Salt Lake City – September 15, 2026 -- Instructure will launch Canvas Lite, a free version of its Canvas learning management system, on September 30, 2026, opening the platform to educators who operate outside institutional licenses.
Canvas Lite targets teachers without district or campus access
The product, available at canvaslite.instructure.com, gives homeschool educators, tutors, community instructors and teachers piloting new courses a way to build course content, invite students and manage assignments without IT deployment or procurement. Instructure said the free tier includes core Canvas tools at the course level, including module and page building, file and URL submissions, quizzes with rubrics, SpeedGrader with audio and video feedback, messaging and discussions, third-party integrations with Google Drive, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and the Canvas Teacher and Canvas Student mobile apps.
Every teacher must pass identity verification before signup
Instructure has partnered with verification provider Veriff to require every teacher creating a Canvas Lite course to submit a government-issued ID and a selfie. Students invited into a teacher's course are exempt from this check. Canvas Lite operates on its own domain, separated from the Canvas environments used by paying institutional customers, and all data is hosted in the United States.
Zach Pendleton, chief architect at Instructure, said privacy and security were built into the product's core design to give independent educators a safe environment without compromise.
500 MB storage cap pushes power users toward paid licenses
The Canvas Lite terms set a 500 MB storage limit per course. Teachers who need additional storage, course analytics, attendance tracking or API access tokens are directed to contact Instructure about a full Canvas license, creating a built-in upgrade path from the free tier.
Melissa Loble, chief learning officer at Instructure, said the company built Canvas Lite to keep showing up for individual educators who have used Canvas since its early days, while familiarizing students with the platform before they encounter it in a licensed high school, college or training program setting.
Self-serve guides for the product will be available through the Instructure Community starting at launch.