Google opens SynthID Detector to everyone, and it can spot watermarks from OpenAI and soon Apple

Google says it has watermarked over 180 billion images and videos since 2023, and now anyone can check for the mark.

By Think Facility · October 7, 2026 · Google Products

On October 7, 2026, Google opened its SynthID Detector to everyone, worldwide, in English. You upload an image, a video or an audio file, and the site checks it for SynthID, the invisible watermark Google's AI tools stamp into what they make.

The bigger change is whose watermarks it reads. Google DeepMind's Pushmeet Kohli wrote that it now covers files made with AI from Google or its partners, and he named OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao, with Apple to come.

Who can use it: anyone, available globally in English
Checks: image, video, or audio
Partners named: OpenAI, NVIDIA, Kakao, and soon, Apple
Watermarked so far: over 180 billion images and videos, 240,000 years of audio

From a waitlist to everyone

Google first showed the detector in May 2025, when only early testers could use it and journalists, media professionals and researchers had to join a waitlist. That version also promised text checks. The October post lists images, video and audio, and it doesn't mention text.

A wide panorama of two curved glass office buildings with tall palm trees and potted plants on a plaza between them, under a gray sky — Google offices on Charleston Road in Mountain View, California. Photo: Runner1928, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The site joins checks Google has already built into Search, the Gemini app and Chrome. Kohli puts their load at over 1 million requests a day.

To date, we've watermarked over 180 billion images and videos, along with 240,000 years of audio content.

From Google expands SynthID Detector for AI content

Why OpenAI's name matters

A detector that only knows one company's watermark can only clear one company's tools. OpenAI started using SynthID on its own AI images earlier this year, and Kohli welcomed it on X on May 19, 2026.

Pushmeet Kohli@pushmeetMay 19, 7:10 pm ET

Really happy to see @OpenAI adopt @GoogleDeepMind 's SynthID for watermarking AI generated images. We need more such cross industry partnerships for enabling responsible use of AI systems.

View the post on X

So a picture from ChatGPT can now be checked in the same place as one from Gemini. Kohli's post gives no date for Apple, and it doesn't say which Apple tools will carry the mark.

The limit is built in: the site looks for one watermark. A file from a tool that doesn't add SynthID, or one whose maker never joined, won't show up as AI-made here, and I'd treat a clean result as "no SynthID found" and nothing more.

The detector is live at synthid.com, in English only for now.

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