What do the SafeAssign percentage bands mean?
They describe what papers in each range usually contain. Anthology’s student help on the Originality Report lists three bands:
| Band | Overall score | What Anthology says about these papers |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Below 15 percent | “These papers typically include some quotes and few common phrases or blocks of text that match other documents.” |
| Medium | 15 to 40 percent | “These papers include extensive quoted or paraphrased material, or they may include unoriginal content.” |
| High | Over 40 percent | “A very high probability exists that text in these papers was copied from other sources.” They are “highly suggested for review.” |
The report preview next to your attempt has three parts. Overall Risk labels the attempt low, medium or high, a level “determined based on the average text matching range your attempt falls in.” Overall Text Matching shows the average and highest match. The Originality Reports list gives a percentage for each piece of the submission, “including questions and attachments,” so a test with several written answers can carry several scores.
What does the SafeAssign percentage measure?
Matching text. Anthology says “the overall SafeAssign score indicates the probability that the submitted paper contains matches to existing sources.” The score does not judge your citations. Anthology’s student overview says so directly: “The Originality Report does not state whether a phrase that matches a source is properly referenced. Your instructor must read the report and determine if you used proper citations.”
Each highlighted block also has a sentence score. These “represent the percentage probability that two phrases have the same meaning.” In Anthology’s example, a 90 percent match means a 90 percent probability the phrases are the same and a 10 percent probability they are similar by chance, “whether appropriately attributed or not.”
Is there an acceptable SafeAssign percentage?
Not from Anthology. None of the SafeAssign pages we read names a score that passes or fails. The bands describe typical papers, and the judgment belongs to your instructor, who has to decide whether matching text is properly referenced. Because the score counts matches whether or not they are cited, a well-cited paper that quotes heavily can score higher than one that quotes little. If your syllabus or school sets a number, that rule is theirs, so check it or ask.
Why do quotes and references raise your SafeAssign score?
SafeAssign flags matching text whether or not you cited it. Anthology says the report “identifies all matching blocks of text,” and “Instructors and students need to determine if the matching text is properly referenced. Investigating each match prevents detection errors due to differences in citing standards.” Other sources of matches that Anthology documents:
- Your own earlier paper. “When the paper is a continuation of a previously submitted work, your instructor can delete matching sources from the report and process it again.”
- A deleted submission. Deleted work “remains in the database” and can match other students’ later papers, listed as a “non-existent paper” that can’t be opened. If the same student resubmits the identical paper, the instructor FAQ says SafeAssign recognizes it as theirs and ignores the match.
- Another school’s paper. When another student’s paper is listed, “you may not be able to view it due to privacy laws.”
What does SafeAssign compare your paper against?
Published and previously submitted work. Anthology says SafeAssign uses “a unique text matching algorithm capable of detecting exact and inexact matching” and compares assignments “against several different databases containing millions of articles dating from the 1990s to the present.” Its Original Course View instructor page lists four:
- Global Reference Database: “over 15 million papers volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions.”
- Institutional document archives: “all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users in their respective institutions.”
- Internet: searched “using an internal search service.”
- ProQuest ABI/Inform Journal Database: “More than 3,000 publication titles, 4.5 million documents.”
The report also gives instructors a Document Properties section with file metadata such as who created and last modified the file, when, the revision count and the software used. The SafeAssign pages we read describe text matching, and none of them describes an AI-writing detector (does SafeAssign detect AI?). Your school may use other tools, and its academic-integrity policy applies.
Can you check SafeAssign before submitting?
Not on your own. Anthology’s student pages describe no separate checker: “SafeAssign starts processing your assignment or test as soon as you select Submit.” DirectSubmit, which checks a paper outside an assignment, needs a privilege held by users “such as instructors, teaching assistants, or graders.” Your instructor can set things up so you see results early:
- Report access. “Your instructor decides whether you can see Originality Reports for your assignment attempt.” If allowed, you can review it “shortly after you submit your attempt, even before your instructor posts grades.” It opens from the assignment’s Details & Information panel, where your grade and feedback also appear (how to see feedback on Blackboard).
- Multiple attempts. “If your instructor allowed multiple attempts, SafeAssign analyzes all of your attempts separately,” and it “doesn’t check the new attempt against content in previous attempts.” Your instructor can see the report for every attempt. Whether you get another attempt is up to your instructor (can you unsubmit on Blackboard?).
- Draft submissions. If an instructor selects “Exclude submissions from the Institutional and Global References Databases,” the work is “stored as a draft,” and “Drafts have the ability to get the Originality report to understand the matching score, however, no other submission can be matched against this draft.” The instructor FAQ says the setting must be chosen before students submit.
Anthology frames the report as a citation check: with access, “you can check if you properly cited your sources.” Read it the way your instructor will, one match at a time.
How accurate is SafeAssign?
Anthology doesn’t publish an accuracy rate on the pages we read. It calls the overall score a warning indicator and asks for a person to review each match. It also documents files SafeAssign can’t score:
- Scanned PDFs. SafeAssign “does not currently perform OCR,” so a scanned or print-to-PDF file holds “pictures of text” it can’t process. Anthology’s fix is to export the PDF from your word processor. If you can’t select the text in a PDF reader, it isn’t true text.
- Unsupported file types. For those, “the SafeAssign Originality Report omits a matching score,” and SafeAssign shows how many attachments it processed.
- Size. Anthology’s submission page says to keep a file “under a 25 MB limit and under 100 000 words.”
If an attachment shows no score, check its type and size first. The supported list is in the FAQ below.
Where Silent Student fits
We make Silent Student, a desktop app for Mac and Windows that also works Blackboard Learn Ultra tests, assignments and discussions. It has no SafeAssign checker, it does not hide work from SafeAssign or change what it records, and anything submitted to a SafeAssign assignment is checked like any other submission. Your school’s academic-integrity policy applies. More: Silent Student on Blackboard.
Questions people ask
What is a good SafeAssign score?
Anthology’s help names no passing score. Its lowest band is below 15 percent, which it says typically means some quotes and a few common phrases. Your instructor decides after checking whether each match is properly cited.
Is a 25 percent SafeAssign score bad?
It falls in Anthology’s medium band, 15 to 40 percent, which it describes as papers with “extensive quoted or paraphrased material, or they may include unoriginal content.” Whether that is a problem depends on whether the matches are properly cited.
Can students see their SafeAssign score?
Only if the instructor allows it. Then the Originality Report appears next to your attempt shortly after you submit, even before grades are posted.
Does SafeAssign check a new attempt against my earlier attempts?
No. Anthology says SafeAssign recognizes each new attempt as coming from the same student for the same assignment, so it does not check it against your previous attempts.
Can SafeAssign detect AI writing?
The Anthology SafeAssign pages we read describe text matching against existing sources, and none describes an AI-writing detector. Your school may use other tools, and its academic-integrity policy applies.
What file types does SafeAssign check?
Files that convert to plain text: Word (DOC, DOCX, DOCM), RTF, HTML, TXT, PDF with real text, ODT, PowerPoint (PPT) and ZIP files of these. Anthology lists a 25 MB processing limit.
Sources
All fetched and checked October 29, 2026. Anthology publishes separate help for Ultra and Original Course View courses; the line says which.
- SafeAssign Originality Report (Anthology, Blackboard student help)
- Submit with SafeAssign (Anthology, Blackboard student help)
- SafeAssign FAQs (Anthology, Blackboard instructor help)
- SafeAssign (Anthology, Blackboard student help)
- SafeAssign Supported File Types (Anthology, Blackboard student help)
- SafeAssign in Your Course (Anthology, Blackboard instructor help)
- Use SafeAssign in Assignments (Anthology, Blackboard instructor help, Original Course View)
- DirectSubmit (Anthology, Blackboard instructor help)
How this guide was made. We read each Anthology page listed above on October 29, 2026 and quote them directly, including Anthology’s own spelling. We did not test SafeAssign. We wrote the guide with AI assistance and checked each quote against its source, then re-checked every quote against the live pages on November 2, 2026.
Related: Does SafeAssign detect AI? · How do you see feedback on Blackboard? · Can you unsubmit on Blackboard? · Silent Student on Blackboard · Blackboard grade calculator · Does Packback detect AI? · All guides
Written by the company that makes Silent Student. Silent Student is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthology. Blackboard, Blackboard Learn and SafeAssign are trademarks of Anthology Inc. or its affiliates.