On the recordRead 7 Oct 202613 facts
MOSS
Plans and prices
Free
Free
Non-commercial use · 100 submissions/day/user
Read 7 Oct 2026 · theory.stanford.edu
On the record
- Commercial use
- MOSS is for non-commercial use; the page directs people interested in commercial use to Similix Corporation.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Community integrations
- Community-contributed interfaces and clients include a Node.js package implementing the MOSS socket protocol, AutoMoss web UI, and Nim, Python, OCaml, Common Lisp, Java, and PHP tools.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Confidentiality
- Submitted code appears in results accessible to anyone with the result URL; Stanford says the URL is sent only to the submitter, contains a random integer, and the results directory cannot be browsed or indexed by robots.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Human review
- MOSS identifies similar code but cannot determine why programs are similar, so a person must review highlighted passages before deciding whether plagiarism occurred.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Languages
- It analyzes C, C++, Java, C#, Python, Visual Basic, JavaScript, FORTRAN, ML, Haskell, Lisp, Scheme, Pascal, Modula2, Ada, Perl, TCL, Matlab, VHDL, Verilog, Spice, MIPS assembly, a8086 assembly, and HCL2.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- MOSS automatically measures program similarity and has primarily been used to detect plagiarism in programming classes.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Results
- The service returns HTML pages showing pairs of similar programs and highlights matching passages.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Retention
- Results are typically deleted after 14 days and may be deleted earlier when server disk space is constrained.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Shared code
- MOSS can exclude matches to expected shared code, such as libraries or instructor-supplied code.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Submission limit
- The submission limit is 100 submissions per day per user.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Support and availability
- The page says connection or results delays can indicate server overload and advises users to try again later.theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
- Who can use it
- Anyone may obtain an account by emailing the specified registration message to [email protected].theory.stanford.edu · read 7 Oct 2026
