Canvas Free-for-Teacher is gone: what happened and what is left
Instructure took Free-for-Teacher offline during the May 2026 security incident and then discontinued it for good. The last download window ran from September 30 to October 6, 2026. Here is the timeline, and what you can still do with what you saved.
The short answer
Free-for-Teacher accounts are closed and are not coming back. Instructure's incident page calls it a "permanent discontinuation". There were three short windows to download courses, and the last one closed on October 6, 2026. If you exported your courses during one of them, you have .imscc files and nothing in them is lost: open them in Cubby to read every page, assignment and quiz, answers included. If you did not export, the content is only on Instructure's servers, and no outside tool can get it back.
| Date (2026) | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| April 25 to 29 | Attackers reach Canvas systems; Instructure detects the intrusion and brings in forensic experts. | Wikipedia summary of the breach |
| May 7 and 8 | The login page is defaced, Canvas goes offline, and Free-for-Teacher is taken down while the rest of Canvas comes back. | Instructure incident page; Wikipedia |
| Week of May 28 | A first access period to download materials, about 48 hours (May 28 and 29). | Instructure incident page; the class action complaint |
| June 8 | Instructure's update reflects the permanent discontinuation of Free-for-Teacher. | Instructure incident page |
| July 12 | A putative class action over the shutdown is filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. | Hall Attorneys case page |
| July 28 and 29 | A second access window. | r/canvas; the complaint |
| September 30 | Canvas Lite launches as the free successor, and a final window opens for old accounts. | The Canvas Insider; r/canvas |
| October 6 | The final window closes. After it, the old content is no longer available. | The Canvas Insider |
What Canvas Lite asks for
Canvas Lite is Instructure's free account for individual educators (tutoring, homeschooling, piloting a course, in the words of its sign-up page). It is a fresh account: your old courses do not appear in it, and you bring them in by importing the .imscc files you exported. Reported differences from Free-for-Teacher, from The Canvas Insider's write-up of September 10 and from teachers who signed up:
| Topic | Canvas Lite |
|---|---|
| Identity check | A government ID and a live selfie through Veriff when you set up the account. A teacher on r/canvas confirmed being asked for a driver's licence on launch day. |
| Size | Five active courses, 50 learners per course, 500 MB of storage. |
| Quizzes | New Quizzes only. Classic Quizzes, the kind Free-for-Teacher used, are not available. |
| Who may use it | Individual educators, not employees of businesses, non-profits or government agencies using it for that work. |
| Missing tools | Course analytics, Roll Call attendance and API access tokens. |
Instructure's own Canvas Lite page does not list these limits, so check its terms before you rely on them.
What to do with the .imscc files you saved
- Look inside first. Open each file in Cubby: you see the modules in order, every page and assignment, and every quiz with its answers, without an account and without uploading anything. This is the quickest way to know what you have.
- Keep a readable copy. A ZIP only a learning platform can open is a fragile backup. Print the items you need to PDF from Cubby, or save the whole course as one file with Cubby Pro.
- Move the course where you will teach. Canvas Lite imports .imscc files (Settings, Import Course Content, Common Cartridge). Moodle restores them (Course, Restore or Import, IMS Common Cartridge). Google's own Classroom converter turns them into Classroom materials. Schoology and Brightspace import them too.
- Rebuild the quizzes that matter. Because Canvas Lite has New Quizzes only, check imported quizzes question by question. Cubby shows the original questions and correct answers to compare against, and Pro saves them as Word files and as Moodle XML.
Have an .imscc file from Free-for-Teacher? Open it here and read the course again. Nothing is uploaded.
Open your .imscc fileCubby Pro, $8 paid once: the whole course in one file to print as a PDF, every quiz as a Word file with an answer key, and all the course files in one ZIP. Get Pro on Gumroad or see what is free.
Questions
Can I still download my Free-for-Teacher courses?
No, not from the old accounts: the last window closed on October 6, 2026, and The Canvas Insider reports that the old content is no longer available after it. Contact Instructure support if you believe your account was missed. If you have .imscc files from one of the windows, everything in them can still be opened.
Is Canvas Lite the same as Free-for-Teacher?
It is the free replacement, but a new account with new rules: reported limits are five active courses, 50 learners per course and 500 MB, New Quizzes only, and an identity check with a government ID and a selfie. Your old courses only come back if you import the .imscc files you exported.
Do I need Canvas Lite to read my exported courses?
No. Cubby opens an .imscc file in your browser and shows every module, page, assignment and quiz, with the answers. You only need a learning platform if you want to teach the course again.
Is there a lawsuit?
Yes. A putative class action filed on July 12, 2026 in the District of Utah (No. 2:26-cv-00652) alleges that the shutdown and the short windows cost teachers their course content. These are allegations; nothing has been decided.
Sources
- Instructure: Security Incident Update and FAQs. Updates of June 1, 5 and 8, 2026: access period in the week of May 28; permanent discontinuation
- The Canvas Insider: The Final Days of Free-for-Teacher (September 10, 2026). Canvas Lite launch on September 30, the final window to October 6, the limits and the Veriff check
- Instructure: Canvas Lite sign-up page. Free account for individual educators
- r/canvas: Canvas Lite has been released (September 30, 2026). A teacher reports the ID check
- r/canvas: An additional Free-for-Teacher access window, July 28 and 29
- Hall Attorneys: Canvas Free-for-Teacher class action. Vallera v. Instructure, D. Utah, No. 2:26-cv-00652, filed July 12, 2026
- Wikipedia: 2026 Canvas data breach. Dates of the intrusion and the outage
Last checked: October 28, 2026.