Cognity vs Brisk Inspect Writing: the replay and the conversation
Brisk Teaching is one of the most widely used teacher tools in the United States, and its Inspect Writing feature is, for many teachers, the first time they saw a student's writing process rather than a probability score. Cognity shares that goal. The two tools look at the process from different places, and the difference is worth understanding before you pick one. This comparison is written by the Cognity team, so read it with that in mind. Where we describe Brisk, we rely on Brisk's own product page as of September 2026.
What Inspect Writing is
Inspect Writing lives inside the Brisk Chrome extension and works on Google Docs. It gives the teacher a video-style replay of how a document was written, from the first draft to the final version: what was typed, what was deleted, what was pasted in, and how the student responded to feedback. Brisk is explicit that it does not produce an accuracy score. What you get is a factual record of how the document changed over time.
For a teacher whose students already write in Google Docs, this is close to free visibility. Nothing about the assignment changes. The teacher opens the document, runs the replay, and sees the shape of the work: long steady typing, or a single large paste at 11:40 pm.
What Cognity is
Cognity is a workspace rather than an extension. The teacher describes a task, Cognity drafts the rubric, the AI tutor's instructions and the student-facing AI rules, and the teacher publishes. Students join by link. They write in Cognity alongside an AI assistant, Jello, that follows the teacher's rules for that task. Every prompt, every response and every revision is recorded in order, the teacher can watch the class live, and each submission arrives with the process record and a breakdown of how much of the text came from the student versus the AI.
Where they differ
What the record shows. A replay shows how the document changed. It cannot show what happened in the ChatGPT tab that produced a pasted paragraph, only that the paragraph arrived in one piece. Cognity's record includes the AI conversation itself, because the AI is inside the workspace. When a teacher wants to know how a student thinks, the questions the student asked are usually more informative than the timing of their keystrokes.
Whether the AI follows rules. Inspect Writing observes. It does not constrain which AI a student uses or what that AI may do. In Cognity the teacher decides, per assignment, what the AI is allowed to do, and the AI enforces it. If a student asks it to write the introduction, it declines and coaches instead, and the refusal is in the record.
Where students write. Brisk's strength is that students keep writing where they already write. Cognity asks students to work in one place, which is the trade for a complete record and for the AI rules. For a class that already lives in Google Docs, that is a real cost to weigh.
When the teacher sees it. A replay is read after the fact. Cognity has a live view during the lesson, which matters for in-class writing and for catching a stuck student early.
Cost. Brisk has a free tier and Inspect Writing is available through the extension. Cognity is free for individual teachers with 100 sparks a month and two active assignments, with Pro at 12 dollars a month on an annual plan.
Which should you use?
If your students write in Google Docs and you want to see the process without changing anything about the assignment, use Inspect Writing. It is the lightest possible step away from detectors, and that step matters.
If you want to set the terms of AI use for a specific task, let students use AI openly under those terms, and then read the conversation rather than infer it from a replay, try Cognity. Some teachers will reasonably use both: Brisk for everyday writing in Docs, Cognity for assessed tasks where the AI conversation is the point.
Either way you are reading the process instead of a score, and that is the change that matters.
Source: Brisk Teaching, "Inspect Writing" product page, briskteaching.com/inspect-writing, accessed September 2026.