AI that does your homework: what each kind really does

What “does your homework” can mean

People use the phrase for three different jobs. Most of the tools in the search results we looked at on 16 October 2026 do the first or the second.

1. Answer one question. You have a problem you cannot solve and want the answer or the steps.
2. Write something. An essay, a discussion post, a lab summary, a draft you will edit.
3. Go through the assignment on the course site and hand it in. Sign in, find the item, answer every part, press submit, then do the next item.

The third job is the one a student means when work has piled up across Canvas and a publisher site. It takes the most effort of the three. The rest of this page sorts tools by which of the three they take off your plate.

Chatbots

Chatbots are best when you want to understand something. They explain a method step by step, and you can ask again in different words. The limit is that they only see what you give them. They do not open your course, so every answer still has to be copied across and submitted by you, and they sometimes get things wrong. Check anything that is graded.

Photo and answer sites

These are best for a single problem you are stuck on: take a picture, get the steps. Many advertise a free tier or no sign-up, and the terms change, so check each one. They handle one question at a time, so a week of assignments is still yours to open and submit. The same screenshot-and-answer idea also ships as extensions and phone apps, and our comparisons of SnapGPT and Apex Vision AI use each product’s own site.

Browser extensions

Extensions are best for one click on one page with no setup. They run inside your everyday browser, which is also their main risk, because the permission they need reaches the other sites you are signed in to. Most act on quiz pages and not on essays, discussion posts or uploads. Our comparison with Chrome extensions goes through it, and the Canvas helper guide covers what to check before you install one.

Desktop agents

Desktop agents are best when the problem is volume. They work through the queue the way you would, on the course site, and the next section lists what that involves. The limits matter. You hand software on your computer your school login, a platform redesign can break a run, and you stay responsible for what is submitted under your name. Other agents exist. Futurism reported in February 2026 on one called Einstein, from Companion, that according to its maker’s site signs in to Canvas every day and submits homework. Futurism said it was unclear whether the claims hold up. We have not tested it. Source checked 16 October 2026.

What a desktop agent does that the other three can’t

From sign-in to submitted

You download the app for Mac or Windows and sign in to Canvas with your school login. The sign-in happens in the app’s own browser on your computer, so your everyday browser is left alone. One click syncs your courses and sorts the work by due date, overdue first. You pick one assignment, a course or everything, and press Run. The app works the queue in due-date order and keeps the computer awake while work is left. It cannot wake a sleeping machine, and closing the lid still sleeps most laptops. When the queue is empty it stops, and you check your grades in Canvas. Every submission is logged with a timestamp. The steps are on how it works.

What it handles

On Canvas it works quizzes, essays, discussion posts and file uploads. When an assignment links out to another tool, it follows the link and works the assignment there: WebAssign, Cengage, McGraw Hill Connect and SmartBook, Pearson MyLab, ALEKS, Macmillan Achieve, Top Hat, zyBooks, Packback and myBusinessCourse. A tool without its own solver goes to a general agent that reads the screen. That agent is less predictable, and the supported platforms pages list the limits.

What waits for you

Canvas essays, discussion posts and file uploads are drafted and held until you approve, edit or regenerate them. A graded, single-attempt, untimed Canvas quiz stops for your review before it submits. Other quizzes do not stop. Timed quizzes, multi-attempt quizzes and anything close to its deadline are submitted, and a held quiz submits on its own when its review window runs out if the app is still running and not paused. Inside external tools the app answers and submits as it goes. WebAssign parts are submitted one at a time, and Packback posts are published directly, with nothing held for review.

See how the app works

How accurate is it?

On our September 2026 benchmark, Silent Student answered 156 of 164 graded answers correctly (95%) across seven homework assignments built as replicas modeled on WebAssign, Cengage MindTap, McGraw Hill Connect, Pearson MyLab and Macmillan Achieve. It submitted six of the seven. Some of the replicas deliberately reject a correct answer or hide a control, and it recovered from 9 of those 12 faults. The Macmillan Achieve replica was not submitted, because the run stopped making progress on one question.

Read those numbers with the setup beside them. The assignments are replicas we built for testing, not real student accounts or live publisher sites, and no platform maker was involved. It was one run, on 22 September 2026, on the engine the Base plan uses, in a standalone test harness and not the full desktop app. Each replica was read back afterwards to score it, so the score does not rely on the bot’s own report. Your course may behave differently. The benchmark page has the method, a table for each assignment and the recordings.

What it won’t do

• Proctored exams. It does not take them. Our LockDown Browser guide explains what they look like.
• AI-detector promises. No tool can promise a specific detector result, and we don’t claim one.
• Equal results on every platform. Tools without a dedicated solver run through the screen-reading agent, which is less predictable.
• Other devices. It is desktop only: a Mac with Apple Silicon on macOS 13 or later, or Windows 10 or later (64-bit). There is no Chromebook or iPad version, and Google Classroom is not supported.
• A finished installer. It is a public beta. The Mac installer is self-signed and not notarized by Apple, and the Windows installer is unsigned, so your computer may show a warning the first time you open it.
• Surviving every redesign. When a platform changes its pages, a run can break until an update ships.

Is it cheating?

That depends on your course’s rules and on how you use the tool. Three questions decide most cases. Did your instructor authorize this kind of help? Are you handing the work in as your own? Could you explain it if someone asked? Read your syllabus and your school’s separate academic-integrity policy, ask in writing when a rule is unclear, and disclose AI use where a course asks. Proctored exams are off-limits for every tool on this page.

Instructors know this category exists. In October 2025 the Colorado State University teaching institute published a notice titled “Action Recommended: New AI Browsers Can Complete Canvas Quizzes. Here’s How to Secure Them.”. It says AI browsers described as agentic can complete Canvas assignments and quizzes, and it recommends Respondus LockDown Browser for Canvas assessments. Checked 16 October 2026.

Detectors do not settle the question either. Vanderbilt turned off Turnitin’s AI detector in 2023, OpenAI withdrew its own AI-text classifier, and Turnitin says its AI score should not be the sole basis for action against a student. This page has no advice on avoiding detection. The three questions are worked through in is using an AI homework bot cheating.

Privacy, cost and the guarantee

Your school password is stored on your computer, in macOS Keychain or Windows’ built-in encryption, and is never sent to our servers. The question text and page content the app needs an answer for go to our backend and then to AI model providers. The security and privacy page lists the providers and what is kept.

Base is $11.99 a month, Plus $24.99 and Pro $49.99, billed monthly and cancellable anytime. Every plan includes every platform and feature. They differ in monthly usage (Pro is unlimited under fair use) and in access to the advanced pro model. There is no free tier. If Silent Student can’t complete the first assignment you run on a paid plan, contact support within 30 days of your first payment for that payment back. It applies once per person and does not cover work the app tells you it doesn’t support before it runs, such as proctored exams, or a run you stop yourself (Terms, section 4). Compare plans on pricing, or join Silent Student when you are ready.

How to choose

• One stuck problem: a chatbot or a photo and answer site is enough. Use whichever you trust.
• You want to understand a method: use a chatbot or a tutor, then work the next problem yourself.
• An essay you have to write yourself: use AI for an outline or feedback only if your course allows it, and write the draft.
• A backlog across several courses and publisher sites, where your course’s rules allow it: a desktop agent is built for that. How to automate homework covers the wider picture.
• A proctored exam: none of them. Prepare for it.