What is the best free app to identify a moth from a photo?

Seek by iNaturalist gives an instant identification on your phone with no account required, and the full iNaturalist app adds confirmation from real naturalists. Both are free and work across the US and Canada.

Can this website identify a moth from my picture?

No. This site does not read photos. It predicts which moth species are most likely flying at your location and date using open GBIF occurrence records, and scores the night for mothing. For photo ID, use iNaturalist or Seek and confirm on BugGuide, the Moth Photographers Group, or BAMONA.

What details should I record to identify a moth?

Note its rough size (wingspan), wing shape and resting posture, color and pattern, plus exactly where and when you saw it. Location and date are powerful filters because most species have a limited range and a defined flight season.

Is the moth I found dangerous or going to eat my clothes?

Almost certainly not. Of the 11,000-plus moth species in North America, only the webbing clothes moth and the casemaking clothes moth damage fabric, and most adult moths neither bite nor sting.

I found a big green moth with long tails - what is it?

Most likely a luna moth (Actias luna) if you are east of the Great Plains. Adults have no functional mouthparts, don't eat, and live about a week just to mate; the long hindwing tails are thought to confuse bat echolocation.

Why was the moth sitting on my porch light?

Moths are drawn most strongly to ultraviolet and short-wavelength light. The leading explanation is that artificial light disrupts their flight orientation - they try to keep the light at a fixed angle the way they would the moon - rather than seeking it out.

What Moth Is This? How to Identify a Moth You Found

You found a moth on your porch, your window screen, or the side of a gas-station light, and you want a name. Good news: moth ID has never been easier or freer. Here is the workflow that actually works, the resources to trust, and an honest note on what this site does and does not do.

The fastest path: photograph it, then use a free ID app

If you only do one thing, do this: take a clear photo and feed it to a photo-ID app.

Seek by iNaturalist gives you an instant identification right on your phone, often without even needing to make an account or upload anything. Point, and it names what it can.
iNaturalist (the full app or website) lets you upload the photo, get an AI suggestion, and then have real naturalists confirm or correct it. Your observation also becomes open scientific data.

Photo apps are strongest on big, showy, distinctive moths (think a luna moth or a sphinx moth) and weaker on the thousands of small brown "micromoths" that even experts key out under a microscope. So treat the app's guess as a strong lead, not gospel, and confirm it (see below).

The 5 things to note before you snap the photo

A good photo plus a few field notes beats a blurry photo every time. Jot down or remember:

Size. Roughly how wide is it wingtip to wingtip? A fingernail? A credit card? A small bird? Wingspan alone rules out huge numbers of species.
Wing shape and resting posture. This is the big one. Does it sit as a flat triangle (many owlet moths), tent its wings like a tiny roof, roll them into a tube around its body, or hold them out flat and open? Posture narrows the family fast.
Color and pattern. Note the ground color, any eyespots, bands, "comma" or kidney-shaped marks, or metallic flecks. Photograph the top of the wings; if you can, get the underside and the antennae too (feathery antennae often mean a male).
Where you saw it. Your state or province, and the habitat (woods, suburb, marsh). Range is one of the most powerful filters - a moth common in Florida may not occur in Michigan at all.
When you saw it. The date and time. Many species fly in a tight seasonal window, so "late June, after dark" is a real clue.

How to confirm the ID (don't stop at the app)

Once the app gives you a candidate name, verify it against a reference built by people, organized by North American region:

BugGuide - a huge, community-curated photo library you can browse by taxonomic group, with range and season notes.
Moth Photographers Group (MPG) - plate-style photo references and state checklists; excellent for comparing similar species side by side.
BAMONA (Butterflies and Moths of North America) - verified records and maps that show whether your species has actually been reported near you.

Compare your moth's pattern, size, and known range against two or three of these. If the look matches and your location and date fall inside the species' range and flight season, you can be confident. If the moth is a small brown one and nothing lines up cleanly, it is fine to land on the genus or family - even seasoned moth-ers do that constantly.

A quick reality check on what you found

A few things worth knowing as you ID:

It is almost certainly harmless. Of the 11,000-plus moth species in North America, only two - the webbing clothes moth and the casemaking clothes moth - actually damage clothing. The moth on your wall is not eating your sweaters.
Adult moths mostly don't bite or sting, and many don't even eat. The luna moth (Actias luna), one of the most-Googled "what is this," has no functional mouthparts as an adult, doesn't feed at all, and lives only about a week purely to mate. If you found a big pale-green moth with long trailing hindwing tails east of the Great Plains, that is very likely a luna - those tails are thought to confuse bat echolocation. More in our luna moth season guide.
Found it at a light? That is normal. Moths are drawn most strongly to ultraviolet and short-wavelength light, and the leading explanation is that artificial light scrambles their flight orientation - they try to hold the light at a fixed angle the way they would the moon - rather than being "attracted" to a goal.

Then flip the question: what is even flying here tonight?

ID apps tell you what a specific moth is. They can't tell you what is likely to be out tonight where you live - and that context makes you a far better identifier, because you start with a short list of plausible species instead of all 11,000.

That is exactly what this tool does. It does not read your photo. Instead, it pulls open GBIF occurrence records for your area and date and predicts which species are most likely on the wing right now, then scores the night for mothing. Knowing that, say, a dozen owlet moths and a couple of sphinx moths are realistic tonight turns a mystery into a multiple-choice quiz.

Start at the home page to get tonight's prediction and score for your location.
Browse the state-by-state index to see what flies near you across the year.
Or jump straight to a state page like Texas, Florida, or North Carolina to see common local species and peak seasons.

New to all this? Pair this guide with mothing for beginners and what makes a good night for moths, and you'll go from "what moth is this?" to "I bet I'll see these five tonight" pretty fast.