AP® Grading Tools for Schools
Seat prices for seven tools a department can put on a purchase order, checked against each company's own site in 2026.
By Amanda DoAmaral · Updated Sep 3, 2026
AP® Grading Tools for Schools
At department scale the decision comes down to per-seat price multiplied by who needs a seat: the teachers who grade and the students who practice. The tools a department head will price out split into three groups: per-student platforms the school licenses, per-teacher graders sold to individuals, and seat-based plans that price teacher and student seats separately and cover both.
Below are the seven tools most likely to land on a quote request, with every price checked against each company's own site, with the date of the check shown. One of the seven, Fiveable, is ours. If you are a single teacher paying out of pocket, the out-of-pocket version of this page runs the arithmetic for one person.
Fiveable puts grading and practice on one purchase order
Fiveable scores free-response work point by point in 37 AP subjects, and the teacher approves every score before it counts. Start a 7-day free trial and grade your next class set.
Teacher Seats and Student Seats
A department is buying two different things. A teacher seat pays for scoring: it goes to each teacher who collects free-response work and needs it graded. A student seat pays for practice and study content: it goes to each student who logs in to work through questions and full-length exams.
The two are priced differently because they do different work. A teacher seat carries the grading and costs more per seat; a student seat carries the content and costs less per seat. Most tools on this page sell only one of the two, which is the first thing to sort out before comparing prices.
The Tools at School Scale
Every price in this table was checked against the company's own pages on the date shown.
| Tool | How it is sold to schools | Published school price | What a seat includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiveable (ours) | Teacher seats and student seats, per year | Teacher seats $129 down to $69 each by volume; student seats $79 down to $15 each by volume, published on the seat calculator | Teacher seat: FRQ grading in 37 AP subjects plus study content in all 42. Student seat: study content, practice questions, FRQ practice, and full-length exams in all 42 |
| Albert.io | Per student per year, licensed by the school | $18 per student per year, 50-student minimum; district $15 per student per year, 1,000-student minimum (albert.io/pricing-schools, September 2026) | Practice in every subject; teachers review and enter FRQ grades |
| Class Companion | School and district plans by quote | Not published; teacher plan at no cost with an unpublished cap (classcompanion.com, August 2026) | Assignment platform with AI feedback, strongest in social studies |
| CoGrader | To individual teachers; school plans described in its help center | Not published; individual plan $15/month billed annually or $19 month to month after 100 gradings a month at no cost (cograder.com, August 2026) | Scoring for one teacher; Canvas and Schoology connections sit on school plans |
| EssayGrader | Per teacher | Not published; $6.99 (Lite), $14.99 (Pro), or $34.99 a month after 50 essays a month at no cost (essaygrader.ai, August 2026) | Essay scoring for one teacher; Canvas on Lite, Schoology on Pro |
| GradingPal | Per teacher | Not published; $14 to $19 or $26 to $35 a month after 100 submissions a month at no cost (gradingpal.com, August 2026) | Submission scoring for one teacher |
| MagicSchool | Plus to teachers; school and district plans by quote | Not published; Plus $12.99/month or $8.33/month billed annually (magicschool.ai, August 2026) | Teacher assistant; does not score against a rubric |
Albert is sold the way a department already buys textbooks: per student, licensed by the school. Its school price is $18 per student per year with a 50-student minimum, and district pricing is $15 per student per year with a 1,000-student minimum (as of September 2026, albert.io/pricing-schools). The school license includes all question-bank content in every subject, all teacher features, and all integrations, and the per-student rate goes down for every 100 students; a student buying on their own pays $79 per subject (albert.io/pricing-students, September 2026). Albert does not do autonomous AI grading of FRQs. Teachers review the free-response work and enter the grades themselves, so an Albert license buys practice for students and leaves the scoring time with the teacher.
Class Companion sells to schools by quote, and the price is not published (as of August 2026, classcompanion.com). Individual teachers can sign up for a plan at no cost, with a cap the company does not publish. It is an assignment platform with AI feedback along the way, strongest in social studies: its site names AP Psychology and AP US History and does not list every AP subject it supports, so a department teaching science or math free-response should ask for the list before requesting a quote. It has published no accuracy data. Panorama Education acquired the company in April 2025.
CoGrader is sold to individual teachers: 100 gradings a month at no cost, then $15/month billed annually or $19 month to month (as of August 2026, cograder.com). Its help center describes school plans, which are where the Canvas and Schoology connections live, but the site does not publish a school price. A department that wants CoGrader on a purchase order will be requesting a quote, and until it arrives the only arithmetic available is the individual price times the number of teachers.
EssayGrader is priced per teacher: 50 essays a month at no cost, then $6.99 (Lite, includes Canvas), $14.99 (Pro, includes Schoology), or $34.99 a month (as of August 2026, essaygrader.ai). No school price is published. For a department of essay-based courses on Canvas, six Lite plans is a small line item. It is priced by the essay, which tells you what it is built to score.
GradingPal is also per teacher: 100 submissions a month at no cost, then $14 to $19 or $26 to $35 a month (as of August 2026, gradingpal.com), with no school price published. The only accuracy figure on its site measures OCR, meaning how well it reads handwriting. It publishes nothing about how well it scores what it reads.
MagicSchool sells Plus to teachers at $12.99/month or $8.33/month billed annually, and school and district plans by quote (as of August 2026, magicschool.ai). It is a teacher assistant and does not score against a rubric. A district may already hold a MagicSchool contract, and every FRQ still needs to be scored by something else.
Fiveable, which we make, sells teacher seats and student seats separately, both per year, with the full price list published on the calculator instead of by quote. A teacher seat includes FRQ grading in 37 AP subjects and all study content across the 42; a student seat includes the study content, practice questions, FRQ practice, and full-length exams across all 42. Fiveable's grading scores point by point, built around how each question type earns points, and the teacher reviews, adjusts, or approves every score before it counts, because the grade goes out under the teacher's name. 96.2% of AP® FRQ responses that teachers reviewed one at a time kept Fiveable's score exactly as given. This is what teachers decided in real classrooms, not an independent accuracy study, and it is not a comparison with College Board scoring; the method and per-subject rates are on the grading quality page, so a department can check its own courses before buying. Class sets import from Google Classroom and export back to it, and AP Classroom exports import too. There is no ongoing no-cost tier; the seat prices are under Fiveable's Seat Pricing below.
One thing is shared across the other six. As of August 2026 we did not find published per-subject scoring evidence from Albert, Class Companion, CoGrader, EssayGrader, GradingPal, or MagicSchool.
What to Ask a Vendor Before the Purchase Order
Five questions settle most of what a quote leaves out.
- Which AP subjects does it cover, in writing? A tool that names AP Lang and AP US History on its site may or may not handle a Chemistry or Calculus FRQ. Ask for the list against the courses your department teaches.
- Where is the accuracy published, by subject? If the answer is an aggregate figure, an OCR figure, or a reliability statement, treat it as no data. Per-subject results you can open and read are the standard.
- Does the teacher stay grader of record? Ask whether every score comes to the teacher to adjust or approve before a student sees it. The grade carries the teacher's name, so the teacher should have the last word on it.
- Does it import from and export to the LMS the school runs? Ask which LMS each tool connects to and at what tier. On this page, Fiveable connects to Google Classroom and imports AP Classroom exports but does not connect to Canvas or Schoology, while EssayGrader and CoGrader put their Canvas and Schoology connections on higher tiers or school plans.
- Can seats be assigned later? Ask whether names can be attached to seats after the order, which matters if rosters are not final when the PO is cut.
Fiveable's Seat Pricing
Both tiers below are quoted from the published calculator, which is the same table the checkout page uses to price an order.
Teacher seats, per seat per year:
| Seats | Price per seat |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | $129 |
| 5 to 24 | $99 |
| 25 or more | $69 |
Student seats, per seat per year:
| Seats | Price per seat |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | $79 |
| 5 to 49 | $45 |
| 50 to 999 | $18 |
| 1,000 or more | $15 |
Pricing Out a Department of Six Teachers and 300 Students
Take a department of 6 AP teachers and 300 students. Swap in your own counts. Six teacher seats fall in the 5-to-24 tier at $99 each, so $594. Three hundred student seats fall in the 50-to-999 tier at $18 each, so $5,400. The total is $5,994 a year. Bought one at a time at list price, the same seats would come to $774 for the teachers and $23,700 for the students, or $24,474.
Against Albert, both licenses include every subject, and from 50 students the list prices match: $18 per student on both, and $15 at 1,000 or more, with Albert's rate going down for every 100 students on a quote. Below 50 students Albert does not sell a school license, and Fiveable seats start at one. What the Fiveable order adds is the teacher seats, where the FRQ scoring lives, plus study guides and full-length exams on the student seats; what an Albert license adds is the adaptive item bank, skill analytics, and a dedicated account manager. A department comparing the two is pricing student practice on Albert against student practice plus FRQ grading on Fiveable. The seat prices sit side by side on Fiveable vs Albert for schools.
How a School Buys Seats
The school checkout page prices an order instantly and takes a card or a purchase order. On a purchase order, accounts are activated within one business day of receiving the PO. Seats are assigned to specific teachers and students after purchase, whenever the school is ready, so the roster does not have to be final at the time of the order. The schools page has the overview if someone on the committee needs a one-page summary.
How to Pilot Before the Purchase Order
Run one teacher through one released FRQ set before any tool goes on the PO. College Board's past exam questions include sample student responses with the scores they earned and commentary on why. Pick one released FRQ in a subject the department teaches, have one teacher run those samples through each finalist's trial or no-cost tier, and compare the tool's scores to College Board's. A tool that misses on the released samples will miss on the department's own work, and finding that out costs a prep period instead of a year of seats.
For Fiveable, one teacher can start a 7-day free trial, try the grader on the released set, and read what teachers kept and changed for that subject before the department commits to seats. For a broader look at the graders themselves, see the best AI grading tools and is AI grading accurate for AP essays.
price out your department's seats
The school checkout page prices teacher and student seats instantly and takes a card or a purchase order.
AI FRQ grading for 37 AP® subjects
Teachers review and keep the final say on every score
Google Classroom import and export
$29/month with a 7-day free trial
Frequently Asked Questions About AP Grading Tools for Schools
How are AP grading tools priced for schools?
They fall into three groups. Albert licenses per student per year to the school, at $18 per student with a 50-student minimum as of September 2026. CoGrader, EssayGrader, GradingPal, and MagicSchool sell to individual teachers by the month, and none of them publishes a school price, while Class Companion and MagicSchool sell school plans by quote. Fiveable sells teacher seats and student seats per year on a published calculator.
Can a school buy Fiveable on a purchase order?
Yes. The school checkout page prices an order instantly and takes either a card or a purchase order. On a PO, accounts are activated within one business day of receiving it, and seats are assigned to specific teachers and students after purchase, whenever the school is ready.
What is the difference between a Fiveable teacher seat and a student seat?
A teacher seat includes FRQ grading in 37 AP subjects and all study content across the 42 AP subjects. A student seat includes the study content, practice questions, FRQ practice, and full-length exams across all 42. Teacher seats run $129 down to $69 each by volume, and student seats run $79 down to $15 each.
What would Fiveable cost for a department of six teachers and 300 students?
Using the published tiers, six teacher seats fall in the 5-to-24 tier at $99 each, or $594, and 300 student seats fall in the 50-to-999 tier at $18 each, or $5,400. The total is $5,994 a year. The same seats bought one at a time at list price would come to $24,474. Those counts are an example, so swap in your own.
Is Fiveable cheaper than Albert for schools?
Not on price. Both school licenses include every subject, and from 50 students the two list at the same $18 per student, with $15 at 1,000 or more; Albert says its rate goes down for every 100 students, so get its quote. Below 50 students Albert does not sell a school license, and Fiveable seats start at one. Albert also does not include a teacher-side grader, since its teachers review and enter FRQ grades themselves.
Which AP grading tools publish accuracy by subject?
As of August 2026 we did not find published per-subject scoring evidence from Albert, Class Companion, CoGrader, EssayGrader, GradingPal, or MagicSchool. GradingPal publishes an OCR figure, which measures how well it reads handwriting rather than how well it scores. 96.2% of AP® FRQ responses that teachers reviewed one at a time kept Fiveable's score exactly as given. We publish what teachers kept, what they changed, and how it is measured, by subject, at fiveable.me/grading/quality, so a department can check the courses it teaches before buying. This is what teachers decided in real classrooms, not an independent accuracy study, and it is not a comparison with College Board scoring.
Does the teacher stay grader of record with Fiveable?
Yes. The grader scores point by point, built around how each question type earns points, and the teacher reviews, adjusts, or approves every score before it counts. The grade goes out under the teacher's name, so the teacher has the last word on it.
How should a department pilot an AP grading tool before buying?
Run one teacher through one released free-response set. College Board's past exam questions include sample student responses with the scores they earned and commentary on why, so pick a released FRQ in a subject the department teaches, run those samples through each finalist's trial or no-cost tier, and compare the tool's scores to College Board's. For Fiveable, one teacher can start a 7-day free trial and try the grader on the released set before the department commits to seats.