education

Best AI for Homework & Maths

Compare the best AI for homework and maths in 2026 — ChatGPT Study Mode, Khanmigo, Photomath, Wolfram Alpha, Gauth and the frontier models, with current pricing, benchmark accuracy and the research on what actually helps you learn.

Updated July 2026

Quick answer: For most students in mid-2026, ChatGPT (free) is the best all-round AI for homework — its Study Mode is free for everyone and its interactive maths and science visuals (70+ topics, added March 2026) teach rather than just answer. For a tutor that never hands over the answer, Khanmigo ($4/month) has the strongest learning-outcomes evidence. For maths specifically, Photomath (free; Plus ~$9.99/month) is the best camera solver and Wolfram Alpha (free; Pro ~$5–7/month) is the accuracy safety net for advanced work. The one caveat that matters: research now consistently shows that answer-generating apps improve tonight’s homework and undermine next month’s exam — pick a tool that teaches, not one that just solves.

Raw capability is no longer the question. Frontier models now score 95–99% on competition maths — AIME is considered effectively solved — so for any school or undergraduate curriculum, every major chatbot knows the maths. What separates the options in 2026 is pedagogy, price and reliability. This guide compares all three categories — general chatbots with learning modes, Socratic tutors, and camera-based solvers — with current pricing, the benchmark state of play, and the evidence on what actually helps you learn.

The current state of AI homework help: July 2026

Three facts define the landscape right now.

First, AI homework use is now the majority behaviour. Between May and December 2025, the share of US middle school, high school and college students using AI for homework rose from 48% to 62%, per RAND’s American Youth Panel (March 2026). Among high schoolers it climbed from 49% to 63%, and among middle schoolers from 30% to 46%. The most common uses are getting better explanations of assignments (38%), brainstorming (35%), looking up facts (33%) and drafting or revising writing (33%).

Second, students themselves are worried. In the same RAND survey, 67% of students said using AI for schoolwork harmed critical thinking — up from 54% earlier in the year, and higher among female students (75%) than male (59%). That intuition is backed by research: studies find that direct-answer AI use improves task performance without corresponding learning gains (arXiv, 2025), and that students who rely on AI and then lose access perform worse than students who never used it (The Conversation).

Third, the maths capability race is over — the pedagogy race has started. Frontier models now cluster at 95–99% on AIME-level competition maths, which benchmark trackers class as effectively solved (BenchLM). In July 2025, both Google DeepMind’s Gemini Deep Think and an experimental OpenAI model hit the gold-medal standard (35/42) at the International Mathematical Olympiad (DeepMind), and IMO 2026 opens in Shanghai on 10 July 2026 with prediction markets pricing an official AI gold at roughly 82% (Polymarket). Because capability is saturated at homework level, the labs now compete on teaching: ChatGPT’s Study Mode, Claude’s Learning Mode and Gemini’s Guided Learning all use Socratic questioning instead of dumping answers — and all are free.

Top AI for homework and maths compared (July 2026)

The bottom line: the free tier of ChatGPT plus Khanmigo at $4/month covers most students’ homework needs for less than the price of a single Gauth-class answer app — and unlike the answer apps, that combination is designed to make you better at the subject.

The two kinds of homework AI — and why the difference matters

Every tool on this page sits in one of two camps, and choosing the wrong camp is the most expensive mistake a student can make.

Tutors teach the method. Khanmigo, ChatGPT Study Mode, Claude Learning Mode and Gemini Guided Learning respond to “solve 3x + 7 = 22” with “what should we do first to get x on its own?” They give hints, generate practice problems and check understanding before moving on.

Solvers produce the answer. Gauth, Question.AI and a camera solver used lazily respond with “x = 5” and a worked solution. Fast, convenient — and the mode of use the learning research warns about.

The evidence favours tutors. A 2026 pilot across 200 schools found students who used Khanmigo for at least 30 minutes weekly showed learning gains equivalent to an additional 2–3 weeks of instruction, and earlier SRI International research measured 23% faster mastery of algebra concepts versus video-based instruction (2026 roundup). Answer-first tools show the opposite pattern: task scores go up, retained knowledge doesn’t, and performance drops below never-users once the tool is removed (arXiv).

The practical rule: try first, check second. Attempt every problem yourself, then use AI to understand what you got wrong. Used that way, even a solver becomes a learning tool.

Best general chatbots for homework

ChatGPT — best overall

Model: GPT-5.5 | Free tier: yes, including Study Mode | Paid: Go $8/month, Plus $20/month

ChatGPT is the strongest homework default in 2026 for two reasons. Study Mode is free for all logged-in users and was built with pedagogy experts from 40+ institutions — it asks clarifying questions, gives hints rather than solutions, and quizzes you before moving on (OpenAI). And since 10 March 2026, ChatGPT generates interactive visual explanations for 70+ maths and science topics — drag a triangle’s sides and watch the hypotenuse update in real time — free for every logged-in user (TechCrunch, OpenAI).

Use it well: “I need to understand how to solve simultaneous equations. Guide me through with hints — don’t give me the answer.”

Limitations: free-tier rate limits at peak times; for guaranteed-correct computation on advanced maths, pair it with Wolfram Alpha.

Claude — best for written subjects and the strictest tutor

Models: Claude Opus 4.8, Sonnet 4.6 | Free tier: yes, including Learning Mode | Pro: $20/month

Claude’s Learning Mode takes the hardest line of the three learning modes — it answers questions with questions (“How would you approach this?”), which makes it the best pick for students who know they’ll take shortcuts if offered. Claude is also the consistent student favourite for essay feedback and dense readings, and its 1M-token context means you can load a whole textbook chapter or several papers at once. If your university is a Claude for Education partner, you get Pro-equivalent access free with your institutional email.

Limitations: free-tier limits are tighter than ChatGPT’s; no camera-first maths input.

Gemini — best for practice quizzes and Google schools

Models: Gemini 3.1 Pro; Gemini 3.5 Pro in limited rollout | Free tier: yes, including Guided Learning | Paid: AI Plus $7.99/month, AI Pro $19.99/month (student rate ~$9.99/month)

Gemini’s Guided Learning (built on Google’s LearnLM research) walks through problems step by step, and students 18+ can generate custom practice quizzes with hints and explanations — one of the best free exam-prep features anywhere. It is most useful in Google Workspace schools, where Gemini reads your Drive and Docs, and it is the gateway to NotebookLM (free), which turns your own notes into study guides, practice questions and audio overviews grounded only in your sources. Note Google’s free student year of AI Pro ended 30 April 2026; the current student rate is about $9.99/month.

Limitations: the deepest reasoning modes sit behind paid tiers; quiz generation requires 18+.

Best maths-specific tools

Khanmigo — the tutor that never gives answers

Price: $4/month ($44/year); free for teachers; $15/student/year for districts

Khanmigo, from Khan Academy, is built to never hand over the answer — pure Socratic method, from arithmetic through calculus plus science, humanities and SAT/ACT/AP prep. It now generates visual breakdowns alongside text hints for algebra and geometry, and Khan Academy is redesigning it for a summer 2026 district rollout after candidly reporting that only ~15% of enrolled students were using it (pricing and 2026 updates). It has the strongest published learning-outcomes evidence of any tool on this page (see above). Frustrating if you just want the number; that’s the point.

Photomath — best camera maths solver

Price: free (basic steps); Plus ~$9.99/month

Photomath (owned by Google) reads handwritten or printed problems through your camera and shows animated, step-by-step workings with multiple solution methods and explanations of why each step works. As a checking tool after you’ve attempted the problem, it’s the best in class. Used as an answer machine, it’s exactly the pattern the learning research warns about.

Wolfram Alpha — the accuracy safety net

Price: free (answers only); Pro ~$5–7/month with student pricing

Wolfram Alpha computes rather than generates — symbolic algebra, calculus, statistics, unit conversions, chemistry — which makes it categorically more reliable than any chatbot for a final numeric or symbolic answer. Pro adds step-by-step methodology. For university-level STEM where a wrong number costs marks, this is the tool that doesn’t hallucinate.

Gauth and Question.AI — fast answers, with a caution

Price: Gauth from $11.99/month ($99.99/year); human-tutor backup on the $19.99/month plan

Gauth (ByteDance) is the biggest of the answer engines — it reports over 10 million users and a 4.8-star Google Play rating across 1.7M+ reviews, covers 30+ subjects in 50+ languages, and searches a database of 100M+ previously solved questions. Question.AI is the closest competitor, without Gauth’s human-tutor escalation. Both are polished at what they do. But be clear-eyed about what that is: producing finished answers. They are the most expensive tools on this page and the category the learning-outcomes research is least kind to. If your goal is understanding, the free Study Mode plus Khanmigo beats them at a third of the price.

A note on Socratic by Google

Several older guides still recommend Socratic by Google. It was discontinued — users were redirected to the Google app in October 2024, and the standalone experience is gone (Wikipedia). Its closest free 2026 equivalents are Google Lens homework results and Gemini’s Guided Learning.

Which AI is actually best at maths? (the benchmark state)

For homework-level maths, capability differences between frontier models are no longer meaningful — every major model is far beyond any school curriculum. The differences only show at research level.

Three practical takeaways for students:

• Use the thinking mode for maths. Most remaining chatbot maths errors come from fast, non-reasoning responses making arithmetic slips. ChatGPT’s reasoning models, Gemini’s Deep Think (on Gemini 3.5 Pro, limited rollout with general availability expected July 2026) and Claude’s extended thinking are dramatically more reliable on multi-step problems.
• Verify final numbers with a computation engine. A chatbot explains better; Wolfram Alpha computes better. Use both.
• Don’t pay for frontier maths you don’t need. GCSE, A-level, SAT and most undergraduate maths sit comfortably within every free tier. The research-level gaps in the table above are irrelevant to homework.

Recommendations by situation

Best for primary school (ages 5–11)

Winner: Khanmigo with parent oversight ($4/month)

Guard-railed, Socratic and built for education. Avoid general chatbots for young children — they aren’t designed for them. See our best AI for students guide for level-by-level detail.

Best for middle and high school maths

Winner: ChatGPT Study Mode (free) + Photomath (free) for checking

Study Mode’s interactive visuals cover the core maths and science curriculum; Photomath verifies working after an attempt. Add Khanmigo ($4/month) if the student needs a tutor that can’t be talked into giving answers.

Best for university-level STEM

Winner: Wolfram Alpha Pro (~$5–7/month) + a frontier chatbot’s thinking mode

Wolfram for computation you can trust; ChatGPT or Claude for conceptual explanation across a full problem set. Claude’s 1M-token context handles entire course readers.

Best for essays and humanities homework

Winner: Claude (free, Learning Mode)

The strongest writer and the strictest tutor. Get feedback on drafts you wrote — see our best AI for essays guide for the integrity-safe workflow.

Best for exam revision

Winner: Gemini’s free quizzes + NotebookLM (free)

Generate practice quizzes from the syllabus, and turn your own notes into study guides and practice questions grounded in your actual course materials. Our best AI study tools guide compares the full revision stack.

Best free-only stack

ChatGPT Study Mode + Photomath basic + Wolfram Alpha free + NotebookLM. Total cost: $0. This covers explanation, worked steps, verified computation and revision materials without a single subscription.

Best for parents choosing for a child

Winner: Khanmigo ($4/month)

The only mainstream option where “just give me the answer” doesn’t work, with teacher-facing free access and the strongest outcomes evidence. Pair it with the try-first-check-second rule.

Pricing: what you’ll actually pay

(Prices in USD; most of these tools bill in dollars globally. Verify current terms on each provider’s page — student offers in particular change quickly.)

Value ranking: for most students the spend order is: $0 (free stack above) → $4/month (add Khanmigo) → ~$6/month (add Wolfram Pro for university STEM). The $12–20/month answer engines are the worst learning value on the page.

Homework, integrity and getting flagged

Short version — the full treatment is in our best AI for students guide.

Most institutions now run course-specific AI policies rather than blanket bans, with disclosure requirements common in the UK and Australia. Detection tools remain unreliable — independent studies have found false-positive rates around 61% for non-native English writers — so the safe strategy is not to outsmart detectors but to use AI in ways you could defend: understand concepts, generate practice, get feedback on your own attempts, and keep records of your prompts. Using AI to understand a maths method is learning. Submitting AI-generated working as your own is cheating at most institutions — check your syllabus.

For maths specifically there’s a practical wrinkle: teachers increasingly ask students to explain their method precisely because solvers can’t sit next to you in a test. The RAND finding that 67% of students believe AI use harms their critical thinking is worth taking seriously — the students who use tutors rather than solvers are the ones this worry doesn’t apply to.

Recent developments (March–July 2026)

ChatGPT interactive maths and science (10 March). Real-time manipulable visuals across 70+ topics, free for all logged-in users — the biggest single upgrade to free homework help this year (OpenAI).

RAND American Youth Panel (25 March). AI homework use hit 62% of students; 67% now say it harms critical thinking (RAND).

FrontierMath v2 (12 June). Epoch AI’s error-corrected research-maths benchmark found errors in 42% of original problems; the rebuilt set has Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.5 Pro statistically tied at ~87% on Tiers 1–3 (Epoch AI).

Khanmigo redesign (summer 2026). Khan Academy is rebuilding Khanmigo for a district rollout after reporting only ~15% student uptake — expect a materially different product for the 2026–27 school year.

Gemini 3.5 Pro Deep Think (July, expected). Google’s dedicated hard-reasoning mode moves toward general availability, having hit IMO gold standard in 2025.

IMO 2026, Shanghai (10–21 July). The first Olympiad where an official AI gold medal is the market-expected outcome (~82% implied probability, Polymarket). Result lands mid-July.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI for homework?

ChatGPT is the best overall AI for homework in 2026 — its Study Mode is free, teaches Socratically, and includes interactive visuals for 70+ maths and science topics. For a stricter tutor, Khanmigo ($4/month) never gives direct answers and has the strongest learning-outcomes evidence.

What is the best AI for maths?

For learning maths: ChatGPT Study Mode (free) or Khanmigo ($4/month). For checking worked solutions from a photo: Photomath (free basic tier). For guaranteed-accurate computation at university level: Wolfram Alpha (Pro ~$5–7/month). For the hardest research-level maths, Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.5 Pro are statistically tied on FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, with Fable 5 leading the hardest tier.

Can ChatGPT do maths reliably now?

Mostly, yes — a big change from earlier years. Frontier models score 95–99% on AIME competition maths, far beyond any school curriculum. Remaining errors typically come from fast, non-reasoning responses making arithmetic slips, so use the thinking mode for multi-step problems and verify final numbers with Wolfram Alpha where marks depend on them.

Is using AI for homework cheating?

It depends on your institution’s policy and how you use it. Using AI to understand concepts, generate practice problems and get feedback on your own attempts is generally acceptable; submitting AI-generated answers or working as your own is cheating at most institutions. Check your syllabus, and disclose where required.

Do AI homework apps actually help you learn?

The tutor-style ones do; the answer engines mostly don’t. Khanmigo users showed gains equivalent to 2–3 extra weeks of instruction in a 2026 pilot, while studies of direct-answer tools find task scores improve without knowledge gains — and students perform worse than never-users once the tool is taken away. The design of the tool you pick largely decides which outcome you get.

What’s the best free AI for homework?

The free stack covers almost everything: ChatGPT Study Mode (explanations and interactive maths), Photomath basic (worked steps from your camera), Wolfram Alpha free (verified answers) and NotebookLM (study materials from your own notes). Total cost: $0.

Is Gauth worth it?

Gauth is the most polished answer engine — 30+ subjects, 100M+ solved questions, optional human tutors — but at $11.99–19.99/month it costs 3–5x more than Khanmigo and does the thing the learning research warns against: producing finished answers. If you want to learn, the free Study Mode plus Khanmigo is better value. If you occasionally need a hard problem unblocked, Gauth’s free tier or a frontier chatbot’s thinking mode usually suffices.

What happened to Socratic by Google?

Google discontinued the standalone Socratic app in October 2024 and folded it into the Google app. Guides still recommending it are out of date. Its closest free equivalents in 2026 are Google Lens homework results and Gemini’s Guided Learning.

Which AI is best at showing its working?

Photomath shows animated step-by-step workings with multiple methods for camera-scanned problems. Wolfram Alpha Pro shows full methodology for computed results. Among chatbots, thinking modes on ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all expose multi-step reasoning you can follow and question.

Will AI homework help make me worse at maths?

Only if you use it to skip the struggle. Students who use answer engines to complete work show no lasting knowledge gains and perform worse when the tool is removed; students who use Socratic tutors show measurably faster mastery. Same technology — the difference is whether you attempt problems first and use AI to understand your mistakes.

Conclusion: how to choose in July 2026

The capability question is settled — every frontier model can do your homework. The only question left is whether the tool you pick makes you better or just faster.

• Best overall: ChatGPT free — Study Mode plus interactive maths visuals.
• Best tutor: Khanmigo ($4/month) — never gives answers; best outcomes evidence.
• Best camera solver: Photomath (free; Plus ~$9.99/month) — for checking, not copying.
• Best for accuracy: Wolfram Alpha — computes rather than generates.
• Best for essays and readings: Claude free, with Learning Mode.
• Best for revision: Gemini quizzes + NotebookLM, both free.
• Skip unless needed: $12–20/month answer engines — the worst learning value per dollar on the page.

Use the try-first-check-second rule, keep your prompts as records, and treat the 67% of students worried about their own critical thinking as the most useful data point on this page — the tools that teach are now free or nearly free, so there’s no longer a good reason to pay for the ones that don’t.

For the broader toolkit — free student offers, research tools and level-by-level picks — see best AI for students; for the models behind these apps, best AI models; for revision specifically, best AI study tools; and for writing, best AI for essays.

Benchmark scores, pricing and availability current as of 6 July 2026 and subject to change. Learning-outcomes findings are cited to their original studies; verify current student offers on each provider’s page before relying on them.