ComparisonOct 14, 2026
Best AI Tools for Teachers in 2026, Compared Job by Job
Which AI tool to use for lesson plans, grading and feedback, slides, family emails and student AI, with what each one costs a teacher and where each falls short.
Sohan Choudhury | Co-founder and CEO of Flint
Teachers use AI for five jobs more than any others: planning lessons, grading and giving feedback, making slides, writing to families, and giving students an AI to work with. No single tool is best at all five. This guide goes job by job through nine AI tools built for teachers, plus Flint, the product I run, and says what each does, what it costs one teacher, and where it falls short.
It's written for a classroom teacher choosing tools for their own work. If you're choosing a platform for a whole school or district, our guide to AI platforms for K-12 education compares that decision instead.
The short answer
- You live in Google Docs and Slides: Brisk. Its free extension works inside the document you already have open.
- You want a long menu of ready-made tools: MagicSchool (80+ teacher tools on the free plan) or Eduaide (110+ resource templates).
- You need leveled readings and print-ready handouts: Diffit.
- You want a free general assistant: ChatGPT for Teachers, free for U.S. K-12 teachers through June 2028, or Gemini for Education, if your school has turned it on.
- You teach writing and want the whole class practicing together: Curipod.
- You want students working with an AI while you watch: SchoolAI, Brisk Boost, MagicSchool's Student Rooms, or Flint.
How we evaluated
I'm Flint's co-founder and CEO, so I'm biased toward Flint. Flint appears last in each table, and the other tools aren't ranked. Within each job they're listed in no particular order.
Which jobs. Google's top results for "best AI tools for teachers" are lists sorted by what a teacher needs done, so this page is sorted the same way. We picked the five jobs those lists come back to most often.
Which tools. We included tools a teacher can sign up for and use on their own, built for teaching: MagicSchool, Brisk, SchoolAI, Diffit, Eduaide, Curipod and Kira. We also included Gemini for Education and ChatGPT for Teachers. They're general assistants, but Google ranks them as teacher tools: Brisk's own list of the best AI tools for teachers puts Gemini second, and Ditch That Textbook's list opens with chatbots. Both now come in free versions with education terms. We left out Canva, Kahoot and Nearpod, where AI is one feature of a design, quiz or presentation product, and Khanmigo, whose teacher tools come with Khan Academy's tutor and are covered in our K-12 platforms guide.
Where claims come from. Every claim about another tool links to that company's own website, pricing page or help center, checked on October 14, 2026. We didn't test the other tools hands-on, score them or survey teachers. Flint's entries come from Flint's help center and product. Plans change often, so check a pricing page before you pay.
Lesson plans
A lesson plan tool should give you a plan you'd actually teach from: an objective, timed steps, materials and a check for understanding, tied to the standards you use. Every tool here can draft one. They differ in how much structure they impose and where the plan ends up.
| Tool | What you get | Cost for one teacher |
|---|---|---|
| MagicSchool | A lesson plan generator among 80+ teacher tools, plus Raina, its chatbot | Free with usage limits. Plus is $8.33 a month billed yearly, or $12.99 monthly, for unlimited generations |
| Eduaide | Plans in 11 instructional models, such as 5E, aligned to standards from 50+ jurisdictions. Evaluators check grade level and text complexity before you teach. Exports to Google Docs, Word, Google Forms and PDF | Free with a generation limit. Pro is $49.99 a year |
| Kira | A free AI Lesson Planner built on the state or district standards you select, with objectives, materials, pacing and assessments | Free to start |
| Brisk | A lesson plan generator that works from whatever you have open: a doc, a video, a PDF or a website | Free extension, with usage limits that paid plans don't have |
| ChatGPT for Teachers | A general assistant that can pull lesson plans and files from Google Drive or Microsoft 365 and plan a multi-week unit with your team in shared projects | Free for verified U.S. K-12 teachers through June 2028 |
| Gemini for Education | A general assistant that drafts lesson plans aligned to objectives and standards | Free for schools that sign up and turn it on |
| Flint | The AI Lesson Plan Generator, or any chat with Sparky, writes the plan as a document beside the chat. Ask for changes and Sparky edits it, then open it in Google Docs or download it as Word (help center). In a class's own chat, Sparky also uses what you've written about that class (help center) | Free for up to 80 users |
Pick by how you plan. If your evaluator expects a specific format, Eduaide's menu of models saves you reformatting. If you plan from a resource you already like, Brisk works from the page in front of you. If you plan in conversation and want to go straight on to the slides and handouts, a chat tool (ChatGPT, Gemini, MagicSchool's Raina or Flint) keeps everything in one thread.
Grading and feedback
Feedback tools save the most time when they read your rubric, draft comments in your voice and leave the final call to you. The big difference is where the student's work has to be: in a Google Doc, pasted into the tool, or submitted inside it.
| Tool | What you get | Cost for one teacher |
|---|---|---|
| Brisk | Comments on student writing inside the document, with 5+ ways to give feedback, and Inspect Writing, which shows how a student wrote and revised the piece | Free extension |
| MagicSchool | A writing feedback tool that uses your criteria and lets you edit every comment before students see it. Class Writing Feedback is on the free plan | Free, with Plus for unlimited use |
| Kira | Essay QuickGrader grades against your rubric and checks for plagiarism and AI-written text. In its Grading Studio, nothing goes back to students until you release it | Free to start |
| SchoolAI | Writing analysis with summary feedback, inline comments and revision history, listed in its plan comparison | Free trial with limits; Pro is quote-based |
| Curipod | Students get Glow & Grow feedback the moment they submit, during a whole-class lesson, and you can adjust the rubric. Custom rubrics are on paid plans | Free for 2 teaching sessions a week |
| Flint | The AI Essay Grader and AI Writing Feedback tools draft scores and comments against your rubric for you to review. When students turn work in through a Flint activity, Sparky grades it against the activity's rubric and writes strengths, areas to improve and next steps, and you can edit the grade or turn auto-grading off (help center) | Free for up to 80 users |
ChatGPT and Gemini can draft feedback on work you paste in, but neither page above describes a class grading workflow, a rubric setting or a place to return grades.
Where Flint falls short here: Flint can't leave comments inside a student's Google Doc. The work has to be pasted into a chat or turned in through a Flint activity. If your students write in Google Docs and you want comments in the margin, Brisk does that and Flint doesn't.
Slides
A slide tool should give you a deck you can present tomorrow and still edit in the program your school uses.
| Tool | What you get | Cost for one teacher |
|---|---|---|
| MagicSchool | A presentation generator that builds from a topic, a YouTube video or your own material. Since September 23, 2026, decks come with images, varied layouts and a theme, and export to Google Slides or PowerPoint | Free |
| Brisk | A Presentation Maker that writes Google Slides from an idea, article, website or video | Free extension |
| Diffit | Slides alongside handouts and activities for any topic or reading level | Free to make and print. Export to Google Slides needs the individual plan, $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year |
| SchoolAI | A presentation creator among its teacher tools, listed in its plan comparison | Free trial with limits |
| Curipod | Each lesson it builds comes as slides with writing activities, made to teach live while students respond on their own devices | Free for 2 teaching sessions a week |
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Builds presentations through its Canva connector | Free for U.S. K-12 teachers through June 2028 |
| Gemini for Education | Gemini Canvas makes quizzes, study guides and visual timelines. Full access to Gemini inside Gmail, Docs and the other Workspace apps comes with Google AI Pro for Education, a paid add-on | Free app; add-on is paid |
| Flint | Sparky builds a themed deck with AI illustrations where a picture helps. Pick one of six themes, present full screen, download PowerPoint or open a copy in Google Slides. Ask for a change and Sparky makes a new version of the same deck (help center) | Free for up to 80 users |
Pick by where the deck goes next. If your school runs on Google Slides and you build from a video or article, Brisk is the shortest path. If you want students answering on their own devices while you present, Curipod is built for that.
Family emails
Every tool here drafts the message. None sends it for you. What matters is whether it handles the tone of a hard conversation and the languages your families read.
| Tool | What you get | Cost for one teacher |
|---|---|---|
| Kira | Family Email, Weekly Class Recaps and a Text Translator for notes home, progress updates and newsletters in other languages | Free to start |
| Brisk | A Newsletter Generator that turns your notes and lesson highlights into a class newsletter, with the tone you choose | Free extension |
| MagicSchool | Communication tools on the free plan, next to planning and assessment, plus a report card comment generator | Free |
| Gemini for Education | Drafts an email to a parent, a newsletter or a permission slip | Free for schools that turn it on |
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Drafts and translates; OpenAI's own example is translating a parent email into Spanish | Free for U.S. K-12 teachers through June 2028 |
| Flint | The Email Family Generator and AI Email Writer tools draft a message from what you observed, and a Text Translator tool puts it in another language | Free for up to 80 users |
Diffit and Curipod are built for classroom materials and lessons, not family messages.
AI for students
This is where the tools differ most. Some keep students away from AI entirely. Others give each student an AI to work with, inside limits you set, and show you the conversations.
| Tool | What students get | What you see | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| SchoolAI | Spaces: AI activities you design, with its assistant Dot working with each student (SchoolAI) | Mission Control shows who's engaged, who's stuck and what to do next | Free trial: 5 Space launches a year. Pro is unlimited and quote-based |
| Brisk | Boost activities made from any resource: Tutor, Debate, Writing Coach, Exit Ticket and more. Students join with a link or code, with no account | Boost Learning Insights show who's engaged, stuck or progressing | See Brisk's plans |
| MagicSchool | Student Rooms, where you choose and set up the AI tools students can use (pricing) | Student learning insights | 50+ student tools need Plus |
| Curipod | Whole-class lessons where students write and get AI feedback. Students don't have accounts and there are no AI chatbots | Reports from every lesson | Free for 2 teaching sessions a week |
| Kira | ChatPods: AI chat spaces built around one lesson or activity (Kira help center) | Each student response updates a mastery model that drives grading and next steps | Free to start |
| Gemini for Education | Students under 18 get a separate experience with extra guardrails. Teachers can assign Gems and Gemini Notebooks in Google Classroom, but Gems end for school accounts on June 1, 2027 or later | Which students opened a notebook and started a conversation | Free for schools that turn it on |
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Not for students: OpenAI says the plan is not for students | ||
| Diffit | No student logins and no student AI, by design | ||
| Flint | Activities you build: a conversation with Sparky that you design, a file to turn in, or a test or quiz (help center). Students of any age can use Flint, including under 13 (pricing) | Every session, live, with Needs attention flags when a student keeps getting it wrong, gives up or asks for a person (help center). Concerning messages email the school's moderators (help center) | Free for up to 80 users, students included |
Eduaide makes materials for teachers and has no student side.
Where Flint falls short
Flint covers all five jobs, and it's still the wrong pick for some teachers. These are its real gaps against the tools above:
- It doesn't work inside your other tools. Flint is a separate website. Brisk's extension works in Docs, Slides, YouTube and your LMS, and SchoolAI has a browser extension, limited on its free trial. Flint has neither.
- No margin comments in Google Docs. Flint's feedback lives in Flint, not in the student's document.
- Fewer one-click tools. MagicSchool lists 80+ teacher tools and Eduaide 110+ templates. Flint has fewer purpose-built tools and leans on open chat with Sparky, which suits some teachers and slows down others who want a form to fill in.
- No ready-made alignment to published curricula. Curipod says it aligns with 55+ curricula such as HMH Into Reading and Amplify CKLA, and Brisk's Intelligence plan builds from a district's adopted curriculum. Flint's built-in library holds standards frameworks such as Common Core, AP and IB. A school can upload its own curriculum documents, but no published curriculum comes pre-loaded.
- No whole-class live lesson. Curipod runs one lesson on the projector while every student writes. In Flint, each student has their own session with Sparky.
- No cheap upgrade for one heavy user. ChatGPT for Teachers is free for U.S. teachers through June 2028, Eduaide Pro costs $49.99 a year and MagicSchool Plus about $100 a year. Flint is free for up to 80 users. Past that, Flint sells school plans starting at $3,000£2,234 a year for up to 150 users, and no single-teacher plan.
What Flint adds
The plan, the deck, the handout, the family email and the student activity can all come out of one conversation with Sparky. The student side is where Flint is different: students work through an activity you designed with Sparky, you can read every conversation as it happens, Sparky grades against your rubric when they turn it in, and the grades go to Flint's gradebook. Sparky can also build an interactive, such as a simulation or a sorting game, for a concept that's clearer to try than to read about (help center).
For the head-to-head detail on any one tool, see Flint compared with MagicSchool, Brisk, SchoolAI, Diffit, Curipod, ChatGPT for Teachers and Gemini for Education.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free AI tool for teachers?
For a general assistant, ChatGPT for Teachers is free for verified U.S. K-12 teachers through June 2028, and Gemini for Education is free for schools that turn it on. For ready-made teacher tools, MagicSchool, Brisk, Eduaide, Kira, Diffit, Curipod and Flint all have free plans, each with its own limits. Pick by the job you do most: Brisk if you work in Google Docs and Slides, Diffit for leveled readings, MagicSchool or Eduaide for a long menu of templates.
Can students use ChatGPT for Teachers?
No. OpenAI says the plan is for teachers and staff at U.S. K-12 schools and is not for students. For an AI that students use while you watch, look at SchoolAI, Brisk Boost, MagicSchool's Student Rooms or Flint.
Which AI tool works inside Google Docs and Slides?
Brisk's Chrome and Edge extension works inside Google Docs, Slides, YouTube and your LMS, so you can give feedback in a student's document. MagicSchool, Diffit and Flint make materials in their own websites and send them to Google Docs or Slides.
Is there one AI tool that does all five jobs?
MagicSchool, SchoolAI, Kira and Flint each cover all five to some degree, and each is stronger at some jobs than others. Many teachers pair a teacher tool such as Brisk or MagicSchool with a student-facing tool their school has approved.
You can try Flint free for up to 80 users, students included.
Last updated: October 14, 2026
