Methodology and limitations
This page applies to every WroteByMe report. If someone sent you a report, read this before you rely on it.
How a report is made
- A report is built from the revision history that Google Docs recorded while the document was being written. Google created that record before any dispute existed.
- Analysis runs in the writer's browser. WroteByMe's server receives only what the writer chooses to publish.
- A session is a run of edits with no gap of 5 minutes or more. Active time adds up the gaps between edits inside sessions and leaves out gaps longer than 60 seconds.
- A paste-like insertion is a single edit that added 100 or more characters. Text that was cut and re-inserted inside the document is counted as a move, not a paste.
What a report cannot show
- A report describes how the document was edited. It does not and cannot determine whether any text was written by a person or by AI. WroteByMe does not run AI detection.
- A gradual history can be produced by retyping text from another source. A large insertion can be legitimate: a quotation, a citation, or text drafted elsewhere by the same writer.
- A report is computed in the writer's browser and published by the writer. WroteByMe does not check the figures: anyone can publish a report whose numbers are not true. To confirm a report, ask the writer to screen-share the document's version history in Google Docs.
- Timestamps come from the Google Docs revision history, as read by the writer's extension. Collaborators are shown as anonymous author slots.
WroteByMe does not detect AI and does not certify authorship.