How long does Turnitin take?

How long does Turnitin take for a first submission?

For a normal first submission, the Similarity Report often appears within a few minutes. Turnitin’s official troubleshooting page says uploaded files can take up to 10-15 minutes to process and generate a Similarity Report. That is the practical window to expect before you start worrying.

The exact timing depends on file size, file type, Turnitin load, and whether your school is using Turnitin directly or through an LMS such as Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, or Brightspace.

How long does Turnitin take for a resubmission?

Resubmissions are the big exception. Turnitin says overwritten or resubmitted files may take up to 24 hours to generate a new Similarity Report. That delay is meant to keep your new draft from matching against your previous draft too quickly.

If you uploaded a second or third draft and the score has not refreshed, do not keep deleting and reuploading unless your instructor tells you to. Repeated attempts can make the timeline more confusing.

Why your Turnitin similarity score is still loading

A delayed report usually comes down to one of four issues:

• It is a resubmission. Waiting up to 24 hours can be normal.
• The file is hard to process. Huge PDFs, dense vector images, scans, and image-only first pages can slow or break processing.
• The LMS is still syncing. Sometimes Turnitin has the report but the course platform has not refreshed its view.
• The assignment settings changed. Instructors control when reports are generated and whether students can see them.

How long does Turnitin AI detection take?

Turnitin’s AI Writing Report is separate from the similarity report and can also show a loading state. Official Turnitin guidance says generating AI writing results can take several minutes. So it is possible for the Similarity Report to appear first while the AI writing indicator catches up.

If you are trying to understand both scores, wait until both reports finish before drawing conclusions. Similarity tells you source overlap; AI writing tells you whether qualifying prose looks machine-generated. The two scores do not mean the same thing.

What to do if Turnitin is taking too long

If this is your first submission, wait at least 10-15 minutes and refresh the assignment page. If it is a resubmission, give it up to 24 hours. If the report is still missing after that, contact your instructor or support and include the assignment link, submission time, file type, and whether this was a resubmission.

Before a deadline, the safer workflow is to avoid last-minute uncertainty. Run a private pre-check early, revise what needs work, then submit your final file through your course.

How PaperCheck timing compares

PaperCheck runs your document through the real Turnitin and returns the official AI and similarity reports. Most checks finish in the same short processing window, but the same Turnitin realities apply: very large files, problematic PDFs, or queue delays can slow things down.

The difference is control. You can check before the deadline, see what needs attention, and avoid submitting blind. Your paper is processed with no repository storage, so it will not create a future self-match. For the storage risk, read whether Turnitin saves your paper.

Frequently asked questions