Google Opens SynthID AI Detection Tool to the Public
On October 7, 2026, Google’s SynthID checker opened to everyone, supporting images, video, and audio across dozens of formats after limited testing with journalists and researchers. Google says users submit 1 million checks daily, though detection isn’t infallible.
Google launched a public website on October 7, 2026, that allows anyone to check whether an image, video, or audio clip was generated by AI. The tool, previously available only to select journalists, media professionals, and researchers during testing at Google I/O, is now open to all users.
The site is powered by SynthID, a watermarking technology Google introduced in 2023. When AI tools generate media, SynthID embeds a watermark that can later be detected to confirm the content’s origin. Google’s own AI models and products — including Nano Banana, Veo, Lyria, Gemini, Flow, ProducerAI, and Vids — all apply SynthID watermarks to content they produce.
The verification site supports a wide range of file formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, WEBP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, and GIF for images; MP4, MOV, and WEBM for video; and WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, and M4A for audio. Google has also integrated SynthID verification into the Gemini app and Google Chrome, and the company reports that users currently make 1 million verification requests per day.
Google is not alone in adopting SynthID. OpenAI, Nvidia, and Kakao also support the standard, and OpenAI maintains its own content-checking site. Apple is said to be adding support soon. Microsoft and Meta, meanwhile, have developed their own separate watermarking and verification standards.
The tool’s reach may be limited, however. Google acknowledges that these verification systems are not infallible and can fail to identify AI-generated content — including content produced by the very models that use them.