Inspect · read-only
Tell me what is hidden in my photo
No wall of field names and hex. Every item is explained in everyday language: what it is, who wrote it there, and what a platform does with it.
JPG · PNG · WebP · AVIF · HEIC/15 MB per file/Parsed locally/No sign-up
Drop a file here, or click to choose
JPG / PNG / WebP / AVIF / HEIC · one file at a time · 15 MB max
If the file is a placeholder synced from iCloud or a cloud drive (usually under 4 KB), download the original first.
Four things, one sentence each
| Block | Think of it as | The real consequence |
|---|---|---|
| C2PA | A signed birth certificate | The platform reads it as “AI-generated”, and it is nearly impossible to switch off in-app |
| XMP | A recipe card left inside the book | Prompts, seeds and model names are on it; a competitor can just read them |
| EXIF | The camera's diary | Body, lens, time and GPS, written in detail |
| PNG text chunks | Blueprints stuffed in a drawer | Stable Diffusion stores the whole workflow JSON here |
Four things that really happen
- A wedding photographer removes a passer-by with Generative Fill and Instagram puts AI Info on the whole set — because C2PA came along on export.
- An Etsy seller finds a competitor holding their full Midjourney prompt, taken from the XMP left in a listing PNG.
- A travel blogger posts a story and the GPS in the EXIF exposes the hotel to every follower.
- A food blogger runs AI Denoise on a dim restaurant shot and the Reels cover gets marked AI-assisted — the photo itself is entirely real.
What these have in common: the problem is not the picture, it is the file. That is also why a real photograph can be labelled AI while a fully AI-generated image becomes “clean” after a screenshot.
Three common misconceptions
- “Saving it as JPG cleans it” — no. C2PA and XMP survive inside JPEG, sometimes through several re-saves.
- “A screenshot is always clean” — mostly true, but a screenshot re-compresses the pixels, costs quality, and some tools keep the metadata anyway.
- “Only AI-generated images have AI metadata” — no. One AI-assisted edit is enough to mark a real photograph.
What people usually do next
- 1Remove what should goC2PA, XMP and PNG text chunks are cleared by default; camera EXIF can be kept.
- 2Keep what should stayWhen a photographer delivers body and lens details to a client, turn off “Remove EXIF” and clear only the AI traces.
Common questions
What does “tell me my metadata” actually do?
It reads the C2PA, XMP, EXIF, IPTC and PNG text chunks in the file and explains in everyday language what each kind is, why it exists, and whether a platform reads it. You get understanding, not a field list.
How is it different from the inspector?
The inspector gives you every field name and value, which suits triage. This page gives you the explanation, which suits a first encounter with the concepts. The underlying data is identical.
Can I look at metadata without uploading?
Yes. Parsing happens in your browser and the file never leaves the device. Once the page has loaded it keeps working offline.
What can this page not show me?
Pixel-level watermarks such as SynthID, the platform's visual classifier verdict, and history already stored on the platform's servers. None of those are in the file metadata.
Why does a camera photo have GPS in its EXIF?
Because the phone wrote the location into the file when the picture was taken. That is a privacy issue rather than an AI one, but it is the reason many people start cleaning metadata at all.