AI image metadata checker
Drop image files or paste image links to see what each file declares about how it was made: C2PA Content Credentials, the IPTC digital source type and XMP keywords such as contains-synthetic-performer. Then see which of those markers survive your store's image links. It reads declarations. It does not detect AI.
Published . Last reviewed .
Free · No signup · A dropped file is read inside this browser tab and never uploaded. A pasted link is fetched by your browser straight from its host, not through GotAlt. How to check that for yourself.
1. Add images
Drop image files here
or press Enter to choose files from your computer
JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, AVIF or HEIC, up to 50 files at a time, 50 MB each. Read in your browser, never uploaded.
Your browser fetches each link directly from its host. Hosts that do not let other sites read their images (CORS) cannot be read this way: download the image and drop the file here instead. Pasting a link shows the file your browser is given, which can differ from the file you uploaded. The second tool below compares the versions.
Results
A missing marker proves nothing
No marker proves nothing. Many generators write no marker, and many editors, stores and image services remove them. A file with no marker may still be AI-generated, and a file with a marker only says what its maker or the last tool that touched it wrote. This tool reads what a file declares; it does not decide how an image was made.
Then see what your pages show today
This read the files you gave it. The Site Image Check runs automated checks on up to 50 pages of your live site, once, for $49 with no subscription. Its AI disclosure section lists, for the images it opens, the AI provenance markers each file declares (a C2PA manifest, an IPTC DigitalSourceType value, XMP keywords such as contains-synthetic-performer) and whether the page shows AI-label text with the image: alt text, a figcaption or adjacent text. For each page it lists the chat widgets it recognizes and whether AI-disclosure wording appears in the page's HTML. It reads what files and pages declare. It never decides whether an image is AI-generated.
Check my site once from $49 See a sample fix sheet (CSV file)
2. Does it survive your store?
A marker in the file you made is not always in the file a shopper, a product feed or a marketplace receives. Paste one image link from your live store. This fetches the versions the host may deliver (the link as it is, resized, for a browser that asks for WebP and one that does not) and shows which markers each one still carries.
Works for Shopify, Amazon listing and A+ images, WordPress media, Cloudflare Images and any other https image link whose host allows other sites to read it. Up to five requests are made, from your browser.
Versions of this image
| Version | Format and size | XMP block | Digital source type | AI-related keywords | C2PA manifest | Other metadata |
|---|
About this host
What this tool can't tell you
- Whether an image is AI-generated. It reads markers that a file declares. A file can be AI-generated and carry none, and a marker can be added to any file. A result is never a finding about how the image was made.
- Whether a C2PA manifest is valid or trusted. It reads what the manifest claims (the claim generator, the actions, the source types, the signer's name as written in the certificate) and labels all of it not verified. It does not check the signature, the file hash or the trust list. For that, use the Content Authenticity verify tool.
- Whether a platform reads or accepts a marker. A marker in a file is not a statement that Google, Amazon or anyone else will act on it.
- What happens to a file you upload. The comparison fetches the files a host delivers for a link today. A store's upload pipeline can behave differently from its delivery links, and GotAlt did not test uploads.
- Whether a law applies to you, or whether a marker is enough under one. That depends on facts this tool does not have, and nothing here is legal advice. The AI disclosure laws finder lists rules that may apply, each with its source.
- Extended XMP. A JPEG can hold part of its XMP as Extended XMP. This tool says so and does not open it.
- Prompts. If a file carries the IPTC prompt field, the tool reports that it is present and never shows or keeps the text.
The markers this tool reads
| Marker | What it is | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| IPTC digital source type | A standard value (for example trainedAlgorithmicMedia, or compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia for a real image edited with generative AI) that says how a file was made. Anyone, or any tool, can write it. The values come from the IPTC NewsCodes vocabulary. | The XMP property Iptc4xmpExt:DigitalSourceType. Files from different tools use different prefixes for it, so this tool matches the namespace, not the prefix. |
| XMP keywords | Plain keywords. Amazon's contains-synthetic-performer is one. A keyword on its own does not say how an image was made. | The XMP property dc:subject, and the keyword field of IPTC-IIM. |
| C2PA Content Credentials | A manifest of claims (a generator, actions, source types) that a signer has signed and bound to the file by a hash. Changing the file's bytes, including by adding XMP, breaks the signature. The format is in the C2PA specification. | A JPEG's APP11 segments, a PNG's caBX chunk, a WebP's C2PA chunk, an AVIF or HEIC's uuid box. |
| The IPTC AI fields | The 2025.1 version of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard added AISystemUsed, AISystemVersionUsed, AIPromptInformation and AIPromptWriterName. | XMP, under the same namespace as the source type. |
| AI tool hints | A metadata string that names a tool, such as an EXIF Software value, a PNG text chunk written by Stable Diffusion or ComfyUI, or Google's "Made with Google AI" credit. These are hints. They are never counted as a declaration. | EXIF, IPTC-IIM, PNG text chunks, JPEG comments and XMP. |
Who reads these markers
What each source says, checked against it on October 21, 2026. A marker in a file is not a statement that a platform acts on it, and none of this is legal advice.
| Source | What it says about image metadata |
|---|---|
| Google Merchant Center | Requires the IPTC DigitalSourceType value trainedAlgorithmicMedia on AI-generated product images and asks sellers not to remove embedded metadata. A second help page, AI-generated content, lists the values to preserve. |
| Google Search | Lists four IPTC values it supports (trainedAlgorithmicMedia, compositeSynthetic, algorithmicMedia and compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia). It can use C2PA details in "About this image" when the signer is on the C2PA Trust List. |
| Amazon Seller Central | Reported on July 23, 2026 by CNBC: sellers were asked to add the XMP keyword contains-synthetic-performer to listing and A+ images of photorealistic people generated entirely by AI. Seller Central's help page needs a seller login, so check its current text there. Whether older images must be updated is not settled. |
| EU Code of Practice on AI-generated content | The final text of June 10, 2026 names no file format: not C2PA and not IPTC. Its Measure 1.2 asks signatories not to remove metadata markings. It applies only to signatories, and nothing on this page says a marker meets any part of it. |
What survives a store: what GotAlt measured
GotAlt fetched public images from each host on October 21, 2026 and read the files. The samples are small, so treat each row as what we saw, not as a rule. The comparison above runs the same test on your link.
| Host | What we saw |
|---|---|
| Shopify's image CDN | Across 13 stores, XMP appeared only in the WebP version of an image: in 12 of the 12 images that had XMP anywhere, it was in the WebP version and never in the JPEG or PNG version. The host answers by the browser's Accept header. Whether a tag you upload survives Shopify's own processing was not tested. |
| Amazon listing images | A base listing URL kept only an Amazon-written EXIF stamp, and every resized version (for example _AC_SL1500_) had no metadata at all: 0 of 48 resized versions of 12 images. |
| Amazon A+ Content images | At their stored size, A+ images kept the metadata they had, including, in one image of 50, a C2PA manifest. Downscaled versions lost all of it. |
| WordPress media | On two sites, the generated sizes (such as -300x200) had no metadata, while the original upload kept it. |
| Cloudflare Images | Cloudflare's documentation says transformations discard existing Content Credentials unless preservation is switched on. Its transform page says metadata is discarded by default except the EXIF copyright tag. |
| Jetpack Photon and wsrv.nl | Photon kept XMP and C2PA and added its own manifest on top. wsrv.nl stripped both. Each was tried on the same four tagged sources. |
Why this matters: Google asks sellers not to strip an AI-generated image's source type, so a step in your pipeline that removes it can undo the tag you wrote. Neither this tool nor the writer ever removes metadata.
Questions
Does my image get uploaded?
A dropped file is not. It is read in this browser tab by two script files you can read, provenance.js and ai-metadata-view.js, and there is no server doing the reading. A pasted link is fetched by your browser straight from the image's host, so that host sees the request, as it would if you opened the link, and GotAlt does not. To check for yourself, open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab and drop a file: apart from this page's own files nothing is requested.
Why does "No AI marker found" prove nothing?
Markers are written by the tool that made or last saved a file, and many write none. In a sample of 65 AI-generated images from Wikimedia Commons that GotAlt read on October 21, 2026, 29 carried no metadata at all, 15 carried a C2PA manifest, 2 carried an IPTC source type in plain XMP, and 4 carried only a hint such as a vendor name in EXIF. It was a convenience sample, so it says nothing about how common any marker is. Editors, stores and image services also remove markers, so a file can lose one after it was written.
What is the difference between C2PA and the IPTC source type?
The IPTC source type is a plain XMP value that anyone can write or change. C2PA Content Credentials are a signed manifest: the signer vouches for the claims, and a hash ties them to the file. This tool reads both and verifies neither. When a file carries both, a change to the file breaks the C2PA signature but leaves the plain value in place.
Can it tell me whether an image was made with AI?
No. It reads what a file declares about itself. A file made with AI can carry no marker, and a marker can be added to any file, so no reading of markers can settle how an image was made.
Does a marker mean I follow a law?
No. Metadata is one way some platforms and standards ask for AI content to be marked. Whether a law applies to you, and whether a marker or a visible label is enough under it, depends on facts this tool does not know. See the AI disclosure laws finder and the AI disclosure law pages, which cite their sources and show the date each was checked. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do I write a marker into my own files?
The AI image metadata writer adds the IPTC source type and keywords to JPEG, PNG and WebP files without re-encoding the pixels, and warns before touching a file that carries Content Credentials. There is no tool here that removes metadata.
Related guides
- AI image metadata: what C2PA, IPTC and XMP keywords are and how they travel.
- AI image metadata writer: add a source type and keywords without re-encoding the image.
- AI label and chatbot disclosure checker: check the live page for AI-label text and chat widgets.
- Accessible AI label generator: wording and markup for a visible label.
- AI disclosure laws: what may apply, with sources and dates.
- Virtual staging disclosure: listing photos and AI-furnished rooms.
Metadata is one check; the page around the image is another
The free scan runs 16 common checks on up to three pages of your site in under a minute: missing alt text, form labels, headings, page language, link text and more.
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