How Pangram Checks Writing — A Simple Guide for Learners

Pangram is a statistical detector that estimates which parts of a text were written by AI, AI-assisted, or human-written. The tool has been adopted by platforms and researchers, and Substack added Pangram on July 21, 2026 so readers can scan posts. Pangram's team reports a near-zero false-positive rate, and the company provides line-by-line highlights to show which sentences look machine-made.

Independent studies have tested Pangram alongside other detectors such as GPTZero, Turnitin and Copyleaks, and results have varied. A June 29, 2026 paper in the International Journal for Educational Integrity found Pangram aligned closely with ground-truth in many academic tests, while other work has shown that adversarially edited AI text can evade detection. Therefore, experts say Pangram is useful for screening but it should be used with care in high-stakes decisions.

Pangram's creators have published technical reports and model updates, and the company now offers an image-detection research preview. Although the image tool has performed well on some benchmarks, it has been shown to make errors when images are mixed with real photos. Therefore, while text flags can be informative, users are advised to double-check context and not rely solely on a single score.