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Best AI detector in 2026: how 9 popular tools compare
A buyer's guide to 9 AI detectors, grouped by use case, with pricing, free limits and per-scan caps taken from each vendor's own pages on 3 November 2026.
AI Tools14 min read
In this piece
- Pick by use case, not by headline accuracy. Education, publishing, individual writing and quick free checks each favour a different tool.
- Pricing models differ more than prices do. Some vendors meter words per month, some credits, some characters per scan. Convert to your own volume before comparing.
- Sentence-level highlighting and a published false-positive policy matter more than a tenth of a percent of claimed accuracy.