Development & infrastructureCoalition for Content Provenance and AuthenticityOpen source
C2PA
Decision matrix
C2PA app decision matrix
Overview
C2PA is a free, open standard (Content Credentials) for recording where an image, video or document came from and what was edited, backed by Adobe, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, Meta, BBC, Sony, TikTok and others. It's a label you attach and others can check, not a filter that blocks fakes; pick it when provenance needs to be checkable, not just claimed.
Other good fits
Anyone evaluating whether a tool that generates or edits media supports Content Credentials, before choosing it for published work.
+ Pros
Read pros
C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) is an open technical standard for recording, in the file itself, where a piece of content came from and what's been done to it since. Its practical form is Content Credentials: a tamper-evident record a viewer can inspect, similar in spirit to a nutrition label, showing capture or generation details and the edit history. It's steered by a coalition that includes Adobe, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, Meta, the BBC, Sony and TikTok, among others.
Pick it when…
You publish AI-generated or AI-edited images, video or documents and want a record a reader can check, not just a caption claiming authenticity.
You're choosing between generation or editing tools and want to know which ones attach Content Credentials automatically.
Your organisation needs to show, verifiably, that a published image wasn't manipulated after a certain point.
− Cons
Read cons
Content Credentials is a label you attach; it can't be added retroactively to content that never carried one, and it can't force every platform to preserve it through re-uploads, screenshots or format conversions. A file with no credentials isn't proof of manipulation, only proof that nothing was recorded, so absence of a label tells you nothing definitive either way.
Pick something else when…
You need to detect AI-generated content that carries no provenance metadata at all. That's a different problem (AI-content detection), and no detector is reliable enough to trust alone.
You need guaranteed persistence through every re-upload and platform. No current standard achieves that; treat Content Credentials as one useful signal, not a guarantee.
Avoid if
You need the guarantee to survive every platform re-upload; some platforms strip metadata, including Content Credentials, on upload.
Workflow
Use tools that already support Content Credentials (many current image, video and editing tools do) so the record is attached automatically at creation or export → check the credentials on a file using a verifier before publishing, to confirm the record survived → publish through channels that preserve file metadata where possible → tell readers where to check the credentials if the platform doesn't display them natively.
Cost
The specification is free to read and free to adopt; there's no licence fee to implement Content Credentials. The practical cost is whatever the generation or editing tool you use charges, plus the small effort of checking whether your publishing pipeline (your CMS, your social platforms) preserves the embedded record instead of stripping it during upload or resizing.
Restrictions
C2PA depends on the generating or editing tool supporting it; content from a tool that doesn't implement Content Credentials carries no record to check. Many social platforms and messaging apps strip embedded metadata, including Content Credentials, when you upload, so a checkable file on your machine may not stay checkable once shared.
First project
Documentation-based suggestion — not run here.
Take an image generated or edited by a tool that supports Content Credentials, export it, then check its credentials with a public verifier (available through contentcredentials.org) before and after uploading it to a platform you use. Note whether the platform preserves or strips the record.
Done when you can say, for one real platform your lab or company actually uses, whether Content Credentials survive an upload, and you've written that down somewhere your team will see it.
Links & evidence
Documentation-based · not hands-on · Sep 23, 2026
Rests on the C2PA and Content Credentials websites, read on 2026-09-23. No verifier tool was run and no file's credentials were checked for this review.
A plain, written attribution or caption is simpler but has no tamper-evidence; anyone can copy or alter the claim.
A platform-specific "AI-generated" label (where a platform adds its own tag) works only on that platform and doesn't travel with the file.
Combining Content Credentials with your own publishing checklist (verify before publish, note what survives upload) is the practical middle ground most labs and small companies land on.
Attach signed provenance manifests and Content Credentials to digital media.
Choose it when systems need to validate recorded claims and signers.
Its specification covers assertions, signatures, validation, and trust handling.
Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity · free · self-host · cloud
signed manifests
provenance assertions
signature validation
Content Credentials
provenance
verify
publish
View sourced imagePublic Content Credentials verifier, a companion application for inspecting C2PA provenance rather than an interface of the standard itself.
C2PA official product documentation
Owner-requested editorial use of public official interface screenshots, 15 September 2026. Copyright retained by the original publisher; attribution preserved. No open licence or hands-on course execution is asserted. Source asset: https://contentcredentials.org/verify. PNG conversion preserves the complete frame.