You have granular control over what content is scanned and what data is stored when you submit a document to Copyleaks. This guide covers two distinct types of exclusion:

1. Excluding Parts of a Document from Scan Analysis: This allows you to refine the plagiarism scan by ignoring specific elements like quotes or code blocks.
2. Preventing a Document from Being Indexed: This allows you to control whether the entire document is added to the Copyleaks Internal Database for future comparisons.

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Exclude Options

The exclude object can contain the following boolean properties:

• quotes: If set to true, all text within quotation marks will be ignored.
• citations: If set to true, citations and references will be ignored.
• references: If set to true, the bibliography or reference list will be ignored.
• tableOfContents: If set to true, the table of contents will be ignored.
• titles: If set to true, titles and headings will be ignored.
• code: If set to true, code blocks will be ignored.

Request Example

HTTP

PUT https://api.copyleaks.com/v3/scans/submit/file/my-scan-exclude-example
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LOGIN_TOKEN

{
  "base64": "VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRlc3QgZmlsZS4gIkhlbGxvLCB3b3JsZCEiIGlzIGEgcXVvdGUuIChTbWl0aCwgMjAyMyk=",
  "filename": "document-with-exclusions.txt",
  "properties": {
    "webhooks": {
      "status": "https://my-server.com/webhook/{STATUS}"
    },
    "exclude": {
      "quotes": true,
      "citations": true
    },
    "sandbox": true
  }
}

cURL

curl --request PUT \
  --url https://api.copyleaks.com/v3/scans/submit/file/my-scan-exclude-example \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LOGIN_TOKEN' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "base64": "VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRlc3QgZmlsZS4gIkhlbGxvLCB3b3JsZCEiIGlzIGEgcXVvdGUuIChTbWl0aCwgMjAyMyk=",
    "filename": "document-with-exclusions.txt",
    "properties": {
      "webhooks": {
        "status": "https://my-server.com/webhook/{STATUS}"
      },
      "exclude": {
        "quotes": true,
        "citations": true
      },
      "sandbox": true
    }
  }'

Response Example

When the scan is processed, the scannedDocument object in the response will reflect the number of words that were excluded.

201

201 Created

The scan was successfully created and is now processing. The excluded word count is reflected in the response.

Example Response

A typical response from this endpoint:

Show full example (39 lines)

{
  "scannedDocument": {
    "scanId": "my-scan-exclude-example",
    "totalWords": 8,
    "totalExcluded": 4,
    "credits": 0,
    "expectedCredits": 1,
    "creationTime": "2025-08-10T10:00:00.000000Z",
    "metadata": {
      "filename": "document-with-exclusions.txt"
    },
    "enabled": {
      "plagiarismDetection": true,
      "aiDetection": false,
      "explainableAi": false,
      "writingFeedback": false,
      "pdfReport": true,
      "cheatDetection": false,
      "aiSourceMatch": false
    },
    "detectedLanguage": "en"
  },
  "results": {
    "score": {
      "identicalWords": 0,
      "minorChangedWords": 0,
      "relatedMeaningWords": 0,
      "aggregatedScore": 0
    },
    "internet": [],
    "database": [],
    "batch": [],
    "repositories": []
  },
  "notifications": {},
  "writingFeedback": {},
  "status": 0,
  "developerPayload": ""
}

{
  "scannedDocument": {
    "scanId": "my-scan-exclude-example",
    "totalWords": 8,
    "totalExcluded": 4,
    "credits": 0,
    "expectedCredits": 1,
    "creationTime": "2025-08-10T10:00:00.000000Z",
    "metadata": {
      "filename": "document-with-exclusions.txt"
    },
    "enabled": {
      "plagiarismDetection": true,
      "aiDetection": false,
      "explainableAi": false,
// ... truncated

🗺️ Next Steps

Webhooks Overview Learn how to securely receive and process notifications from Copyleaks.

Viewing Scan Results Understand the scan result format and how to display it to your users.