Comparison
AI essay graders compared, from Brisk and CoGrader to Turnitin
Eight tools grade essays and written answers for teachers. Five draft a score against your rubric, two write feedback and leave the grade to you, and one puts grading tools next to a similarity report.
The Graidable team
Published
Graidable makes one of the tools compared here. Every claim about another tool links to that vendor’s own page.
| Tool | Grades | AI detection | Works in | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisk | Feedback; scoring opt-in on school plans | Writing replay in Google Docs | Google Docs and your LMS | Free for teachers |
| Class Companion | Essays, short answers, handwritten photos | Pasted text; more on school plans | Own site; LMS on school plans | Free for teachers |
| CoGrader | Essays, short answers; handwriting on paid plan | On paid plans | Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology | 150 submissions a month |
| EssayGrader | Essays, short answers, handwriting, video | On Pro and Premium | Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology (Pro) | 100 essays a month |
| GPTZero | Written work: text, Word, Docs, PDF | Yes | Google Classroom, Canvas, Blackboard | Free to try |
| Graidable | Written answers, handwritten or typed | Not stated | Upload; PDFs and a spreadsheet out | Demo and sample class, no card |
| MagicSchool | Feedback on written assignments | Not stated | Own site; LMS on Enterprise | Free plan |
| Turnitin Feedback Studio | Written work; scanned paper (add-on) | Yes (Originality add-on) | Web, Canvas, D2L, Moodle, Teams | Not stated |
Brisk
- Grades
- Feedback; scoring opt-in on school plans
- AI detection
- Writing replay in Google Docs
- Free option
- Free for teachers
Class Companion
- Grades
- Essays, short answers, handwritten photos
- AI detection
- Pasted text; more on school plans
- Free option
- Free for teachers
CoGrader
- Grades
- Essays, short answers; handwriting on paid plan
- AI detection
- On paid plans
- Free option
- 150 submissions a month
EssayGrader
- Grades
- Essays, short answers, handwriting, video
- AI detection
- On Pro and Premium
- Free option
- 100 essays a month
GPTZero
- Grades
- Written work: text, Word, Docs, PDF
- AI detection
- Yes
- Free option
- Free to try
Graidable
- Grades
- Written answers, handwritten or typed
- AI detection
- Not stated
- Free option
- Demo and sample class, no card
MagicSchool
- Grades
- Feedback on written assignments
- AI detection
- Not stated
- Free option
- Free plan
Turnitin Feedback Studio
- Grades
- Written work; scanned paper (add-on)
- AI detection
- Yes (Originality add-on)
- Free option
- Not stated
In this article
- The eight tools, in alphabetical order
- Pick by what you grade
- Brisk vs CoGrader: which is better for fast feedback on essays?
- Which AI graders work for college essays, presentations and free-form work?
- Grading an essay and detecting AI writing are different jobs
- How to test a tool on your own essays
- Questions people ask
This page compares eight AI essay graders for teachers: Brisk1, Class Companion2, CoGrader3, EssayGrader4, GPTZero5, Graidable6, MagicSchool7 and Turnitin Feedback Studio8. Class Companion, CoGrader, EssayGrader, GPTZero and Graidable draft a score against your rubric. Brisk and MagicSchool write feedback and leave the grade to you; Brisk’s school plans add rubric scoring as an opt-in. Turnitin gives the instructor grading tools next to its similarity report.
To pick one, start with two questions: where do your students write, and do you want a draft score, feedback only, or a check on who wrote the essay?
The eight tools, in alphabetical order
Each profile says what the vendor’s own pages stated on 8 October 2026. Plans and prices change, so open the vendor’s page before you decide.
Brisk
Built for feedback inside Google Docs and your LMS.
- Grades
- Feedback on essays, PDFs, lab reports and math work, and on images or Word files you upload. Rubric scoring in feedback is opt-in on the school plans.
- Rubric
- Your uploaded rubrics or state standards
- Feedback
- Glow & Grow, Next Steps and Rubric Criteria comments; Targeted Feedback as Google Docs comments on school plans
- AI-writing detection
- Inspect Writing replays how a Google Doc was written, including what was pasted in
- Works in
- A Chrome and Edge extension: Google Docs, Slides, Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom, Microsoft tools and PDFs
- Free option
- Free for teachers; batch feedback has an upload limit
- Price
- Custom pricing for schools and districts
- Student data
- Says it doesn’t store student work after a task is completed and doesn’t use student or teacher data to train AI models
- Feedback stays hidden from students until you have reviewed and approved it. Targeted Feedback comments stay in draft until then.
- Batch Feedback takes a folder of assignments from Google or OneDrive and returns feedback for the whole class in one sitting.
- The Inspect Writing page says Brisk gives no accuracy score. It shows a record of how the document was produced, as the start of a conversation with the student.
- The plans page says Brisk is FERPA and COPPA compliant, and that school and district customers can sign custom DPAs.
Class Companion
Built for practice with instant feedback and retakes.
- Grades
- Short-answer, essay and multiple-choice assignments; photos of handwritten responses
- Rubric
- Any rubric: import one, write one or generate one with AI; a public library has 500+ rubrics
- Feedback
- Instant feedback and scores go to the student, with an AI tutor and multiple attempts
- AI-writing detection
- The free plan shows pasted text; school and district plans add typing anomalies, copy-and-leave-tab and similarity to other students’ responses
- Works in
- Its own site; Canvas, Schoology and Google Classroom integration on school and district plans
- Free option
- Free plan for individual teachers and their students
- Price
- School and district plans by demo; the plans page gives no price
- Student data
- Says it does not market, sell or rent personal information, complies with FERPA and COPPA, and signs data privacy agreements with districts
- Students answer on Class Companion and get feedback and a score right away, or when you choose. You then see the submissions and class insights.
- Students can dispute a score, and you accept or overrule.
- Assignment settings let you disable pasting, set a timer and add a due date.
- Its FAQ lists English, science, social studies and world languages, from kindergarten to higher education.
CoGrader
Built for rubric-based grading of essays and written work.
- Grades
- Essays, document-based questions, constructed responses and short answers; handwritten assignments on the paid Individual plan
- Rubric
- Upload any rubric, or use preloaded state-test and AP/IB rubrics
- Feedback
- A drafted score and feedback for each rubric criterion, with Glow and Grow comments
- AI-writing detection
- AI detection and plagiarism detection, listed on paid plans
- Works in
- Google Classroom for all users; Canvas and Schoology; PDF, DOCX and photo upload with a gradebook CSV export
- Free option
- Starter: 150 submissions a month
- Price
- Individual $19 a month, or $15 a month billed annually (350 submissions a month); schools, districts and higher ed get a quote
- Student data
- Says only de-identified student work is shared with the AI, and that student PII is not used to train its models
- Its pricing page says teachers review every score and comment before students see it.
- The class view shows scores by criterion, so you can see where the class is strong and where it slips.
- The pricing page lists AI detection under the Individual plan, and its FAQ names school and district subscriptions. It lists Canvas and Schoology under the free plan, and the FAQ names school and district accounts. Ask which applies to you.
- Says its development is funded by an Institute of Education Sciences award from the US Department of Education.
EssayGrader
Built for ELA and humanities teachers who grade essays.
- Grades
- Essays, short answers, DBQs, research reports and case studies; scanned handwritten essays; oral exams and video submissions on Pro
- Rubric
- Upload your own, or pick from a library of 800+ rubrics
- Feedback
- Draft scores and comments for each rubric criterion, with reports on rubric, grammar and standards
- AI-writing detection
- AI-writing detection and plagiarism detection on Pro and Premium
- Works in
- Google Classroom, Canvas and Schoology on Pro; Google Drive, Dropbox and Box on the free plan
- Free option
- Basic: 100 essays a month, up to 1,000 words each
- Price
- Pro $14.99 and Premium $34.99 a month billed annually, or $19.99 and $49.99 month to month; schools and higher ed get a quote
- Student data
- Says student submissions are never used to train AI models, student data is never sold, and teachers can delete submissions at any time
- The home page says the AI drafts scores and comments criterion by criterion, and you review, adjust and share.
- The word limit per essay rises with the plan: 1,000 on Basic, 3,500 on Pro and 8,000 on Premium, which it describes as the plan for higher-ed instructors.
- Says it reads cursive, print and messy handwriting from scans, and grades in languages including Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese.
- The AI detector marks sentences likely written by tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
GPTZero
Built for AI-writing checks and grading in one place.
- Grades
- Any written assignment type; pasted text, Word, Google Docs and PDF files
- Rubric
- Describe or upload your own, or use a shared template
- Feedback
- A suggested score and detailed feedback on each submission, against your rubric
- AI-writing detection
- Yes: GPTZero’s AI detection and plagiarism reports can be added to the review
- Works in
- Google Classroom, Canvas, Blackboard
- Free option
- A “Try Grading Free” button on the AI Reviewer page
- Price
- The AI Reviewer page says it is included in all Educator plans. The pricing page lists Premium at $12.99 and Professional at $24.99 a month billed annually, or $23.99 and $45.99 month to month.
- Student data
- Says files are encrypted, the platform is FERPA and GDPR compliant, and it never sells or shares your information
- The grading assistant is called AI Reviewer. You can change scores, feedback and annotations, and the page says teachers should make the final call.
- Rubric templates can be shared with students, so they get feedback on a draft before they hand it in.
- The page says grading is most accurate in English and also handles Spanish, French, Portuguese and German.
GraidableOur tool
Built for handwritten tests graded from your own rubric.
- Grades
- Written answers and essays on tests and assignments, handwritten or typed; PDFs, images and scans
- Rubric
- Your own rubric or answer key, with points or levels for each criterion
- Feedback
- A draft score and a comment for each criterion, and a feedback PDF for each student
- AI-writing detection
- Not stated
- Works in
- Upload PDFs, images or scans; results come as feedback PDFs and a spreadsheet
- Free option
- Demo and sample class, no card
- Price
- Student $9.99 and Professional $24.99 a month (10 and 60 students graded a month); the first plan starts with 10 free gradings; schools get a price on request
- Student data
- The school-owner page has the data processing agreement, DPIA material and sub-processor list, and says neither Graidable nor its AI providers train on student work
- Reads handwriting, so essays and long answers written by hand in an exam room are graded from the scan.
- Each score shows where on the student’s page it comes from, and doubtful items get a “Check closely” flag with the reason.
- You review, change and approve every score; nothing reaches a student before you have.
MagicSchool
Built as a set of 80+ teacher tools, feedback among them.
- Grades
- Feedback on written assignments, for one student or a class batch
- Rubric
- Your own criteria or rubric; a rubric generator is one of the tools
- Feedback
- What is working and next steps for each student, as a first draft you review and edit
- AI-writing detection
- Not stated
- Works in
- Its own site, with exports to Google and Microsoft; Canvas and Schoology integration on Enterprise
- Free option
- Free plan with 80+ teacher tools, including Class Writing Feedback
- Price
- Plus $12.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually; Enterprise is custom
- Student data
- Says it doesn’t use student or teacher data to train AI and is FERPA and COPPA compliant; a custom data privacy agreement is on Enterprise
- Class Writing Feedback lets you review, personalize and send feedback on a class set in batches, based on your rubric.
- The writing feedback page says you set the criteria, then review and edit everything before it reaches students.
- The same account has tools for lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics and presentations.
Turnitin Feedback Studio
Built for institutions: similarity reports plus grading.
- Grades
- Student writing submitted online; paper-based work scanned in with the Paper to Digital add-on
- Rubric
- Your own or pre-loaded rubrics, and grading forms
- Feedback
- The instructor’s comments: QuickMarks comment libraries, pinned and media comments, AI summary comments
- AI-writing detection
- Yes, with the Originality add-on: an AI writing indicator inside the Similarity Report
- Works in
- The web, and D2L, Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Sakai and other LMSs
- Free option
- Not stated
- Price
- The page gives no price; contact sales
- Student data
- Says it is GDPR compliant and stores data in SOC2-certified data centers
- The Similarity Report compares student work with other student submissions, publications and web content.
- Its FAQ says Feedback Studio does not make the final call on plagiarism. The report is there for the instructor’s own judgment.
- Turnitin Clarity, a paid add-on, gives students a writing space inside the LMS and shows the instructor the drafting process, including pasted text and draft history.
Pick by what you grade
- If your students write in Google Docs and you want comments in the document itself, look at Brisk.
- If you want a draft score for every rubric criterion across a class set, look at CoGrader, EssayGrader and GPTZero.
- If you want students to get feedback, revise and try again before you grade, look at Class Companion.
- If the essays or written answers are part of a handwritten test, look at Graidable, the tool we make: it reads the scans and drafts a score for each criterion of your rubric.
- If the essays are handwritten homework, Class Companion takes photos, CoGrader lists handwriting on its paid Individual plan, EssayGrader reads scans, and Turnitin has the Paper to Digital add-on.
- If you already plan lessons in MagicSchool, its writing feedback tool is in the same account.
- If your school or university has a Turnitin license, Feedback Studio puts rubrics and your comments next to the similarity report.
This page is one of a set. The hub covers every kind of AI grading tool. Two more pages cover handwritten math and science and programming assignments.
Brisk vs CoGrader: which is better for fast feedback on essays?
It depends on where the essay is. Brisk writes feedback into the Google Doc or LMS page the student used1. CoGrader grades a class set against a rubric and drafts a score and feedback for each criterion3.
| Brisk | CoGrader | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Feedback inside the tools you already use | Rubric-based grading of written work |
| What you get back | Glow & Grow, Next Steps and Rubric Criteria comments | A drafted score and feedback for each criterion |
| A score | Rubric scoring in feedback, opt-in on school plans | Yes, drafted for you to review |
| Rubric | Your uploaded rubric or state standards | Any rubric you upload, or preloaded state-test and AP/IB rubrics |
| A whole class | Batch Feedback from a Google or OneDrive folder | Import from Google Classroom, Canvas or Schoology, and send grades back |
| Handwritten essays | Not stated; you can upload images and PDFs | On the paid Individual plan |
| AI-writing check | Inspect Writing replays how a Google Doc was written | AI and plagiarism detection on paid plans |
| Free for a teacher | Yes; batch feedback has an upload limit | Yes, 150 submissions a month |
| Paid | Schools and districts, custom price | $19 a month for one teacher; quotes for schools |
Brisk fits when the draft is a Google Doc and you want the feedback on the page: Glow & Grow comments sit at the top of the document, and on school plans Targeted Feedback arrives as Google comments. Nothing shows to the student until you approve it.
CoGrader fits when you have a class set to grade. You import the assignment, pick or upload the rubric, and review a drafted grade for each essay before anything goes back to the gradebook.
Both are free for a teacher to start, so run the same five essays through each and compare the comments with the ones you would have written.
Which AI graders work for college essays, presentations and free-form work?
For college essays, three of the eight vendors name higher education in their plans. CoGrader has a Higher Ed & Enterprise plan3. EssayGrader describes its Premium plan as the one for higher-ed instructors4. Class Companion says it covers kindergarten to higher education2. Turnitin Feedback Studio is written for institutions8, and GPTZero’s AI Reviewer connects to Canvas and Blackboard5.
What a humanities department should check first:
- Long papers. EssayGrader states a word limit per essay: 3,500 on Pro and 8,000 on Premium. The other pages we read give no word limit, so ask before you upload a seminar paper.
- Free-form writing. GPTZero says AI Reviewer takes any written assignment type, “from lab reports to comedy sketches”. EssayGrader lists research reports, case studies and journals.
- Presentations. EssayGrader’s Pro plan lists grading of oral exams and video submissions. Among these eight, that is the only mention of spoken or recorded work. Outside this list, GradingPal’s home page says it grades slides and spoken content in audio or video9. Ask for a demo on one of your own.
- Your LMS. Canvas is on seven of the eight lists, for some on school plans only. Graidable returns feedback PDFs and a spreadsheet. Blackboard is on GPTZero’s. D2L, Moodle and Sakai are on Turnitin’s.
- Your rubric. All eight take your own rubric or criteria.
On grading quality, the vendors’ pages can’t settle it for your students. CoGrader reports a June 2026 study in which its scores on Texas STAAR essays were within one point of the official raters in 98.5% of cases3. GPTZero says its grading is highly accurate for standard assignments, that grading writing is subjective, and that the teacher should make the final call5.
Both are the vendor’s own statements. The number that counts for your department is the one you get from the test further down, on papers your faculty have already graded.
Grading an essay and detecting AI writing are different jobs
Grading asks how good the essay is against your rubric. Detection asks who or what wrote it. Some tools do one, some do both, and the two answers come from different parts of the product.
These four put an AI-writing detector next to the grade:
- CoGrader: AI detection and plagiarism detection, listed on paid plans.
- EssayGrader: AI-writing detection and plagiarism detection on Pro and Premium.
- GPTZero: its AI detection and plagiarism reports can be added to an AI Reviewer review.
- Turnitin: the AI writing indicator in the Similarity Report, with the Originality add-on.
These show how the essay was written and leave the verdict to you:
- Brisk: Inspect Writing replays a Google Doc from first draft to final version, including what was pasted in.
- Class Companion: shows pasted text on the free plan, and typing anomalies and similar responses on school plans.
- Turnitin Clarity: a paid add-on that shows the drafting process.
Two more names turn up on the same lists and are built for the writing itself. Grammarly Authorship replays where the text in a student’s document came from10. Khan Academy Writing Coach guides students from outline to final draft and has originality checks built in11.
The vendors are careful about what a flag means. CoGrader’s FAQ says no tool can guarantee 100% accuracy in AI detection3, and GPTZero recommends using its detector as a conversation starter5. Treat a flag the same way, whichever tool raises it.
How to test a tool on your own essays
- Take an assignment you have already graded: 15 to 30 essays, with a few weak ones and a few unusual ones.
- Give the tool the rubric you used. Don’t rewrite it for the tool unless you would rewrite it for a colleague.
- Compare the tool’s draft with your grades criterion by criterion. Totals hide errors that cancel out.
- Look at each disagreement. Did the tool misread the essay, read your rubric differently, or is it a judgment call?
- Time the review. What matters is how long it takes you to check, edit and approve one essay.
Then read ten of the comments the way a student would. If you can’t tell what to change in the next draft, the student can’t either.
Questions people ask
How much do AI essay graders cost?
From nothing to about $50 a month for one teacher. CoGrader's Individual plan is $19 a month. EssayGrader’s Pro and Premium plans are $19.99 and $49.99 month to month. MagicSchool Plus is $12.99. GPTZero lists $23.99 and $45.99. All four cost less billed annually. Brisk, Class Companion and Turnitin sell paid plans to schools and give no price on their pages.
Is there a free AI essay grader?
Yes. Brisk and Class Companion are free for individual teachers. CoGrader’s free plan covers 150 submissions a month and EssayGrader’s covers 100 essays a month. MagicSchool’s free plan includes Class Writing Feedback.
Who provides tools that grade essays and also check for AI writing?
GPTZero and Turnitin, which both sell detection alongside grading, and CoGrader and EssayGrader, which include a detector on paid plans. Brisk and Class Companion show the writing process and leave the judgment to you.
Does the teacher stay in control of the grade?
On the pages we read, yes. CoGrader and EssayGrader say you review and approve before students see anything. GPTZero says the teacher makes the final call. Brisk and MagicSchool hold feedback until you have reviewed it. Class Companion is the one built to answer the student right away, and there you choose when feedback and scores are released. In Turnitin the comments and the grade are the instructor’s own.
What happens to my students’ essays?
Read the vendor’s privacy page and ask for a data privacy agreement before you upload real student work. Brisk, CoGrader, EssayGrader and MagicSchool say student work is not used to train AI models. Class Companion and EssayGrader say they sign agreements with districts. Brisk and MagicSchool offer custom agreements on their school plans.
Graidable is the tool we make. This part is about it.
Where Graidable fits
Graidable is one of the eight, and the one built for paper. It reads handwritten or typed answers on a test, drafts a score and a comment for each criterion from your rubric or answer key, and you approve every one before a student sees anything. If your tests are in math, physics or chemistry, we compare the tools for that job in AI grading tools for handwritten math.
Sources
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Brisk Teaching, Give feedback, Plans, Inspect Writing and Privacy center. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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Class Companion, home page and Plans. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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CoGrader, home page and Pricing, including the FAQ. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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EssayGrader, home page and Pricing. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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GPTZero, AI Reviewer, Pricing and For educators. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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Graidable, Pricing and the product itself; the tool is ours. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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MagicSchool, Pricing, Writing feedback and home page. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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Turnitin, Feedback Studio, Paper to Digital and Turnitin Clarity. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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Grammarly, Grammarly for Education. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑
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Khan Academy, Writing Coach. Checked 8 October 2026. ↑