About Backpack
A free school app for students: assignments, grades and study tools in one place.
Backpack pulls a student’s classes, assignments and grades from Canvas or Google Classroom into one place, and adds study tools: notes, flashcards, practice tests, lessons, PSAT/SAT prep and AP exam prep. It works in any browser, on a phone or a computer.
What it does
- Assignments: open work from Canvas and Google Classroom, grouped by day, with due dates, overdue work and a mark-done button. Students can also add work by hand or from a screenshot.
- Grades: one row per class with the percent, letter and recent change, plus unweighted and weighted GPA with a graph over time. Alerts when a grade changes, drops below a goal or reaches it.
- Calendar: due dates, tests, breaks and quarter dates in a month view, with A/B day badges and each day’s class order.
- Grade calculator: GPA and final (transcript) grade math, what-if scores and what you need on the final. It follows HCPSS (Howard County Public School System) rules and works without an account.
- Study tools: notes cleaned up from photos, PDFs, Word and PowerPoint files; flashcards; practice tests; step-by-step lessons; essay outlines; podcast-style audio from notes; PSAT/SAT prep with 19 skills, practice drills and a test-day countdown; and AP exam prep with unit drills, free-response practice and a countdown to each May exam.
Who it is for
Middle and high school students, especially at schools that use Canvas or Google Classroom. Backpack is built first for students in HCPSS (Howard County, Maryland), and it works with any school that uses Canvas or Google Classroom. Students must be 13 or older.
What it costs
- Free: assignments, grades, GPA, calendar, alerts and the grade calculator. Free accounts get 20 AI actions per month and see one small ad at the bottom of the Study pages.
- Plus: $3.99 per month or $29 per year. Plus adds 40 AI actions per day, removes ads, and may be needed for some of the AI study tools.
What it never does
- It is read-only with Canvas and Google Classroom. It never turns in work, submits, posts, or messages anyone. The one thing it changes is the checkmark on a student’s own Canvas To-Do list when they mark something done.
- It helps students learn and never does graded work for them. Hints, methods, similar worked examples, practice questions, flashcards and explanations, but no answers to graded work (quizzes, tests, DeltaMath) and no essay writing.
- It does not sell student data or share it with advertisers. Ads shown to Free students do not see grades, classes or notes.
Free to start
Make a free account to bring your Canvas classes in, keep your flashcards and notes, and get an alert when a grade changes.
- Read-only with Canvas
- Free to start
- Never does your work
- Made by a student
The Backpack iPhone app is coming soon to the App Store