What anime is this? Find it from a screenshot or picture

A screenshot from an episode goes into a scene search, which returns the title, the episode and a timestamp. Fan art, an illustration or game CG goes into an artwork search, which returns pages where similar images were posted. The two use different indexes, so a miss in one is not a verdict. This article says which of the two Z.Tools tools fits which image, shows what each returned when I ran the same frame through both on 2026-11-10, and lists why a search comes back empty or wrong.

Pick the search by the kind of image

trace.moe says that for a GIF or a video only the first frame is searched (API docs), so for a clip, pick a clean frame yourself. Its FAQ points artwork to SauceNAO and iqdb.org (FAQ, read 2026-11-10).

Anime Scene Search sends the image from your browser to the trace.moe API. Anime Reverse Image Search uploads the image to Z.Tools and asks SauceNAO, which describes itself as a reverse image search engine that indexes "several billion images from web services, anime, manga, movies, TV shows, and various other sources" (SauceNAO, About).

Z.Tools·z.tools

Anime Scene Search - Find Anime by Image or Screenshot · Z.Tools

Upload a screenshot to find which anime it is from. Results show the title, episode and exact timestamp with a preview clip of the matching scene.

Z.Tools·z.tools

Anime Reverse Image Search - Find the Sauce by Image · Z.Tools

Upload an anime screenshot, illustration, fan art or game CG and find its source. Candidates are ranked by similarity with thumbnails and links to the original page.

One frame, three altered copies and a GIF in the scene search

trace.moe's README offers a sample screenshot to try (soruly/trace.moe). I used it as the test frame: a 640×360 JPEG of 36 KB. The tool identified it as a frame of Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka?? (the image belongs to its rights holders and appears here only as a test input and inside result screenshots). On 2026-11-10 at about 15:16 JST I uploaded it to Anime Scene Search in desktop Chrome.

The tool listed ten results. The top four scored 98 to 99% and all name the same series (Anilist 21034), episode 1, in windows between 00:04:32 and 00:04:52. The other six scored 55 to 57%: four frames from episode 7 of the same series and two unrelated titles.

A card's heading shows only the Japanese title; the English and romaji titles are in the collapsed Titles panel, and the Anilist ID links to the series page.

Then I changed the same file with ImageMagick and searched again each time:

The mirrored copy shows why a matching series name does not confirm a match. The top card names the right series but shows a different scene, at 60% and in red, and the correct episode 1 scene is not among its ten results. The crop shows what a failed search looks like: ten cards from unrelated titles at 49 to 53%, none of them the right series.

The GIF returned the same answer as the still because trace.moe reads only its first frame. The mirrored second frame had no effect.

trace.moe's docs say results under 90% are "most likely incorrect" and leave the judgement to you (API docs). Anime Scene Search colors scores above 90% green, 80 to 90% yellow and below 80% red. The grayscale copy scored 86%, yellow, and was correct, so a yellow score calls for a look at the preview clip and the timestamp rather than a rejection.

What the artwork search returned

I uploaded the same frame to Anime Reverse Image Search. It listed 16 results. The first was a link to anidb.net/anime/11049, which I opened: the AniDB page for Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka??. Three more carried the series or the character's name in their title or tags (a Sankaku post, a Nico Nico Seiga illustration titled ごちうさ２期…, a Danbooru post tagged "tedeza rize"). The other twelve had no series or character name in their titles or links, and with the thumbnails missing I could not confirm what they showed.

Three things about the tool showed in that run:

• The cards show a thumbnail, a link and a title, with no similarity percentage. The AniDB card had no title, only the link, so it does not tell you the episode.
• On that day every thumbnail was a grey placeholder. The tool's image proxy answered the SauceNAO thumbnail URLs with a redirect to a placeholder file, which I saw with curl and did not diagnose. I judged the cards by link and title.
• The list comes from SauceNAO's own ranking, which is not strictly by percentage.

I checked that last point on saucenao.com itself, with Safe-ish Search ticked, using the same frame. It showed "Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka?? - 1" at 82.20%, with the episode title and "Est Time: 00:04:40 / 00:23:44", which falls inside trace.moe's first window. A tweet scored 87.32% and was listed after it; I did not open it. So SauceNAO can name the episode and an estimated time for an anime frame, but Z.Tools' tool passes on only the AniDB link. For an episode frame I would start with Anime Scene Search, because it returns the episode, a time window and a clip you can watch.

For artwork I used "Ai-chan of Misskey and Mastodon interact via ActivityPub", a 600×600 pencil sketch by David Revoy under CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons). Anime Reverse Image Search again listed 16 cards, none with a title or link naming Ai-chan or Misskey. I did not open all 16 links. On saucenao.com the first eight scored between 57.33% and 56.61%, with titles such as "Joe 001" and "The Walking Dead Baseball Bat". A full list comes back even when nothing is found, and in the Z.Tools tool, which hides the percentages, you can only tell by reading titles. The sketch was published on the artist's site and Commons; neither appears in the database list on SauceNAO's front page (checked 2026-11-10), which names sites such as pixiv, Danbooru, Nico Nico Seiga, deviantArt and Twitter. I did not check whether the sketch was also posted to a listed site.

Why a search finds nothing, and what to try

Before you open the results

A wrong match can be explicit. With the cropped copy, the top results were from an explicit adult series, and Anime Scene Search plays each preview automatically, muted and looping. The artwork tool searches all of SauceNAO's databases, and its list for my plain, non-explicit frame included a link to an adult manga site (nhentai). SauceNAO's front page has a "Safe-ish Search" checkbox described as "Mask potentially explicit images, some may slip through..."; Anime Reverse Image Search has no such option. Run these searches on a screen only you can see.

trace.moe's free tier allows 100 searches per rolling 24 hours per IP address, and a search over the quota fails with HTTP 402; failed requests are not counted (limits). Anime Scene Search calls trace.moe from your browser, so the quota is your own connection's. trace.moe's terms say it does not keep search images (terms). Anime Reverse Image Search uploads your image to Z.Tools first, and SauceNAO then fetches it by URL. SauceNAO says query images are generally deleted after under half an hour, and that you should not rely on the validity of its results (Terms). I did not check how long Z.Tools keeps the uploaded copy.

If neither finds it

Try a different frame from the same scene, then the other tool. trace.moe's FAQ also names iqdb.org for artwork, and Z.Tools' own notes for the artwork tool mention Google Images as a wider but less specific fallback; I ran neither. In my runs the correct match scored 86% or more and every wrong or missing scene scored 60% or less; that is five searches with one frame, not a rule, but a list in which every card is under 60% is a sign the image was not found.

What I did not test

I used one anime frame and one illustration, once each, on one day, in desktop Chrome. I did not test subtitles, black borders, low resolution, a very new episode or a long-running series. The GIF was a two-frame file I built from the sample, not a real clip. I did not run iqdb.org or Google Images. Both services change their indexes and limits without notice, and SauceNAO's API documentation, which would give its limits, is behind a login I did not use.