How to check a PDF for AI
Upload a PDF, check that its text was read correctly, and understand what the AI result can tell you.
You can check the writing in a PDF with Know Nota. Upload the file, make sure the extracted text looks right, then select Check for AI. You need at least 50 words and a PDF with selectable text.
1. Check that your PDF contains text
Try selecting a sentence in your PDF and copying it into a text editor. If the words copy correctly, the file is likely ready to upload.
If you can only select an image, your PDF may be a scan. Nota does not turn pictures of pages into text. Use your original Word document, paste the original writing, or extract the text with an OCR tool first. Read through any extracted text before checking it: missing words and mixed-up columns can change what the detector receives.
2. Upload it to Nota
Open the AI checker, choose the file option, and upload your PDF. The upload limit is 30 MB. Nota also accepts DOCX, TXT, Markdown, CSV and RTF.
Check the extracted writing before starting. Watch for repeated page headers, broken sentences, references inserted halfway through paragraphs, and columns read in the wrong order. If the extraction is wrong, copying a clean passage from the original document may be easier.
Keep the text representative of the writing you want to check. Adding unrelated paragraphs just to reach the minimum makes the result harder to interpret.
3. Read the result and the coverage note
Select Check for AI. Nota explains how the text reads to its detector. A low result means the text looks more like human writing to that model; a high result means it looks more like AI writing. There are also less clear results between those ends.
The current model has a limit on how much text it can read in a single check. On a long PDF, the AI result may cover only the beginning. Read the coverage note beside your result before treating it as a check of the entire file. A file being accepted is not a promise that every page was scored.
Checking separate passages can give you results for those passages, but averaging them does not create a validated score for the whole document.
What the check can tell you
An AI check gives you a prediction about writing patterns. It cannot prove who wrote a document, name the AI tool used, or guarantee that another checker will agree.
It is also different from a source check. Nota’s optional paid source check looks for matching passages on the web. A match may be a quotation, a reference, or text that needs a closer look. No matches does not prove originality: private pages and material the search cannot reach may be missing.
Before sharing a result
Make sure you understand which text was checked. Keep the original file and any drafts you may need for context. Paid plans let you download or share a saved AI-check report; including your actual text is optional.
AI detectors can make mistakes. If this is your assignment, a result alone is no reason to rewrite your own work to chase a different score. Review the writing, sources and assignment requirements first.
Check a PDF · Why is my writing flagged as AI? · How Nota works