How much do California colleges and universities spend on Canvas?

Course requirements. Assigned readings. Turning in assignments. Calculating grades. Today, it’s all done digitally with a so-called “learning-management platform,” such as Canvas, a cloud-based software service that acts as “mission control” for learning. California’s public colleges and universities pay to access Canvas, which is owned by the company Instructure.

Last month, a data breach by hacker group ShinyHunters upended access to Canvas and led to service disruptions around the world at thousands of schools. California’s public colleges and universities were preparing for exams at the moment when Instructure was held ransom: pay up, or terabytes of private data, including student and staff records, would be leaked, the group threatened.

28.8million

Dollars spent by California public colleges and universities in the last year on record (2024-2025) on Canvas, the learning-management platform, owned by Instructure.

Service was restored after Instructure reached an agreement with the hacking group and reported that all the data was returned. But questions remain: Why was the learning platform that so many depend on vulnerable to attack? And, what does it say about California higher education’s dependence that the engine of education ground to a halt without Canvas? 

7.8million

Cost to provide Canvas access across the 23 California State University campuses.

7million

Cost to provide Canvas access across the 10 University of California campuses.

Officials at the California State University system told EdSource that the total 2024-25 cost to CSU campuses was $7.8 million; UC representatives reported that the cost for the University of California totaled a little less, $7 million, for the same fiscal year. The California Community Colleges system spends roughly $14 million annually on Canvas.

14million

Cost to provide Canvas access across the 116 California Community College campuses.

With nearly 3 million students in combined enrollment, the cost to California to provide access to Canvas at its public colleges and universities is less than $10 per student. State officials have provided millions in supplemental funding to the colleges to adopt a common learning-management platform, with the idea that there would be cost savings. One resolution suggested savings from using Canvas could be used for professional development or investing in personnel.

But the recent hack has prompted questions about higher ed’s dependence on Canvas. CalMatters reported that state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat, has called for a legislative audit into Canvas. “The Canvas breach exposes the growing risks of concentrating massive amounts of student records, academic systems and institutional operations into a single platform,” she said.  

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