Best Plagiarism Checker:
Top 10 for Students and Teachers

TL;DR

The winner in the category for the best online plagiarism checker is Copyleaks.com. Copyleaks has been helping students around the world for 8 years now. The service suits different budget preferences since it has both free and paid plans for learners. Overall, this plagchecker is easy to use, and it does not take much time to scan documents. Apart from the basic features that almost every plagiarism checker offers, this service has a list of advanced options, such as cross-language search, ai detection, text comparison, and OCR scan. Copyleaks promises to show stellar results, and it does not disappoint.

TOP services	Our verdict	AHelp Score	🔥 Updated January 2024
AHelp Plagcheck ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Best plagiarism detector	86.5/100	Get free access
PlagiarismCheck	Best price	86.2/100	Read review
Copyleaks	Best experience	86/100	Read review
Quillbot	Best features	85.1/100	Read review
Originality AI	Best free trial value	79.1/100	Read review

Having a quality plagiarism checker at your disposal has never been more crucial. The academic field is shifting towards progressive changes, introducing new ways for students to modify and facilitate their studying. While the tip of the iceberg seems exciting, what is hidden beneath such rapid advancements is unknown. With this regard, students and educators need more powerful software that can protect the originality of the paper, the integrity code and prevent unintentional copying.  

Plagiarism checkers promise to scan text and documents, detect duplicate content or improper citations, verify sentence similarities, and much more. Many plagiarism checkers claim to distinguish AI-generated text and paraphrasing, which are common in the rise of ChatGPT and other AI-powered writers. The Academic Help team decided to test the best anti-plagiarism solutions that could bring value to learners. Our experts compiled a list of services that guarantee to show the best and most accurate results. For a more detailed list of criteria, you can take a look at our buying guide. Traditionally, we provide an unbiased ranking of plagiarism checkers, which is based on real experiences and interactions with these services, as well as the A*Help scoring system. See How We Test Plagiarism Checkers for more details about our testing approach.

Best Online Plagiarism Checker

Our approach for selecting the best plagiarism checker for students

The Academic Help team sets out a goal to find a plagiarism detector that can cater to learners’ needs. To make the search more efficient, our experts conduct real mystery shopping. This experiment is bound to mimic the path of a student who would need to use any plagiarism checker to scan their papers. During this experiment, we checked written pieces to analyze the essential criteria, such as value for money, overall experience, and check quality.

Unquestionably, the main focus of our assessment is directed to check the quality of every document. Our experts prepared 5 different essays on the topic “Characteristics of a Leader” to be run through every service.

We ran each of these texts through all the plagiarism checkers that we had on the list (12) and attentively assessed the quality of detection. But we did not cast away other little details like registration, user experience, available features, and, of course, free trial or paid plans. Checking everything helps our experts make the final call. 

Below in the table, you can find our assessment criteria for the check quality aspect:

> Text	> Best result	> Acceptable result
Human-written text	100% free of plagiarism	10% margin of error
Internet sample	100% plagiarism detected	10% margin of error
AI paraphrase (2 texts)	100% free of plagiarism	10% margin of error
Replaced characters	100% plagiarism detected	Flagged character replacements

Top Plagiarism Checker Reviews

According to our Mystery Shopping Reviews (2023), we can recommend the following legit plagiarism-checking services:

Copyleaks.com is a well-known plagiarism-checking service that can verify written material through AI detection. Copyleaks is an indispensable tool for anyone who works with texts and content in general. 

Our experts received the full results of the checkup of 5 texts. Copy leaks have access to more than one database and can even compare the files in the user’s current batch. This plagiarism checker scanned all our documents relatively fast and showed the final results in percentage on the screen with color-coded details, pinpointing complete or partial plagiarism, paraphrase, or word omission. Moreover, the report could be additionally found in the personal account on the platform as well as all previously checked documents. 

Students can access Copyleaks for free plagiarism and AI checkups, but with limitations of up to 10 pages and fewer services. The paid subscription for 100 pages starts at $10.99 monthly. Using this detector is easy, and it does not take long to set up a personal account. 

Copyleaks showed excellent results when detecting plagiarism in human and internet texts. Also, this plagiarism checker did not disappoint when scanning an essay with character replacements. However, despite the advanced “AI-detect” feature, Copyleaks could not identify essays that had been rewritten by ChatGPT and Quillbot. Yet, overall, the general result was great. 

Copyleaks is a plagiarism detector that has a long list of basic and advanced features to offer. This service has earned the trust of many leading organizations and institutions, such as Dictionary.com, Medium, and the University of Cambridge. Copyleaks does a good job of detecting different malfunctions with texts. 

Quillbot appeared in the market in 2017. This service was meant to be a writing mentor for anyone who needed to express their thoughts on paper on a daily basis. Users could install the desktop version of the tool, or add it to their Chrome extensions, or simply use it online. Currently, Quillbot offers more services beyond that. That’s why the A*Help team decided to verify if it could assist students and educators with detecting plagiarism. 

Quillbot accommodates many different features. And while students can use it for free to rewrite some sentences with the help of AI technology or polish their grammar and spelling, the plagiarism checker comes with a monthly subscription of $9.95 (20 pages available). Are you lucky to have a promo code? Quillbot accepts them too. 

Working with this plagiarism detector was smooth like butter. We signed up, paid for the subscription, and started checking our documents. The scanning process took only a few seconds, and we had results on our screen. Quillbot also did a great job at detecting human and internet texts. Moreover, the tool’s technology could mark the swapped letters in the last essay. But, detecting ai-paraphrased texts was not its strength. We specifically had two essays: one where sentences were rewritten by ChatGPT; and the second one, with Quillbot paraphrase. 

In the long run, this plagiarism detector could not see its own changes in the text.  However, it’s worth mentioning that the overall results were satisfactory.

Generally speaking, Quillbot is a user-friendly and easy-to-use service for students when doing their studies. It has many features that can come in handy for learners. Additionally, like many academic help platforms, it tries to introduce advanced tools. But, coming from practical experience, there is still room for improvement.

Originality AI has a promising name that can attract many learners and educators. Being in the market since 2023, this service is making big strides in the direction of facilitating academic life. 

The A*Help team was pulled towards the impression that OriginalityAI only works with generated content. In practice, this service can help detect plagiarism in written pieces as well. During our mystery shopping experiment, it cost us $20 to scan our papers. However, please, note that pricing policy changes on the service. Also, you can always add 100 words for $0.01 to get scanned if the paid plan doesn’t cover your needs. Have you got a coupon? Don’t hesitate to use it to cut the fee. OriginalityAI can even keep you on the edge of your seat, money-wise. Just install its Chrome extension and get 50 credits to check 500 words for free. 

According to our plan, we dealt with the technical part and were ready to move to practice. As always, creating a personal account did not slow us down. But the scanning time per document did. The final results were available on the screen where OriginalityAI showed matching sources and phrases. Let’s speak numbers, the human-written, and Internet were accurately detected by OriginalityAI. However, the service could not differentiate the character swap in the last essay. And detecting ai-generated content in two texts was not entirely successful for this service. With such outstanding results in detecting both plagiarism and AI, this provider closes our top 3 best plagiarism checking services. 

According to our Originality.AI review, it is a great tool for the modern agenda in education. It can detect both plagiarism and ai-generated text in written pieces.

Founded in 2016, Quetext’s plagiarism checker promises to solve any writing issues, help students with citations, and, most importantly, scan their writing pieces for plagiarism. 

We did not experience any trouble when working with Que text. The procedure was standard. First, we created an account, paid $10.49 for a monthly subscription to check our papers, and started running our essays through the plagiarism checker. There is a free trial on Quetext, but it is limited to checking only one page. So, if your text or a document exceeds the mentioned limit, you will instantly get transferred to the sign-up form in order to create a personal account.

The team at Quetext goes above and beyond in their efforts to enhance their product. Every user has an onboarding session where they get acquainted with the service. If you have issues or questions during the process, click “Help” button on your right, and their support team will take care of everything. 

Quetext showed excellent results when scanning human-written and Internet texts. But, detecting AI-paraphrased sentences or character swaps was difficult for this plagiarism checker. In two AI-rewritten essays, the service failed to detect any AI-generated content but managed to detect 13% of plagiarism combined. The essay with replaced letters was neither flagged nor marked as plagiarism. 

Quetext is another plagiarism detector that can aid students with keeping originality of their paper protected. However, its features are not advanced yet and need to be perfected in order to serve more purpose in detecting different changes in texts.

Plagscan has been in the plagiarism detection game since 2009. This solution is mostly used by academic institutions. However, it is also accessible for individual use. 

The AcademicHelp team decided to check if Plagscan can check the authenticity of a text with just a couple of clicks as they preach. Unfortunately, much like other anti-plagiarism tools, Plagscan is not available for free or for trial. Their paid plans start at $5.99 for 24 pages. Have you got a full book or a thesis to check? Scan up to 400 pages with Plagscan for $49.99. 

Like many other plagiarism checkers, this service makes a comfortable experience for their users. All documents were stored in our personal account. So, if we wanted to correct existing files, we could access them fast and run through the plagiarism scanner again. However, Plagscan does not show the final report within seconds. We had to wait around one minute for each document to get checked. 
The results Plagscan gave us were average. Human-written and Internet texts were detected correctly. However, essays with AI paraphrased sentences and letter swaps did not show such good results. This tool failed to detect artificially generated text in the former one, though it marked 80.3% of the text as plagiarism. As for the essay with character replacement, we were only notified with alerts.

Plagscan is a standard plagiarism checker that comes with the most basic features. Another thing that students need to be aware of, is the fact that this service needs some time to scan each document before it gives the final report. Overall, it can satisfy students’ standard academic requirements.

Chegg is an education company that is ready to aid students 24/7. Not only can you get professional help from tutors on Chegg, but you can also get your document checked for plagiarism.

To get started with this service, everyone needs to create an account. Please note that during the registration process, the tool asks you for information about your studies (university, what year) and others. When you’ve filled in all the necessary information, you can start working with the plagiarism checker. Chegg has a 3-day trial during which users can understand if the service meets their needs and expectations. If you are ready to proceed with Chegg, you must pay $9.95 monthly. If not, the service offers you a chance to cancel your trial. You can do it in your personal account. In case users are confused about the technicality of the tool, which is doubtful, they can find guides with instructions and advice. The rest is easy as a walk in the park. 

Regarding the results, Chegg showed an excellent score only for a human-written text. This plagiarism checker failed to flag the Internet sample and the essay with AI modifications. For the former, this platform only detected 3% of plagiarism which is rather low since the whole text was taken from the open Internet source. Essays with AI-paraphrase were only marked as a 26.5% plagiarism. However, the tool partially did a good job with an essay with character modifications. True, Chegg could not spot any letter swaps in the text. However, it counted the essay as 99% of plagiarism.

Overall, Chegg is an affordable plagiarism checker that shows subpar results. While it proves to be an inclusive source of homework help for students, as a plagiarism checker it needs to be improved and enhanced.

Grammarly is a well-known service with an established brand name and reputation. You have probably heard of it or even tried it yourself to polish your writing skills, check grammar and spelling. Grammarly does a spot-on job in this niche. But can it show such great results in plagiarism checking?

The A*Help checked it, and we are ready to show you the results. Even though Grammarly is available for free, in order to use their plagiarism tool, you need to go premium. The service offers 3 different plans: annual ($12.00), quarterly ($20.00), and monthly ($30.00) subscriptions. When we paid for the plan that suited our needs, we could access the plagiarism checker in our personal account. 

Grammarly scans documents in seconds. Such speed questions the quality of the checkup. The tool only gave accurate results for the human-written text. The rest of the documents were not evaluated correctly. In short, the speed with which this service examines texts can be faulty. We witnessed it while checking the Internet sample essay. At first, the plagiarism detector found 100% of plagiarism but within split seconds, the final score was changed to 3%. Such a case points out that every document must be manually verified when using a Grammarly plagiarism checker. 

The verdict follows: if you want to enhance your grammar knacks and get more accurate at writing, then definitely use Grammarly. Consider waiting to use their plagiarism checker until the Grammarly team improves their product.

Final thoughts

All modern students have to have a versatile plagiarism checking tool at their disposal. The word versatile must be underscored in this statement. The biggest uptick that everyone in academia faces is the uncensored influence of advanced technology on their studies.  

With this in mind, the A*Help team tried 12 different plagiarism detectors that proved to be well-known tools among students. Having conducted mystery shopping and fully used every service, we could specify the best ones: Copyleaks, Quillbot, and Originality.AI. True, all 12 plagiarism detectors are still undergoing changes and modifications to keep up with AI-hype However, these three at the top can serve learners and educators better in protecting the academic integrity and originality of papers.

You can find the essays that were used during our mystery shopping below: 

Human-written essay

Internet sample

AI paraphrase (2 texts)

Replaced characters

Buying Advice for The Best Plagiarism Checker Website

Searching for the best plagiarism checker is hard and time-consuming. But it is possible to find a service that can satisfy your academic needs. Sure, there are many plagiarism detectors online that promise stellar results. However, what is the best plagiarism checker, and what makes it such? Let’s check the main criteria to look out for when doing personal research.

Features

One of the key yet hidden parameters that students would be interested in is features. Potentially, if you are a high-school student, a few ones would suffice. However, for more academically driven folks, the lack of features might be problematic. For convenience of the service, it would be better for the plagiarism checker to work with files, urls, and text, as well as send reports after scanning the papers. Another plus for the service would be to provide grammar and spelling checks. 

Additionally, our A*Help team recommends verifying if your chosen plagiarism checker offers advanced features, say ai-detector, cross-language search, text comparison, or even OCR scan. These may come in handy when you set out to do an extensive inspection of your academic or research paper, thesis, report, or even dissertation. 

Sources

When running a written piece through a plagiarism scanner, the results matter. To receive a more structured and precise report, it’s necessary to find a plagiarism checker with a wide range of databases. It can be the general database from the Internet. But for accuracy, it’s an advantage when the service has access to academic databases and its current batch of files with which various text formats can be compared. Moreover, it’s a win if your plagiarism detector allows you to create your personal database of your documents to save yourself from self-plagiarism. 

Free trial and Price

Both free trial and price matter. The first one is essential yet almost always not available. From the A*Help point of view, a free trial is a chance to understand if this particular service can cover all students’ needs with its services. 

Price is always a burning issue for students who are on the lookout for budget-friendly yet quality tools. When we were assessing plagiarism checkers mentioned in this article, we focused on paid plans. In general, there are three types of tariff tiers: cheap (free – $20), affordable ($20 – $60), and expensive ($60-$100). The lowest price the A*Help team paid was $5, and the highest was $100. 

Accessibility 

Any service, platform or tool needs to be easy-to-navigate and accessible. Students value tools that are user-friendly, lag-free, and non-invasive. Another aspect is getting in touch with support. True, many plagiarism checkers are non-brainers. However, the A*Help team never discredits the fact that some learners might have issues that need to be resolved by the customer-help team. So, we paid attention to available support messengers and guides. 

Plagiarism Detection Quality

The A*Help team cares about the quality of the assignment. We had 5 different essays to check through each plagiarism checker. The final mark for all essays altogether was 50 points. The A*Help experts decided to distribute the marks the following way: 20 points for human-written text, 20 points for the Internet text, 5 points for two essays with ai-paraphrased sentences, and 5 points for an essay with character swaps. The acceptable result for the first four essays was a 10% margin of error, and for the final essay it was just an alert or a flagged mark. While the best mark was 100%. 

Such distribution helped us receive transparent scores and evaluate features in accordance with their development. Meaning, we gave ai-generated paraphrases and letter replacements a lower mark because plagiarism checkers are still learning to understand such drastic changes in texts. 

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