Remove AI Meta metadata, not pixels
Inspect first · C2PA, AI tags, EXIF

How to check if a photo has AI metadata

Check the file before you “remove” anything. A photo either contains metadata this scanner can name, or it does not. Stripping a file that already has no C2PA and no AI tags will not change an Instagram badge, and it will not tell you whether a pixel watermark is present.

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Cleans metadata in your browser. SynthID and TrustMark stay in the pixels. A cleaned file does not force Instagram to drop a label.

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Inspect this photo before you strip anything

Strip mode

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Do it in the tool, in this order

  1. Drop the JPEG, PNG, or WebP you will actually publish. Try sample only shows what a report looks like.
  2. Set the mode to AI only.
  3. Press Inspect only if you want to look. Press Clean this file to strip. The same press re-scans the result, and the After column is that new scan of the cleaned bytes.
  4. Press Download cleaned image. Upload that file. The name ends in -cleaned.
Inspect this photo

Two checks, in this order

First, tap AI info on the live post or Story if one exists. Meta uses that screen to say whether the label came from industry-shared signals or from a person disclosing it. Second, Inspect the file you believe you uploaded. Those answers can disagree, and the disagreement is the finding: a chip that cites industry signals plus an empty file report means you scanned a different file, or the signal is not metadata this parser lists (including a pixel watermark).

Photoshop and Lightroom exports are a common mismatch. The project can save with Content Credentials on even when a later “save for web” dropped them, or the reverse. Inspect the exact export. Try sample is only a demo of the report layout. It is not your photo.

Inspect before you strip

The useful question is not “is this AI?”. The useful question is “what is written next to the pixels?”. Camera apps write EXIF. Phones often write GPS. Generators and some editors write C2PA Content Credentials, XMP that points at those credentials, or IPTC DigitalSourceType. Automatic1111-style PNG exports often write a parameters chunk — that recipe has its own page, Stable Diffusion PNG metadata. A C2PA-only question is check if an image has C2PA credentials. Any of those can be listed without sending the image to a server.

Open the Remove AI metadata tool and drop the still you might post. You can stop after the before report. Pressing Clean this file is optional and only useful after you have seen a category you want gone. Generation tags have their own page, the AI metadata cleaner. The comparison with AI Metadata Cleaner is the alternative page. JPEG, PNG, and WebP are read directly. HEIC, AVIF, GIF, TIFF, and BMP are read as well, and the report says which format you get back.

What the field report is telling you

Chip Typical meaning If you later clean
C2PA Content Credentials manifest: JPEG JUMBF / APP segments, PNG caBX, WebP C2PA chunk AI provenance removes it. Details on Remove C2PA
AI Known hints: DigitalSourceType, generator names, Content Credentials XMP, PNG prompt/parameters text AI provenance or strip-all
EXIF Camera, timestamps, lens, software Left in place by AI provenance. Removed by privacy or strip-all
GPS Location inside EXIF Privacy or strip-all. See Remove EXIF
XMP / IPTC Sidecar-style descriptions inside the file, including some provenance Depends on mode. Strip-all is the broad pass

A long report is not a verdict that Instagram will label the upload. It is an inventory. A short report is not a verdict that Instagram will stay quiet. Instagram can label from signals that never appear in this inventory. That limit is the subject of can you remove an Instagram AI label.

Run the check

1

Pick the file you would actually upload

Exports, “Save as”, and “Download” from a generator are the right objects. A screenshot of the Instagram post is a picture of the user interface. Checking that screenshot tells you about the screenshot.

2

Read the before list and stop if you only wanted a look

You do not have to clean. If C2PA or AI is present and you plan to post, continue with the Instagram post guide or the EXIF and AI cleaning guide. If the list is only GPS, you have a privacy job, not an AI-label job.

3

If you do clean, compare before and after

The after panel is a new parse. A successful provenance strip shows those C2PA and AI lines gone and can still show EXIF if you stayed on AI provenance mode. If you wanted both gone, switch to strip-all and verify again.

A second look, still without a server

Content Credentials can also be inspected with a public verifier that understands C2PA manifests. That kind of check answers “is there a manifest?”, which overlaps the C2PA chip here. It still does not answer “will Instagram show a badge?”. Use one or both inspections on the file. Do not confuse either result with a classifier score.

Phone galleries often show a slice of EXIF and hide manifests. “No info” in the iOS or Android info sheet is not a C2PA test. The browser tool on this page is aimed at the categories social apps have started to read, plus the GPS fields people mean when they say a photo is leaking location.

When a clean report still leads to a label

You can do this check correctly and still see AI info after upload. Causes that fit a clean report:

  • The image was edited with Instagram’s own AI tools after the check.
  • You uploaded a different file than the one you inspected (a cloud original, a second export, an uncleaned duplicate).
  • Instagram matched or classified the pixels without needing metadata.
  • A pixel watermark is present. This scanner does not display SynthID or TrustMark.

Those cases are diagnosed on why Instagram still shows AI info. Stories add reshare behavior: Story AI label. Carousels need one inspect per slide: carousel AI info.

Empty is information. If inspect finds nothing, skip the strip. Spend the time on whether you should disclose the work, not on downloading an identical file under a new name.

Want a general metadata viewer rather than an AI-focused check? View image metadata online shows the GPS, camera, XMP, IPTC, and C2PA rows for any image, with the same inspect-only mode and no upload.

Clean the file, then publish that download

Use the tool above. Download only after the After report matches the tags you meant to remove.

Inspect this photo

Related guides

Questions people ask

If the inspect report is empty, is the photo free of AI?

No. An empty report means this tool did not find EXIF, XMP, IPTC, C2PA, or known AI text chunks. Pixel watermarks and platform classifiers are invisible to a metadata scan.

Does checking the file upload it?

No. Inspect runs in your browser on the file you selected.

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