Compare · Checked September 1, 2026
Scope for Canvas vs Tasks for Canvas
Tasks for Canvas is the better to-do list; nothing here changes that. Scope for Canvas is for finding things and asking questions across every course, with a planner that drafts study blocks from your deadlines. They coexist.
Scope for Canvas is a free, local-first Chrome extension that searches everything in your Canvas and Brightspace courses and answers questions with citations to your own course materials. Tasks for Canvas is a to-do list sidebar for the Canvas, Blackboard, and Brightspace dashboards from BetterCampus.
| Scope for Canvas | Tasks for Canvas | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Search across every course, cited answers from your own materials, and a planner — opened with a keyboard shortcut from any Canvas or Brightspace page. | A to-do list sidebar on the Canvas dashboard: this week's assignments, progress rings per course, announcements, custom and recurring tasks, and streaks. |
| Price | Free. No account required. | Free. Its Chrome Web Store listing shows no paid tier as of September 1, 2026. |
| Users and rating | About 104 people, counted by hand on August 27, 2026 (how we count). The Chrome Web Store shows 94 users and 5.0 stars from 6 ratings as of September 1, 2026. | 1,000,000 users and 4.6 stars from about 700 ratings on the Chrome Web Store, as of September 1, 2026. |
| Checklist / to-do across courses | To-dos live in Scope's own panel and come from the planner. There is no checklist added to Canvas pages. | Yes — the core feature. Every active assignment across your dashboard courses, with due date, points, and a link, marked complete by hand or on submission. |
| Planner and study blocks | Reads upcoming deadlines across courses, drafts study blocks, and turns approved blocks into to-dos, reminders, or calendar events. | Week, three-day, rolling, and semester views of what is due. It does not draft study time. |
| Daily briefing | A short morning briefing of what is coming up, when you want one. | Not listed. |
| Google Calendar | Optional: approved study blocks and deadlines can be added to Google Calendar. | Not mentioned on its listing as of September 1, 2026. |
| Cross-course search | Yes — files, pages, assignments, announcements, and media across every course, from one search box. | No. It lists assignments; it does not search course content. |
| PDF and scanned-PDF search | Yes. Scope reads PDF text and searches scanned pages, so a phrase inside a reading is findable. | No. |
| Cited answers from course materials | Yes. Answers come from what your instructors posted, with the source linked. AI answers try Chrome's on-device model first; when it is unavailable, an optional, clearly marked cloud fallback is used. | No. |
| LMS support | Canvas and Brightspace. | Canvas, Blackboard, and D2L Brightspace, per its listing. It can also pull Gradescope assignments into the list. |
| Grade what-if calculator | Yes. See where you stand and what the final needs to be, computed locally. | Shows grades on completed tasks. No what-if calculator is listed. |
| Where your data goes | Search and indexing run entirely on your device. AI answers try Chrome's on-device model first; when it is unavailable, an optional, clearly marked cloud fallback is used. | Its listing says it stores your preferences in the browser, does not collect or share user data, and talks only to your school's Canvas; completed tasks sync across your signed-in browsers. |
| Last updated | Version 11.0.5, updated August 30, 2026, per its Chrome Web Store listing on September 1, 2026. | Version 1.6.3, updated August 17, 2026, per its Chrome Web Store listing on September 1, 2026. |
Where Tasks for Canvas wins
- The to-do list is on the Canvas dashboard itself, on every visit — nothing to open, with progress rings per course.
- A million users and a 4.6-star rating from about 700 ratings, as of September 1, 2026. Scope has about a hundred.
- Years of releases: week, three-day, and semester views, custom and recurring tasks, streaks, and announcements in the same list.
- Blackboard support, and Gradescope assignments pulled into the same list. Scope does neither.
Where Scope wins
- Search across every course — files, pages, assignments, announcements — and inside PDFs, including scanned ones.
- Answers to “when is the midterm” or “what is the late policy” from your own course materials, with the source linked.
- A planner that drafts study blocks from your deadlines, a morning briefing, and optional Google Calendar sync.
- A grade what-if calculator, computed locally, and a one-tap send of any course PDF to your iPad in Lectra Notes.
Questions
Scope vs Tasks for Canvas, answered.
Is there a Tasks for Canvas alternative?
For a to-do list on the Canvas dashboard, Tasks for Canvas is the best-known option, with a million users on the Chrome Web Store as of September 1, 2026. Scope for Canvas is not a replacement for it. Scope covers a different job — searching every course, including inside PDFs, answering questions with citations to your course materials, and drafting a study plan from your deadlines. If a checklist is what you want, install Tasks for Canvas.
Does Scope have a to-do list?
Scope keeps to-dos and drafts a plan around them: the planner reads your upcoming deadlines, proposes study blocks, and turns the blocks you approve into saved to-dos, reminders, or calendar events. It is not a checklist injected into every Canvas page, and it does not draw progress rings on the dashboard. That is what Tasks for Canvas does, and it does it well.
Can I run Scope and Tasks for Canvas at the same time?
They do different jobs, and we know of no conflict between them: Tasks for Canvas adds a sidebar to the Canvas dashboard, while Scope opens from a keyboard shortcut and its own panel. We have not tested every Canvas layout with both installed, so if you see the two overlap, tell us and we will look into it.
Does Scope take quizzes or do assignments?
No. Scope answers questions from the materials your instructors posted and links every answer to its source. It does not take quizzes, write submissions, or interact with Canvas quiz logs.
Keep your to-do list. Add search.
Add Scope to Chrome — free — and if you want a checklist on the dashboard, install Tasks for Canvas alongside it.