Quillbot AI Detector Review: How Does It Work?
Compare the product features and pricing of Quillbot’s AI writing assistance and AI detection with alternatives.
With the rise of AI writing tools, detecting AI-generated content has become a primary concern for educators. AI detection also affects students, content creators, and even hiring managers and businesses, who are trying to keep up with shifting standards and expectations around AI.
Tools like Quillbot and GPTZero are at the forefront of AI detection technology, offering users the ability to differentiate between human-written and AI-generated text.
In this comprehensive Quillbot review, we'll dive into how Quillbot’s AI detector works, its accuracy, pricing, and how it compares to other popular alternatives, including GPTZero.
What is Quillbot’s AI Detection?
Quillbot initially launched in 2017 as a paraphrasing tool designed to help students improve their English writing. But it has since evolved to become a broader writing assistant. In 2021, Quillbot was acquired by Learneo, Inc. (formerly known as CourseHero), which also owns the popular study aid services CliffNotes and citation generator Scribbr.
In July 2024, Quillbot introduced its AI detection tool, aimed at helping users identify whether a piece of content was generated by AI or written by a human. Previous AI detection tools include GPTZero, the first AI detector launched in January 2023, followed by other AI detection features from companies like TurnItIn. These detectors all serve educators and students where it is important to establish academic integrity when it comes to written work.
How Does Quillbot AI Detection Work?
Quillbot's AI detection tool analyzes text for common patterns in ChatGPT or other large language models’ generated content. You can learn more about how AI content detectors work but some of the common patterns are things some people can spot, including:
- Repetitive Phrasing: AI text often contains certain repeated phrases or sentence structures that may not be as common with humans.
- Formal and Robotic Language: AI models may lean towards a more formal or mechanical style, which differs from the natural variation in tone and structure found in human writing.
- Lack of Depth or Originality: While AI can produce grammatically correct text, it may lack the depth or nuance of a human writer’s creativity, especially on complex or subjective topics.
- Consistency in Sentence Length: AI-generated text often features sentences of a more uniform length compared to the varied sentence structure in human writing.
When you input text into Quillbot's AI detector, it compares the content to a vast database of known AI writing styles and models. The tool then evaluates whether the writing follows patterns consistent with AI-generated text or exhibits qualities typical of human writing. The results are provided in the form of a percentage, indicating how likely the text is to have been generated by AI.
Depending on the type of data Quillbot has in its detection system, the accuracy rate for detecting AI may vary for different types of content, such as academic papers, blog posts, emails, or shorter things like social media posts or chats. It requires at least 80 words to make an accurate prediction.
Testing Quillbot AI Detection’s Accuracy: Results and Findings
To determine how reliable AI detection tools are, we run our own benchmarking tests with a variety of texts, including human-written articles, AI-generated content, and hybrid pieces that blend both styles.
You can find all our benchmarks here.
Independent tests done by journalists show Quillbot at 80% Accuracy.
Independent findings show that Quillbot's AI detector is reasonably accurate, but it may be overtuned to be more likely to predict AI when the writing was actually written by humans, meaning it has a high chance for false positives. As with all AI detection tools, the accuracy of results depends often on the type of text chosen and its length.
Other Key Features of Quillbot
- Paraphraser: Quillbot's Paraphraser is one of its most popular features, designed to reword text in a variety of ways while preserving the original meaning. Users can choose from several writing modes such as Standard, Fluency, Formal, and Creative.
- Summarizer: The Summarizer tool on Quillbot helps condense long articles, essays, or research papers into short summaries that attempt to cover the key points and important information. This tool is used by students, researchers, or anyone who needs to quickly digest large amounts of text. The summarizer offers both a Key Sentence and Paragraph summary mode, giving users control over the level of detail they want to retain in their summary.
- Plagiarism Checker: Quillbot allows users to scan their content for potential plagiarism by comparing it against online sources, including websites, academic papers, and books. The tool highlights the sections of the text that may be plagiarized and provides links to the sources where the matches were found.
Pricing: How Much is Quillbot?
Quillbot offers both a free version and a premium subscription plan, making it accessible to a wide range of users. Here’s a breakdown of the pricing structure:
- Free Plan: The free version of Quillbot includes limited features, such as:
- Paraphrasing up to 125 words
- Access to only 2 paraphrasing modes
- AI prompt generation limited to 50 times per day
- AI detection limited to 2,500 words per day
- Premium Plan: Priced at $99.95 per year, the premium subscription offers:
- Unlimited paraphrasing
- Access to all writing modes and styles
- Enhanced AI detection with up to 25,000 words analyzed per month
- Priority customer support
Additionally, users can opt for a monthly subscription at $19.95 per month or a semi-annual plan for $49.95 every six months.
For those on a tight budget, Quillbot’s free plan still provides decent AI detection capabilities, though the limited word count and features might not be sufficient for heavy users.
Alternatives to Quillbot AI Detector
When it comes to AI detection, it's important to test the accuracy of tools to avoid false positives. Several other AI detection tools on the market offer similar functionality to Quillbot, including:
- GPTZero: Launched in January 2023, GPTZero was designed specifically to detect AI-generated text. It has gained popularity for its impressive accuracy rate of 99.5%. GPTZero’s algorithms are continuously updated to handle the latest AI models, making it one of the most reliable tools for AI detection.
- Turnitin: Known primarily for plagiarism detection, Turnitin also offers AI detection capabilities. It’s widely used in educational institutions and has a robust database of academic papers for comparison.
- Originality: Another plagiarism detection tool that includes AI detection. It’s ideal for educators and professionals who need to check large volumes of content for both plagiarism and AI generation.
- Copyleaks: Copyleaks is an AI detection tool designed for various use cases, from academic writing to professional content creation. Its AI detection is highly regarded in the industry.
GPTZero vs. Quillbot: What’s the Difference?
Features Comparison
When comparing GPTZero and Quillbot, the main differences lie in the audience for their core offerings. Quillbot is a paraphrasing tool that adds additional plagiarism and AI detection for writers to check their work.
GPTZero, on the other hand, is focused on AI and plagiarism detection for educators/reviewers and writing feedback tools like grammar check, AI vocabulary, and source citation for writers. GPTZero’s machine learning models are continuously updated to identify the latest AI-generated writing patterns. GPTZero also offers an API to their industry-leading AI detection model, making it a valuable tool for anyone who needs deep AI analysis, including enterprises and software companies.
Learn more about GPTZero’s value to enterprise and technology.
Pricing Comparison
- Quillbot: Free plan available; premium plan costs $99.95 per year.
- GPTZero: Free plan available for up to 10,000 words; paid plans start at $8.33 per month.
Who Should Use GPTZero or Quillbot?
- Quillbot: Best suited for students and writers who need a multifunctional writing assistant. Quillbot is ideal for anyone looking for paraphrasing, grammar correction, plagiarism checking, and AI detection in one platform.
- GPTZero: Perfect for educators, content creators, and institutions that require highly accurate AI detection tools. GPTZero's specialized features make it a great choice for those focused specifically on distinguishing between human and AI-generated content.
Both Quillbot and GPTZero offer robust solutions for detecting AI-generated content, but they cater to different user needs. While Quillbot excels as an all-in-one writing assistant with AI detection as an added feature, GPTZero stands out as a specialized tool designed to stay ahead of evolving AI writing trends.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive tool that combines writing assistance and AI detection, Quillbot is a great option. However, if your main goal is to detect AI-written content with high accuracy, GPTZero remains the top choice.
