Google opens SynthID Detector to the public worldwide, in English

Google has made its SynthID Detector available to everyone, not just media professionals. The company announced on Oct. 7, 2026 that the tool is available globally in English "starting today".

The detector, which Google says first appeared as an early version last year for media professionals, lets a person check whether an image, video or audio file was made with AI from Google or its partners. Google names OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao as partners and says Apple will be added soon, without giving a date.

The tool rests on SynthID, the watermarking system Google launched in 2023. Google says SynthID uses imperceptible watermarks across images, video and audio, and that it has watermarked more than 180 billion images and videos and 240,000 years of audio. Those totals are Google's own and have not been independently checked.

Google also says its built-in verification features in Search, the Gemini app and Chrome now regularly handle more than 1 million requests a day. That figure covers those features, not the standalone detector.

What the announcement does not say matters for how far the tool can be trusted. The post describes detection of AI content from Google and the named partners; it does not claim the detector can identify media from other generators or content without a watermark. It gives no accuracy or error rates, and no limits on file size, check speed or use. Google's post does not say what a negative result means.

Why it matters: watermark checks only work where generators embed marks and the checker can read them. Opening the tool to the public extends watermark checking to more everyday users; coverage still depends on which partners' content it can read, with Apple described only as coming soon.

Sourcing: this account rests on Google's own announcement, the only source saved here. One outlet, ITdaily, reported the same release on Oct. 8 and repeated Google's details; it added no independent testing of the tool.

Revised 16 October 2026: Guth re-read the original sources and rewrote this article. The earlier version remains available as revision 1.