth citing, which is where the real work stays.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an AI detector?+
No, and the difference matters. Detectors claim to identify authorship, a claim that keeps failing; OpenAI shut down its own classifier in 2023 over low accuracy. This tool flags specific surface patterns that make readers assume AI wrote the text, regardless of who did. It judges the impression, never the author.
Are em dashes really an AI tell?+
In density, yes. Skilled human writers have always used the em dash, but ChatGPT's default register leans on it far more than typical business writing does, and readers picked up on that. One in a page reads fine. Several per paragraph now triggers the association, whether or not a model was involved.
Can I just swap out the flagged words?+
You can, and it rarely helps, because the tell is the texture rather than the vocabulary. Text that says nothing specific still reads generated after the synonym pass. The durable fix is adding material a generator would never volunteer: your data, your named sources, your experience and a position you are willing to defend.
Does AI-sounding copy hurt AI visibility too?+
The evidence points that way. Generative engines favor content with statistics and citations, per the Princeton GEO study at KDD 2024, while Google's 2024 updates suppress scaled, unoriginal content. Generic text loses on both fronts. You can watch the effect directly: Reachroller tracks whether ChatGPT names your brand, free for 3 days, from $29 a month.
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