How to See Your Grades on Canvas (All Courses, Past Courses & What-If)

The short answer: to see every class at once, click View Grades in the sidebar of your Canvas Dashboard. To see the details for one class, open the course and click Grades in the course menu. Below is every way to get there on the web and on your phone, how What-If scores work, how to find grades from past classes, and why a grade sometimes doesn't show up at all.

See all your grades at once

On the Canvas Dashboard (the Card View or Recent Activity view), click the View Grades button in the right-hand sidebar. You'll get a list of all your active courses under Courses I'm Taking, each with its current grade. A course with nothing graded yet shows “no grade.” If your school uses grading periods (quarters or semesters), you'll see a drop-down to switch between them.

If your Dashboard is in List View, look for the gradebook icon at the top. It opens a My Grades menu with the same course-by-course list.

Some students also have the newer Canvas dashboard (there's a Switch to new dashboard view button on accounts that support it). It includes a Course grades widget you can show or hide.

See your grades for one class

1. Open the course from the Dashboard or the Courses menu.
2. Click Grades in the course navigation on the left.
3. Use Arrange by to sort assignments by due date (the default), module, assignment name, or assignment group, then click Apply.

Two things on this page are easy to miss:

• Calculate based only on graded assignments. This box is checked by default, so the total you see counts only work that has been graded. Uncheck it and Canvas counts ungraded work as zero, which shows what the grade would be if nothing else got turned in.
• Assignment group weights. If the class weights its groups (say tests 50%, homework 20%), the sidebar shows the breakdown. It explains why one test moves your grade more than a week of homework.

See your grades in the Canvas Student app

In the Canvas Student app, tap a course on the Dashboard, then tap Grades (you may need to swipe to find it). To see your grade on every course card at once, open the Dashboard settings and turn on Show Grades.

On a course's Grades screen you'll find toggles for basing the grade on graded assignments only and for showing What-If scores, plus a grading period menu.

Try What-If scores

What-If scores let you see how a grade you haven't gotten yet would change your total. On a course's Grades page, click a score and type a different one. The total updates right away, and nothing changes in the real gradebook. To undo one, use Revert to Actual Score. Canvas also remembers What-If scores you've tried; Show Saved “What-If” Scores brings them back.

It's the quickest way to answer “what do I need on the final?” Only students can use What-If scores; parent (observer) accounts can't.

See grades from past classes

Click Courses, then All Courses, and scroll to Past Enrollments. Open the course and click Grades. Some schools turn off access to courses after they end, so if a past course won't open, that's a school setting rather than something wrong with your account. For a record of final grades, your school's student information system (the one that produces report cards) is the official source.

Why you might not see a grade

• The teacher hid the totals. Teachers can hide the course total, in which case you'll see a message that calculation of totals has been disabled. You can still see each assignment's score.
• The grade isn't posted yet. Teachers can grade work and release scores later, so a submitted assignment can sit without a score for a while.
• Grades is hidden in that course. If a teacher hides the Grades link on the web, it's hidden in the app too.
• The course has ended. See past classes above.

Parents: seeing your child's grades

With a Canvas parent (observer) account, the Dashboard has a student drop-down to switch between kids, and View Grades lists them under Linked Student Accounts. In the Canvas Parent app, the Courses tab shows each class's grade. Our parent's guide to checking grades covers it step by step, and if you don't have an observer account yet, start with how to become an observer on Canvas.

All your grades and deadlines in one place

Canvas spreads your grades across a page per class. GradeGlance pulls them into one view, free for students: every class grade, what's due next, and a daily plan on your phone with what's due tonight and about how long it'll take. If a grade starts slipping, see how to see your grade history and how to catch a falling grade early.