AI education tools compared: tutors, language apps, study tools, homework help and grading
Education has the widest gap of any category between what AI can do and what it should do. The same chatbot that explains a concept patiently will also write the essay or solve the problem set, and students know it. The tools in this category take different positions on that problem, from tutors that refuse to give answers to homework apps that show every step.
This guide sorts the six tools listed above into five groups, notes which features have been retired or changed, compares prices in October 2026, and summarizes what controlled studies have found about AI and learning.
Five kinds of AI education tool
| Group | What it does | Tools in this directory | Who pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutors | Guide students with questions and hints | Khanmigo | Families, districts; free for teachers |
| Language practice | Speaking and conversation practice | Duolingo Max | Learners |
| Study tools | Turn notes into flashcards and tests | Quizlet | Students |
| Homework help | Step-by-step solutions and study documents | Photomath, Course Hero | Students |
| Grading | Rubric grading of scanned and online work | Gradescope | Institutions |
Tutors
Khanmigo is Khan Academy's AI tutor. It works alongside Khan Academy's lessons and exercises in math, science, humanities, writing and coding, and it is built to ask guiding questions rather than hand over answers. Students can debate, get feedback on essays and practice for college admissions. Khan Academy says Khanmigo runs on OpenAI models through Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service.
Khanmigo has three plans for individuals:
- Teachers: free. Teacher tools generate lesson plans, rubrics, exit tickets and summaries of student work, aligned to Khan Academy content.
- Learners: $4 a month or $44 a year, US only.
- Parents: $4 a month or $44 a year, adding a view of children's chat history and moderation alerts.
Districts buy Khanmigo through Khan Academy Districts, with rostering through Clever or ClassLink, single sign-on and school data, at quoted prices. Reviewers note that Khanmigo can be slow and occasionally makes arithmetic mistakes during math tutoring, so students should still check numbers.
General assistants now compete with dedicated tutors. OpenAI added study mode to ChatGPT in July 2025, Google added Guided Learning to Gemini, and Anthropic offers a learning style in Claude. Each asks questions and checks understanding before explaining. They cover any subject but do not track progress against a curriculum the way Khanmigo does.
Language practice
Duolingo Max is Duolingo's top subscription. It added AI features built on OpenAI's GPT-4 in 2023: Explain My Answer, which explains mistakes; Roleplay, where learners practice real situations such as ordering food; and Video Call, a spoken conversation with the character Lily, who remembers details from earlier calls. The AI features work in selected courses, mainly Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese for English speakers, plus Video Call in Japanese, Korean and Chinese, and only in the mobile apps.
Max has lost its exclusives one by one. Explain My Answer became free for all users on January 1, 2026, and Duolingo began giving Video Call to new Super Duolingo subscribers in mid-2026. On its second-quarter 2026 earnings call on August 5, CEO Luis von Ahn said the options included limiting Super to a set number of calls, adding a feature to Max, or sunsetting Max, and that a video call costs Duolingo under one cent to run.
| Duolingo plan | US price, checked September 2026 | AI features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, with ads | Explain My Answer, speaking practice |
| Super | About $12.99 a month or $84 to $96 a year | Video Call for most new subscribers |
| Max | About $29.99 a month or $168 a year | Roleplay, unlimited Video Call |
| Super Family / Max Family | $119.99 / $239.99 a year | Up to six people |
Duolingo sets prices by country, device and current offer, and app store prices are often higher than web checkout.
Study tools
Quizlet has more than 700 million study sets, according to Quizlet, made by students and teachers. Its directory entry here was Q-Chat, the AI tutor Quizlet launched in February 2023 as the first education product built on OpenAI's ChatGPT API. Quizlet retired Q-Chat in June 2025, and its blog post about the launch now carries a note saying so.
The AI that remains creates study material. Magic Notes takes typed, pasted or photographed notes and produces an outline, flashcards and a practice test. AI practice tests build mock exams from a set, and Quick Summary condenses readings. Learn mode, the adaptive drill that repeats missed cards sooner, is the closest Quizlet comes to spaced practice. The free plan still lets you make sets and play Match but limits Learn and Test rounds, and 2026 reviews report the AI tools are paid only. Quizlet Plus costs $7.99 a month or $35.99 a year with monthly caps, Plus Unlimited $44.99 a year without caps, and Family $83.99 a year for up to five people.
Quizlet's AI-generated cards still need checking. PCMag's 2026 test kept eight of ten cards from a generated set and rejected two for awkward or repeated content.
Homework help
Photomath, owned by Google since 2023, solves math from a photo or typed problem and shows each step. The free app covers most school math with unlimited step-by-step solutions. Photomath Plus, at $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year with a seven-day trial, adds animated explanations and solutions matched to specific textbooks. Billing runs through the Apple and Google app stores. Photomath is strongest on arithmetic, algebra and calculus, and weaker on word problems, messy handwriting and upper-level engineering.
Course Hero, part of the Learneo group alongside QuillBot and CliffsNotes, is a library of course-specific study documents uploaded by students, with textbook solutions, tutor questions and an Ask AI assistant. Premier and Premier Plus plans range from about $9.95 a month on annual billing to about $40 billed monthly, and Premier Plus bundles QuillBot Premium and Symbolab Pro. Students can also earn free document views by uploading their own files. Much of the material is user-uploaded and uneven, and many schools treat copying from posted solutions as an academic integrity violation.
Grading
Gradescope, owned by Turnitin since 2018, is the standard tool in many universities for grading scanned paper exams, problem sets and programming assignments. Instructors build rubrics as they grade, apply changes to every submission at once, and handle regrade requests inside the tool. On institutional licenses, AI-assisted grading groups similar answers so an instructor can grade a whole group with one decision, and autograders run code assignments. A free Basic tier lets individual instructors grade with rubrics but leaves out AI grouping. Paid licenses are quoted for each department or institution.
Newer AI graders draft scores and feedback for essays and handwritten math, with free tiers for individual teachers. They follow the same rule as Gradescope: the teacher reviews and approves each grade before release.
What research says about AI and learning
Two well-designed studies published in 2025 point in the same direction.
- Unrestricted chatbots can hurt. Hamsa Bastani and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania ran a field experiment with about 1,000 high school students in Turkey, published in PNAS. Students given an unrestricted GPT-4 chatbot for math practice did much better during practice, then 17% worse than the control group on exams taken without it. A version that gave hints and was primed with correct solutions improved practice scores without the exam penalty.
- Designed tutors can help. Gregory Kestin and colleagues at Harvard compared an AI tutor built around good teaching practice with an active-learning physics class. Students using the tutor learned more in less time, according to the study in Scientific Reports.
The lesson for buyers and parents is that the design of the tool matters more than the model. Look for tutors that ask before they tell, hold back full solutions, and keep the student doing the work.
Privacy and school rules
- Age limits. Many consumer AI tools require users to be 13 or older, and some features require 18 or parental consent.
- Student data. In the US, FERPA and COPPA govern student records and data from children under 13. Schools should use tools covered by a signed data privacy agreement.
- Academic integrity. Schools set their own AI policies. Students should check the course syllabus before using any AI tool on graded work.
How to choose
- For a child who needs tutoring, try Khanmigo or the study mode of an assistant you already have, and sit with them for the first sessions.
- For a language, start on Duolingo's free plan or Super, and add Max only if you want Roleplay.
- For exam revision, use Quizlet to turn notes into practice tests, and check the generated cards.
- For math homework, use Photomath to check steps after trying the problem, not before.
- For teachers, start with free teacher tools such as Khanmigo's and Gradescope Basic, and push for institutional licenses once a tool proves useful.
Related categories: research tools for papers and citations, writing tools for essays and editing, productivity tools for general assistants, and voice tools for speech practice and reading aloud.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI tutor for students?
For school subjects, Khanmigo from Khan Academy is the most widely used tutor built for learning rather than answers. It asks guiding questions, works on Khan Academy's math, science and humanities content, and costs $4 a month for learners. General assistants have added learning modes too: ChatGPT has study mode, Gemini has Guided Learning and Claude has a learning style, all of which ask questions before explaining. For math homework specifically, Photomath shows each step of a solution from a photo.
Does AI help or hurt learning?
It depends on how students use it. A 2025 study in PNAS by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania gave about 1,000 Turkish high school students GPT-4 for math practice. Students with an unrestricted chatbot did better in practice but 17% worse on exams once it was taken away, while a version designed to give hints instead of answers avoided most of that harm. A Harvard physics study published in 2025 found students learned more in less time with a carefully designed AI tutor than in an active-learning class. Tools that make students do the thinking help; tools that do it for them can hurt.
What happened to Quizlet Q-Chat?
Quizlet launched Q-Chat in February 2023 as an AI tutor built on OpenAI's ChatGPT API and retired it in June 2025. Quizlet's remaining AI features create study material instead of tutoring: Magic Notes turns uploaded or photographed notes into outlines, flashcards and practice tests, and AI practice tests build mock exams from a study set. These features need Quizlet Plus at $35.99 a year or Plus Unlimited at $44.99 a year, according to 2026 reviews.
Is Duolingo Max worth it?
Fewer people need it in 2026. Max costs about $29.99 a month or $168 a year in the US, roughly twice Super Duolingo. Its Explain My Answer feature became free for all users on January 1, 2026, and Duolingo has been adding Video Call to Super for new subscribers. On its August 2026 earnings call, CEO Luis von Ahn said the company might sunset Max. Max still has Roleplay and unlimited Video Call. If you want those, pay monthly while its future is unclear.
Can teachers use AI to grade?
Yes, with review. Gradescope, owned by Turnitin, lets instructors grade scanned exams with rubrics and, on institutional licenses, groups similar answers so a grade applies to all of them at once. Newer tools draft scores and feedback on essays and handwritten math for teachers to approve. Most schools and districts require a teacher to review AI-suggested grades before students see them, and student work should only go to tools covered by the school's data privacy agreements.