The complete guide.
Everything Canvas Open does and how to get the most out of it. Free, open, no accounts, no paywall.
Quick Start
- Click the Canvas Open icon in your Chrome toolbar to open the popup.
- Privacy Guard is on by default — you're already protected on Canvas.
- For AI features: pick a provider (OpenAI / Claude / Gemini / OpenRouter), pick a tier (Strong / Medium / Cheap), paste your API key, and toggle Homework AI on.
That's it for most people. Everything below is optional depth. Come back when you want to fine-tune.
Privacy Guard
The single most important toggle. On by default. Keeps Canvas — and any proctoring layer built on top of it — from noticing when you switch tabs, lose focus, or open a new window during a quiz.
You can leave a quiz page mid-question, look something up, and come back. As far as Canvas can tell, you never left.
Also removes hidden text that some instructors slip into assignment prompts to trip up AI tools ("AI Trojan Horse" protection).
Confirmation is required to disable. If you turn Privacy Guard off, Canvas will start reporting your tab switches immediately.
Show UI Overlay
Adds a small floating "Protected" pill at the bottom-right of every page. Click it to expand a panel showing that protection is active. Useful for peace of mind — off by default so it stays out of your way.
Toggle visibility with ⌘⇧A (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+A (Windows / Linux).
Kiosk Mode
Wraps the current page inside a stripped-down browser look — a fixed toolbar at the top and a clean content area below. Great for demonstrations, screen-recording, or hiding what site you're actually on from someone glancing over your shoulder.
Toggle it from the Toggle Kiosk Mode button in the popup.
Blocked Sites
Per-site opt-out from Privacy Guard. Useful if a specific site behaves weirdly with protection active (rare, but possible with some meeting or streaming apps).
Add a URL in the popup's Blocked Sites section — press Enter or , to add. Other features (kiosk mode, quiz helpers) keep working on blocked sites; only the aggressive protection is skipped.
Auto-Fill Answers
If you've taken a Canvas quiz before, Canvas Open will fill in your best previous answer for each question when you hover over it. All common Canvas question types are supported, including multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, matching, essay, and numerical.
The point display flashes with the score you earned last time, so you know at a glance whether that answer was correct. If you modify any autofilled field, Canvas Open won't overwrite it again.
Requires you to have taken the quiz before. This is a history-restore, not the AI. For quizzes you haven't taken, use Homework AI.
AI Setup & Tiers
Canvas Open supports four AI providers with three cost tiers each. You bring your own API key. Nothing goes through a middleman — the extension calls the provider directly from your browser.
Tiers explained
| Tier | When to use | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Strong | Hard exams, essays, ambiguous MCQs, anything you'd second-guess yourself on | Best accuracy, highest cost |
| Medium | Standard homework, most quizzes, general reading comprehension | Roughly 30-50% cheaper, near-flagship quality |
| Cheap | Bulk multiple-choice, low-stakes practice, quick lookups | Fast and very cheap, less nuance |
Current models (as of July 2026)
| Provider | Strong | Medium | Cheap |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 Sol | GPT-5.6 Terra | GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | |
| OpenRouter | You pick the exact model in the popup — 200+ options across every major vendor | ||
Getting an API key
OpenAI
- Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys
- Add at least $5 in credits to reach Tier 1 (unlocks all models)
- Create a new secret key, copy it, paste into the popup
Anthropic (Claude)
- Go to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys
- Any funded API key works (no tier requirement)
- Create key, paste into popup
Google Gemini
- Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey
- Free tier is generous — most people never reach paid
- Copy key, paste into popup
OpenRouter (any model)
- Go to openrouter.ai/keys and create a key
- Fund your account (unified billing across all 200+ models)
- In the popup, choose Router and type any model slug you want to use
Your key never leaves your machine. Canvas Open has no server. There is no telemetry.
Homework AI Modes
Three different UX modes for the same AI. Pick whichever fits how visible you want the tool to be.
Normal
Cyan "Answer" pill bottom-right. Click when you want the AI to fill in visible quiz questions.
Stealth
No visible UI. Auto-runs on page load when Canvas quiz questions are detected. Fills answers silently.
Read-Only
Auto-runs but doesn't click anything. Shows answers in a side panel. Click Apply per question or ✓✓ for all. Best for closed-book study.
Hide UI by Default
Optional toggle in the popup. The overlay starts hidden every page load — press ⌘⇧A to reveal it.
Screenshot Mode
Fallback for iframe-based quiz pages where direct scraping doesn't work. When enabled, Canvas Open sends a screenshot of the page to a vision-capable model, gets back the answers, and clicks them for you.
Enabling this shows Chrome's "controlled by automated test software" bar at the top of the tab. Only turn it on when you actually need it — leave it off for normal use.
Right-Click Images
Attach reference images to your next AI request without needing to type anything.
- Right-click any image on any page.
- Choose "Use image in next AI prompt (Canvas Open)".
- A small blue counter appears on the extension icon showing how many images are queued (max 5).
- Next time you hit Answer on a Canvas quiz question, those images ride along with the prompt and the queue clears.
Great for physics diagrams, chemistry structures, or chart-reading questions where the image is on a separate page or in a linked PDF.
Canvas New Quizzes
Canvas New Quizzes is Canvas's newer quiz engine — it lives on the same site but has a different look and question layout. Canvas Open detects it automatically and adds a small "Answer" pill next to each individual question.
Every New Quizzes question type is supported, including multiple choice, multiple answer, categorization, ordering, matching, fill-in-the-blank, numerical, hotspot (click-the-image), and essay.
The button turns green when a question is solved, red on error — hover to see the returned answer or the error message.
McGraw-Hill SmartBook
Full autosolver for McGraw-Hill Connect SmartBook. Uses your existing ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini account — you don't need an API key for this one.
How to set up
- Open the popup → McGraw-Hill SmartBook section.
- Pick which AI to use (ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini) and speed (Normal for human-like pacing, Fast for instant).
- Open that AI in another tab and sign in — uses your existing web subscription.
- Navigate to any SmartBook page.
- A "CO Start Autosolver" pill appears bottom-right. Click it, and it works through the assignment until you click Stop.
The status line in the popup tells you if your AI tab is ready. Green means good to go. Red means open that AI in another tab first.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Toggle overlay (show / hide UI) | ⌘⇧A | Ctrl+Shift+A |
| Apply all AI answers (read-only mode) | ⌘⇧S | Ctrl+Shift+S |
| Re-run the AI on the current page | ⌘⇧R | Ctrl+Shift+R |
All three are rebindable at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
Privacy Notes
Canvas Open is designed to send data to exactly one place: the AI provider you chose. And only when you explicitly trigger a solve.
What's stored locally
- Your API keys — kept on your device, never sent anywhere except the provider you configured.
- Your preferences (which provider, which tier, which mode, blocked URLs, hotkey overrides).
- Nothing else. No cookies, no analytics, no crash reports, no telemetry.
What's sent to your AI provider
- The exact prompt built from the question text you're looking at (plus any right-click queued images).
- Nothing about you, your Canvas account, your grades, or your course.
What Canvas / McGraw-Hill see
- Nothing that identifies you as using an extension.
- Answer submissions look exactly like you filling them in manually — because that's what's happening.
Troubleshooting
"The Answer button does nothing"
- Check the popup — is a Homework AI mode toggled on?
- Do you have an API key pasted for the current provider?
- OpenAI requires $5 in credits before newer models unlock — check your billing.
"McGraw-Hill Autosolver says my AI tab isn't open"
- Make sure you're signed in to that specific service. Free-tier usage limits still apply if you hit them.
- Reload the AI tab after installing Canvas Open — the extension needs a fresh page load to attach.
"New Quizzes button doesn't appear on my question"
- Give the page a full second after the quiz loads — the button appears as soon as it's detected.
- If nothing shows up after that, refresh the page.
"Something on a totally unrelated site broke after installing"
- Add that site's hostname to Blocked Sites in the popup. Protection will skip it.
- If the AI overlay is showing up somewhere you don't want it, turn off Homework AI — it only runs when explicitly enabled.