9 Best AI Tutors of 2026

ChatGPT's study mode turns a general chatbot into a patient tutor for any subject. OpenAI's help center says study mode is available across ChatGPT plans globally on web, iOS and Android, so a student can use it without paying. Instead of only producing a final answer, it asks what you already know, explains in layers, and checks your understanding with open questions. Its biggest advantage over subject-specific apps is range: you can upload a syllabus, lecture slides, a PDF chapter or a photo of a chemistry problem, and it works from that material. It can also quiz you one question at a time before a test. The weaknesses follow from its breadth. There is no built-in course or progress map, so the learner has to say what level and topic they are on, and study mode is not available in Projects or Temporary Chats. ChatGPT Plus at $20 per month raises usage limits, but most students can start on the free plan.

Khanmigo leads this list because it pairs a tutor that refuses to hand out answers with one of the largest free course libraries for school subjects. Khan Academy says you can get personalized tutoring on every exercise, video and article on its site, so a student stuck on a practice problem gets questions and hints right where the problem sits. The same subscription covers a writing coach that gives feedback and runs debates, plus code review for JavaScript, HTML, Python and SQL. You can talk to it instead of typing, and it reads its replies aloud. The family plan costs the same $4 per month and adds a parent account with chat history and moderation alerts. The limits are clear: there is no free tier for learners, and the tutor stays inside Khan Academy's material, so it is less useful for a college course or an unusual assignment. Students who want instant final answers should look at Photomath or Chegg Study instead.

Gemini is Google's general AI assistant, and its US plans page pitches it directly at students. You can upload an image or file of homework and Gemini breaks it down with step-by-step guidance aimed at showing how to reach the answer, and you can turn notes or slides into a study guide or a practice test before an exam. The free plan, which only needs a Google Account, already includes Deep Research, Gemini Live and Canvas, although it runs on the Flash-Lite model. Google AI Plus costs $4.99 per month and doubles the usage limits, while Google AI Pro at $19.99 per month adds the Pro model and four times the free limits. Google says limits refresh every 5 hours until you hit a weekly cap, which matters during exam weeks. There is no curriculum and no parent dashboard, so Gemini suits older students and self-learners more than young children.

Photomath is the fastest way to see how a math problem is solved. You point your phone's camera at a problem, including word problems, or type it into the smart calculator, and a solution appears, sometimes with more than one method to choose from. Its site lists coverage from elementary math to algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics and calculus. The free Basic plan already includes step-by-step explanations, which is more than many paid apps offer. Paid plans cost $9.99 billed monthly or $69.99 billed annually and add custom visual aids and extra tips on how and why each step works. The catch is that Photomath leads with the answer. A motivated student can study each step, but a tired one can simply copy it, so parents who worry about that should pair it with a tutor that asks questions first, such as Khanmigo or ChatGPT's study mode.

Synthesis Tutor is the only tool here built for young children, and it treats math as a series of interactive lessons rather than a chat. The company says it is designed for ages 5 to 11 and covers the standard K-5 math curriculum, from counting and cardinality to fractions and algebraic thinking. The tutor adapts as the child works, surfaces mistakes and targets gaps in knowledge, while parents get progress reports. One family plan covers up to 7 children, which makes it cheaper per child than most apps: $119 billed annually, which Synthesis says equals $9.92 per month, or $29 billed monthly. A 7-day free trial starts without a credit card. The tradeoff is scope. It does not help with a specific worksheet a teacher sent home, it stops at elementary math, and older students will outgrow it quickly.

Mathos AI is a math solver that tries to act like a tutor. You can ask it for a single nudge or the full worked solution, and it can turn any solution into a quiz, a flashcard deck or a short animated video. Its adaptive learning feature looks at the pattern behind a missed question, works on the missing prerequisite, and then brings the learner back. The free plan needs no card and includes 6 video minutes a day, limited image input and flashcards and quizzes. Paid plans are billed weekly: Basic at $5.98 and Prime at $9.98 per week, with a 3-day free trial. Weekly billing is the main drawback, because a month of Basic costs more than ChatGPT Plus. It is a good fit for a student who learns from video during a hard unit, less so as a year-round subscription.

Brainly has moved from a question and answer site to a homework and test prep platform aimed at parents of 7th to 12th graders. A student uploads their own homework, picks a solving method, and Brainly breaks the problem into steps, keeping the next step locked until the current one is right, so a correct answer cannot be reached by accident. Its Test Prep feature turns the topics a student missed into practice questions and a study guide before an exam. Every plan includes a learning advisor, a real person who sets up the account and tells parents what matters, and families can add a weekly hour with a vetted human tutor. Brainly offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. We could not confirm a US price from its pages, so the entry is marked as pending, and its parent-first design makes it a poor fit for college students or adults learning on their own.

Tutor AI is built for people who want to learn a whole topic rather than finish one assignment. You tell it what you want to learn and it generates a personalized course with lessons, quizzes, flashcards and study materials, then tracks your progress. Topics range from machine learning to intermediate French to workplace skills, and there is also a homework helper that returns step-by-step solutions to uploaded questions. The free plan needs no payment. The Mentor plan, listed at $13.33 per month on yearly billing, adds 100+ on-demand courses and unlimited chat, and Genius at $17.50 per month adds 1000+ courses with a spaced repetition dashboard. The courses are generated by AI, not written or checked by teachers, so accuracy depends on the model, and the tool has no parent controls. It suits motivated adults and college students more than children.

Chegg Study is the oldest service on this list and the most answer-focused. Its main asset is a library that Chegg says holds 85+ million step-by-step explanations, Q&As and math support, which is useful when a college course follows a common textbook. The subscription also includes a Math Solver, a Study Planner and writing tools for plagiarism checks, expert proofreading and citations. Help is available 24/7. For learning, the model is weaker than the AI tutors above: it leads with a worked solution rather than questions, so it works best for checking your own attempt, not for building understanding from scratch. Chegg did not show a US price on the pages we could load, and its plans page blocked our check, so the price is marked as pending. Most high school students will get more from the free plans of ChatGPT or Gemini.