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How to do a Reverse Image Search: Home

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Often, claims or stories will come to you in the form of images and memes. How do you know if images have been digitally altered (Photoshopped) or if they are being shared out of context (misrepresented)?

If you want to find trusted coverage of the issue, claim, or photo, you have two options:

  1. You can search the relevant text from the image. Visit the Evaluating Web Sources Resource Guide to learn how to fact check.
  2. You can use “reverse image search” in Google. Keep reading to learn how.

Reverse Image Search On Your Computer

Using Chrome as your browser, right-click the image and select “Search Google for image.” Note: On a Mac, use Control-click. On a Chromebook, use Alt-click. 

In the example below, we can do a reverse image search on this meme that suggests space lasers were responsible for the California wildfires.


Screenshot of a meme claiming that the California wildfires were caused by “powerful lasers.”

This is a screenshot of a meme claiming that the California wildfires were caused by “powerful lasers.” We can try to check this claim with a reverse image search.

Reverse Image Search On Your Phone

Using the Chrome app, touch and hold the image. Then select “Search Google for This Image” Note: You may first have to click a menu option to “Open in Chrome”

 

Menu showing option to "search Google for this image".

 

The Results

You will get a list of any other websites where the image has been used, including previous fact-checks of the image, and perhaps even a link to the real version of the photo. 

In our example, we see that this meme has appeared in many other places, and that it has already been shown to be false by a reputable fact-checking organization.


Reverse Image Search Results

Our reverse image search results show that factcheck.org has already found this conspiracy theory meme to be false. The results of this fact-checking led to some of the actual images, in context. In the screenshot below from the Twitter account for SpaceX, we see that the first image from the meme was actually an image of a SpaceX rocket launch, not a laser beam hitting California.
 
A Tweet from the official Twitter account for SpaceX shows the origin of one of the supposed “laser” images.
A Tweet from the official Twitter account for SpaceX shows the origin of one of the supposed “laser” images.

Fact Check a Photo with a Reverse Image Search

View the video for more information about Google Reverse Image Searching. Then check out Snopes Tips: A Guide To Performing Reverse Image Searches

Attribution

This guide adapted from Introduction to College Research Copyright © by Walter D. Butler; Aloha Sargent; and Kelsey Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.