Start with the published band
A number is meaningless without a scale. These are the five bands used here, fixed and published, so a 72 today means what a 72 meant last week. The decision line sits at 65.
- No AI signal 0–20
- Probably real 20–45
- Uncertain 45–65
- Likely AI 65–90
- Very likely AI 90–100
Read the region map next
The headline score compresses the whole frame into one figure. The region map scores overlapping areas separately, and the pattern across those tiles carries information the single number destroys.
| Pattern | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| High score, most tiles hot | A fully generated frame | Treat the headline score as reliable |
| Low score, one tile hot | A real photo with something added or removed | Look at that part of the picture yourself |
| Low score, many tiles hot | Conflicting evidence | Treat as uncertain and check the original file |
| No region map produced | The image is too small to divide | Find a larger copy before deciding |
Two tiles at or above the decision line inside an otherwise cold frame. That split is what a local edit looks like.
Give the file's own credentials more weight
When an image carries a valid C2PA manifest, that part of the result is cryptographic rather than statistical. A signed credential bound to the current pixels is stronger evidence than any score.
The absence of a credential says nothing. Most images have never carried one, and metadata is stripped by almost every platform on upload. Treat a missing manifest as no information rather than as a negative signal.
Expect compression to move the number
Screenshots, social platform downloads, heavy JPEG compression, upscaling and filters all shift scores, usually toward the middle. Check the highest-quality original you can get rather than a screenshot or a thumbnail.
Make the decision with context
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Check the band and the distance from the line
A 66 and a 96 are both above the decision line and mean very different things.
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Compare the headline score against the region map
Agreement strengthens the read. Disagreement means uncertain, not split the difference.
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Read the file evidence
Content Credentials and generator markers, where present, are separate evidence with different weight.
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Verify the source and the publication history
A reverse image search for the earliest copy settles more cases than any score.
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Do not accuse anyone on one automated result
Read the accuracy and limitations page before a result changes anything for a real person.
What the score does not tell you
Four questions people reasonably expect a score to answer, and it answers none of them.
- Which tool made the image. The pixel score is a likelihood that something generative was involved, not an identification. Only a credential or an embedded marker can name a generator, and most files carry neither.
- Who made it. Nothing in an image ties it to a person. A score cannot support an accusation against an individual, and presenting it as though it can is the most common misuse.
- Whether the content is true. A photograph can be entirely genuine and still show something staged, mislabelled or taken years earlier in another country. Authenticity of pixels is not accuracy of claim.
- How much of the image was changed. The region map shows where the signal is strongest, not the boundary of an edit. A hot tile tells you where to look with your own eyes.
Knowing what a number cannot do is what makes the rest of it usable. A detector earns trust by being clear about its edges rather than by sounding certain.
When two readings disagree
Conflicting evidence is common and it is not a malfunction. A low headline score with several hot tiles usually means heavy compression rather than an edit, because compression damages some parts of a frame more than others. A high headline score with an even, unremarkable region map often means the whole image was processed rather than generated: upscaled, denoised, or run through a filter that rebuilt fine detail everywhere at once.
In both cases the answer is to go back to the source file. Almost every contradiction in a result traces to the copy you fed it rather than to the image itself, and a version that has been through one fewer platform will usually resolve it.