About CleanOutput
Built for writers who use AI as a tool — not a ghostwriter.
Why we built this
AI writing assistants are genuinely useful. They help people overcome writer's block, structure arguments, draft first passes of difficult communications, and write in a second language. There's nothing wrong with using them.
The problem is what comes out the other side. Large language models have a fingerprint — a set of habits, a vocabulary, a cadence — that makes their output instantly recognizable to a trained eye. That fingerprint is getting more recognizable, not less, as AI writing floods the internet.
CleanOutput started as an internal tool we used to clean up AI-assisted drafts before publishing. We built it to answer one question precisely: what specifically makes this sound like AI? Not a vague probability score, but exact coordinates — that word, that phrase, that paragraph structure.
We open-sourced the approach and turned it into a free web tool because the people who need it most — students, freelancers, content creators, small businesses — are least likely to afford the paid alternatives.
Privacy by design
No servers. No accounts. No logging. Your text never leaves your browser. This is a non-negotiable design constraint, not a marketing claim.
Transparency by default
Every flag tells you why. We don't just give you a number — we show you exactly which word or phrase triggered it and why that pattern is associated with AI output.
Free, always
The core tool will always be free. No paywalls, no premium tiers for basic features, no "you've reached your daily limit." Detect and fix your writing without limits.
What we believe
AI is a tool, not an author
We don't think AI writing is inherently bad. We think passing AI writing off as purely human is a problem — for readers, for trust, and for the quality of public discourse.
Writers deserve honest feedback
A good editor tells you exactly what's wrong and why. CleanOutput tries to be that editor — direct, specific, and constructive rather than vague and judgmental.
Privacy is infrastructure
You shouldn't have to hand your draft novel, confidential memo, or personal essay to a third-party server to check if it sounds human. Privacy is a feature, not an add-on.
Limitations we're honest about
CleanOutput is a heuristic tool, not an oracle. It can produce false positives (flagging good human writing) and false negatives (missing AI text that's been heavily edited). It is best used as an editorial aid, not as a detection system for high-stakes decisions like academic misconduct. Read our full FAQ for details on accuracy and appropriate use.
We also don't do external plagiarism checking — that requires transmitting your text to a server, which is architecturally incompatible with our privacy commitment.