How to Check if a Student Used AI: A Step-by-Step Guide for Teachers

With so much AI noise everywhere, students are relying more and more on tools like ChatGPT for their assignments. 

A recent survey showed that 59% of students now use ChatGPT for schoolwork, up from 52% in 2023.

Students are using it to get unstuck or skip the manual work altogether. This is putting academic integrity at risk. It’s getting harder for teachers to tell what’s original and what’s AI-generated.

Content produced by advanced AI tools like ChatGPT and GPTHuman is difficult to detect with traditional plagiarism checkers because these tools generate fresh text every time. 

If you’re still relying on instinct to spot AI-written work, it’s neither enough nor fair to the students who put in real effort and deserve recognition.

The good news is you can learn to spot the signs with a few simple yet reliable checks.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the signs to look out for when checking students’ submissions. You’ll also find the best AI detectors that will help you spot AI-written essays with confidence. 

Steps for identifying if a student used AI to write the essay

Here’s a quick checklist you can follow while evaluating students’ assignments to detect AI-generated content.

Step one: Look for obvious signs of AI usage

AI tools are smart enough to generate content that checks all the boxes on the surface. They might meet the submission guidelines, but there are still a few telltale signs that reveal it’s not written by a student:

• Check if there’s a strange shift in the point of view (like the student wrote the first paragraph but used ChatGPT or another tool to do the rest of the assignment).
• Check if the essay is very well written grammatically, but missed the mark when it comes to responding to the essay prompt. It lacks a personal touch and the ideas are too vague.
• Check if there are odd phrases with infrequently used words like delve, foray, etc, or dead AI giveaways like in today’s rapidly evolving market, in today’s digital landscape, etc.
• Check if there are no grammar concerns. Even grammar checkers typically miss stylistic errors. 100% correct usage of commas, apostrophes, and quotations is another dead giveaway of AI usage.
• Check for Unverified Data. AI-generated content relies on readily available data sources so it might come up with many unverified data points.

Step 2: Check the submission with context

Keep the student’s previous performances in mind while analyzing their submissions. Compare the quality, tone, and vocabulary they usually use in their assignments.

If the current submission looks highly polished or written in a completely different style than what they usually use, it might be AI-generated.

As an educator, you must have observed how a particular student thinks, writes, and expresses ideas. 

Use that context. Your observations weigh more than any detection tool.

This method is subjective, but when something feels out of sync with a student’s usual performance, it’s worth taking a closer look.

Step 3: Check with an AI Detector tool

As an educator, it’s a part of your job to evaluate each submission for quality and credibility while ensuring the student has done it based on their understanding. 

The obvious signs like a dramatic change in the tone, vocabulary, and the student’s previous performance still leave room for misjudgment.

To ensure your analysis is correct, you can rely on advanced AI detectors. They will help you back your instincts with data, flag suspicious content, and make a more informed decision.

Here are the top 5 AI detectors that will make your job easier and let you support your students better in their academic growth:

5 Best AI Detector Tools to Check Student Submissions With

We’ve mentioned highly reliable AI detectors that are designed to protect academic integrity:

1. Winston AI

Winston AI stays on top of my list of AI detectors especially for academic content because it’s compatible with today’s education system.

It’s the only AI detection tool that comes with an in-built Google Classroom integration. Winston AI is highly recommended for teachers who accept online submissions. You don’t need to download assignments and run them through separate software.

Winston AI has a 99.98% accuracy rate in detecting sentences generated by tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools. It’s hard to bypass its detection, no matter how well-written the AI-generated content is.

A few more advanced features that make Winston AI best for academic institutions are:

• A detailed sentence-by-sentence report that’s color-coded for easy identification of AI-generated content.
• An in-built plagiarism checker that flags copied or paraphrased sentences along with a reference to the source.
• A readability score to estimate the quality of the content that you can use to give detailed feedback on your student’s assignment.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to use Winston AI for students’ submissions:

1. Go to Winston AI, and log in using the same email linked to your Google Classroom.
2. Visit the dashboard to access all the courses and students’ submissions.

3. Take the assignment you want to check, turn on the AI toggle at the bottom of the screen, and click on “Scan text.

Within a few seconds, you’ll get a detailed report for each submission. 

You can see which sentences are most likely AI-generated and which are human-written. 

Winston AI offers a 14-day trial offering 2000 free credits to scan up to 2000 words. You can upgrade to paid plans starting at $12/month for more features.

You can upload a PDF, or doc file, or even copy-paste a text to scan for AI detection. Winston AI also allows you to import text directly from a URL.

With its accuracy, ease of use, and classroom-friendly features, Winston AI is a reliable AI detection tool for educators in 2025.

2. ZeroGPT

You can opt for ZeroGPT to check your students’ submissions. It was specifically designed to accurately detect content generated by ChatGPT, Google Bard, and other AI tools. 

You’ll also get a plagiarism checker, grammar and spell checker, and a citation generator in ZeroGPT. 

• Go to ZeroGPT and sign up using your email ID.
• Copy-paste your text or upload the file
• Click on detect text.

Within a few seconds, you’ll get a report for your content. 

Its free version works well for AI detection, but it’s quite distracting with ads running on the dashboard.

For better experience and more features, you can opt for its paid plans which start from $7.99 per month.

3. Undetectable AI

This AI detector works great for educators to assess whether content is generated or modified using ChatGPT, Claude, etc.

Undetectable AI is also used to humanize AI content or generate essays.

As an educator, you can use it to understand how students might alter AI-generated content to make it seem original.

All you need to do is sign up to Undetectable.ai. Go to the homepage, click on the AI detector and insert your text into the detector window.

You can select the readability for high school, University, or Doctorate for accurate results. 

Select the purpose of using Undetectable AI based on the content type you’re checking, like an essay, article, or general writing.

Click the “Check for AI” button to get an AI score within seconds.

The free version doesn’t give a comprehensive report, but it’s good to begin with and flags AI content easily. The paid version of Undetectable AI starts at $5/month with which you can scan up to 10,000 words.

4. Originality ai

Originality.ai is a powerful AI detector for educators. 

Here, you get an in-built plagiarism checker, fact checker, and readability score, all in one place. 

It’s simple to use and offers limited free scans to begin with. Just sign up using your email ID and click on Start a new scan. Copy-paste your content or import the URL or your file and click on Scan.

It’ll quickly generate an AI report of your content.

To get more credits, you can opt for the paid plans of Originality ai, which starts at $12.95/month. 

5. GPTZero

GPTZero is also a smart choice for detecting AI content in students’ submissions. You can also use it to check plagiarism and extract sources from where the content is copied.

GPTZero can also help you generate detailed writing feedback that you can use to guide your students better. 

Another interesting feature of GPTZero is its Essay Grader. You can use it to analyze the proficiency of essays for TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, etc. 

Most of its features are free to use and you get 10,000 free credits every month to check up to 10,000 words. For more, you can go for paid plans which start from $8.33 per month.

Checking for AI in Student Submissions: Final Words

With advanced tools launching almost every day, it’s getting harder to distinguish between AI-generated and human-written content. AI tools are also becoming a part of students’ academic lives. 

Educators now need to be extra cautious when evaluating student assignments.

To keep up, teachers need to use smarter AI detectors. These tools can flag AI-generated, plagiarized, and inaccurate content. 

This is super important for you to maintain academic integrity and ensure fair evaluation.

Here are the top 5 AI detector tools that work especially well in academic settings:

• Winston AI
• ZeroGPT
• Undetectable AI
• Originality.ai
• GPTZero

While these tools are incredibly helpful, the best approach is to combine them with your observation and 

an understanding of each student’s previous performance. 

This will help you reach fairer and more accurate conclusions in today’s AI-driven education system.