10 Signs a Website Was Built by AI (And What Each One Means)
These ten signs are ranked roughly from weakest to strongest. Any single one, especially the first few, is only a hint — real confidence comes from several of them showing up on the same page at once.
1. Generic, interchangeable marketing copy
Headlines and section copy that could apply to almost any business, with no specific names, numbers, or details. Weak on its own, but common in unedited AI output.
2. Leftover placeholder text
Classic dummy-Latin filler text or bracketed placeholders like [Company Name] left in a live page — a strong sign nobody did a final editing pass.
3. A default component-library look, unmodified
The exact spacing, colors, and card layout of a popular UI-kit starter template, with no customization at all — recognizable to anyone who has seen a few AI-generated demos.
4. A short, unfamiliar CSS class prefix everywhere
Design-tool builders stamp their own short prefix onto nearly every element. It won't mean anything to you by name, but its sheer repetition across the page is the tell.
5. Assets loading from a CDN that isn't the site's own domain
Even after a custom domain is connected, some builders keep serving fonts, images, and scripts from their own infrastructure. Check the page source for script and image URLs.
6. A meta generator tag naming the platform
Some builders declare themselves directly in a meta tag near the top of the page source — the single easiest thing to check first.
7. Client-side code calling an LLM API directly
If the page's own JavaScript makes requests to an LLM provider's API, the site's functionality — not necessarily its design — is AI-powered.
8. A single-file page with no external stylesheet
A page whose entire styling lives in dozens of inline style attributes, with zero linked stylesheets, is typical of quick one-shot generation rather than a normal build process.
9. Hosting on a platform associated with AI deployment
Weak on its own — plenty of hand-built sites use the same general-purpose hosts — but worth noting alongside stronger signals rather than in isolation.
10. An actual attribution badge or credit line
The strongest and rarest sign: explicit wording crediting the platform by name, usually in a small corner badge. When present, it's close to a direct answer. Its absence proves nothing, since it's easy to remove.
Checking all ten by hand is tedious — an automated scan cross-checks every category in one pass and shows you the exact evidence it found. Try it on any URL, or read the full methodology behind how each signal is weighted.