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Marking.ai Help Centre

Uploading submissions

Once you’ve created an assessment, the next step is uploading your students’ work. This article covers the standard upload flow.

Where to upload from

There are two main places you can upload submissions from:

  • The Start marking window — the Submissions step of the Start marking flow. Click Start marking from your home page or the Assessments page, then continue through to the Submissions step.
  • The assessment detail page — click Upload submissions on an assessment that’s already been set up.

Choosing an upload mode

At the top of the Submissions step you’ll pick one of two modes:

Prefer your students to upload their own work? Use the Or share an upload link with your students option instead — see Student upload links.

Dragging and dropping

In Individual files mode you’ll see a drag-and-drop area. You have two ways to add files:

  • Drag files from your desktop or file explorer straight into the area
  • Click to open the file picker and select files from your computer

Files upload in the background as you add them, with real progress on each row. You can add up to 50 files in one upload session.

Supported file types

Marking.ai accepts PDFs only. In Individual files mode you can also drop a ZIP that contains PDFs — the ZIP is unpacked in your browser and only the PDFs inside are uploaded.

Images (JPG, PNG, HEIC), Word documents, and other formats aren’t supported. If your students’ work is in one of those formats, export or scan it to a PDF first.

File size limits

  • Individual PDFs — up to 20 MB each. Files over the limit are skipped with a notice.
  • Combined PDF — up to 50 MB. If it’s larger, you’ll be prompted to compress it before re-uploading.
  • ZIP — the container itself can be larger, but each PDF inside must still be within the 20 MB per-file limit.

Password-protected PDFs

Marking.ai can’t read an encrypted (password-protected) PDF. If you upload one, you’ll see an unlock hint explaining how to remove the password before trying again.

Tagging a class (optional)

Before you upload, you can tag the whole batch with a class using the Class (optional) picker. Leaving it as No class uploads the submissions ungrouped, which is a perfectly valid state. See Assigning submissions to a class at upload.

After uploading

Once your files are in, click Continue to move on (in the Start marking flow) or close the window — your submissions start processing straight away. Student names are auto-detected from filenames, and you can edit them now or later. You can track progress on the Activity screen — see Tracking jobs: the Activity screen.

What if a file fails to upload?

Failed uploads show a red error indicator. Common reasons:

  • File too large — compress the PDF (or split a combined PDF)
  • Not a PDF — convert it to a PDF, or use a ZIP of PDFs
  • Password-protected — remove the password and re-upload
  • Network error — retry the upload

If you’re stuck, see My submission processing failed — what now? or get in touch at connect@marking.ai.

Need help?

Open the Account menu and choose Chat to a human, ask Marko, or email us at connect@marking.ai. We’re happy to help with tricky uploads.

FAQs

Can I upload images or Word documents?

No — Marking.ai accepts PDFs only (and ZIPs of PDFs). Convert or scan other formats to PDF first.

Do I have to upload all submissions at once?

No. You can come back and add more submissions to an existing assessment at any time — see Adding more submissions to an existing assessment.

Can my students upload their own work?

Yes — you can share an upload link with your class. See Student upload links.

What happens after the file is uploaded?

Marking.ai prepares each file for marking and matches it to a student. Marking then runs in the background. Most submissions finish in a few minutes.

Can I delete a submission after uploading?

Yes — see Deleting submissions.