Can I stop AI companies using my art if I post it?

You can make it harder, and you can use official opt-outs where a platform offers them. You cannot reliably stop every scraper. This page does not claim otherwise.

Do Glaze or Nightshade replace a dated original?

No. They try to change what a model might learn from a published image. A dated original is a record of the file you kept. Use both if you want both jobs done, and read the limits in the Glaze guide.

Is a low-resolution post enough protection?

It reduces the quality of what is easy to collect. It is not a barrier, and it does not date your master. Keep the master separately.

Does a TimeBind prove a model trained on my picture?

No. It can show that your exact file existed by a date and still matches. It cannot inspect someone else’s training set.

Where should I post instead of Instagram?

That depends on terms you are willing to accept, the audience you need, and whether an official opt-out exists. We are not ranking platforms here. Read the current terms and, for Meta accounts, the opt-out article linked above.

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How to protect your art from AI scraping when you post it online

Inna Hall

November 12, 2026

Guides

Flat illustration of a board of abstract colour panels on a navy desk, beside a clock and a teal check-mark badge. No people, text or logos.

Short answer: There is no reliable way to post work online and still stop every scraper. What you can do is practical and limited: post a smaller or watermarked preview rather than the master file, be selective about platforms and their AI-training terms, use official opt-outs where they exist, and treat tools such as Glaze or Nightshade as partial defences with known limits, not as a guarantee. A TimeBind cannot stop someone copying a picture off a webpage. It can date the exact original you kept, so you still have a checkable file that existed no later than a recorded time and still matches.

Last checked 12 November 2026. General information for artists and illustrators, not legal advice on copyright, platform terms or data protection. TimeBinder does not block scrapers, does not cloak images, and a dated record is not proof that a work was kept out of a training set or that a later image copied your style.

Some links to other tools on this page are affiliate links, marked “affiliate link”. If you buy through one, TimeBinder may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Tools are chosen on merit, with caveats. See our affiliate disclosure.

What people are actually asking
Two different jobs, often mixed up
Posting habits that actually change the file a scraper gets
What a TimeBind does and does not show
Limits
Tools that can help
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources checked

What people are actually asking

Google’s own autocomplete, checked on 12 November 2026, completes “how to protect my art from AI” with “on instagram,” “reddit,” “scraping,” “on twitter,” and “2026.” That is a demand signal, not a legal test: people want a way to keep sharing work without handing a high-quality file to whoever is collecting images for models.

The same question is asked repeatedly on Reddit. Threads we confirmed via search include “How to protect my art from AI image scrapers” on r/antiai (March 2026), “How do I protect my art from ai?” on r/artbusiness (September 2026), and earlier discussions on r/Artadvice and r/ArtMarketingTalk. Reddit blocked automated collection of vote and comment totals from this environment on 12 November 2026, so we are not inventing scores for those threads. The pattern in the visible replies is consistent: you cannot fully prevent scraping; you can make the public file less useful (lower resolution, watermarks, previews); Glaze and Nightshade are used by some artists and doubted by others; and the platform you choose matters because some sites say they train on what you post.

A related, more hopeful conversation is about where to post at all. VildrArt’s video “HUGE News for Creatives! (Anti-Ai Social Media),” uploaded on 16 October 2026, had 167,208 views, 9,748 likes and 741 comments when we checked it on 12 November 2026. That is a platform review, not a finding that any one site is un-scrapable. If you move, read the current terms yourself.

Two different jobs, often mixed up

Requests to “protect my art from AI” usually mix two jobs:

Making the public file harder to harvest or mimic — resolution, watermarks, cloaking or poisoning tools, robots.txt on a site you control, and platform opt-outs.
Being able to show what your original was, and when you had it — a dated copy of the master file, plus process files if you have them (sketches, layers, time-lapses).

The first job is about what happens after you publish. The second is about a record you hold. Neither is a substitute for the other. A TimeBind does the second job only. It does not do the first.

For what Glaze, Nightshade and the EU text-and-data-mining opt-out do, according to their own documentation and to EU texts, and for the limits their makers and later research have stated, use the existing guide: Glaze, Nightshade and AI opt-outs. This page does not repeat that comparison. For Instagram and Facebook training settings, see how to opt out of Meta using your posts for AI training.

Posting habits that actually change the file a scraper gets

None of these is a lock. Together they change what is sitting on the public web:

Do not upload the master. Keep the high-resolution or layered original off the public page. Post a smaller JPEG, and keep the master in a place you control, for example Proton Drive (affiliate link) or an external drive, with a dated record of that exact file.
Watermarks. A visible mark across a textured area is harder to crop than a logo in a corner. It will not stop a determined collector, and it will not “poison” a model in the way Nightshade aims to. It mainly reduces casual reuse and makes a preview obviously a preview.
Process, not only the finish. A time-lapse, a crop, or a photo of a physical piece is often enough for a public grid, and it is a different file from the deliverable you send a client.
A site you control is not automatically safe, but it is more controllable than a social app. Rate limits, logins and ordinary robots.txt rules can deter unsophisticated collectors. If you have a site of your own, the free AI crawler opt-out generator writes robots.txt rules for the AI crawlers that publish a way to opt out. Only crawlers that honour robots.txt will follow them. They will not stop a determined one, and they do nothing once an image is already on Instagram or X.
Read the terms of the platform you actually use. Official opt-outs, where they exist, apply to that platform’s own training, not to third parties who copy the page.

If you sell commissions or send files to clients, date the version you sent as well as the version you posted. The public preview and the delivery file are different records. Our note on what commission artists can keep covers the process-file habit in more detail.

What a TimeBind does and does not show

A TimeBind is a dated, checkable record that an exact file existed no later than a recorded time and still matches. The SHA-256 fingerprint is made in your browser and the file is never uploaded. The record is anchored to Bitcoin (a Merkle root in an OP_RETURN). Your first Pooled TimeBind is free; after that, TimeBinds start from US$5, and an ASAP TimeBind is US$15. See how it works.

Date the master, and date any important intermediate (the sketch, the layered file, the delivery export) if you have them. That lets you show those exact files existed no later than the recorded times and still match. It will not show that a later image was trained on yours, that a LoRA copied your style, or that a scraper took a particular URL.

Limits

A watermarked, downsized post can still be collected. Cloaking and poisoning tools are an arms race; the existing Glaze guide summarises what independent research has found and what the makers themselves do not claim. Platform opt-outs, where they exist, generally cover future training by that platform, not the rest of the internet. A dated record does not block any of that activity.

Tools that can help

Keep the master off the feed. Proton Drive (affiliate link) is one place to store it; a disk you hold is another. Use official platform objection forms where they are available, and see the Glaze and Nightshade guide before you rely on a cloaking tool. Content Credentials can travel with an export, with their own limits: C2PA field guide.

More dated-file routines for artists sit on the creators hub and the designers hub. If you publish on a site you control, see the shared robots.txt AI-training opt-out announced by Google, OpenAI and Microsoft on 30 October 2026.

A different, narrower habit applies when a commission is still in progress. The free illustration commission AI brief checklist looks at the brief you were sent and the files you will deliver. It is not legal advice.

If the next step is using a Figma AI feature on work you already hold, see also the free Figma AI terms checklist. It cannot decide ownership, and it cannot show what Figma did with the file.

Your file’s fingerprint, anchored to a global network secured by real electricity and cryptography.

Editing a file—including with AI—changes its fingerprint, not its existing network record.

How this works

Your file’s SHA-256 fingerprint, a short code worked out from its exact contents, is made in your browser, and the file itself stays on your device. A cryptographic commitment to that fingerprint, which may be combined with others, is then anchored in a block on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin is secured by proof of work: computers around the world spend real electricity to add each block, and changing an earlier block would mean redoing that work faster than the rest of the network. Until that block is confirmed, your proof is pending. Once the Bitcoin anchoring is confirmed, you can verify the proof against that recorded commitment. The confirmed record can then be checked; Pooled TimeBinds are checked through TimeBinder, while ASAP TimeBinds can also be checked independently. If you check the file later and its fingerprint still matches, that shows the file existed no later than the recorded time. The record doesn’t show who made the file, whether AI was used, or that its contents are true.

Your filestays on your device
FingerprintSHA-256
Network timestampon Bitcoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I stop AI companies using my art if I post it?

You can make it harder, and you can use official opt-outs where a platform offers them. You cannot reliably stop every scraper. This page does not claim otherwise.
Do Glaze or Nightshade replace a dated original?

No. They try to change what a model might learn from a published image. A dated original is a record of the file you kept. Use both if you want both jobs done, and read the limits in the Glaze guide.
Is a low-resolution post enough protection?

It reduces the quality of what is easy to collect. It is not a barrier, and it does not date your master. Keep the master separately.
Does a TimeBind prove a model trained on my picture?

No. It can show that your exact file existed by a date and still matches. It cannot inspect someone else’s training set.
Where should I post instead of Instagram?

That depends on terms you are willing to accept, the audience you need, and whether an official opt-out exists. We are not ranking platforms here. Read the current terms and, for Meta accounts, the opt-out article linked above.

Sources checked

Google autocomplete for “how to protect my art from AI” and related queries, collected 12 November 2026, saved in this project’s research files
r/antiai, “How to protect my art from AI image scrapers,” March 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/comments/1s5fpd7/how_to_protect_my_art_from_ai_image_scrapers/ (vote totals not collected; Reddit blocked automated access on 12 November 2026)
r/artbusiness, “How do I protect my art from ai?,” September 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/artbusiness/comments/1w73lmu/discussionhow_do_i_protect_my_art_from_ai/
r/Artadvice, “What’s your way to prevent your art and artstyle getting stealed by Ai scrappers?,” February 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/Artadvice/comments/1r0z4xf/whats_your_way_to_prevent_your_art_and_artstyle/
r/ArtMarketingTalk, “How Do You Post Online in the Age of Rampant AI Scraping?,” September 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtMarketingTalk/comments/1ncrftg/discussion_how_do_you_post_online_in_the_age_of/
VildrArt, “HUGE News for Creatives! (Anti-Ai Social Media),” YouTube, uploaded 16 October 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gktuU2aqpI (167,208 views when checked 12 November 2026)
TimeBinder, “Glaze, Nightshade and AI opt-outs,” https://timebinder.io/blog/glaze-nightshade-and-opt-outs-protecting-art-from-ai-training/

Date the master before you post a preview

Your first Pooled TimeBind is free, with no credit card required. After that, TimeBinds start from US$5, and an ASAP TimeBind is US$15. Click here to start, or see plans and pricing.

Inna Hall

Inna Hall is an Australian lawyer admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia in 2013. She has worked across government and private legal practice and is the director of TimeBinder, focusing on document authenticity, evidentiary risk, and blockchain-based proof of existence.