Turnitin review

Turnitin is the AI detector many students meet without choosing it: institutions that license Turnitin Originality get an AI writing indicator inside the Similarity Report, visible only to instructors and administrators. The indicator gives the share of sentences the model labels as AI and links to highlighted segments, including text that was changed by paraphraser or humanizer tools. Turnitin publishes its limits openly: files need at least 300 words of prose and no more than 30,000, scores below 20 percent are hidden, and the company targets a false positive rate under 1 percent for documents with over 20 percent AI writing. It supports long-form English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Dutch and German. Turnitin says the score should not be the sole basis for action. The catch is access: there is no self-serve plan or public price, so individual teachers, editors and publishers outside a licensed institution cannot buy it. We compared documented features and published prices.

Who it is for

Schools and universities that already license Turnitin

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• AI writing indicator shown inside the Similarity Report
• Flags AI text modified by paraphraser or bypasser tools
• Detects long-form English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Dutch and German
• Accepts .docx, .pdf, .txt and .rtf files of 300 to 30,000 words
• Only instructors and administrators see the AI indicator

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Fits the submission workflow many universities already use
• Strength: Turnitin targets a false positive rate under 1 percent for documents with over 20 percent AI writing
• Strength: Scores below 20 percent are not shown, which reduces weak flags
• Weakness: Sold only to institutions through Turnitin Originality licenses, with no public price
• Weakness: Documents under 300 words are not processed
• Weakness: Individual teachers and students cannot buy it directly

Key facts

• Access: Institutions licensing Turnitin Originality
• Minimum length: 300 words
• Maximum length: 30,000 words

Where it ranks

Turnitin is No. 7 in our Best AI Detectors verdict.