Ahrefs is best known for SEO. It’s the tool you go to for keyword research, backlink analysis, and all the data-driven stuff marketers swear by. But now, they’ve quietly added something new to their platform: an AI content detector.
At first glance, it might seem like an odd fit. But it actually makes sense. With so much AI-generated content being pumped into blogs and websites, SEO professionals need a way to tell if what they’re dealing with is human-written—or at least feels like it is.
So, we put it to the test.
In this review, we’ll break down what the Ahrefs AI Detector is, how it works, who it’s for, and how it compares to some of the more established detection tools out there.
What is Ahrefs AI Content Detector?
The Ahrefs AI Detector is a free tool built to identify whether a piece of content was written by a human or generated by an AI model like ChatGPT.
Like most detectors, it functions simply: paste your content, hit a button, and it gives you a result…or that’s what I usually say. But Ahrefs does something weird for an AI content detector: it humanizes your text immediately, which is good, but totally unnecessary for most use cases.
How It Works
Ahrefs hasn’t published much about the methodology behind the detector. But based on their article, what we’ve seen, and what’s typical across similar tools, it’s safe to assume it looks at some familiar signals:
- Perplexity and burstiness: How predictable or uniform the sentence structure is.
- AI phrasing patterns: Certain ways of organizing thoughts that are common in ChatGPT and other models.
- Tone and flow: Machine-generated writing tends to lean overly formal or overly consistent, especially when unedited.
Does Ahrefs AI Content Detector Work?
Okay, here’s the thing: since they have an unusual workflow, I’m going to divide this part into two. The first will be how LLM-generated text fares against Ahrefs AI Content Detector, and the second will be how their humanized version of the same text fares against Sapling’s AI Detector.
There will also be a third (bonus) part for testing Ahrefs AI Content Detector against Undetectable AI, so keep your eye out for that.
Ahrefs vs. Gemini
Test #1
Ahrefs: Successfully detected text as AI-generated.
AI Likelihood Score: 85%
Test #2
Ahrefs: Successfully detected text as AI-generated.
AI Likelihood Score: 80%
Test #3
Ahrefs: Successfully detected text as AI-generated.
AI Likelihood Score: 80%
Ahrefs Content vs. Sapling
Test #4
Ahrefs: Fails to pass as human-written.
AI Likelihood Score: 100%
Test #5
Ahrefs: Fails to pass as human-written.
AI Likelihood Score: 100%
Test #6
Ahrefs: Fails to pass as human-written.
AI Likelihood Score: 100%
Ahrefs vs. Undetectable AI
Test #7
Ahrefs: Successfully detected text as AI-generated.
AI Likelihood Score: 80%
Test #8
Ahrefs: Successfully detected text as AI-generated.
AI Likelihood Score: 80%
Test #9
Ahrefs: Successfully detected text as AI-generated.
AI Likelihood Score: 80%
Overall Score (Ahrefs AI Detector)
Overall Score (Ahrefs AI Humanizer)
The Bottom Line
Here’s what I have: Ahrefs is a good AI detector, but it’s an unreliable AI humanizer.
It does a decent job flagging raw, straight-from-Gemini content, and surprisingly, even Undetectable AI content. It was consistently giving 80% or 85% AI likelihood score for all AI-generated content… wait a minute.
If there’s one thing I definitely noticed is that, no matter the input, Ahrefs consistently gave me a score of either 80% or 85%, which is weird the first two or three times, then it became a pattern. There’s definitely something sketchy there.
As for its humanizer, there’s unfortunately nothing there. It can’t bypass AI detectors as consistently as Undetectable AI or HideMyAI.
Will I recommend Ahrefs AI Content Detector? Will I use it in the future? This is one of the first times in this blog when I will, with full conscience, say no.
