What is Draw a Fish?
Draw a Fish is a collaborative drawing site made by Alden Hallak, a software engineer at Google DeepMind. You sketch a fish on a small canvas, and an AI vision model checks it as you draw. If the model agrees your drawing looks enough like a fish, it gets released into a shared aquarium where it swims alongside fish drawn by people all over the world.
The site reached number one on Hacker News in 2025 as a Show HN post, and The Verge and Boing Boing picked it up. Part of the charm is the community: you can browse galleries, vote on other people's drawings and set up your own tanks. Hallak has also written openly about building it quickly with AI coding tools, including a postmortem on a security incident in August 2025 after the traffic spike.
What You Can Do
- Draw a fish with your mouse or finger
- Get live feedback from an AI on how fish-like your drawing is
- Release your fish into a global tank shared with other players
- Browse community galleries and vote on drawings
- Make your own custom fish tanks
How to Play Draw a Fish
- Open drawafish.com.
- Draw a fish on the canvas with your mouse or finger.
- Watch the AI score and keep adjusting until it accepts your fish.
- Release it and find it swimming in the shared tank.
Is Draw a Fish Free?
Draw a Fish is free to use with no paid tier or purchases.
Who Will Enjoy It?
- Kids and adults who like doodling
- Anyone curious how AI image recognition reacts to sketches
- Groups who want to fill a tank together
- People looking for a calm, low-stakes creative break
Websites Like Draw a Fish
- Quick, Draw!: Google's game where a neural network guesses your doodle.
- AutoDraw: Uses AI to turn rough sketches into clean drawings.
- Scroobly: Brings your doodle to life by matching it to your movements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Draw a Fish free?
Yes. You can draw and release fish for free with no paid tier.
Why did the AI reject my fish?
The AI model only lets a drawing into the tank when it is confident it looks like a fish. Try a clearer body, tail and fins.
Who made Draw a Fish?
It was made by Alden Hallak, a software engineer at Google DeepMind.