Google opens SynthID Detector to everyone to spot AI-made images, video and audio
Google's SynthID Detector is now available globally in English, letting anyone check if an image, video or audio file was made with AI from Google and its partners.
Google’s SynthID Detector is now available to anyone, not just media professionals. The company said the tool went live globally in English on October 7, 2026, letting you check whether an image, video or audio file was generated with AI from Google or its partners.
Google DeepMind first launched SynthID in 2023, using imperceptible watermarks to mark AI-generated media. According to Pushmeet Kohli, VP of Science and Strategic Initiatives at Google DeepMind, the company has watermarked over 180 billion images and videos, plus 240,000 years of audio content.
An early version of the detector arrived last year for media professionals. The change now is access: the same verification tool is open to the general public in English, worldwide.
Which AI systems the detector can flag
Google says the SynthID Detector can identify content made with AI from Google and its partners, including OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao — with Apple listed as coming soon. That partner list matters if you are checking a file whose origin you do not know: the tool is not limited to Google’s own models.
The detector is separate from the verification labels Google already shows inside Search, the Gemini app and Chrome. Those built-in features now handle more than 1 million requests daily, according to the company.
Google frames the rollout as context rather than a verdict. In Kohli’s post, the company says clear context about online content “helps you make informed decisions about what to trust.” The detector reports whether a SynthID watermark is present; it does not, on its own, tell you whether a piece of media is true or false.
How to try it
The SynthID Detector is available globally in English as of today, October 7, 2026, and is free to use — Google has not announced a paid tier for it. If you want to check a suspicious image, video or audio clip, upload the file to the detector and look for a SynthID result. If you use Search, Gemini or Chrome, the same verification signals already appear there without any extra step.
Google says the expansion is part of its ongoing work to give people more context about the media they encounter online.
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