Free AI video detectors: 7 questions to ask first

Search for an AI video detector and you'll find dozens of tools, many of them free, most of them confident. Some are genuinely useful. Others were built for still images and quietly applied to video, or simply return a number with nothing behind it. These seven questions help you tell them apart. We answer each one for Video Verifier too, so you can hold us to the same standard.

1. Does it actually analyse video, or just images?

Many "AI detectors" were built for photos. Run on a video, they check a few frames as pictures and ignore motion and sound entirely. Today's AI video gives itself away most in how things move over time.

Ours: we run an in-house model that analyses how the picture changes from frame to frame, alongside frame-level, voice, metadata and Content Credentials checks.

2. Does it say what it was tested on?

"99% accurate" means nothing without saying on what. Look for a test on clips the model never saw during training, from many different generators, including compressed copies, with results for both real and AI videos.

Ours: 95% balanced accuracy on 11,952 held-out test clips, including re-compressed copies, from a wide range of generators and real footage from thousands of different people. Balanced means it counts mistakes on real videos as much as mistakes on AI ones.

3. Does it tell you where it's weak?

Every detector has blind spots. A trustworthy one names them.

Ours: it's less reliable on polished, stock-style real footage and on some of the newest generators, including Veo 3, Ray 2 and Hailuo 02. Voice checks across the industry are weak against modern clones, ours included. Read more in how AI video detectors work.

4. Does it show evidence, or just a number?

"87% AI" with no explanation can't be checked, argued with or shown to anyone else. Good tools show which check found what, and when in the video.

Ours: every result comes with the reasons and timestamps behind it, a real-versus-AI split, and the limitations of the analysis.

5. Will it admit when it can't tell?

A detector that always gives a confident answer will sometimes be confidently wrong. Look for an honest "too close to call", and for checks that couldn't run being shown as unavailable rather than scored.

Ours: a genuine near 50/50 split is reported as "too close to call", and unavailable checks are shown as unavailable.

6. Does it handle links and real-world copies?

Most videos you want to check are on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X or WhatsApp. A useful tool should accept links, cope with compressed copies, and tell you what to do with private posts.

Ours: paste links from 1,000+ sites, or upload a file up to 50 MB and 10 minutes. See why re-uploads make fakes harder to catch.

7. What happens to your video?

Check the privacy policy: is your upload stored, shared or used for training?

Ours: videos are analysed and automatically deleted within 24 hours. Shared reports never include the uploaded file, its name or its technical details. Details are in our privacy policy.

The bottom line

Free is great for a first look, and our Quick Scan is free with no sign-up. But whichever tool you use, treat its answer as evidence to weigh, not a final verdict, and combine it with a quick source check like our 5-minute checklist.

Try it on a video you already know the answer to. A good detector earns your trust on easy cases before you rely on it for hard ones. Start a free scan.