The Free Fact Checker is a Chrome extension that enables you to select any text on a webpage and instantly fact-check it using Google Search and Gemini.
Select any statement on any webpage — news articles, social media, PDFs, anywhere you can highlight text.
Your text is sent to Google Gemini, which finds real data about it using Google Search through a process called grounding.
You get a fact-check with citations and sources. You will never get an AI's opinion — only answers grounded in Google Search.
Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky, Reddit, PDFs, Google Docs & Slides, news sites — any page where you can highlight text.
Results come from Google Search, not AI opinion. If no data can be found, it will tell you instead of making something up.
The extension is free. Google lets you make 20 grounding requests per day with a free Gemini API Key.
The extension does not require you to log in. You can use it immediately after installing and adding your API key.
Your queries go directly from your browser to Google's Gemini API using your own key. There is no tracking or analytics.
Highlight any text in your own writing and get instant fact-checks to ensure accuracy.
Add the Free Fact Checker from the Chrome Web Store. Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Arc, and Opera. You can also download and install the source code from GitHub.
Get your free API key from Google AI Studio. It takes about a minute.
Open the extension settings and paste in your API key. It will be verified automatically.
Highlight any statement on a webpage and click the Fact Check button that appears. That's it!
The Free Fact Checker works on any site where you can highlight text in a browser. Try it on Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, Bluesky, Reddit, and major news sites.
It's hard to know what to believe online. Manually verifying everything is basically impossible. The Free Fact Checker makes that quicker and easier by grounding every check in Google Search results.
The Free Fact Checker uses Google Search to find information. To the degree that you trust Google Search, you can trust this. It will never give you an AI's opinion — only search-grounded answers. You should always look at the citations to see if they're trustworthy.
Yes they do. That's why the Free Fact Checker uses grounding — it gives the AI real information from Google Search to base its answer on. If Google Search can't find information about a claim, it will tell you that instead of making something up.
Yes. The extension is free and you can get a free Gemini API Key from Google. Google lets you make 20 grounding requests per day on the free plan. If you want more requests per day or want to use a different Gemini model, you will need to set up billing in AI Studio.
An API Key is like a password that lets one piece of software talk to another. In this case, it lets the extension talk to Google's Gemini API on your behalf.
If we ran your requests through our server, Google would charge us for every request. By using your own free API Key, everyone gets to use the Free Fact Checker for free without limits or subscriptions.
No. The Free Fact Checker requires you to select a specific statement or passage to fact check.
If you don't like the "Fact Check This" button that shows up whenever you select text, you can turn it off in the extension settings.
No. Your queries go directly from your browser to Google's API using your own key. There is no tracking, analytics, or telemetry of any kind.
The Free Fact Checker works in all Chromium-based browsers including Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Arc, and Opera.
No, it only works in desktop browsers. Mobile browsers don't support the extensions API needed for this to work.
Yes. Select your text and then open the right-click menu and pick "Fact Check This".
Yes. Select your text and then press the Free Fact Checker toolbar icon. You can pin the icon to your toolbar to make this faster.
Yes, the source code is available on GitHub and you can download and install it yourself.
The Free Fact Checker works in any country where you can get a Gemini API Key. Free Gemini Keys are not available in all countries — check Google's availability page for details.
The Free Fact Checker was originally created as an Agent in Ask Steve. We found it so useful that we decided to make it available as a standalone extension.