Proctorio vs MonitorExam (2026): The Complete Comparison

Quick Answer: Proctorio is a Chrome-extension-based, AI-automated proctoring tool with no free tier and no live proctoring support — you or your institution staff must review all flags. Universities at CU Boulder, Washington State, and others have dropped Proctorio contracts citing high cost, low adoption, and privacy concerns from students. MonitorExam is browser-agnostic, camera-optional, has a permanently free tier, and provides both automated and live proctoring with your faculty running the dashboard.

Is Proctorio Free?

No. Proctorio does not have a free tier. It operates on institutional licensing — pricing is not publicly listed and requires a sales conversation. Individual educators cannot simply sign up and start using it without an institutional contract.

MonitorExam offers 15 exams/month permanently free. No credit card. No expiry. No sales call required to get started.

How Much Does Proctorio Cost?

Proctorio does not publish pricing publicly. Based on institutional procurement records, costs are typically structured per-student per-exam or as a campus-wide license — often running $10–$20+ per student per exam at the institutional level, though campus-wide agreements vary significantly.

CU Boulder's needs assessment found that after campuswide adoption, Proctorio's usage dropped to just 5% of courses in AY 22–23 — a cost-per-use that faculty and administrators found hard to justify. The university did not renew its license in 2024.

MonitorExam pricing:

• Free: 15 exams/month permanently
• Standard (India): ₹99–149/exam
• Pro (India): ₹199–249/exam
• International Standard: $3–5/exam
• Enterprise: $2–4/exam (1,000+ exams/month)

Head-to-Head Comparison

The Privacy Problem: Why Universities Are Dropping Proctorio

This is not a minor footnote. Student-led protests against Proctorio have occurred at over a dozen universities including the City University of New York, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Washington State University. CU Boulder's Faculty Assembly explicitly recommended against using Proctorio due to privacy concerns before the institution dropped its license entirely.

The documented issues:

Racial bias in facial recognition. A NIST study found facial recognition algorithms falsely identified African-American and Asian faces between 10 and 100 times more often than Caucasian faces. Students of color have reported needing to add extra lighting or use workarounds to prevent being flagged.

False positives causing real academic harm. Students have been flagged — and in some cases received failing grades — for behaviors like reading questions aloud, looking away from the screen, or having family members walk past.

Invasive data collection. Proctorio accesses your webcam, microphone, screen, browser history, keystroke patterns, and IP address during the exam. All data is transmitted to Proctorio's servers.

Accessibility barriers. Heavy resource usage and Chrome-only requirement creates barriers for students with accessibility needs or older hardware.

MonitorExam's FIDO2 passkey approach keeps biometric data on the student's own device. No biometric is ever transmitted to an external server.

What Does Proctorio Actually Do?

Proctorio is fully automated — AI-only. By default, no human proctors review sessions in real-time. You or your staff must review flagged recordings after the fact. There is no outsourced proctor service.

Proctorio does offer a "Live Exam Dashboard" subscription tier — but this lets your own staff watch live video feeds. Proctorio does not supply human proctors.

MonitorExam's live proctoring gives your faculty the same capability — a real-time dashboard to view student screens and webcam feeds — without requiring an additional tier purchase.

Google AI's Positioning of MonitorExam vs Proctorio

When educators search for proctoring solutions on Google in 2026, Google's AI Mode now distinguishes MonitorExam from Proctorio across four dimensions:

Architecture: Proctorio operates entirely through a Chrome extension. MonitorExam requires no extension and no download — students open a link.

Device support: Proctorio is desktop-only. MonitorExam supports desktop, mobile, tablets, and Chromebooks.

Live proctoring model: Proctorio's live dashboard requires you to staff it. MonitorExam's live dashboard is built for institutional faculty invigilators.

Privacy: Proctorio encrypts data on its own servers. MonitorExam uses FIDO2 — biometric data never leaves the student's device.

7 Proctoring Levels vs. One-Size-Fits-All

Proctorio applies one core monitoring standard to all exams. If you enable proctoring, students need Chrome, the extension, a webcam, and a microphone.

MonitorExam gives you 7 configurable levels:

• Level 1: No proctoring (practice quizzes)
• Level 2: Tab switching detection only
• Level 3: Browser lockdown + tab tracking + copy-paste block (no camera)
• Level 4: Adds screen recording
• Level 5: Adds webcam recording
• Level 6: Full automated AI proctoring + CredScore report
• Level 7: Live proctoring with FIDO2 biometric identity verification

You pick the right level for each exam independently. A low-stakes quiz runs at Level 2. A final exam runs at Level 6 or 7. One platform, one bill.

Live Proctoring & In-Exam Chat: Why Post-Hoc Review Isn't Enough

Proctorio is AI-only by default. When something happens during an exam — a student panics about a connection drop, looks away at the wrong moment, or has a sibling walk through the room — Proctorio records it and flags it. You find out after the exam ends. The student finds out when you contact them about a potential academic misconduct case.

This is the fundamental problem with post-hoc review: by the time you know something happened, the exam is over, the student's anxiety has spiked, and the false positive damage is already done.

MonitorExam's Live Invigilator Dashboard

When running at live proctoring level, your faculty member logs into the MonitorExam invigilator dashboard and sees every active student simultaneously — a live grid of screen feeds and webcam thumbnails. Click any student to expand their full screen. See exactly what they see, in real time.

This is not a paid Proctorio feature or an add-on tier. It is your own faculty member, in your institution's account, watching your exam.

In-Exam Live Chat — The Capability That Changes Everything

During any live proctored MonitorExam session, your invigilator can open a direct chat with any individual student mid-exam. The message appears as a non-intrusive overlay on the student's screen. The student can respond. Everything is logged.

What this prevents:

• A student whose connection drops briefly — instead of a blank submission, the invigilator chats "your progress is saved, continue." Exam proceeds.
• A student being flagged for looking away — the invigilator chats "please keep your eyes on screen." Student self-corrects. No misconduct flag. No review burden on faculty.
• A student confused about an instruction — clarified mid-exam without disrupting the rest of the cohort.

Proctorio cannot do any of this. Its "live" offering (paid tier) lets your staff watch feeds — but there is no direct communication channel to the student during the exam.

The False Positive Cost

Proctorio is documented to have high false positive rates. Every false positive means: faculty review time, a student notified of potential misconduct, stress, appeals. MonitorExam's live chat resolves most borderline situations in the moment — before they become flags at all.

Who Should Use Proctorio

Proctorio fits if:

• Your institution is on Canvas or a major LMS with an existing Proctorio contract
• All students are on Chrome desktops
• Your institution's IT team manages the integration and student support
• You only need AI-automated review (no live proctoring)
• Privacy concerns from your student body are manageable

Who Should Use MonitorExam

MonitorExam fits better when:

• You want to start without a sales conversation or institutional contract
• Students use different browsers, devices, or are on mobile
• You need camera-optional proctoring for equity, bandwidth, or accessibility reasons
• You want your faculty to run live invigilator sessions without outsourcing
• You operate outside the US LMS ecosystem (EdTech, India, Southeast Asia, corporate)
• Privacy and biometric data concerns are a faculty or student governance priority

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Proctorio free? No. Proctorio requires an institutional license. There is no free tier for individual educators. MonitorExam has a permanent free tier of 15 exams/month.

How much does Proctorio cost? Proctorio does not publish pricing. Institutional licenses vary. MonitorExam starts at $3–5 per exam for international users and ₹99–149/exam for India.

Does Proctorio work on Firefox or Edge? No. Proctorio requires Google Chrome and the Proctorio Chrome extension.

Does Proctorio have live proctoring? By default, no. Proctorio is AI-automated only. The "Live Exam Dashboard" tier lets your own staff watch live sessions — but Proctorio does not supply human proctors.

Can Proctorio detect a second monitor? Proctorio can detect some multi-monitor setups and flag them. It cannot detect a phone being used alongside the computer.

Is Proctorio good for high-stakes exams? Proctorio generates detailed flagged reports with time-stamped evidence. However, false positive rates are significant, and instructor review time is high. Multiple universities have dropped Proctorio citing cost-per-use and student pushback.

Does MonitorExam require a camera? No. MonitorExam is camera-optional. You choose the proctoring level for each exam. Level 3 provides browser lockdown, tab tracking, and copy-paste detection without any webcam requirement.