Scribbr AI Detector Review for 2025: Reliable or Not?
We review the features, accuracy, and pricing of Scribbr’s AI detection.
As experts in AI detection, we break down all the things you need to know before you put down a credit card for any AI writing or detection service, including Scribbr. This review goes over Scribbr's proofreading services, tests whether Scribbr’s AI detector is accurate, and covers how reliable Scribbr is, how much Scribbr costs, and alternatives for its AI detection and writing improvement services.
What is Scribbr?
Scribbr originally started as a proofreading and writing assistance service. It has now expanded its services beyond traditional proofreading and plagiarism checking. Since the company Course Hero acquired Scribbr, they have integrated other various tools from their parent company, including an AI detection tool designed to help authors, students, and editors verify the authenticity of their content. The Scribbr AI detector is meant to identify whether text was generated by a large language model like ChatGPT to help educators and students maintain academic integrity.
How does Scribbr’s AI detector work?
The Scribbr AI Detector is a “wrap-around” for Quillbot’s AI detection service, since both tools are owned by the same parent company, Learneo (formerly Course Hero). This means when you use Scribbr AI Detector, you are using Quillbot’s AI detector.
We evaluated Quillbot’s AI detector against our own in its own review.
Most AI detectors use natural language processing and pattern recognition models to detect AI, comparing user-submitted text to underlying patterns often associated with machine-written content. When a user uploads text, the system performs a stylistic analysis, checking for formulaic sentence structures, repetitive phrasing, and the statistical likelihood of certain word choices. In practice, Scribbr’s approach is similar to other AI checkers—looking for subtle hints that suggest automated generation.
Other key features of Scribbr
- Human Proofreading Services
Scribbr offers proofreading by professionals who review your academic work for clarity, coherence, and accuracy. Students should check with their academic institution or their specific teacher to confirm whether using outside proofreaders is admissible under their school’s or classes’ academic integrity policy. - AI Proofreading and Plagiarism/Grammar Checker
Instead of human proofreading, Scribbr also offers AI driven proofreading, plagiarism detection, and grammar checking. This tool offers faster feedback than human proofreading services - Citation Generator
The Citation Generator by Scribbr creates accurate citations for bibliographies in various academic styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago, and more. If you copy and paste the source information, the tool automatically formats the citations correctly, saving time and reducing the risk of errors or missed attributions. - AI Paraphrasing, Detection, and Summarizer (From Quillbot)
Scribbr integrates Quillbot’s AI tools to offer paraphrasing, AI detection, and summarization capabilities. We review all of Quillbot’s features in its own review, but Scribbr’s interface doesn’t offer much difference from using Quillbot on its own.
Test Results of AI Detection Accuracy
To determine whether the Scribbr AI Detector lives up to the expectations, we've looked at independent tests conducted by journalists and researchers for our benchmarking. Testing generally involves running the same sample text across multiple AI detectors, and running different types of text, from AI-generated samples to human-written work.
Accuracy Findings: In independent tests, Scribbr (aka Quillbot) identified approximately 80% of texts correctly. Notably, Scribbr misidentified the author's human text as potential AI, pointing to a potential high false-positive rating. High false positives, or accidentally labeling humans as AI, can be a problem for issues of academic integrity.
So is the Scribbr AI detector accurate enough? The answer is mixed. It may be good enough for basic screening, but not necessarily the most precise solution available, especially given potential false positives.
Pricing: How much does Scribbr cost in 2025?
Scribbr’s AI detection feature is free to use and relies on the pricing for Quillbot. Other services, such as human proofreading and plagiarism check have their own service costs.
Plagiarism Checker:
- Small documents (<7500 words): $19.95
- Regular documents (<50k words): $29.95
- Large document (50k+ words): $39.95
AI Proofreading: $9.95 for 30 days
Human proofreading: $100 for 4,100 words
Compared to other services that price plagiarism and proofreading on a subscription, Scribbr is more expensive and less scalable.
Top Alternatives to Scribbr
For those who find Scribbr’s results less than satisfactory, several other options exist:
- GPTZero: A well-known detection tool recognized for its higher accuracy rates and extensive testing. If reliability is a priority, GPTZero may outperform Scribbr’s offering for AI detection. GPTZero's plagiarism detection is available on Premium plans starting at $12.99 a month.
- Originality.ai: Popular for combining plagiarism and AI checks, it can offer a more streamlined solution and potentially higher accuracy rates.
- CrossPlag’s AI Detector: A lesser-known but increasingly popular option that emphasizes transparency in its detection methodology, appealing to those who want more insight into how their text is evaluated.
It may be wise to test multiple tools before committing to one, ensuring the level of accuracy and safety aligns with your needs.
Final Verdict: Is Scribbr worth it?
Scribbr's traditional plagiarism checking and proofreading services make it stand out, but are more expensive than other plagiarism detection and grammar check services.
Scribbr’s AI Detector (via Quillbot) tries to bridge the gap between plagiarism checking and authenticity verification. Its accuracy and potential false positive rate make it less reliable for academic integrity cases. In other words, Scribbr may be a convenient starting point, but not necessarily the ultimate solution for AI detection in 2025.
