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Auto-Coursera — AI-powered Coursera quiz assistant

API Provider Setup

Configure a free AI provider and start answering Coursera quizzes in minutes.

Provider Comparison

Not sure which provider to pick? Here's a side-by-side overview to help you decide.

Provider Free Tier Speed Image Support Notes
OpenRouter Varies by model Medium Yes (with vision models) Widest model selection, recommended starting point
Google Gemini Yes (generous) Fast Yes Good free tier, strong general knowledge
Groq Yes (rate limited) Very fast No Fastest inference, good for quick quizzes
Cerebras Yes (rate limited) Very fast No Fast inference, limited model selection
NVIDIA NIM Yes (limited) Medium Yes (some models) Enterprise-focused, requires separate API key
API endpoints (for reference)
  • OpenRouter: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
  • Google Gemini: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions
  • Groq: https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions
  • Cerebras: https://api.cerebras.ai/v1/chat/completions
  • NVIDIA NIM: https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1

Cost Overview

Every supported provider has a free tier. The extension uses each provider's free tier by default — no credit card required, no surprise charges.

We recommend configuring at least two providers. If one goes down or hits its rate limit, the extension automatically fails over to the next.

Providers

OpenRouter Recommended

Key format sk-or-...
Free tier Yes — many free models

Setup

  1. Create an account at openrouter.ai
  2. Go to Settings → Keys
  3. Click Create Key
  4. Copy the key (starts with sk-or-)
  5. Paste into Auto-Coursera settings (🎓 → gear icon → OpenRouter field)

Google Gemini

Key format AIza...
Free tier Yes

Setup

  1. Go to Google AI Studio
  2. Click Get API Key
  3. Click Create API Key
  4. Copy the key (starts with AIza)
  5. Paste into Auto-Coursera settings (🎓 → gear icon → Gemini field)

Groq

Key format gsk_...
Free tier Yes

Setup

  1. Go to Groq Console
  2. Navigate to API Keys
  3. Click Create API Key
  4. Copy the key (starts with gsk_)
  5. Paste into Auto-Coursera settings (🎓 → gear icon → Groq field)

Cerebras

Key format cbs-...
Free tier Yes

Setup

  1. Go to Cerebras Cloud
  2. Navigate to API Keys
  3. Click Create
  4. Copy the key (starts with cbs-)
  5. Paste into Auto-Coursera settings (🎓 → gear icon → Cerebras field)

NVIDIA NIM

Key format nvapi-...
Free tier Limited

NVIDIA NIM is particularly well-suited for image-based questions thanks to its vision models. Best used as a secondary provider alongside OpenRouter or Gemini.

Setup

  1. Go to NVIDIA Build
  2. Navigate to the API section
  3. Click Get API Key
  4. Copy the key (starts with nvapi-)
  5. Paste into Auto-Coursera settings (🎓 → gear icon → NVIDIA field)

Extension Settings

After adding your API key, you can fine-tune the extension's behavior in the settings panel (click 🎓 → Settings):

Confidence Threshold

A decimal value from 0.0–1.0 that controls the minimum confidence needed to highlight an answer. The default is 0.7. Lower values show more answers; higher values are more selective.

Auto-Select

When enabled, high-confidence answers (green) are clicked automatically. Enabled by default — answers above the confidence threshold are automatically selected.

Auto-Start

When enabled, quiz solving begins as soon as questions are detected on the page. No need to click the FAB.

Provider Priority

Set your preferred primary provider. If it fails or hits a rate limit, the extension automatically tries other configured providers.

API Key Storage

All API keys are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM (PBKDF2, 100K iterations) before being stored in Chrome's local storage. This protects against casual inspection of stored data. Keys are sent directly from the extension to the AI provider over HTTPS — they never pass through our servers.

Understanding Confidence

Every answer the AI returns includes a confidence score — a number between 0 and 1 representing the model's self-assessed probability that its answer is correct. It is not a guarantee of accuracy; it's the AI's best estimate.

Confidence Tiers

The extension uses three color-coded tiers to give you a quick visual read:

Tier Score Range Color Meaning
High ≥ 0.8 Green Model is very confident — likely correct
Review 0.5 – 0.8 Orange Plausible but double-check before submitting
Low < 0.5 Red Uncertain — treat as a guess

Auto-Select Threshold

The auto-select threshold (default 0.7) controls which answers are automatically selected when auto-select is enabled. Only answers at or above this threshold get clicked; answers below it are highlighted but left for you to review.

  • Raise the threshold (e.g. 0.85) → fewer answers auto-selected, but each one is more likely correct.
  • Lower the threshold (e.g. 0.5) → more answers auto-selected, but with higher risk of incorrect picks.

You can adjust it with the confidence slider in settings (🎓 → gear icon → Confidence Threshold).

Rate Limits

To avoid hitting AI provider rate limits, the extension throttles itself using a token-bucket rate limiter.

Extension-Side Limits

  • Default: 20 requests per minute. The extension queues requests and releases them at a steady pace.
  • On large quizzes (20+ questions), answers may appear in batches as requests are queued and processed — this is normal.
  • The rate limit can be adjusted in settings (advanced users only). Setting it too high may trigger provider-side rejections.

Provider-Side Limits

Individual AI providers enforce their own rate limits, which vary by plan and provider. If you see a "rate limit exceeded" error:

  1. Wait 60 seconds and try again
  2. Switch to a different provider (the extension does this automatically via failover)
  3. Consider lowering the extension's rate limit setting if errors persist