AI headshot detector
AI headshot apps are popular, and there's nothing wrong with using one. If you need to know whether a headshot was made with one, Checko can take a look and tell you why it thinks so.
Show Checko an image
A flag is not fraud
Plenty of people make their headshot with an AI app on purpose: it's cheaper than a photographer and the light is always flattering. A flagged headshot tells you something about how the image was probably made. It tells you nothing about the person's honesty or their skills.
If it matters to you, ask. Most people will simply tell you which app they used.
When it's worth checking
- Hiring, when you want the photo on an application to match the person on the call. A short video call settles that faster than any detector.
- Speaker bios, press kits and staff pages, where a publication's rules may ask for an unaltered photograph.
- Your own headshot, before you send it somewhere that asks for a photo without AI edits.
What Checko looks at
A headshot is the kind of photo the face analysis is built around: one clear face, large in the frame. It checks the largest face, if it's at least 64 pixels across, for signs of face swaps, AI face edits and generated faces. The whole-image analysis looks at the background and everything else.
Images that still carry signed Content Credentials from trusted AI tools that record AI generation or editing are flagged too. A missing credential means nothing, because most sites strip them.
If a headshot is flagged
- Ask how it was made, plainly and without accusing anyone. An AI headshot app is a perfectly good answer.
- If you need to know what someone looks like, a video call does the job.
- Don't reject a person on a verdict alone. It's one signal about one image, from two models that each make mistakes.
Where it can miss
- Studio headshots are often retouched, and strong retouching or beauty filters can look like AI editing. A flag on a retouched photo may just mean the retouching.
- Photos run through AI tools for a single step, such as a new background or a skin clean-up, may be flagged even though the face came from a camera.
- New headshot apps appear all the time. Some AI headshots slip under the threshold.
- Screenshots of a profile page add compression. The original file works best.
Questions
Is using an AI headshot wrong?
No. Lots of people use AI headshot apps, and most places don't mind. If a place does require an unaltered photo, it should say so, and this check can help you meet that.
Will a retouched studio headshot be flagged?
Sometimes. Strong retouching and beauty filters can look like AI editing to the model. We're measuring how often that happens.
Can I check headshots in bulk?
Yes, with the API. One REST call per image returns the verdict and which detector fired, and API keys store no images unless you turn storage on. If you're checking applicants, tell them you do.
Is it free?
Yes. You can check 3 images a day without signing up, or 10 a day with a free account.
Do you keep my photo?
Not on free checks: the image is checked in memory and then discarded, and we keep a fingerprint of the file and the verdict. Paid plans keep the images you check in your private history, with a switch in Settings to turn that off. The privacy page has the details.