PDF analysis on iOS

How to scan a PDF for AI-written text on iPhone

Open a document from Files, extract the relevant prose, and review AI detector signals without finding a desktop computer.

PDFs are a common format for essays, reports, proposals, articles, and shared drafts. They are also more complicated than plain text because a PDF may contain selectable text, scanned page images, columns, headers, or footnotes.

A useful iPhone workflow separates document extraction from detection so you can verify what was actually analyzed.

Import the PDF from Files

Save the document in the Files app, iCloud Drive, or another connected storage provider. Open it in AI Detector and select the pages or text relevant to the author’s writing.

Avoid mixing the cover page, table of contents, bibliography, legal notices, or repeated headers with the main prose.

Check the extracted text

If the PDF contains selectable text, extraction is usually direct. A scanned PDF requires OCR, which can introduce merged lines, missing punctuation, and incorrect characters.

Read the extracted passage before detection. Correct obvious recognition errors but do not rewrite the author’s wording merely to improve the score.

Interpret the detector breakdown

Long documents can contain multiple writing styles. Analyze coherent sections separately when a report has several authors, quoted material, tables, or templated sections.

Compare detector signals instead of treating one percentage as certainty. Consistent direction across a substantial passage is more informative than a single short section.

Protect confidential documents

Check the latest App Store privacy information and the service policy before submitting sensitive material. Remove names, account information, unpublished research, or confidential business details when they are not required for analysis.

Important: AI detector scores are probabilistic writing signals. They do not prove authorship and should not be the sole basis for a high-stakes decision.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI Detector read scanned PDFs?

It can extract text from document images, but you should review OCR accuracy before detection.

Should I analyze the whole PDF at once?

Use coherent prose sections and exclude references, tables, repeated headers, and quoted material when possible.

Does PDF formatting affect the score?

Formatting itself is not the target, but extraction errors and mixed content can change the text being analyzed.

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