Six AI graders let you bring your own rubric: EnlightenAI, Class Companion, EssayGrader, GradingPal, Brisk and Gradescope. They differ in how they take it (calibrate on five papers you grade, upload a file, paste the criteria) and in what they hand back (a score, feedback only, or answer groups you grade yourself). Pick by the kind of work you grade, then run the five-paper check below before any student sees a mark.
The timing matters. K-12 Dive reported on October 16, 2026 that nearly 3 in 5 educators used AI for their work in 2025-26, and it noted that an earlier Gallup and Walton survey found nearly 60% of teachers had no guidance on using AI to grade or give feedback (K-12 Dive). Your rubric is the one piece of that grading you control, so it should be the thing the tool follows. (UK teachers call this marking; the tools are the same.)
How we chose these six
The pool is the assessment and grading category of the AI Educator Tools directory, which lists 54 tools. Of those 54, 13 (24%) carry an independent 9ine security assessment, 15 (28%) declare FERPA, and 13 leave FERPA blank, as of October 25, 2026. A blank means our record is empty, not that the tool fails.
To make this list a tool had to say, on its own site, that it works from a rubric you supply. We read each vendor's product and pricing pages on October 25, 2026 and link the page beside each claim. Selection rests on fit for the job alone. We left out MagicSchool because its feedback tool page describes generating rubrics but does not say you can upload your own (unverified), and CoGrader because it has no directory page to link, though its homepage says "Grade with your rubric" and offers 150 free essays a month.
Which AI grading tool fits your work?
Four questions narrow the field faster than any feature list.
- What are you grading? Essays and open responses point to EnlightenAI, EssayGrader, GradingPal or Class Companion. Math and science problem sets point to Gradescope. Handwritten work points to GradingPal.
- Do you need a score or only comments? Brisk returns feedback tied to your rubric criteria; its page does not say it assigns grades. The others can propose scores.
- How does the tool take your rubric? Calibrating on papers you have graded (EnlightenAI) copies your judgment. Uploading a rubric file (EssayGrader, GradingPal, Class Companion) copies your wording. Those are different jobs.
- Does your district need a data agreement before you upload student work? That decides whether a free teacher account is allowed at all.
The comparison
| Tool | Best use | How it takes your rubric | Free tier (checked Oct 25, 2026) | Privacy notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EnlightenAI | Essays scored the way you score | Grade about five papers to train it | "Generous free plan," limits not published | Says it does not train on user data; 9ine-assessed |
| Class Companion | Feedback and scoring in a full teaching platform | Import, generate or build a rubric | Free teacher plan, caps not published | Signs district data agreements, per its site |
| EssayGrader | Whole-class essay batches | Upload rubric files | 100 essays a month, 1,000-word cap | Says submissions are not used for training |
| GradingPal | Handwritten and scanned work | Upload, paste criteria or pick from a library | 50 submissions a month, custom rubrics included | Says student work is not used for training |
| Brisk Teaching | Rubric-based comments in Google Docs | Upload your rubric | Free install, premium features not priced on page | Feedback hidden until the teacher approves |
| Gradescope | Exams and problem sets | Build rubrics per question | Free Basic plan; AI grading is Institutional only | 9ine-assessed |
EnlightenAI: best for scores that follow your judgment
EnlightenAI is the best fit for essay scoring that matches how you already grade, because it learns from your marks instead of a generic scale. Its site says the AI typically needs about five graded submissions to reflect your scoring, and the directory lists a teacher-in-the-loop mode where you finalize every score.
- Best for: English and social studies teachers with an established rubric and a pile of similar essays.
- Watch out for: the free plan's limits are not published (no public pricing), so confirm what you get before you plan a unit around it.
- Pricing: the site calls its free plan "generous" and gives no figures, as checked October 25, 2026.
- Safety: the site says it does not train models on user data and shows California Student Privacy, FERPA and COPPA certification badges; those are the vendor's claims. Our directory lists UK data hosting and a minimum age of 8, so a US district should ask where student work is stored.
- Choose something else if: your rubric is a checklist for math or science work; Gradescope fits that better.
Class Companion: best for one platform that scores and gives feedback
Class Companion is the best fit for a school that wants rubric-based scoring inside a wider teaching platform, because its plans page says "Use any rubric to inform AI feedback and scoring," and rubrics can be imported, generated or built from scratch.
- Best for: teachers whose school may buy the district plan.
- Watch out for: the page does not say which plan includes the own-rubric feature (unverified), and it lists no usage caps.
- Pricing: free Teacher plan; school and district pricing by demo, no public prices.
- Safety: the page says it signs data privacy agreements with districts and claims FERPA and COPPA compliance. Our directory record has those fields blank, so read the privacy packet it links.
- Choose something else if: you only want a quick essay batch; EssayGrader is lighter.
EssayGrader: best for grading a whole class of essays in one pass
EssayGrader is the best fit for batch essay grading against a rubric file, because its pricing page says you can create your own rubric by uploading rubric files, and it lists 800+ aligned rubrics if you do not have one.
- Best for: high school English teachers with 100 or more essays a term.
- Watch out for: the free plan caps essays at 1,000 words, which excludes most research papers. A third-party review dated September 16, 2026 lists the free limit as 50 essays a month; the vendor's own page says 100. Trust the vendor page and recheck before you rely on it.
- Pricing: free Basic, 100 essays a month; Pro $14.99 a month for 350 essays and a 3,500-word cap; Premium $34.99 for 800 essays; district quotes for 25 or more users (vendor pricing page, checked October 25, 2026).
- Safety: the vendor says submissions are not used to train models, that names and IDs are not required, and that it signs data privacy agreements. Our directory lists a minimum age of 18, which fits a teacher-facing tool, and US hosting.
- Choose something else if: your students write by hand; GradingPal reads scans.
GradingPal: best for handwritten work and a free tier that includes custom rubrics
GradingPal is the best fit for handwritten or scanned responses, because its site says you can upload a rubric, paste your criteria or start from a library, and read scanned class sets with the original handwriting beside the score.
- Best for: elementary and middle school teachers, and math or science teachers who collect paper.
- Watch out for: the page gives no accuracy figures for handwriting recognition, so the five-paper check matters more here than anywhere.
- Pricing: free plan of 50 submissions a month with custom rubrics and editable scores; paid prices not listed on the page.
- Safety: the vendor says student work is not used to train models and lists FERPA, COPPA, GDPR and CASA Tier 2 verification. Our directory marks GDPR as "in progress," a mismatch worth asking the vendor about.
- Choose something else if: you grade typed essays in bulk and need larger monthly caps.
Brisk Teaching: best for comments tied to your rubric, with you approving each one
Brisk is the best fit for formative feedback in Google Docs, because its Give Feedback page offers "Rubric Criteria Feedback" aligned to your uploaded rubrics and keeps feedback hidden from students until you approve it.
- Best for: teachers who want comments, not grades, on drafts.
- Watch out for: targeted comments need Google, and the page lists Batch Feedback Insights as a School and District feature. It does not say Brisk assigns grades.
- Pricing: free install; premium features are not priced on the page.
- Safety: the page describes a teacher-approval gate before students see feedback, but we did not review Brisk's privacy terms for this post, so read them before you upload student work. Our directory shows an independent 9ine assessment.
- Choose something else if: you need a number for the gradebook.
Gradescope: best for math and science exams where you grade the groups
Gradescope is the best fit for exams and problem sets, because its homepage describes rubrics you can change after grading starts, with the change applied to work already graded.
- Best for: high school math, science and computer science.
- Watch out for: AI-assisted grouping of similar answers and "AI-Powered Grading" appear only on the paid Institutional license (plans). Institutional pricing requires a form; no public pricing.
- Pricing: Basic is free, with dynamic rubrics and question-by-question grading.
- Safety: our directory lists an independent 9ine assessment; read the institutional terms before uploading student work.
- Choose something else if: you grade paragraphs of prose.
The five-paper rubric check
Run this before you trust any of them. It takes one planning period and uses work you have already graded.
Take an 8th-grade argument essay unit with a four-criterion rubric (claim, evidence, reasoning, conventions) scored 1 to 4. Pull five graded papers that cover the range: one 4, two 3s, one 2, one 1. Cover your marks. Upload the rubric exactly as you use it, run the five papers, and fill in one row per paper and criterion.
- The score scale: a teacher in a University of Washington pilot reported that the tool "scored some students out of 20 points and others out of 10" (Tian et al., 2025). If the tool invents its own scale, stop.
- The criteria: two or more criteria off by a full level on two or more papers means it is not following your rubric.
- The comments: do they quote the student's sentences, or could they sit on any essay?
- The keepers: if it passes, use it as a first draft you edit. In that pilot, teachers treated AI output as a first pass, and the authors recommend teachers keep control of final grades. The paper reports teacher perceptions, not agreement with teacher scores.
That study covered a different platform (Colleague AI, which we do not list), 19 teachers and 936 student works, and 57% of the 13 teachers who answered the survey called the feedback clear and actionable. It tells you what to watch for, not which tool wins.
Before you upload student work
Under FERPA, the school official exception lets a district share records with a vendor only if the vendor performs a function the school would otherwise do, is under the district's direct control over use of the records, and uses them only for authorized purposes (PTAC vendor FAQ). Whether a free teacher account meets that test is your district's call, not the vendor's badge. Our FERPA guide is the related read, and the security assessments page covers the 9ine reviews.
If you need to write the rubric first, see our rubric generators guide. For broader grading picks, see grading tools for teachers.
The bottom line
Choose EnlightenAI if you want scores that learn your judgment, EssayGrader for essay batches, GradingPal for handwriting, Brisk for comments, Gradescope for exams, and Class Companion if your school wants one platform. Our view is that the tool matters less than the check: a grader that passes your five papers is worth a free account, and one that invents its own scale is not. Browse every option in the assessment and grading category.
Dan Fitzpatrick founded The AI Educator and the AI Educator Tools directory. About Dan.
