Verify a certificate in seconds
Enter the ID printed on it — or upload the document and let its shields identify it.
No code, or it’s unreadable? Upload the certificate
The QR, the hidden watermark and the printed text identify it instead.
Drop a file here, or click to browse
PDF, PNG, JPG or a photo from your phone — including iPhone HEIC. Large photos are resized automatically.
Where to find the ID
Twelve characters in four-character groups, printed under SL. NO. at the top-left — and encoded in the QR beside it. Capitals, lowercase, spaces or missing dashes all work.
Photographing it? Four things that decide whether it reads
Fill the frame
Whole certificate, edge to edge. Nothing cropped off.
Straight on
Lay it flat and shoot from directly above, not at an angle.
No flash
Even, indirect light. Glare wipes out whatever is under it.
Keep the QR in shot
It is the fastest way to identify the certificate.
The original PDF verifies most thoroughly — it carries all four shields, where a photograph carries two.
- Result in seconds
- No personal data exposed
- No account or sign-in
Anyone can run a check
- Employers & HRConfirm a degree is genuine before you make the offer.
- Embassies & visa desksCheck any certificate here; approved verifiers can request the full record.
- Graduates & studentsCheck that your own certificate still reads as authentic.
Three steps, about ten seconds
A code lookup returns almost instantly. Recovering a hidden watermark from a photograph is real image processing, so give that a few seconds.
- MP-4K7M-2XPR-9TLAorPDF · screenshot · photo
Identify the certificate
Type the code printed under the QR — or drop in the PDF, a screenshot, or a photo.
Every shield is checked
The QR, the seal, the hidden watermark, the encrypted identity — and whether the printed details still match.
- Held in the vault
- Student ID
- Transcript
- Sealed PDF
Private detail stays sealed
You get the authenticity answer. The student ID, transcript and sealed PDF are released to approved verifiers only.
What every scan checks
Each MyPapers certificate carries four independent layers of proof. A scan reads all four — if any one disagrees with the printed document, the result says so.
Secure QR
Routes to the one true verification portal, so a forged QR can't send you somewhere fake.
Cryptographic Digital Seal
Breaks the instant a single character of the contents is altered after issue.
Hidden Watermark
Machine-readable and invisible — it survives screenshots, scans, and photocopies.
Encrypted Identity
Confirms the document is authentic without exposing the holder's personal data.
Common questions
What if a certificate fails verification?
The result names the shield that failed. A broken Cryptographic Digital Seal means the file was modified after it was issued. A watermark that names a different credential means the page was assembled from more than one document. Either way, ask the holder for the original file, or contact the issuing institution before relying on it.
Can you verify a photo or a screenshot?
Yes, with one honest limitation. The Secure QR and the Hidden Watermark are printed into the page, so both survive a camera and either can identify the credential on its own. The Cryptographic Digital Seal and the Encrypted Identity block cannot: they compare the actual file, and a photograph is a new file. So a photo is checked by reading its text back and comparing the printed name, institution, degree, subject, CGPA and graduation date against the official record. For the strongest check, upload the original PDF.
Can someone scan a real certificate and edit the grade?
That is exactly the forgery this page is built to catch, and it is the reason a scan alone is not enough. The QR on a genuine certificate keeps working no matter what is done to the rest of the page, so anything that only reads the QR will confirm a real credential and show the real graduate’s details next to an edited document. Every detail printed on the page is therefore read back and compared against the record, and a document that disagrees is reported as altered — not as authentic with a note. The record is shown beside it so you can see exactly which detail was changed.
Could a bad photo make a genuine certificate look altered?
It is guarded against in both directions. Before any mismatch is reported, the page is read a second time at a different resolution, and anything the two readings disagree about is reported as “not checked” rather than as a discrepancy — a single misread digit should never brand an honest graduate’s degree a forgery. And if the text cannot be read at all, the result says the printed details were not checked instead of showing a clean pass, because an unreadable photo is not evidence of anything. If a result still looks wrong to you, contact the issuing institution.
Is my document stored or shared?
It is read, then discarded. The file goes over an encrypted connection to our secure vault — the only tier permitted to handle documents — which extracts the QR, watermark and printed text in memory and writes none of it to any store. The document is not saved, indexed, published, or copied to our global network, and it is never used to train any model. Only the claims already printed on the certificate come back; the transcript and registration number stay in the vault, and are never released to this page.
The result says “no shields found” — what does that mean?
Nothing in the file could be read as a MyPapers certificate. That isn’t proof it’s fake — most often the institution hasn’t onboarded yet, or the photo was too dark, too angled or cropped too tightly for the QR and watermark to be recovered. Retake it flat and straight on with the whole page in frame, or type the printed code into the MyPapers ID field instead.
Why does it take a few seconds?
Recovering the Hidden Watermark from a photograph is real image processing, not a lookup — the mark is spread across the whole page at very low contrast so it survives scanning and screenshots, and finding it means searching for that pattern. A MyPapers ID lookup is near-instant by comparison, because the credential is already identified.
How do I make my institution’s certificates verifiable here?
MyPapers seals certificates at the moment your institution issues them. If you’re from a university, join Early Access; if you’re a graduate or employer, ask the institution whether they’ve onboarded.
Ready to make forged certificates impossible?
Early Access partners onboard first — with priority onboarding and founding-partner benefits locked in.