Three kinds of marks
- Standardized declarations. The IPTC digital source type and C2PA manifests. Platforms read these to apply labels.
- Tool traces. Software names, creator tools, prompts and job IDs in EXIF, XMP or PNG text. Useful for humans and for this site’s checker; most platforms ignore them.
- Invisible watermarks. Pixel-level signals such as Google’s SynthID and Meta’s watermark. Not metadata, and not removable by cleaning a file.
Generator by generator
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| Generator | Typically embeds | Triggers platform labels? |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI DALL-E, ChatGPT images | C2PA manifest with an OpenAI claim generator and trainedAlgorithmicMedia | Yes, via C2PA |
| Adobe Firefly, Photoshop generative features | C2PA manifest plus IPTC digital source type in XMP | Yes, via both |
| Midjourney | XMP with IPTC digital source type and the prompt, including a Job ID, in the description | Yes, via IPTC |
| Google Imagen, Gemini, Pixel Magic Editor | IPTC metadata plus the SynthID watermark in the pixels | Yes, and the watermark survives cleaning |
| Microsoft Designer, Bing Image Creator, Copilot | C2PA manifest | Yes, via C2PA |
| Meta AI | IPTC metadata plus Meta’s invisible watermark | Yes, and the watermark survives cleaning |
| Stable Diffusion WebUI, Forge, SD.Next | PNG tEXt chunk named parameters with prompt, steps, sampler and seed | Rarely; not a standard declaration |
| ComfyUI | PNG text chunks named prompt and workflow containing JSON | Rarely |
| NovelAI, InvokeAI, Fooocus, SwarmUI | Tool-specific PNG text with generation settings | Rarely |
| Ideogram, Leonardo, Krea, Recraft | Varies; often minimal or an IPTC field on downloads | Depends on the export |
| Grok, and many web apps | Little or nothing | No, unless a watermark is detected |
How the checker uses this
The AI label checker reports Will get an AI label only for standardized declarations. Tool traces produce May get an AI label, because they identify the generator without being a signal most platforms act on. Everything is listed with the raw field so you can judge for yourself.
Cleaning removes the first two kinds
Declarations and traces are metadata, so a lossless strip removes them and a re-encode leaves nothing behind. Watermarks remain. If you need a file with no watermark, no metadata trick will help, and this site does not attempt it.
Questions people ask
Does Midjourney add Content Credentials?
As of our last check, Midjourney downloads carry IPTC metadata in XMP rather than a signed C2PA manifest. Meta reads the IPTC field, so the label is triggered either way.
Are Stable Diffusion images labeled on Instagram?
Usually not by metadata. The PNG parameters chunk is not a standard declaration, and most workflows export JPEG without it. Meta’s own detection can still apply.
Can the checker tell which model was used?
Often. Software fields, claim generators and PNG parameters name the tool and sometimes the model checkpoint. The checker lists them under Generator traces.