What it does
Copyscape finds matching text online and provides highlighted comparisons. Its free service searches from a published URL, while Premium supports pasted drafts, document uploads, batch work and API-based checking.
Check a published page or an unpublished draft
Enter a published URL in the free Copyscape search. Open a result to see matching words highlighted against your page. Read the surrounding text before deciding what to do: a match may be a quotation or common wording, and Copyscape does not identify which page came first.
Premium is useful before publication. Sign up, then paste an article or upload a Word or PDF document. Prepaid searches are charged by text length. Batch Search checks up to 10,000 pages, and the API can add checks to a publishing system. A Private Index compares against your own stored content.
Limits to consider
Free searches return fewer matches and limit scans per website. Another person's searches of the same site can use that allowance. Premium can exclude known sites from results, which helps when reviewing authorized republications. For alerts about newly discovered copies, Copysentry is a separate monitoring service.
Strengths
- Highlights matching passages for contextual review.
- Premium supports unpublished text, batch checks and private-index comparisons.
Watch out for
- Free access limits both scans and returned results.
- A similarity result does not determine originality or whether copying occurred.
Best for
- Publishers and SEO editors reviewing repeated text before or after publication
Sources
- Copyscape - Frequently Asked Questions (Oct 27, 2026)
- Copyscape Premium (Oct 27, 2026)
- Copyscape Plagiarism Checker - Duplicate Content Detection Software (Oct 25, 2026)