Burn the Pile
For elementary, high school and college teachers
Grade a whole class during your coffee break.
Scan the papers, add your answer key: Burn the Pile suggests a detailed grade question by question, highlights language errors and drafts feedback for every student. You review, adjust and export.
No credit card · No student work stored · Pay per page, no subscription
Three steps, a few minutes
No training, nothing to install. It runs in your browser, on a computer or a tablet.
1. Your answer key
Paste your instructions or upload your answer key (PDF, photo). Points per question, accepted answers, criteria: the AI follows your rubric, or builds a detailed one for you.
2. Student work
Drop the scanned PDF of the whole class, photos or Word documents. The AI finds where each paper starts, and you can adjust.
3. You approve
A grade and justification for each question, feedback for the student. Adjust a point in one click and download the results for Excel or your gradebook.
Check the writing too, right on the paper
A dedicated tab finds the errors on every page, highlights them by category and explains the rule. Perfect for papers you hand back to students.
- Six categories to choose from: spelling, agreement, verb forms, punctuation, sentence structure, word choice
- Optional writing score (e.g., −0.5 per error)
- Annotated paper to print or save as PDF for the student
- Works on handwriting as well as typed text
Built so you can trust it
An AI that is silently wrong doesn’t save you time. Burn the Pile shows you where to look.
Every point is justified
“Wrote: 1942, expected: 1955.” You see why each point was taken off, and you change it if you disagree.
In-depth grading
Each paper can be graded twice, independently, with a reliability score. Questions where the gradings disagree are highlighted.
Nothing is stored
Papers are processed, then forgotten: no student work or grades are stored on our servers. You download your results, that’s it.
Pay per page, no subscription
A class of 30 students with 3-page papers: about $5 in quick mode, $10 in in-depth mode (double grading). Language checks use 1 page per page. The answer key is never charged. Pages never expire.
Prices in Canadian dollars. Start with 30 free pages. A school or district? Contact us for group pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI replace my judgment?
No. It suggests a grade and a justification; you remain the grader. Everything can be edited before export, and doubtful papers are flagged.
Does it work with handwriting?
Yes, with clear scans or photos. If a passage is illegible, the grading says so and the paper is flagged for review instead of guessing.
Which file formats?
Scanned PDFs (one or several papers per file), phone photos (including iPhone photos), Word documents (.docx) and text files. Papers in a single scan are split by student automatically.
Which subjects?
Any subject where an answer key or rubric can judge the answers: history, science, math (answers and work shown), English, languages, short written answers. The more precise your answer key, the more precise the grading.
What is a “page”?
One page of student work (one scanned side or one photo). In quick mode and for language checks, a page counts as 1; in in-depth mode (double grading and reliability), as 2. The answer key is not counted. Failed gradings are not charged.
What happens to my students’ work?
It is sent encrypted to our AI provider for grading, then forgotten. We store no student work, grades or student names. See our privacy policy.
Do I need an account?
No. You get an access key that holds your page balance. Write it down to use it on another device or to top up.
Your next pile of papers, in a few minutes
30 free pages, no credit card.
Try it now