Automated grading and assessment for research & learning
Gradescope is an automated grading and assessment platform that streamlines grading of handwritten, programming, and online assignments for instructors and instructional staff. Ideal for university faculty, TAs, and K–12 teachers handling large classes, it centralizes rubric-based grading, supports scanned and digital submissions, and reduces grading time. Pricing includes a free institutional preview for many schools and paid institutional licenses; individual paid pricing is managed through institutions or custom enterprise contracts.
Gradescope is a grading and assessment platform that helps instructors grade exams, homework, and programming assignments faster through rubric-based workflows and scanned/digital submission support. Its primary capability is to enable faster, consistent grading across handwritten and code-based work using customizable rubrics, AI-assisted and upload-assisted workflows, and bulk feedback tools. Gradescope’s key differentiator is automated grouping and rubric application for multi-page scanned student work, making it especially useful for large classes and STEM courses. It serves university professors, TAs, and K–12 teachers; pricing is primarily institutional with limited free access for qualifying instructors.
Gradescope launched to tackle the time-consuming problem of grading diverse student work, especially handwritten exams and large programming assignments. Founded to support instructors, it positions itself as a grading workflow platform that reduces manual repetition and enforces rubric consistency. The core value proposition is faster, fairer grading: Gradescope centralizes submissions (PDF scans, images, Canvas/LMS imports, and code repos), lets instructors design reusable rubrics, and applies marks uniformly across student responses. It is widely adopted in higher education STEM departments and increasingly in high school settings where standardized, consistent grading matters.
Gradescope’s feature set addresses real grading pain points. The Gradescope Scan and Upload system accepts multi-page PDFs and JPEGs and auto-detects pages for assignment bundling; the rubric-based grading interface lets graders apply scores and reusable comments, then propagate those scores across similar answers. Programming assignment support integrates with autograders (autograder script support) to run tests and import results into Gradescope for combined manual marking. The AI/assisted features include OCR and handwriting grouping to cluster similar answers for rubric-driven batch scoring; version control for rubric changes; and detailed analytics showing grade distributions and question-level statistics. Integrations include LMS import/export (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle), single sign-on via SAML/LTI, and CSV/Excel exports for gradebooks.
Pricing for Gradescope is primarily institution-driven. Many universities purchase campus-wide licenses; official public-facing individual monthly prices are not listed. Instructors at institutions with an existing license typically gain access for free; some institutions offer site licenses with centralized billing. Gradescope previously offered a free instructor trial and has classroom-level free use in specific cases, but ongoing paid tiers are negotiated (enterprise or departmental contracts) and pricing varies by institution size and scope. The platform also has a free access tier for instructors at qualifying institutions and a per-term or annual institutional billing model. For accurate, current per-institution pricing, contacting Gradescope sales or institutional IT is required.
Who uses Gradescope and how in real workflows? University professors use it to grade 200+ student exam PDFs per term, applying rubrics and exporting grades to Canvas; TAs use it to batch-score thousands of short-answer responses by grouping similar answers and applying consistent partial-credit rubrics. High school teachers use it to scan and grade handwritten homework for gradebooks. Example job+use cases: "Computer Science Professor using Gradescope to autograde and manually review programming assignments with test-case results" and "Math TA using Gradescope to batch-score midterm scantron-style written solutions and propagate rubric items." Compared with a competitor like Piazza or even Codio for code assignments, Gradescope focuses on rubric-driven graded assessments rather than discussion or full IDE environments.
Three capabilities that set Gradescope apart from its nearest competitors.
Current tiers and what you get at each price point. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free / Institutional Access | Free (if institution-licensed) | Access depends on institutional site license and term-based provisioning | Instructors at licensed universities or schools |
| Starter / Pilot | Custom / Contact sales | Limited-class pilot installs; negotiated seat counts and term limits | Departments piloting campus deployment |
| Institutional / Enterprise | Custom (annual contract) | Campus-wide users, admin controls, SSO and LMS integrations included | Universities and large districts needing campus licenses |
Choose Gradescope over Crowdmark if you need combined autograder integration and LMS roster sync for large STEM classes.