If you’ve outgrown AI or Not’s free allowance of 20 image checks a month, the easiest alternatives are Hive Detect (free on the web), Sightengine (2,000 free operations a month for developers) and Expose AI (unlimited free checks on your phone, with nothing uploaded). If you’re after something AI or Not doesn’t do, Illuminarty’s paid plans highlight which regions look generated, and Content Credentials Verify reads signed provenance labels.
AI or Not is a capable service, so the right switch depends on what’s pushing you away.
What AI or Not offers #
AI or Not detects AI-generated images, text, video, audio and deepfakes from one account, and advertises 98.9% accuracy on its homepage (AI or Not). According to its pricing page at the time of writing, the free plan includes 20 image checks a month and API access, and Pro costs $5 a month with 500 image checks, 1,000 seconds of video and credits that work across detection types (pricing). It supports common image formats including PNG, JPG, WEBP and GIF.
Common reasons to look elsewhere:
- The free allowance runs out quickly if you check images often.
- Checks happen in the cloud, so images are uploaded.
- You want to check images directly on your phone.
- You want provenance (what the file declares) rather than a probability.
Alternatives by what you need #
| If you want… | Try | Why |
|---|---|---|
| More free web checks | Hive Detect | Free web tool and Chrome extension, likely generator shown |
| Unlimited free checks on a phone | Expose AI | On-device, free with ads, no upload |
| A bigger free API tier | Sightengine | 2,000 operations a month free |
| To see which areas look generated | Illuminarty | Localized detection on paid plans |
| Proof of origin | Content Credentials Verify | Reads signed C2PA credentials |
| To confirm Google AI images | Gemini SynthID check | Detects Google’s watermark |
Hive Detect #
Hive’s free web tool accepts uploads and media URLs and returns a confidence score plus the generator most likely behind the content. A free Chrome extension checks images, video and audio as you browse (Hive). Hive also did well in independent academic testing on AI art (Ha et al.). Like AI or Not, it runs in the cloud. We compare its own alternatives in Hive AI detector alternatives.
Expose AI #
Expose AI is the pick if your checks happen on a phone and you’d rather not upload the images. It’s an iPhone and Android app with unlimited free on-device checks supported by a banner ad. Share an image to it from any app, crop away interface if it’s a screenshot, and it returns Likely real, Uncertain or Likely AI-generated with a confidence meter and a “How we decided” card. It reads Content Credentials and generator tags as well as running its own model, and works offline. Pro ($4.99 a month or $29.99 a year) adds a larger on-device model with roughly half as many Uncertain verdicts on the developer’s evaluation set, batch check for up to 12 images, and no ads.
Where it’s weaker than AI or Not: it checks still images only (no video, audio or text), has no API or desktop version, and doesn’t guess the generator from the pixels.
Sightengine #
Sightengine is a moderation API with a free demo and a free plan of 2,000 operations a month (maximum 500 a day). Paid plans start at $29 a month (pricing). It lists a wide set of generators it covers and adds new ones as they appear (Sightengine). It’s aimed at developers and moderation teams rather than individuals.
Illuminarty #
Illuminarty gives free basic checks for images and text. Its Basic plan ($10 a month) adds localized detection, which highlights the parts of an image that look generated, and model identification (Illuminarty). That’s useful for real photos with an AI edit in one area.
Content Credentials Verify and Gemini #
These two aren’t classifiers. Content Credentials Verify reads signed C2PA provenance from a file, and Gemini checks for Google’s SynthID watermark. When they find something, it’s stronger than a probability. When they don’t, it means little.
Side-by-side with AI or Not #
| AI or Not | Hive Detect | Sightengine | Expose AI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free image checks | 20 a month | Free web tool | 2,000 operations a month | Unlimited, with ads |
| Video and audio | Yes | Yes | Video (moderation API) | No |
| Phone app | Web | Web, Chrome extension | Web, API | iPhone and Android |
| Image uploaded | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reads Content Credentials | Not advertised | Not advertised | Not advertised | Yes |
| API | Yes | Enterprise | Yes | No |
Plans change often, so confirm current limits on each provider’s site.
Choosing well #
- Stay with AI or Not if you need images, text, audio and video under one cheap plan.
- Switch to Hive Detect for occasional free checks on a computer.
- Switch to Expose AI if you check images on a phone, especially private ones.
- Switch to Sightengine if you’re a developer who needs a bigger free API tier.
For important images, use two tools and compare. Detectors trained on different data make different mistakes, and a split result is a sign the image needs other checks. How accurate AI image detectors are explains why, and the best AI image detector covers the full field.
Frequently asked questions #
Is AI or Not free? #
It has a free plan that includes a small amount of credit, with 20 image checks a month at the time of writing, plus API access. Heavier use needs the Pro plan or an enterprise agreement.
Is there an AI or Not app? #
AI or Not is used through its website and API. If you want to check images on a phone, a native app like Expose AI lets you share images from other apps and runs the analysis on the device.
Which AI or Not alternative is most private? #
An on-device detector, because the image never leaves your phone. Online services, including AI or Not, Hive and Sightengine, need to upload the image to analyze it. See online vs on-device AI image detectors.
Is AI or Not really 98.9% accurate? #
That figure comes from AI or Not’s own testing. Accuracy on your images depends on their quality and the generators involved, and every detector does worse on screenshots, compressed reposts and new models. Treat any single accuracy figure as a best case.