Yes. Turnitin has released its AI writing detection capabilities to help educators uphold academic integrity while ensuring that students are treated fairly.

We have added an AI writing indicator to the Similarity Report. It shows an overall percentage of the document that AI writing tools or large language models, may have generated. The indicator further links to a report which highlights the text segments that our model predicts were written by an AI tool. Please note, only instructors and administrators are able to see the indicator.

While Turnitin has confidence in its model, Turnitin does not make a determination of misconduct, rather it provides data for the educators to make an informed decision based on their academic and institutional policies. Hence, we must emphasize that the percentage on the AI writing indicator should not be used as the sole basis for action or a definitive grading measure by instructors.

How does it work?

When a paper is submitted to Turnitin, the submission is first broken into segments of text that are roughly a few hundred words (about five to ten sentences). Those segments are then overlapped with each other to capture each sentence in context.

The segments are run against our AI detection model and we give each sentence a score between 0 and 1 to determine whether it is written by a human or by AI. If our model determines that a sentence was not generated by AI, it will receive a score of 0. If it determines the entirety of the sentence was generated by AI it will receive a score of 1.

Using the average scores of all the segments within the document, the model then generates an overall prediction of how much text in the submission we believe has been generated by AI.

The first iteration of Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities was trained to detect models including GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and variants. Our technology can also detect other AI writing tools that are based on these models, such as ChatGPT. Since launch, we’ve further expanded our detection capabilities to include GPT-4 (ChatGPT Plus), GPT-4o, GPT-5, GPT-5-mini, GPT-5-nano, GPT-5.1, GPT-5.2, GPT-5.2-pro, Gemini (Pro), Gemini-2.5-pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini-3-flash-preview, Gemini-3-pro-preview, Claude Sonnet-4.5, LLaMA and tools based on these LLMs as well. We will continue to expand our detection capabilities to other models in the future.

What parameters or flags does Turnitin’s model take into account when detecting AI writing?

GPT-3 and ChatGPT are trained on the text of the entire internet, and they are essentially taking that large amount of text and generating sequences of words based on picking the next highly probable words. This means that GPT-3 and ChatGPT tend to generate the next word in a sequence of words in a consistent and highly probable fashion. Human writing, on the other hand, tends to be inconsistent and idiosyncratic, resulting in a low probability of picking the next word the human will use in the sequence.

Our classifiers are trained to detect these differences in word probability and are adept to the particular word probability sequences of human writers.

How was Turnitin’s model trained?

Our model is trained on a representative sample of data spread over a period of time, that includes both AI generated and authentic academic writing across geographies and subject areas. While creating our sample dataset, we also took into account statistically under-represented groups like second-language learners, English users from non-English speaking countries, students at colleges and universities with diverse enrollments, and less common subject areas such as anthropology, geology, sociology, and others to minimize bias when training our model.

Can I check past submitted assignments for AI writing?

Yes. Previously submitted assignments can be checked for AI writing detection if they’re re-submitted to Turnitin and if you have AI writing enabled for your account.

What languages are supported?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities are able to detect likely AI-generated content for documents submitted in long-form English, long-form Spanish and long-form Japanese. However, our AI paraphrasing and bypassing detection capabilities are only available for English submissions.

What will happen if a paper in a non-supported language is submitted?

If a paper in a non-supported language is submitted, the detector will not process the submission. The indicator will show an empty/error state with ‘in-app’ guidance that will tell users that this capability only works for supported languages. No report will be generated if the submitted content is not in one of the supported languages.

Can I or my admin suppress the new indicator and report if we do not want to see it?

Yes, admins have the option to enable/disable the AI writing feature from their admin settings page. Disabling the feature will remove the AI writing indicator & report from the Similarity report and it won’t be visible to instructors and admins until they enable it again.

Will the addition of Turnitin’s AI detection functionality to the Similarity report change my workflow or the way I use the Similarity report?

No. This additional functionality does not change the way you use the Similarity report or your existing workflows. Our AI detection capabilities have been added to the Similarity report to provide a seamless experience for our customers.

Will the AI detection capabilities be available via LMSs such as Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, etc?

Yes, users will be able to see the indicator and the report via the LMS they’re using. We have made AI writing detection available via the Similarity report. There is no AI writing indicator or score embedded directly in the LMS user interface and users will need to go into the report to see the AI score.

Does the MS Teams integration support the AI writing detection feature?

AI writing detection is only available to instructors using the Microsoft Teams integration with Turnitin Feedback Studio. AI writing detection is not available for customers using the Microsoft Teams Assignment Similarity integration, as it only uses the student viewer. There is no separate teacher viewer. And since our AI detection capability is only going to be available to educators, we cannot provide it via MS Teams.

However, if an instructor using the Similarity integration has a concern that a report may have been written with an AI writing tool, they can request that their administrator use the submission search tool to view a full report.

How is authorship detection within Originality different from AI writing detection?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection technology is different from the technology used within Authorship (Originality). Our AI writing detection model calculates the overall percentage of text in the submitted document that was likely generated by an AI writing tool. Authorship, on the other hand, uses metadata as well as forensic language analysis to detect if the submitted assignment was written by someone other than the student. It will not be able to indicate if it was AI written; only that the content is not the student’s own work.

AI detection results & interpretation

What does the percentage in the AI writing detection indicator mean?

The percentage indicates the amount of qualifying text within the submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was likely generated by AI or likely generated and modified by an AI paraphraser or bypasser. This qualifying text includes only prose sentences, meaning that we only analyze blocks of text that are written in standard grammatical sentences and do not include other types of writing such as lists, bullet points (short non-sentence structures), or other non-sentence structures.

This percentage is not necessarily the percentage of the entire submission. If text within the submission is not considered long-form prose text, it will not be included.

What do the different colors in the report mean?

The percentage detected as AI is the total amount of qualifying text in the submission likely originated from a Large Language Model (LLM). The submission breakdown divides this AI writing score into two categories:

Likely AI-generated text, including text likely modified by a bypasser, is highlighted in cyan in the submission.
Likely AI-generated text that was also likely AI-paraphrased is highlighted in purple.

What is the accuracy of Turnitin’s AI writing indicator?

We strive to maximize the effectiveness of our detector while keeping our false positive rate - incorrectly identifying fully human-written text as AI-generated - under 1% for documents with over 20% of AI writing. In other words, we might flag a human-written document as AI-written for one out of every 100 fully-human written documents.

To bolster our testing framework and diagnose statistical trends of false positives, before every update or new model release, we perform additional tests on 700,000 additional academic papers that were written before the release of ChatGPT to further validate our less than 1% false positive rate.

In order to maintain this low rate of 1% for false positives, there is a chance that we might miss some AI written text in a document. We’re comfortable with that since we do not want to incorrectly highlight human-written text as AI-written. For example, if we identify that 50% of a document is likely written by an AI tool, it could contain as much as 65% AI writing.

We’re committed to safeguarding the interests of students while helping institutions maintain high standards of academic integrity. We will continue to adapt and optimize our model based on our learnings from real-world document submissions, and as large language models evolve to ensure we maintain this less than 1% false positive rate.

How does Turnitin ensure that the false positive rate for a document remains less than 1%?

Before we release any updates to our existing model or launch a new model, we perform additional tests on 700,000 additional academic papers that were written before the release of ChatGPT to further validate our less than 1% false positive rate. Based on the results of these tests, we make updates to our model to ensure we hold steadfast on our objective of keeping our false positive rate below 1% for a document.

The percentage shown sometimes doesn’t match the amount of text highlighted. Why is that?

Unlike our Similarity Report, the AI writing percentage does not necessarily correlate to the amount of text in the submission. Turnitin’s AI writing detection model only looks for prose sentences contained in long-form writing. Prose text contained in long-form writing means individual sentences contained in paragraphs that make up a longer piece of written work, such as an essay, a dissertation, or an article, etc. The model does not reliably detect AI-generated text in the form of non-prose, or code, nor does it detect short-form/unconventional writing such as bullet points (short non-sentence structures) or annotated bibliographies.

This means that a document containing several different writing types would result in a disparity between the percentage and the highlights.

What do the different indicators mean?

Upon opening the Similarity Report, after a short period of processing, the AI writing detection indicator will show one of the following:

Blue with a percentage between 0 and 100: The submission has processed successfully. The displayed percentage indicates the amount of qualifying text within the submission that was only likely AI-generated or bypassed, and likely AI-generated text that was also likely AI-paraphrased. As noted previously, this percentage is not necessarily the percentage of the entire submission. If text within the submission is not considered long-form prose text, it will not be included.
Low percentage (*%): False positives (incorrectly flagging human-written text as AI-generated) are a possibility in AI models. To avoid potential incidence of false positives, no score or highlights are attributed for AI detection scores in the 1% to 19% range. When AI is detected below the 20% threshold in the report, it is now indicated with an asterisk (*%) and no percentage is attributed. This change is reflected in new submissions only and will not retroactively apply to existing submissions.
Gray with no percentage displayed (- -): The AI writing detection indicator is unable to process this submission. This can be due to one, or several, of the following reasons:
- The submission was made before the release of Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities. The only way to see the AI writing detection indicator/report on historical submissions is to resubmit them.
  - The submission does not meet the file requirements needed to successfully process it for AI writing detection. In order for a submission to generate an AI writing report and percentage, the following requirements must be met for English-language submissions:
    - File size must be less than 100 MB
    - File must have at least 300 words of prose text in a long-form writing format
    - Files must not exceed 30,000 words
    - File must be written in English
    - Accepted file types: .docx, .pdf, .txt, .rtf

Note: For details on technical requirements for Spanish or Japanese submissions, please refer to the Japanese FAQ and Spanish FAQ pages.

Best practice: When using Turnitin's AI writing detection for assignments, it's best practice to have all students submit their work in the same file format (e.g., all .docx or all .pdf). This helps maintain uniformity in how submissions are processed.

Error ( ! ): This error means that Turnitin has failed to process the submission. Turnitin is constantly working to improve its service, but unfortunately, events like this can occur. Please try again later. If the file meets all the file requirements stated above, and this error state still shows, please get in touch through our support center so we can investigate for you.

What can I do if I feel that the AI writing detection indicator is incorrect? How does Turnitin’s indicator address false positives?

If you find AI written documents that we've missed, or notice authentic student work that we've predicted as AI-generated, please let us know! Your feedback is crucial in enabling us to improve our technology further. You can provide feedback via the 'feedback' button found in the AI writing report. While using the new, enhanced report experience, simply click or tap the Turnitin logo in the bottom right corner of the viewer and select Give feedback.

Sometimes false positives (incorrectly flagging human-written text as AI-generated), can include content without a lot of structural variation, text that literally repeats itself, or text that has been paraphrased without developing new ideas. If our indicator shows a higher amount of AI writing in such text, we advise you to take that into consideration when looking at the percentage indicated.

In a longer document with a mix of authentic writing and AI generated text, it can be difficult to exactly determine where the AI writing begins and original writing ends, but our model should give you a reliable guide to start conversations with the submitting student.

In shorter documents where there are only a few hundred words, the prediction will be mostly "all or nothing" because we're predicting on a single segment without the opportunity to overlap. This means that some text that is a mix of AI-generated and original content could be flagged as entirely AI-generated.

Please consider these points as you are reviewing the data and following up with students or others.

Will students be able to see the results?

The AI writing detection indicator and report are not visible to students. However, with the PDF download feature, instructors can download and share the AI report with students.

Does the AI Indicator automatically feed a student’s paper into a repository?

No, it does not. There is no separate repository for AI writing detection, and customers retain the ability to choose whether to add their student papers into the repository or not. Our AI writing detection capabilities are part of our existing Similarity Report workflow. For institutions that have the AI writing feature enabled, when we receive submissions, they are compared and evaluated via our proprietary algorithms for both similarity text matching and the likelihood of being likely AI writing (generated by LLMs).

If enabled, AI writing detection is run on a submission and the results are shared on the similarity report. Results regarding the percentage AI writing identified by the detector, along with the segments identified highly likely written by AI – are retained as part of the similarity report.

What is the difference between the Similarity score and the AI writing detection percentage? Are the two completely separate or do they influence each other?

The Similarity score and the AI writing detection percentage are completely independent and do not influence each other. The Similarity score indicates the percentage of matching-text found in the submitted document when compared to Turnitin’s comprehensive collection of content for similarity checking.

The AI writing detection percentage, on the other hand, shows the overall percentage of text in a submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model predicts was generated by AI writing tools.

Does the Turnitin model take into account that AI writing detection technology might be biased against particular subject-areas or second language writers?

Yes, it does. One of the guiding principles of our company and of our AI team has been to minimize the risk of harm to students, especially those disadvantaged or disenfranchised by the history and structure of our society. Hence, while creating our sample dataset, we took into account statistically under-represented groups like second-language learners, English users from non-English speaking countries, students at colleges and universities with diverse enrollments and less common subject areas such as anthropology, geology, sociology, and others.

How can I use the AI writing detection indicator percentage in the classroom with students?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection indicator shows the percentage of text that has likely been generated by an AI writing tool while the report highlights the exact segments that seem to be AI-written. The final decision on whether any misconduct has occurred rests with the reviewer/instructor. Turnitin does not make a determination of misconduct, rather it provides data for the educators to make an informed decision based on their academic and institutional policies.

Can I download the AI report like the Similarity report?

Yes. The AI detection report can be downloaded as a PDF via the ‘download’ button located in the right-hand corner of the report.

Can I view aggregated AI scores across submissions for my institution?

Yes, starting February 13 2024, administrators can view aggregated AI scores for their institution. This feature is currently only available to admins and shows statistics at the institution/parent level. As we continue to develop this functionality further, we will update you.

Scope of detection

Which AI writing models can Turnitin’s technology detect?

Which model is Turnitin’s AI detection model based on?

Our model is based on an open-source foundation model available from Hugging Face. We undertook multiple rounds of carefully calibrated retraining, evaluation and fine-tuning. What we must emphasize is that the unique power of our model comes from the carefully curated data used to train it, drawing on more than 25 years of expertise in authentic student writing, combined with our proprietary technology designed to fully leverage that data. In training our model, we focused on minimizing false positives while maximizing accuracy for the latest generation of LLMs ensuring that we help educators uphold academic integrity while protecting the interests of students.

How will Turnitin be future-proofing for advanced versions of GPT and other large language models yet to emerge?

We recognize that Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly expanding and evolving, and we are continuously updating our model to detect these additional LLMs. Our focus initially was on building and releasing an AI writing detector for GPT-3 and GPT-3.5, and other writing tools based on these models, such as ChatGPT. Since then, we’ve expanded our detection capabilities to include GPT-4 (ChatGPT Plus), GPT-4o, GPT-5, GPT-5-mini, GPT-5-nano, GPT-5.1, GPT-5.2, GPT-5.2-pro, Gemini (Pro), Gemini-2.5-pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini-3-flash-preview, Gemini-3-pro-preview, Claude Sonnet-4.5, LLaMA. Additionally, we have released capabilities to detect likely AI-generated content that may have been modified by bypassers and paraphrasers.

Will the AI percentage change over time as the detector and the models it is detecting evolve?

Yes, as we iterate and develop our model further, it is likely that our detection capabilities will also change, affecting the AI percentage. However, for a submitted document, the AI percentage will change only if it's re-submitted again to be processed.

If students use Grammarly for grammar checks, does Turnitin detect it and flag it as AI?

No. Our detector is not tuned to target Grammarly-generated spelling, grammar, and punctuation modifications to content but rather, other AI content written by LLMs such as GPT-3.5. Based on tests we conducted on human-written documents with no AI-generated content in them, in most cases, changes made by Grammarly (free & premium) and/or other grammar-checking tools were not flagged as AI-written by our detector. Please note that this excludes content generated by Grammarly’s generative AI-powered features, including draft generation, paraphrasing, summarizing, and other features. Content produced using these features will likely be flagged as AI-generated by our detector.

Access & licensing

How can customers get access to AI writing detection?

AI writing detection is only be available to customers that license Turnitin Originality. If you are a Turnitin Similarity, Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS) or Originality Check customer, please speak to your Turnitin account manager regarding access to AI writing detection.

Please note that for customers licensing TFS, the ‘OriginalityCheck’ listed within the products available when accessing your institutional account dashboard, refers to the component of your institution’s TFS license that allows for papers to be checked against our database, and generate Similarity Reports, and is distinct from Turnitin Originality.

iThenticate 2.0 customers can get access to this feature if they license AI writing capabilities as an add-on. Please speak to your account manager for details.

Is Turnitin’s AI writing detection a standalone solution or is it part of another product?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities are a separate feature of the Similarity Report and are available to customers when licensing Turnitin Originality in addition to their existing product, or the AI writing add-on, when using iThenticate 2.0.

I had AI writing detection enabled in my TFS sub-account but I don’t seem to have access to it anymore. Why is that?

Since AI writing detection is only available to customers that license Turnitin Originality, we have updated our user-settings in the back-end to manage usage within our products. This means that if your institution decides not to license Turnitin Originality, any sub-account under the main account will lose access to the feature. If you’re unsure about your institution’s licensing or are unable to access AI writing detection despite licensing Turnitin Originality, please speak to your institution’s Turnitin administrator.

Why is AI detection not being added to Gradescope?

We focused our resources on, what we view, as the biggest, most acute problem and that is higher education and K12 long-form writing. We do not currently have plans to add these capabilities to Gradescope, since the primary use case for Gradescope is handwritten text while for AI detection we’re focusing on typed text. However, we are happy to learn more about customer needs for AI writing detection within this product. In addition, we are not pursuing ChatGPT code detection at this time.

Where can I find more information about this new solution?

You can find information in our Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities article.

Will Turnitin process my submission for AI writing detection if my institution does not use the feature?

No, we will only process submissions for AI writing detection if the institution has the feature enabled.

Can my institution opt out if we do not want Turnitin to process our submissions for AI writing detection?

Yes, if your institution does not want submissions to be processed for AI writing detection, they can opt out by disabling AI writing detection from their admin account settings page.

If I re-enable AI writing detection, will it automatically show me scores for submissions made before it was enabled?

No, we cannot retroactively process submissions. If you would like to process past submissions for AI writing, you will need to re-submit the document.

Can I request deletion of my institution’s data prior to disabling the feature?

Yes, customers can request a full deletion of their submissions; we cannot support partial data deletion requests to delete only the AI writing component of the submission data.

AI paraphrasing detection

FAQs in the previous section on AI writing also apply to AI paraphrasing except for the ones answered below. This capability only works for English submissions.

Product capabilities

Can Turnitin detect if content has been paraphrased using an AI paraphrasing tool?

Yes, Turnitin’s AI indicator includes detection of AI-generated content that may have been paraphrased using a word spinner/AI paraphrasing tool. This technology is run automatically for all submissions to Turnitin by institutions that have the AI writing indicator enabled for their accounts.

In the AI writing report, likely AI-generated or AI-bypassed content and AI-generated content that was likely AI paraphrased are highlighted in different colors to enable instructors and other users to interpret results easily.

How does Turnitin’s AI paraphrasing detection work?

Turnitin’s AI paraphrasing detection is part our AI writing detection capabilities. When a submission is made, it is first run through our AI writing model. Then, the AI paraphrasing model is run only on segments marked by the AI detector model as AI-generated.

Explaining this in further detail - when a submission is made, it is first broken into segments of text that are roughly a few hundred words (about five to ten sentences). Those segments are then overlapped with each other to capture each sentence in context.

(numbers indicated in the image are for illustration purposes only)

The segments are first run against our AI detection model. We give each sentence a score between 0 and 1 to determine whether it is written by a human or by AI.

Next, if our model determines a segment was AI-generated, the AI paraphrase model will also run an analysis. For the current iteration of this model, we do not show text detected as human-paraphrased. Like the AI writing detector, the AI paraphrase model will give each sentence a score between 0 and 1. If the model determines that a sentence was AI-generated but not paraphrased using an AI tool, it will receive a score of 1 from the AI detection model and a score of 0 from the AI paraphrasing model, and will be marked only as AI-generated. Conversely, a sentence will be marked as human-written if it receives a score of 0 from the AI detection model.

Using the average scores of all the segments within the document, the models then generate an overall prediction of how much text in the submission we believe has been generated by AI and paraphrased using an AI tool.

Can I check past submitted assignments for AI paraphrasing detection?

Yes, the AI paraphrase detector will only process submissions from the date it is released, so previously submitted assignments can be checked for AI paraphrasing detection if they’re re-submitted to Turnitin and if you have AI writing enabled for your account.

What are the technical requirements for a paper to be checked for AI paraphrasing detection?

The requirements remain the same:

File size must be less than 100 MB
File must have at least 300 words of prose text in a long-form writing format
File must not exceed 30,000 words
File must be written in English
Accepted file types: .docx, .pdf, .txt, .rtf

How will the paraphrasing functionality surface in the product? Will it change my workflow?

AI paraphrasing detection is integrated within our AI writing indicator. This means that submissions will automatically be checked for both AI writing, AI bypassing, and AI paraphrasing, if institutions have AI writing detection licensed and enabled.

Users will experience no change in their current workflow. Likely AI-generated content that may have also been AI-paraphrased will be highlighted separately in the AI writing report (see image below).

Which AI paraphrasing tools can Turnitin detect?

In our AI Innovation Lab, we have conducted tests using open sourced paraphrasing tools. Our technology has retained its effectiveness and is able to identify AI-generated text as likely paraphrased by a word spinner.

We also tested our model on some of the more easily available and popular text spinners such as Quillbot, Grammarly (free paraphraser), and Scribbr and our model is able to identify AI-generated text as likely paraphrased when run through these tools.

If I use Grammarly’s paraphrasing tool, will it flag my content as AI-generated? ?

Yes, if Grammarly’s paraphrasing tool is used to modify AI-generated text, it will likely be flagged as AI-generated by our detector.

Will my admin be able to see statistics for AI paraphrased content?

No, our statistics dashboard available in the Admin console only provides an aggregated view of the AI score and does not differentiate between likely AI-generated content, and likely AI-generated content that may have been AI-paraphrased or AI-bypassed at this time. We are continually enhancing our data insights and will look to add further granularity to the dashboard in the future.

Detection of results & interpretation

Does the AI paraphrasing feature affect the overall accuracy Turnitin’s AI writing indicator?

No, AI paraphrasing detection works only on content marked as AI-generated by the AI writing detector, so the AI paraphrasing model doesn't influence the false positive rate, the main metric of our overall AI writing detection capabilities.

What is the accuracy of Turnitin’s AI paraphrasing technology?

We’re committed to safeguarding the interests of students while helping institutions maintain high standards of academic integrity. The objective of our AI writing indicator is to maximize the effectiveness of our detector while keeping our false positive rate under 1% for documents with over 20% likely AI-content in them. AI paraphrasing detection doesn't change these metrics as it works only on content identified as AI-generated by our detector. However, when run on the content marked as likely AI-generated by our detector, it can misidentify text. This can happen in two ways: first, incorrectly identifying likely AI-generated but not AI-paraphrased text as likely AI-generated and AI-paraphrased; and second, likely AI-generated and AI-paraphrased text as likely AI-generated but not AI-paraphrased.

What is the difference between false positives and misidentifications in this context?

False positive rate shows the percentage of incorrectly identified human-written content as likely AI generated. Misidentification is the percentage of incorrectly classified text that is likely AI-generated as likely AI generated and likely AI paraphrased (misidentification type 1) or text that is likely AI generated and likely AI paraphrased as only likely AI generated (misidentification type 2).

Does misidentification increase the false positive rate?

Misidentification doesn’t increase the false positive rate. The false positive rate is less than 1% for documents with more than 20% AI-generated content, and remains the same.

How should instructors interpret the results?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities provide data and insight to enable educators to start a formative conversation with their students in conjunction with their academic misconduct policies. The final decision on whether any misconduct has occurred rests with the reviewer/instructor. Turnitin does not make a determination of misconduct; rather, it provides tools to assist its customers understand how AI tools are being used at their institution.

Access & licensing

Will my institution need to pay extra for AI paraphrasing detection?

No, AI paraphrasing is part of our AI writing indicator. If your institution licenses Originality (for Similarity, TFS & OC customers) and has the AI indicator enabled, they will get access to AI paraphrasing as well. Their submissions will automatically be processed for both AI-generated content and AI paraphrased content, if they have AI writing enabled.

The same is true for iThenticate 2.0 customers licensing AI writing detection capabilities.

Can my institution get access to trial this new capability?

No, there is no option to separately trial this feature. Our AI paraphrasing detection is integrated within our AI writing detection workflow and works in conjunction with it. Customers that have access to AI writing detection will automatically get access to AI paraphrasing, and their submissions will be processed for both AI writing and AI paraphrasing detection.

Can my institution suppress the AI paraphrasing if we do not want to use it and if we only want to use AI writing detection?

No. Our AI paraphrasing detection is integrated within our AI writing detection workflow and cannot be suppressed separately. Submissions from customers that have AI writing detection enabled on their accounts, will automatically be processed for AI paraphrasing as well.

Will students be able to see the results?

The AI writing score and report, which includes AI paraphrasing scores as well, are not visible to students. However, instructors can download and share the PDF report with students if they wish.

Can I download the AI paraphrasing report?

Yes, AI paraphrasing scores and highlights are included in the AI writing report. When you download the AI writing report, it will also include the AI paraphrasing results.

AI bypasser detection

Note: FAQs in the previous section on AI writing also apply to AI bypasser detection except for the ones answered below. This capability only works for English submissions.

Product capabilities

Can Turnitin detect if AI-generated content has been humanized or passed through a bypasser to avoid detection?

Yes, Turnitin’s AI indicator includes detection of AI-generated content that may have been modified using an AI bypasser/humanizer to evade detection. This capability augments our existing technology which can detect likely AI writing and likely AI writing that was also likely AI-paraphrased. AI bypasser detection is run automatically for all new English-language submissions to Turnitin by institutions that have the AI writing indicator enabled for their accounts.

Our AI bypasser detection is currently only available for English language submissions.

How does Turnitin’s AI bypasser detection work?

Turnitin’s AI bypasser detection is part of our overall AI writing detection capabilities and runs in conjunction with our existing AI writing models, which detect likely AI generated text and AI-generated text that may have been AI paraphrased. When a submission is made, it is run through the existing AI writing models and the AI bypasser model at the same time.

Just as we do when detecting likely AI generated text, the AI-bypasser detection works by breaking the submitted text into segments that are roughly a few hundred words long (about five to ten sentences). These segments are then overlapped with each other to capture each sentence in context. The model assigns a score between 0 and 1 for each of these segments based on how probable it thinks the segment is AI-bypassed (i.e., likely AI-generated text which may have been processed by a humanizer / bypasser tool). Next, these segment-level scores are distilled down (aggregated) to sentence-level scores (i.e., a score between 0 and 1 for each sentence extracted from the document).

Thus, the AI bypasser model assigns each sentence a score between 0 and 1 depending on whether it predicts that the sentence is likely AI-bypassed or not. For example, if the bypasser model determines that a sentence was likely AI-generated and then processed using a bypasser / humanizer tool, it will receive a score of 1 from the AI bypasser model. Conversely, a sentence will receive a score of 0 when the AI bypasser model believes it’s not AI-generated text processed by a bypasser / humanizer tool. The system then uses these sentence-level scores to make an overall prediction of how much text (i.e., what fraction of sentences) in the submission were likely AI-generated and then processed by a bypasser / humanizer tool.

How does Turnitin's AI writing detection work with the addition of the bypasser detection?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities are now powered by a combination of three models working together to detect different types of AI writing. From July 2024 until August 2025, two models powered the production system, allowing us to detect likely AI-written text, and AI-written text that may have been paraphrased using AI paraphrasing tools. With the release of AI bypasser detection, an additional model has now been added, which detects likely AI-generated content that may have been modified using AI bypassers/humanizers. These models all operate together, and they are all run on each English submission if the institution has AI writing detection licensed and enabled.

When a submission is made, it is divided into segments of qualifying text, and then each model processes every segment. The AI writing detection model detects text that has likely been written using LLMs using the mechanism described in the previous FAQ - dividing the submission into segments, scoring each segment between 0 (when not written by AI) and 1 (when the model believes it was generated using AI), calculating the average score of all segments to distill this down to a score between 0 and 1 for each sentence.
The second model, AI paraphrasing detection, scores each sentence based on whether it believes the sentence was paraphrased using an AI tool. The AI paraphrase model will give each sentence a score between 0 and 1. If the model determines that a sentence was AI-generated but not paraphrased using an AI tool, it will receive a score of 1 from the AI detection model and a score of 0 from the AI paraphrasing model, and will be marked only as AI-generated. Conversely, a sentence will be marked as human-written if it receives a score of 0 from the AI detection model.
The third model, AI bypasser detection, assigns each sentence a score between 0 and 1 depending on whether it predicts that the sentence is likely AI-bypassed or not. For example, if the bypasser model determines that a sentence was likely AI-generated and then processed using a bypasser / humanizer tool, it will receive a score of 1 from the AI bypasser model. Conversely, a sentence will receive a score of 0 when the AI bypasser model believes it’s not AI-generated text processed by a bypasser / humanizer tool. The system then uses these sentence-level scores to make an overall prediction of how much text (i.e., what fraction of sentences) in the submission were likely AI-generated and then processed by a bypasser / humanizer tool.

Using the average scores of all the segments within the document, distilled down to sentences, the models then generate an overall prediction of how much text in the submission we believe has been either generated by AI, and generated by AI and paraphrased or bypassed using an AI tool.

How will the bypasser functionality surface in the product? Will it change my workflow?

AI bypasser detection is integrated within our overall AI writing indicator. This means that submissions will automatically be checked for AI writing, AI paraphrasing, and AI bypassers, if institutions have AI writing detection licensed and enabled. We do not differentiate between likely AI-generated content and likely AI-generated content that may have been bypassed in the report. Within the report:

Likely AI-generated text, including text likely modified by a bypasser, is highlighted in cyan in the submission.
Likely AI-generated text that was also likely AI-paraphrased is highlighted in purple.

Users will experience no change in their current workflow.

Can I check past submitted assignments for AI bypasser detection?

Our AI writing detection capabilities will check submissions for the likely use of AI bypasser tools from the date the AI bypasser detector model is released. This means that previously submitted assignments can be checked for AI bypasser detection only if they’re re-submitted to Turnitin and if you have AI writing enabled for your account.

What are the technical requirements for a paper to be checked for AI bypasser detection?

The requirements remain the same for the entire suite of AI writing detection capabilities:

File size must be less than 100 MB
File must have at least 300 words of prose text in a long-form writing format
File must not exceed 30,000 words
File must be written in English*
Accepted file types: .docx, .pdf, .txt, .rtf

* AI paraphrase and bypasser detection is only available for English submissions.

Will my admin be able to see statistics for AI bypassed content?

Detection of results & interpretation

What is the accuracy of Turnitin’s AI bypasser technology?

We’re committed to safeguarding the interests of students while helping institutions maintain high standards of academic integrity. The objective of our AI writing indicator is to maximize the effectiveness of our detector while keeping our false positive rate – incorrectly identifying fully human-written text as AI-generated – under 1% for documents in which at least 20% of the document’s qualifying text is predicted as being AI-generated. The false positive rate remains below 1% even with the addition of the AI bypasser model. However, our AI writing assessment may not always be accurate (i.e., our AI models may produce either false positive results or false negative results), so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred.

How should instructors interpret the results?

Turnitin’s AI writing detection features provide data and insight to enable educators to start a formative conversation with their students in conjunction with their academic misconduct policies. The final decision on whether any misconduct has occurred rests with the reviewer/instructor. Turnitin does not make a determination of misconduct; rather, it provides tools to assist its customers understand how AI tools are being used at their institution.

Access & licensing

Will my institution need to pay extra for AI bypasser detection?

No, AI bypasser detection is part of our AI writing detection capabilities. If your institution licenses Turnitin Originality (for Turnitin Similarity, TFS & OC customers) and has the AI writing indicator enabled, they will get access to AI paraphraser & bypasser detection as well. Their submissions will automatically be processed for both AI-generated content and AI paraphrased or bypassed content, if they have AI writing enabled.

The same is true for iThenticate 2.0 customers licensing AI writing detection capabilities.

Can my institution get access to trial this new capability?

No, there is no option to separately trial this feature. Our AI bypasser detection is integrated within our AI writing detection workflow and works in conjunction with it. Customers that have access to AI writing detection will automatically get access to it, and their submissions will be processed for AI writing and AI paraphraser or bypasser detection.

Can my institution suppress AI bypasser detection if we do not want to use it and if we only want to use AI writing detection?

No. Our AI bypasser detection is integrated within our AI writing detection workflow and cannot be suppressed separately. Submissions from customers that have AI writing detection enabled on their accounts, will automatically be processed for AI bypasser as well.

Will students be able to see the results?

No. The AI writing score and report, which is an aggregation of likely AI-generated content and content that may have been further modified by an AI paraphraser or an AI bypasser, are not visible to students. However, instructors can download and share the PDF report with students if they wish.