About to start a "free" trial or check out on a page that feels pushy? Paste the page's own words here first. This scanner flags the wording patterns regulators warn about — the free start that turns into a bill, the extras added before you chose them, the exit that only works by phone — and tells you what each one usually means and what to do. It reads text only, and it is honest about everything text cannot show.
Paste the wording — see the traps in it
Private by design — the scan happens in your browser. Your text is never uploaded.
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Honest scope
What this scanner can see — and what it cannot
Regulators are blunt about how common these designs are: in the 2024 international sweep coordinated by the FTC, 642 subscription sites and apps were examined and nearly 76% used at least one possible dark pattern. The words are where many of those patterns live — and words are what this tool reads.
It can flag, from the words alone
It cannot see — check these yourself
A free trial that converts into recurring billing
Whether a countdown timer is real — only time proves that; regulators re-checked offers after their deadlines passed
Language saying an extra was already added for you
Whether a box on the page actually arrived ticked — that is a page state, not wording
A cancellation route that demands a phone call, notice or a fee
Visual tricks: tiny grey text, a giant yes-button beside a shrunken no, colours that hide the total
Decline buttons written to embarrass you into yes
Prices, fees or terms waiting on later steps you have not pasted
Fees that only surface at the end, and money terms buried in long text
Anything the page shows as a picture rather than words
That is why every result — including a clear one — ends with the 60-second visual checklist and the way out. A clean text result is never this tool telling you a page is fine; it is this tool telling you the words carried no known patterns, which is a smaller and more honest claim.
The seven patterns it looks for
Pattern
What it sounds like in words
The free start that turns into a bill
"Free trial… after your trial ends you will be charged… recurring billing… until you cancel"
Extras added before you chose them
"We've added protection to your order — uncheck the box to remove it"
Easy in, hard out
"To cancel, you must call… cancellations cannot be completed online"
A "no" written to embarrass you
"No, I don't want to save money" as the decline button
Pressure to decide now
"Offer ends in 09:59… only 2 left… 37 people are viewing this"
Fees that surface late
"A service fee will be calculated at checkout, plus applicable taxes"
The money terms are buried
The charge and renewal wording exiled to the last lines of a long page, behind "by clicking you agree"
The full story: how subscription traps work
How regulators define dark patterns, the sweeps that measured them, the £6 million of UK fines from October 2026, and the honest truth about the "one-click cancel" law that is not in force.
The wording, and only the wording. It looks for phrases in seven dark-pattern categories that regulators describe — forced continuity, pre-ticked extras, hard cancellation, confirm-shaming, urgency pressure, late-surfacing fees and buried negative-option terms. It never visits the page, never learns the name of the business, and judges nothing but the text you give it.
No — and the result says so itself. Words are only half of any page. This scanner cannot see a box that arrived already ticked, a price that grows on the next step, a decline button shrunk into a corner, or whether a countdown is real. Run the 60-second visual checklist under every result before you pay.
No. The scan runs inside your browser on your own device. Nothing you paste — and no photo you use to extract text — is uploaded, stored or sent to any server. Close the tab and it is gone. That is also why the tool asks you to paste instead of handing it a link: checkout pages usually sit behind logins and carts, and pasting keeps everything on your device.
A flag is not proof, and this tool makes no such claim. The same phrases appear on honest pages when the claim behind them is true — a real deadline, a real low stock level. What matters is whether the claim is true and whether you can get out. Whether a specific practice breaks the law (ROSCA and Section 5 of the FTC Act and state renewal laws in the US; the DMCC Act in the UK) is a decision for regulators and courts, and the result tells you where to report a practice if you believe it crosses the line.
Sources (checked October 24, 2026): FTC staff report, "Bringing Dark Patterns to Light" (September 15, 2022 — the definition and the four concern areas: misleading consumers including false countdown and low-stock claims; making cancellation difficult; burying key terms and junk fees; tricking consumers into sharing data); FTC/ICPEN/GPEN press release (July 10, 2024 — 642 subscription sites and apps reviewed, nearly 76% with at least one possible dark pattern, "sneaking" and "interface interference" most common; the review did not determine unlawfulness); European Commission CPC sweep (2022, published January 2023 — 148 of 399 retail sites with at least one targeted pattern); CMA press release (October 14, 2026 — £6 million in fines over fake countdowns, pre-ticked extras and a hidden joining fee; details in our CMA fines guide).
General information only — not legal advice. This scanner flags wording patterns; it cannot determine that any page or business has broken any law, and a clear result does not establish that a page is honest. Verify offers with the seller, and close calls with a consumer-protection agency.
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