How to Tell if a Video Is AI-Generated: 6 Checks
To tell if a video is AI-generated, watch it slowly and look for things that a camera would never record: objects that change when they pass out of view, bodies that ignore physics, and audio that drifts from the lips. Then check for a watermark, find the first upload, and run the clip through an AI video detector. No single check settles it, but together they usually do.
Video generators such as Sora, Veo, and Kling now produce single frames that look like real footage. Their weak point is time. Keeping every object, shadow, and finger consistent across hundreds of frames is still hard, so most giveaways only show up in motion. Pause, scrub, and play the clip at half speed before you judge it.
1. Watch objects that pass out of view
Pick something small and follow it: a cup on a table, a sign behind a person, an earring. When it passes behind a head or a pole and comes back, does it look the same? AI video often changes the shape, color, or text of objects between frames, and sometimes drops them entirely. Background people are a good place to look too. They walk in loops, merge into each other, or vanish when the camera pans.
2. Check the physics
Generators learn what motion looks like, not how it works. Watch where feet meet the ground; they often slide or float instead of planting. Hands pass through objects or grip them without the object moving. Water, smoke, hair, and fabric tend to move too smoothly, in slow, dreamy arcs, and liquids pour without splashing the way they should. If a clip feels slightly weightless, trust that feeling and look closer.
3. Slow down faces and hands
Faces hold up well in a still frame and less well in motion. At reduced speed, watch the teeth, which can shift or blur into one strip as someone talks, and the blinking, which can look mechanical or stop altogether. Hands are still a weak spot when they turn or overlap: fingers merge, multiply, or bend at impossible angles for a frame or two. Text on clothing and signs also tends to warp from frame to frame.
4. Listen to the audio
Several generators now create sound along with the picture, and it is often the easiest part to catch. Check that lip movement lines up with each word, not just roughly. Listen for room sound that does not fit the space, such as a dry studio voice in a windy street, and for background noise that loops. A voice-over on real footage is a different kind of fake, so also ask whether the words match what the clip actually shows.
5. Look for watermarks and trace the first upload
Some generators label their output. Videos from Sora carry a moving visible watermark, and videos made in the Gemini app show a visible mark plus an invisible SynthID watermark. Content Credentials, the C2PA provenance standard, can also record how a file was made; you can inspect a file for free at contentcredentials.org/verify. Watermarks can be cropped or blurred and re-uploads strip metadata, so a missing mark proves very little.
The strongest check is often the source. Screenshot a clear key frame and run it through a reverse image search such as Google Lens to find where the clip first appeared. A “news” video that only exists on new accounts, or a clip first posted by an account that shares AI content, tells you more than any pixel. Journalists use the free InVID-WeVerify plugin to pull key frames and search them in one step.
6. Run a free AI video detector
When a clip passes a close look but still feels wrong, a detector can check signals you cannot see. Upload an MP4 or MOV to our free AI video detector. It cuts a short clip on your device, checks it one frame per second, and returns a 0-100% score with a green, yellow, or red result. No account is needed and the video is never stored. Use the original file when you can, because social media re-encoding weakens the signal.
Treat the score as one piece of evidence. A high score is a strong reason to doubt a clip; a low score on a heavily compressed repost is weaker evidence that it is real. Our guide to how detector scores work explains how to read a result.
Checking a screenshot or a photo instead?
Still images have their own giveaways. Our checklist for telling if an image is AI-generated covers hands, text, lighting, and provenance, and the free AI image checker scores any photo in your browser. To check photos on the go, the AI Detector app returns a score in under 3 seconds and keeps a private history of your checks.
Common questions
Can you tell if a video is AI just by watching it?
Often, but not always. Generated video still slips on continuity, physics, and audio, and those slips are easiest to see when you slow the clip down. The best clips from current generators pass a casual watch, so combine a close look with the source and a detector score.
Is there a free AI video detector?
Yes. Our free AI video detector checks an MP4 or MOV file in your browser with no account. It cuts a short clip on your device, analyzes it, and returns a 0-100% score. The video is never stored.
Do AI videos always have a watermark?
No. Sora and the Gemini app add a visible watermark, but it can be cropped or blurred, and many other tools add none. A watermark is strong evidence; a missing one proves very little.
Why is a video from social media harder to check?
Platforms re-encode uploads, which blurs fine detail, strips most metadata, and weakens the signals a detector reads. When you can, find the original file or the earliest upload and check that instead.
Check photos in under 3 seconds
Download AI Detector for iPhone or Android and check any image from your camera roll.
