What Is the Best Plagiarism Detector for Teachers?

Thanks to the internet and artificial intelligence (AI), it’s now easier than ever to generate entire papers or essays with little more than a click of a button, making finding the best plagiarism detector for teachers more crucial than ever before.

Read on to learn about the key features to look for in a plagiarism checker, and our top picks for the best ones on the market.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

• When choosing a plagiarism checker for the classroom, teachers should consider its AI detection capabilities, accuracy, ease of use, access to detailed reports, and pricing.
• Originality.ai is the best overall plagiarism checker with highly accurate AI and plagiarism detection capabilities, ease of use, detailed reports, and flexible pricing.
• Turnitin is a comprehensive checker for teachers who value its learning management system integration, though it can be expensive.
• Grammarly is great for basic AI and plagiarism detection, especially if teachers already use it for spelling and grammar checks. However, it’s not the most accurate.

Originality.ai offers the most accurate plagiarism checker and is suitable for marketers, editors, and web publishers. If educators and teachers are looking to verify potential instances of plagiarism from content in Google search results, it’s also an excellent choice. It’s important to note that it doesn’t scan academic or institutional databases.

Learn more about Originality.ai for educators.

What Teachers Should Look for in a Plagiarism Checker

When selecting a plagiarism detector for the classroom, teachers should look for the following:

• AI content detection capabilities. AI plagiarism is a key consideration, and AI detection tools can help professors check for AI. In 2024 alone, 86% of students reported using AI tools in their schoolwork.
• Accuracy. Although false positives can happen, a good plagiarism and originality detector should limit them as much as possible. Additionally, a plagiarism detector should not be the only measurement to establish academic standing.
• Ease of use. Teachers are busy, so a good tool should therefore enable them to check assignments quickly and easily.
• Detailed reports. Simply identifying whether or not an assignment has been plagiarized isn’t enough. A plagiarism checker should also highlight the location of potentially matching text and provide the source of the original content for easy verification.
• Affordability. With high schools and colleges using AI detectors for everything from plagiarism checks to research, choosing a budget-friendly tool is often essential.

By zeroing in on these factors, teachers should be able to find the best detection tool to fit their needs. Fortunately, there are several options out there.

What Is the Best Plagiarism Detector for Teachers?

Before we get into our top picks, it's important to note that what’s best for one teacher isn’t necessarily the perfect fit for another — educators have unique requirements across institutions, assignments, and courses. 

So, with that in mind, here are our choices for the best plagiarism detectors for teachers.

1. Originality.ai: Best overall AI and plagiarism checker

With 46.9% of students using AI in college work, according to a study published in Frontiers in Education, and Statista reporting that 86% of students use AI, finding a tool with both top-notch plagiarism and AI detection capabilities is essential. 

Originality.ai is therefore our overall best plagiarism checker for teachers as it offers one of the most accurate AI detection and plagiarism tools on the market today.

For educators, Originality.ai features:

• A plagiarism checker with up to 90% accuracy that can identify everything from global to complex forms of plagiarism (like patchwork plagiarism) 
• Detailed reports that highlight the location of plagiarized text, with links to sources
• A Lite AI checker for teachers with 98% accuracy and an under 1% false positive rate
• The ability to check for AI in 15 languages
• Flexible pricing and the ability to add educators (team management)
• A free AI Detector Chrome Extension so teachers can watch students write, reducing the likelihood of false positives

Even better, it's easy to use. Simply paste a student’s text into the tool, hit “Scan” and Originality.ai will analyze and return results. Quick, easy, and accurate plagiarism and AI detection teachers can trust.

Note: Originality.ai is an excellent resource for identifying potential plagiarism occurring from content in Google search results. However, it doesn’t scan academic or institutional databases.

2. Turnitin: for LMS integration

Those working in education have likely heard of Turnitin, as it’s a common choice for academic plagiarism detection. In addition, like Originality.ai, Turnitin is also one of the AI detectors used by colleges and universities for research.

One of the most popular options for student plagiarism checks, Turnitin features:

• An Originality check to detect plagiarism, including AI writing and paraphrasing
• Similarity Reports that highlight the potentially duplicated text
• A Feedback Studio for educators to add comments to student work
• Integration with various Learning Management Systems (LMS)

However, there are limitations to Turnitin such as price. Turnitin is subscription-based and doesn’t share its pricing on its website, so it may not be the best option for individual teachers or smaller schools who only need it for limited or occasional checks. Learn more in our Turnitin review.

3. Grammarly: for basic plagiarism checks

Grammarly is a solid choice for teachers who need a more budget-friendly subscription option (unfortunately, pay-per-use isn’t an option here). 

Already a trusted name in grammar checks, Grammarly has expanded its product offerings to include both AI and plagiarism detection tools.

With Grammarly, educators can:

• Detect instances of student plagiarism and AI writing, with references to sources
• Get a Grammarly Authorship breakdown of whether text has been typed by a human, copied from an online database, or generated by AI
• Generate text with AI prompts
• Access the grammar, plagiarism, and AI checkers for a monthly fee

If teachers already use Grammarly to check for student spelling and grammar errors, it can be convenient to incorporate its AI and plagiarism features into their routine. However, Grammarly isn’t the most accurate plagiarism detector on our list.

Originality.ai is better than Grammarly at identifying complex types of plagiarism like paraphrasing and patchwork plagiarism. Learn more in our Grammarly plagiarism checker review.

Try the Best Plagiarism and AI Checker for Teachers Today

With the ability to complete entire assignments with just a prompt and a click, a tool that addresses both plagiarism and AI content detection in education is essential to ensuring the originality of coursework. 

Fortunately, Originality.ai offers the most accurate AI detector and plagiarism checker with plagiarism detection that surpasses competitors like Grammarly. Originality.ai can help educators feel confident about the source of student text.

If you’re ready to start accurately detecting AI and plagiarized content in the classroom, sign up today.

Then, learn more in our top resources:

• Grammarly Plagiarism Checker Review
• Copyscape Plagiarism Checker Review
• How to Support Students to Avoid Plagiarism in Assignments
• Are Colleges Using AI Detectors?
• How Do Professors Check for AI?
• Do College Admissions Check for AI?
• 5 AI Detectors Used by Colleges and Universities for Research