EssayPrecheck
Free Turnitin AI checker and AI detector for essays
Use this Turnitin AI checker and Turnitin AI detector to see how AI-like your draft reads, passage by passage. Free, no sign-up, and your text is not stored.
EssayPrecheck is an independent tool. It is not Turnitin, it is not connected to Turnitin, and it cannot show or predict your Turnitin score.
Passage by passage
- Reads as human-written
- Uncertain
- Reads as AI-generated
This is one detector’s estimate. It is not a Turnitin result and not proof of how the text was written.
How to use this Turnitin AI checker
- Paste your text. Between 80 and 2,000 words of English prose. For a longer paper, check it a section at a time.
- Press Check for AI. The first check after a quiet spell can take up to a minute while the detector starts. After that it takes a few seconds.
- Read the score and the passages. The number is how AI-like the whole text reads. Below it, the text is shaded passage by passage, so you can see where the signal comes from.
What the Turnitin AI detector score means
The score is one detector's estimate of how closely your text resembles the output of AI writing tools. It is a statistical judgment about style. It is not evidence of how the text was written, and it is not a Turnitin result.
| Score | Label | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30% | Reads as human-written | The detector found little that looks like AI writing. |
| 30% to 84% | Uncertain | No finding. Plenty of human writing lands here. |
| 85% and up | Reads as AI-generated | Strong AI-like patterns. Still not proof. |
The bands are deliberately cautious. We call a text AI-like only at 85% and above, because a detector that is wrong about a person's own work does real harm.
How accurate is it?
Honestly: good at spotting unedited AI text, and imperfect in ways you should know about.
- Unedited AI text is usually caught. In our own small test, eight essays written by a current AI model all scored 100%.
- Human writing is sometimes scored too high. In the same test, nine of eleven human-written passages scored under 40%, but two student essays scored 50% and 68%. None reached the 85% line. That test is far too small to be a benchmark, and it is the reason for the wide "uncertain" band.
- Non-native English is at higher risk. Independent tests of open detectors, including the model used here, report more false alarms on essays by people writing in a second language.
- Edited or paraphrased AI text is often missed. So a low score does not show that a text is free of AI.
- English only, and not short texts. Scores for other languages, lists, code or anything under 80 words are not meaningful.
The detector is an open model, desklib/ai-text-detector-v1.01, run on our own server. Details are on the about page.
Is this a Turnitin AI checker or Turnitin AI detector?
People search for both “Turnitin AI checker” and “Turnitin AI detector” for the same need: check an essay for AI before submitting. This page covers both. It is an independent tool you can run yourself—not Turnitin, not a copy of Turnitin, and not a preview of your school’s score.
Turnitin's AI writing detection is sold to schools and universities, and students normally cannot run it on their own drafts. It uses Turnitin's own model, which is not public. A different detector will give a different number for the same essay, sometimes a very different one. No outside tool can tell you what Turnitin will report, whatever its name suggests.
What a pre-check can do is show you how your draft looks to a detector, and where. If a passage you wrote yourself is flagged, that is worth knowing before you submit, along with how to back up your authorship. More on how Turnitin's detection works is in Does Turnitin detect AI? and on what students can and cannot check in Turnitin checker for students.
If your own writing is flagged
- Do not rewrite good work to please a detector. Detectors disagree with each other, and chasing one score can make the writing worse.
- Keep your evidence. Version history in Google Docs or Word, notes, outlines and earlier drafts show how the text came to be. That is what counts if a score is ever questioned.
- Know your school's policy. Ask how AI scores are used. Turnitin itself says its score should not be the sole basis for action against a student.
- Look at the flagged passage. Stock phrases, very even sentence lengths and generic summaries read as AI-like. If a passage is vague, making it more specific improves it for a human reader too.
Your text and your privacy
Your text is sent to our server, scored, and discarded. It is not saved, not added to any database, not used to train anything and not sent to any school or third party. There are no accounts. See the privacy policy.
Questions and answers
Is EssayPrecheck free?
Yes. There is no sign-up. Each check takes 80 to 2,000 words, and there is a limit on how many checks you can run per minute.
Is this a Turnitin AI checker or a Turnitin AI detector?
Both names point to the same student need. This page is a free Turnitin AI checker and Turnitin AI detector for essays you can run yourself. It is independent of Turnitin and cannot show or predict your Turnitin score.
Is this the same as Turnitin?
No. It is an independent tool with a different detector. It cannot show or predict your Turnitin score.
Will my essay be stored or show up in Turnitin later?
No. Your text is scored and discarded. It is not stored and is not submitted to Turnitin or any other database.
Why did my own writing get a high score?
Detectors judge style, and some human writing is formal, even and predictable enough to look AI-like. Writing in a second language raises the risk. A score is not evidence of how a text was written.
Does a low score mean my essay will pass Turnitin?
No. Different detectors give different results, and no outside tool can tell you what Turnitin will report.
Which AI tools does it detect?
The detector is trained on output from a range of AI models and looks at writing patterns rather than a specific tool. In our tests it scored unedited text from a current model at 100%. Heavily edited or paraphrased text is often missed.
Does it work for languages other than English?
No. The model is English-only, and scores for other languages are not meaningful.
Why is the first check slow?
The detector shuts down when nobody is using it and takes up to a minute to start again. Later checks take a few seconds.
Can I use it to check a student’s work?
You can, but do not treat the score as proof. It is one detector’s estimate, with real false positives, and should never be the only basis for an accusation.