A quick AI-sound check for any lyric — no sign-up, no upload, runs in your browser.
Paste your lyric and find out how much it reads like a machine wrote it. The check looks for four AI tells: zombie phrases (empty AI filler), generic imagery (the same overused words everyone leans on), repetitive structure (every line the same shape), and abstract fluff (big words that say nothing).
Your lyric
Paste the full lyric, one line per row, then hit Check. You can also load a sample.
Heuristic check, not a verdict. It flags patterns — a few hits mean “rewrite these lines”, not “you cheated”.
AI-ness report
Score runs 0–100. Lower is more human.
What the check looks for
Four patterns show up over and over in machine-written lyrics. The detector scores each one and marks the exact lines where they appear.
Zombie phrases
Filler that does no work: “in today’s world”, “unlock”, “journey”. They pad a line without adding an image. One or two can slip through; a lyric full of them reads like a press release with a beat.
Generic imagery
Moon, stars, tears, broken hearts. Fine once or twice — every songwriter reaches for them. When every line leans on the same ten words, the song stops being about anything.
Repetitive structure
Every line the same length, the same opener, the same shape. People don’t write like that — they trip, they shorten, they start mid-sentence. Machines like tidy rows.
Abstract fluff
“Everything”, “destiny”, “forever” — words that feel big and say nothing. A listener can’t picture them. Specific beats grand every time.
AI line vs. human line
The fastest way to hear the difference is side by side. Same job — opening a verse — two completely different instincts.
| Sounds machine-written | Sounds human |
|---|---|
| “I’m navigating the landscape of my broken heart”generic words doing nothing | “Found your note in the pocket of my winter coat”a real thing that happened |
| “Chasing shadows through the midnight sky”every word borrowed | “Cracked tile, third step — we counted them together”specific, rememberable |
| “Emotions flowing like the endless ocean”big words, no picture | “The landlord fixed the radiator, you’d have laughed”a tiny story in one line |
The left column is word replacement. Swap “landscape” for “road”, “endless” for “deep”, and the line doesn’t change — because it was never about anything. The right column is one concrete detail per line. That’s the whole difference.
How to use it
Ten seconds, no account, no upload. Everything runs in your browser — your lyric never leaves the page.
- Paste your lyric, one line per row
- Hit Check this lyric
- Read the flagged lines — the color tags tell you which pattern each line hit, and the advice block tells you how to fix it
Why “sounding AI” matters
A listener usually can’t tell you why a line feels flat — they just feel it. Machine-written lyrics tend to be smooth and forgettable at the same time: every image is one they’ve heard before, every line lands exactly where they expected it to land. Nothing surprises the ear, so nothing sticks.
The fix is usually small. One concrete detail per line: a street name, a brand, a time, a specific thing that happened. That’s the difference between writing about “the city lights” and writing about the neon sign outside your window that flickers when the bus passes.
What this check can’t do
This is a pattern check, not a verdict. It can’t tell you who wrote a lyric, and it doesn’t try. A great human writer can trip every flag on purpose — Leonard Cohen’s later verses lean on abstract words all the time. A careful writer can dodge them all by accident.
Use the score as a second ear, not a judge. If a flag feels wrong, trust your ear. The patterns are real, but every rule has a song that breaks it beautifully.
About this tool
Built by Alex, the one-person operation behind FreeLyricsAI. I started this site because every AI lyric generator kept handing me the same moon-and-tears output — and I wanted to see what the machines actually repeat. This detector is that project in reverse: the patterns it catches are the ones I keep editing out of my own drafts.
It’s deliberately simple and it runs offline, because I’d rather the check stay a writing tool than become another thing that watches you. If you find a phrase it misses, the word lists live right in the page source — steal them, improve them, and send me what you find.