Starting on 7/6/2026, any new course in Perusall will no longer have a $0 access option for students (though waivers are available). 

The workflow below details the options for getting students access to a course.

When you set up a course, you will be presented with option to adopt a book or choose a fee for students to access the platform.

If you select “Adopt a book” you will find your book through Perusall’s marketplace and students will purchase their text through Perusall (not the bookstore or any other source)

• If you select “Choose a fee for students to access the platform” you will proceed to choose an amount, or "Apply for a fee waiver" at the bottom of the screen.
  • If you select “Apply for a fee waiver” you will presented with a warning about providing individual exemptions to students with financial hardships.

  • If you select “Apply anyway” you will be asked to provide justification for not charging students to access your course, and you will be asked how you intend to promote Perusall.

    (Based on experience, most or all choices here will get you the waiver, but this may be limited to a certain number of instances. Perusall is not clear on this in their documentation)

    
• If you choose to charge students an access fee, you will be presented with two options after you set an amount: 
  • The first option will have students purchase access directly through Perusall or through the bookstore (though the instructor will need to contact the bookstore to set up this option).
  • The second option will have the instructor pay for student access for all students 
    • If a fee has been charged for students, they will a message upon login indicating the cost to access the course, and will be given the option to "Pay now" or "Pay later" (they will have 14 days to access the course after its start date):
      • When viewing the roster, the instructor will see an icon next to each student, indicating if a student has not yet purchased access: 
      • By clicking on the kebab (vertical ellipses) menu next to the icon, the instructor can click “exempt from platform access fee” and the fee will be exempt (there may be a limit to how many exemptions can be issued).