What is Proctorio?
Proctorio is a remote proctoring system that schools, universities, and credentialing bodies plug into their learning management or assessment platform to secure online exams. It runs as a browser extension, only while your exam and its review are active, and it secures the session through configurable identity checks, lockdown options, and recording - with flagged moments reviewed by people at your institution, not decided by software.
There is no Proctorio account to create and no appointment to book. You log into your usual platform, open the exam, complete the pre-checks, and start at any time inside the testing window your exam administrator sets.
A browser extension with no default settings
Proctorio's core design choice is that it runs as a browser extension in Chrome, Edge, Brave, or Opera, inside the learning platform you already use - it integrates through standard LMS connections and your institution's single sign-on, so you never register with Proctorio itself. Because it is an extension, Proctorio says its access is limited: it cannot access your personal files, it cannot change your system settings, and it has no access to your browsing history.
The second design choice matters just as much: Proctorio publishes that it has no default settings. Your exam administrator picks the combination for each exam - which streams to record, what to lock down, and what to flag - so two Proctorio exams can feel completely different. The extension only runs during an exam and its review; Proctorio's shield icon turns green while it is on, and you can disable or remove the extension between exams and reinstall it before the next one.
What the pre-exam check-in verifies
Every Proctorio exam opens with a diagnostics pre-check and an exam agreement, and Proctorio states the exam timer does not start until those pre-checks are complete - technical setup does not eat your exam time. If the webcam cannot pick up your image after several attempts, a support chat window opens automatically so staff can help you through the pre-checks.
Identity verification comes next when the administrator enables it: you scan a student or government-issued ID. With automated Verify ID, an image of your ID is collected and held for your exam administrator to review. With Live ID check, your live image is compared to the ID in real time - by an automated document check or a live agent - and you are only allowed into the exam once your identity is validated.
Some exams add a desk scan: you use your webcam to show your workspace so the administrator can confirm no unauthorized resources are in reach. Proctorio states periodic desk scans are triggered at random intervals rather than by suspicious activity, and that exam time keeps running during a scan - its advice is to complete the scan quickly and return to the exam.
The lockdown levers administrators can pull
Proctorio describes its lockdown layer as a suite that 'lets you choose what gets in and what stays out' - control over access to websites, browser extensions, external devices, and current threats. Each lever is a per-exam choice, not a fixed behavior: one exam may run wide open while another locks the browser down hard.
Lockdown is also explicitly optional. Proctorio's own product page tells administrators they can 'use minimal (or no) blocking tools and let the monitoring tools detect and flag' instead - a detect-and-review posture rather than a prevent-first one. The breadth of lockdown depends on the tier: Standard Integrity works through the browser extension alone, while Advanced Integrity adds device-level lockdown and monitoring beyond the browser through a desktop application, aimed at high-stakes and professional assessments.
What gets monitored and recorded
Administrators can customize monitoring with any combination of webcam, screen sharing, audio, and web traffic, with adjustable flagging - the four recording levers Proctorio publishes. Recording is bounded by the exam itself: it starts as you enter the exam, after the diagnostics pre-check and exam agreement, and it stops as soon as you submit or close the exam. Only the streams your administrator enabled for that exam record anything.
Access to those recordings is limited. Proctorio states that only approved representatives at your institution can view your audio, video, and screen recordings; if your institution uses live proctoring, a Proctorio proctor may monitor the session and flag behavior as the administrator configured. Recordings are stored in institution-chosen data centers, kept for as long as the institution or local law requires - in some cases as little as seven days - and Proctorio says you are told during the pre-checks where your data is stored and how long it will be kept. It also states plainly that it does not sell test-taker data.
Flags are reviewed by people, not decided by software
Proctorio's most quoted line is its answer to whether it uses algorithmic decision-making: no. It says algorithms are used for face and gaze detection only when an administrator enables those settings, and that the software does not determine whether a breach of exam integrity occurred. Flags are raised based on the settings chosen for your exam - settings that can differ from exam to exam - and institution-approved representatives review the flagged moments and make every final decision.
Two published examples show what that means in practice. Subtle movements, like glancing at a clock or shifting in your seat, are not likely to be flagged - and even if they are, a reviewer decides whether the behavior actually violated anything. Background noise from roommates or family may be flagged, and again the exam administrator decides whether it constitutes a breach. Proctorio also draws a precise line on webcams: it does not track your eye movements, though facial detection may confirm that a face stays engaged with the exam window.
The published tiers and system requirements
Proctorio publishes four configurations. Standard Integrity - recording and monitoring, browser lockdown, and identity verification, all through the browser extension - carries the widest device footprint. Advanced Integrity adds device-level lockdown and monitoring beyond the browser through the Proctorio Desktop App for high-stakes and professional assessments. Mobile Integrity extends exams to Apple and Android devices, and a Live Proctoring option puts a human proctor on the session.
The minimum requirements are modest: Windows 10, macOS 11, ChromeOS with Chrome 58, or Ubuntu 18.04 (or newer) on desktop; iOS 13.4 or Android 7 (or newer) on mobile. You need the Chrome, Edge, Brave, or Opera browser, 2 GB of free RAM, 250 MB of free disk space - 15 GB on a Mac when screen recording is enabled - an upload speed between 0.092 and 0.189 Mbps, any microphone, and a 320x240 VGA webcam or better.
Proctorio's own exam-day preparation advice is deliberately boring: restart your device shortly before the exam, close extra applications and browser extensions, plug in an ethernet cable if you can, and ask anyone sharing your connection to pause streaming and downloads during your window.
If the Sitting Itself Is the Problem
Knowing the published rules is one thing; sitting a monitored, recorded exam is another. Exam Assist exists for exactly that gap - we handle online exam sittings end to end, and the service fee is due only after your agreed result posts. Send your exam, your window, and your deadline, and you will get an honest feasibility answer first.
If you want the broader picture first, our guides to how online proctoring works and the comparison of online proctoring software explain how Proctorio's settings-driven extension model differs from always-live proctoring, and our Proctorio exam help page covers the service side.