Use Grade Posting Policies in Canvas Gradebook

Last updated on January 28, 2026

The Canvas Gradebook is a powerful tool for recording and displaying student grades. When entering grades, you may want to hide grades until you have finished grading everyone’s assignment, or you may choose to schedule when students will be able to see their grades or feedback. For example, you may not want students to be able to see their scores until after the due date.

Grade Posting policies allow you to hide student scores until you manually post them or schedule Grades and Feedback to post at a specific time and date. Grades and feedback can be scheduled to post at the same time, or separately from each other. For example, if students are allowed multiple attempts, you may choose to post the feedback, but not the scores, so students know what they can improve on without seeing the correct answers.

By default, the Automatically policy is selected, meaning students will see grades as soon as they’re entered into the Gradebook. Changing the Grade Posting to manual, whether for the entire course or for individual assignments, will keep grades hidden from students until you post them.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to change the default Grade Posting Policy from Automatic, Schedule Grade and Feedback posting for individual assignments, and how to hide and post grades manually.

Directions

Schedule Grades and Feedback for a Single Assignment

1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
3. Click Grades in the left-hand course navigation menu.
4. Hover your cursor over the name of an Assignment.
5. Click the More Options (3-Dots) icon to the right of the Assignment name.
6. Click Grade Posting Policy in the pop-up menu.
7. Select the circle next to Manually in the panel that opens to the right.
   • If you would only like to change the Grading Policy to Manual without scheduling, click Save now.
8. Click the box next to Schedule Release Dates.
9. Select the circle next to either Grades & Comments Together or Separate Schedules.
   • Grades & Comments Together will post both student grades and instructor feedback/comments at the same time.
   • Separate Schedule will allow you to post grades at a different date and time than instructor feedback/comments.
10. Click the text box under Release Date to select a date from the calendar for the Grades/Comments to be posted.
11. Click the text box under Time to select the time of day the grades/comments will be posted.
    • Note: If you select Separate Schedule, there will be a Date and Time box for both Grades and Comments. 
12. Click Save in the bottom right-hand corner of the panel.
    • You may need to scroll down to see the Save button.

Change the Grade Posting Policy for All Assignments

1. Click Grades in the left-hand course navigation menu.
2. Click the Gear icon in the top right-hand corner of the page.
3. Click the Grade Posting Policy tab along the top of the Gradebook Settings panel.
4. Click the circle next to either Automatically Post Grades or Manually Post Grades.
   1. An Automatic policy will make the grades immediately visible to students the moment the grade is entered in the Gradebook or Speedgrader. You can still choose to hide grades after the fact, though, and choosing this option will not post grades that are currently hidden.
   2. A Manual policy will hide grades that are entered until you choose to post them. Any grades that are already posted will remain visible until you hide them.
5. Click Apply Settings in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

Hide and Manually Post Grades for an Assignment

Note: If your grading policy is set to Manually Post Grades, the grades will automatically be hidden until you post the grades or the scheduled posting time. However, if you set the Manual Grading policy after students have already submitted, you will have to follow these steps to hide those scores.

1. Click Grades in the left-hand course navigation menu.
2. Hover your cursor over the name of an Assignment.
   1. If grades for this Assignment are hidden, a crossed-out eye icon will appear to the left of the Assignment name. If grades are posted, this eye icon will not be present.
3. Click the three dots (more options) icon to the right of the Assignment name.
4. Click either Post Grades or Hide Grades.
   1. If grades are already posted, the Post Grades button will be replaced by “All grades posted,” and vice versa if grades are already hidden.
   2. Any grades entered after hiding or posting grades will follow the Grading Policy, and will not be hidden if Grading Policy is set as Automatically Post Grades.

Note: Quizzes follow their specific Quiz Settings. If a quiz is set to allow students to see their scores, they will be able to see their score when clicking into the quiz even if the grade is hidden in the gradebook. To learn more about adjusting quiz settings, see our tutorials Create and Edit “New” Quizzes and Create and Edit Classic Quizzes.