Systems and methods for a cumulant-based discriminator for global navigation satellite system code alignment are provided. In one embodiment, a method for determining a misalignment between a GNSS coarse acquisition code signal and a replica code is provided. The method comprises producing code samples of a spread spectrum signal received from a satellite; multiplying the code samples by a current value of a replica code; and calculating a set of multiple-order cumulants based on the code samples multiplied by the current value of the replica code.