Comparison
Nine AI grading tools that draft your rubric, and what each one starts from
A rubric drafted from one line of prompt describes good work in general. A rubric drafted from your task and answer key says what earns each point. The tools differ most in what they start from.
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 | Starts from | Own rubric | Scoring | Grades with it | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisk | Your description | Upload | 3 to 8 points | Feedback; scoring opt-in | Free plan |
| Class Companion | Not stated | Import or paste | Points you set | Yes | Free plan |
| CoGrader | Your description | Upload as is | Per criterion | Yes | 150 a month |
| EssayGrader | Your PDF or a topic | Upload | 3 to 5 levels | Yes, your rubrics | Free |
| Gradescope | You write it | Import, Institutional | Points per item | AI groups answers | Basic plan |
| GradingPal | Your instructions | Upload or paste | Levels and points | Yes | 50 a month |
| Graidable | Your task and key | Kept as it is | Points or levels | Yes, after you approve | Setup is free |
| MagicSchool | Type, grade, goals | Upload | Levels and points | Feedback | Free plan |
| TimelyGrader | Your assignment | Fills in yours | Levels and points | Yes | Free to try |
Brisk
- Starts from
- Your description
- Grades with it
- Feedback; scoring opt-in
- Free option
- Free plan
Class Companion
- Starts from
- Not stated
- Grades with it
- Yes
- Free option
- Free plan
CoGrader
- Starts from
- Your description
- Grades with it
- Yes
- Free option
- 150 a month
EssayGrader
- Starts from
- Your PDF or a topic
- Grades with it
- Yes, your rubrics
- Free option
- Free
Gradescope
- Starts from
- You write it
- Grades with it
- AI groups answers
- Free option
- Basic plan
GradingPal
- Starts from
- Your instructions
- Grades with it
- Yes
- Free option
- 50 a month
Graidable
- Starts from
- Your task and key
- Grades with it
- Yes, after you approve
- Free option
- Setup is free
MagicSchool
- Starts from
- Type, grade, goals
- Grades with it
- Feedback
- Free option
- Free plan
TimelyGrader
- Starts from
- Your assignment
- Grades with it
- Yes
- Free option
- Free to try
In this article
This page compares how nine AI grading tools draft a rubric: Brisk1, Class Companion2, CoGrader3, EssayGrader4, Gradescope5, GradingPal6, Graidable7, MagicSchool8 and TimelyGrader9. Graidable is ours. Every cell comes from the vendor’s own pages, read on 15 October 2026.
Almost all of them offer to write the rubric for you now. Where they differ is the input. Some start from a line you type and a grade level, some from a standards set, some from the assignment and answer key you upload. We think that input matters more than anything else on the page, because it decides whether the rubric says what earns a point.
Same question, two drafts
Here is one short science question we wrote, worth four points, and one criterion drafted two ways (Figure 1). The first is the kind of level description you get when the only input is the topic and a grade band. The second is what you get when the draft starts from the task and the answer key.
From a one-line prompt
Level 4: Demonstrates a thorough understanding of density and molecular structure, with a clear and accurate scientific explanation. Level 3: Demonstrates a good understanding with minor errors.
From the task and answer key
1 point: ice is less dense than liquid water. 1 point: hydrogen bonds hold the molecules in an open lattice in ice. 1 point: the lattice leaves more space between molecules than in the liquid. 1 point: an object less dense than the liquid floats.
Both are tidy. Only the second tells a grader, or a colleague moderating your set, why a student who writes “ice is lighter” gets one point and not two. A student who says “ice is lighter because it is frozen” could get level 2 or level 3 on the first draft, depending on who reads it. On the second it gets 1 point, whoever reads it.
That is why the table at the top of this page opens with what each draft starts from.
The nine, in alphabetical order
“Not stated” means the pages we read didn’t say. It doesn’t mean no, so ask the vendor.
Brisk
Feedback as comments inside Google Docs and your LMS.
- Draft starts from
- What you type the rubric should assess, with grade level, scale, format and Brisk’s standards criteria
- Your own rubric
- Upload a rubric to use for feedback
- Scoring
- Scales of 3 to 8 points
- Grades with it
- An uploaded rubric guides feedback comments; rubric scoring in feedback is opt-in on the plans page
- Free option
- The rubric generator is on the free Educator plan
- You refine the draft by chatting with it.
- Exports to Google Docs or Microsoft Word.
Class Companion
Practice with instant feedback and retakes.
- Draft starts from
- Not stated; the help page offers “Generate with AI” beside import and building from scratch
- Your own rubric
- Import from a file or pasted text
- Scoring
- Correct-or-incorrect criteria, or a table of criteria with the points you set for each score
- Grades with it
- Yes: any rubric informs its AI feedback and scoring
- Free option
- Custom rubrics, AI generation included, on the free Teacher plan
- A public library of 500+ rubrics and 10,000+ assignments.
- Students can dispute a score, and you accept or overrule it.
CoGrader
Writing assignments in K–12, graded from your rubric.
- Draft starts from
- Essay type, grade level and an optional standards framework, or your own description
- Your own rubric
- Upload any rubric or mark scheme as it is
- Scoring
- Analytic: each criterion scored separately; the point scale can be changed
- Grades with it
- Yes: generated rubrics go straight into grading
- Free option
- Build rubrics on the free plan, 150 student submissions a month
- A library of 500+ state-aligned rubrics, among them STAAR, Regents and AP.
- Every generated rubric can be edited.
EssayGrader
Essays and longer papers, K–12 and higher ed.
- Draft starts from
- A PDF, pasted text or a topic, with grade level and optional standards (Common Core, IB, AP, GCSE)
- Your own rubric
- Upload your rubric files
- Scoring
- 3 to 5 levels of performance, with weights
- Grades with it
- Your own rubric is what it grades against by default; the generator page doesn’t say how a generated one is used
- Free option
- No cost to generate a rubric; the free plan grades 100 essays a month (pricing page) or 50 after the first 14 days (custom rubrics page)
- 800+ standards-aligned rubrics; the pricing page puts the full set on Pro.
- Every generated rubric can be edited.
Gradescope
Instructors grading paper exams and homework.
- Draft starts from
- Not stated; on the pages we read, you write the rubric items for each question
- Your own rubric
- Import rubrics on the Institutional plan
- Scoring
- Rubric items with point values you can change
- Grades with it
- AI groups similar answers and you grade each group with your rubric, on the Institutional plan
- Free option
- Basic is free with dynamic rubrics, without AI-assisted grading
- Rubrics are written per question; the pages we read describe no AI drafting.
- Built around scanned paper exams and uploaded homework.
GradingPal
K–12 science, math and writing, graded from your criteria.
- Draft starts from
- The assignment instructions, or standards you select
- Your own rubric
- Upload a rubric, paste criteria or import a file
- Scoring
- Criteria with performance descriptions and point values; grading gives a level and points per criterion
- Grades with it
- Yes: it selects a level for each criterion and explains its scores
- Free option
- Upload or generate a rubric on the free plan, 50 submissions a month
- You edit any criterion or level before grading.
- A library of 500 curated rubrics starts on the Lite plan.
GraidableOur tool
Handwritten or typed work, graded from your own documents.
- Draft starts from
- Your own task, answer key, rubric or class material; it drafts the questions, criteria and an answer key
- Your own rubric
- Upload it; your scheme is kept, points or levels
- Scoring
- Points or levels, as in your own scheme
- Grades with it
- Yes, once you have approved the criteria; each student is graded against them
- Free option
- Setting up an assignment and reading the work are free; 10 free gradings with the first plan
- Anything it is unsure of in the draft says “Check closely”.
- Each suggested point shows where on the student’s page it comes from.
MagicSchool
A set of teacher tools, writing feedback among them.
- Draft starts from
- Assignment type, grade level and learning goals
- Your own rubric
- Build or upload rubrics
- Scoring
- Levels with points; variable point values and point ranges since June 2026
- Grades with it
- Its feedback tool gives feedback based on your rubric; scoring with it not stated
- Free option
- Free for teachers; unlimited generations are on Plus
- Describes the draft as an editable starting point.
- The rubric can be reused from your library in its feedback tool.
TimelyGrader
Instructors and TAs grading written work.
- Draft starts from
- The assignment title and description; in Canvas you set the number of criteria, levels and maximum points
- Your own rubric
- Enter your criteria and let it fill in missing level descriptions
- Scoring
- Criteria with point values and labelled levels
- Grades with it
- Yes: grading suggestions against instructor-defined rubrics
- Free option
- Free plan, free to try
- A rubric edited in TimelyGrader syncs back to Canvas.
- Also works with D2L.
Three things to settle first
What do you already have? If you have a task and an answer key, use a tool that drafts from them: EssayGrader takes a PDF, GradingPal and TimelyGrader read the assignment, and Graidable reads the task, key and rubric you upload. Brisk, CoGrader and MagicSchool start from what you type and a grade level, which suits essays where the levels are the point.
Will it grade with the rubric it wrote? At Class Companion, CoGrader, GradingPal, TimelyGrader and Graidable, the rubric you approve is the one the AI grades with. Brisk and MagicSchool use it for feedback comments. Gradescope leaves the rubric to you and uses AI to group answers.
Can you keep the rubric you already use? Every tool here takes your own, though Gradescope’s import is on the paid plan and TimelyGrader asks you to enter the criteria. If your department already agreed a rubric, start there and let the tool fill gaps.
Check a drafted rubric before it grades a class
Read the draft once with one real answer next to it.
Five checks for an AI-drafted rubric
- Every point names something a student writes, not a quality word like “thorough” or “clear”.
- Two answers you would score differently get different scores under it.
- The points add up to the question’s total, and nothing is counted twice.
- It says what happens to a wrong value carried into the next step.
- You and the tool score one real answer and land on the same points.
If a check fails, rewrite that criterion yourself and run the draft again. Five minutes on the rubric saves you rereading the class set.
Graidable is the tool we make. This part is about it.
Where Graidable fits
Graidable is one of the nine, and it is ours. You upload the task, your answer key or rubric and the students’ work, handwritten or typed. It drafts the questions, criteria and an answer key from your own documents and keeps your scheme, points or levels; anything it is unsure of says “Check closely”. You edit and approve the criteria before any student is graded, and you approve every grade.
How the steps run is on the how it works page. The same tools are compared on lab reports in Nine AI lab report graders and what each one reads.
Sources
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Brisk Teaching, Rubric generator, FAQ and Plans. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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Class Companion, How do I create a rubric?, Can I adjust the scoring on rubrics? and Plans. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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CoGrader, AI rubric generator, Home and Pricing. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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EssayGrader, AI rubric generator, Custom rubrics and Pricing. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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Gradescope, Get started and Pricing. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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GradingPal, Home, Grade essays and Pricing. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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Graidable, How it works and Pricing; the tool is ours. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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MagicSchool, Rubric generator, What’s new, June 2026 and Pricing. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑
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TimelyGrader, AI-generated rubrics, Canvas rubric setup and Pricing and plans. Checked 15 October 2026. ↑