Free AI vs. paid AI platforms for schools: what's worth paying for?

Three of the biggest AI companies now give schools their tools for free. Gemini is built into Google Workspace for Education, and since August it can reach students of every age through Google Classroom. OpenAI gives verified US K-12 teachers ChatGPT for Teachers at no cost through June 2028. Anthropic gives Claude for Teachers free for a year to verified US K-12 teachers who sign up by June 30, 2027.

So tech directors and principals are asking a fair question, and we hear it on sales calls every week: if the best models are free, why pay for MagicSchool, Brisk, SchoolAI, Khanmigo or Flint?

This guide tries to answer that honestly, including the places where the free tools are good enough. Flint is one of the paid platforms, so we've tried to be specific about where the case for paying holds up and where it doesn't.

The short version

Paid K-12 AI platforms are priced in a similar range, so the bigger decision is whether you need student-facing AI at all, and less about which vendor is cheapest.

What's free right now

Gemini for Education

Gemini comes with Google Workspace for Education. Education Fundamentals, the free edition most schools run, includes more than 30 Gemini tools for teachers inside Google Classroom: lesson outlines, quiz generation, rubrics, vocabulary lists and more. Students get a Gemini tab in Classroom for study guides, flashcards, practice quizzes and Guided Learning, plus Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) for turning class materials into study aids. Teachers can also assign Gems, custom versions of Gemini, until Google retires them for schools no sooner than June 1, 2027.

In August, Google opened the Classroom Gemini tab to students of all ages. Until then it had been on by default only for students 18 and older. The change applies to districts that had already given students access to the Gemini app or Gemini Notebook, and admins can switch it off in the Admin Console (Education Week).

ChatGPT for Teachers

Free for verified US K-12 educators through June 2028, with GPT-5.1, file uploads, deep research and district admin controls (SSO, role-based access, domain claiming). Custom GPTs were part of the offer, but OpenAI retires them on every ChatGPT plan on December 11, 2026 and is moving creators to plugins. OpenAI has signed a 16-state National Data Privacy Agreement through the Student Data Privacy Consortium.

There are no student accounts. OpenAI models reach students through other products: AI assignments inside Canvas, and consumer ChatGPT accounts for 13- to 17-year-olds with parental consent, which the school doesn't manage. Our full comparison covers those paths.

Claude for Teachers

Free for one year to verified US K-12 educators who sign up by June 30, 2027. Schools get SSO, role-based access, domain claiming and a single K-12 data processing agreement. Teachers can connect Claude to partner tools such as Brisk, MagicSchool and Canva.

Claude requires users to be 18 or older, so students can't use it. Our full comparison goes deeper.

Free tiers from the paid platforms

Most paid K-12 platforms also have a free tier. MagicSchool is free for individual teachers with generation limits and includes some student tools; the full set of 50+ needs the paid Plus plan. Brisk is free for teachers, with 20+ tools and student Boost activities. SchoolAI's free plan allows 5 Space launches a year. Khanmigo is free for teachers. Flint is free for up to 80 users, students included.

Where free is good enough: teacher prep

For lesson plans, rubrics, differentiated readings, quiz questions, parent emails and newsletters, a frontier model with a decent prompt does the job. ChatGPT for Teachers and Claude for Teachers give teachers the same class of models the paid platforms are built on. Gemini's Classroom tools cover the common prep tasks inside the app teachers already open every morning.

Teacher-tool platforms add ready-made templates and a friendlier starting point, which helps teachers who don't want to write prompts. Some schools will find that worth paying for. Many won't, especially now that the free tools come with admin controls and data agreements.

If teacher productivity is the whole of your AI plan, start with what's free and revisit when the free periods end.

Where free falls short: students

The gap opens once students use the AI. These are the five questions we'd ask of any tool before students log in.

1. Can your students use it at all?

Claude for Teachers is 18+. ChatGPT for Teachers has no student accounts, and ChatGPT's teen accounts are consumer products for ages 13 and up, outside school control. That leaves Gemini as the only free option most schools can give students, and in many districts it is already on.

Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute rated the Gemini K-12 app "High Risk" in January. Its reasons include that Gemini "treats a sixth grader and a high school senior the same" (Youth AI Safety Institute). For elementary and middle school, that narrows the free options to very few.

2. Can teachers see what students say to the AI?

With Gemini, admins get usage reports in the Admin Console and can search Gemini conversations in Google Vault after the fact. Teachers don't get a live view of what their students are asking. ChatGPT for Teachers and Claude for Teachers contain no student conversations to see.

Student-facing platforms are built around this. SchoolAI's Mission Control shows teachers student conversations as they happen, and on Flint teachers see every message each student exchanges with the AI, organized by class and activity.

3. Does anyone get alerted when a student is in trouble?

Gemini has no real-time alert when a student discloses self-harm; the conversation sits in Vault until someone searches for it. The Youth AI Safety Institute also found that "once Gemini is on, administrators can't prevent students from using the chatbot to talk about personal, emotional, or mental health topics."

SchoolAI sends crisis alerts, Khanmigo sends moderation alerts, and Flint flags messages about self-harm, violence and harassment for administrator review in real time.

4. Does the AI follow the teacher's plan?

Gemini's Guided Learning and ChatGPT's study mode switch the AI from giving answers to asking questions. Both are modes a student can turn off. The Youth AI Safety Institute found Guided Learning "is easy to switch out of (and will write full essays or complete homework when asked)."

On a student-learning platform, the teacher sets the rules for each activity: what the AI should help with, what it shouldn't hand over, which materials it should draw from. The student can't switch that off.

5. Who decides when things change?

Google turned the Gemini tab on for younger students in August, and some schools found out late. Education Week reported that one Ohio principal learned about it from a news story, not from Google or the district. MIT's Justin Reich said it means schools have to manage change "whenever the tech industry decides we have to deal with it."

Free tools are built for very large general audiences, and their features and terms change on the vendor's schedule. A school platform is under a contract and a data agreement with a vendor whose only customers are schools, and new features reach students when the school turns them on.

Feature comparison

A note on price

We've left prices off this page. Paid K-12 AI platforms land in a similar range per school, so price rarely separates them, and each vendor will quote for your size. The more useful number is the date a free tier ends.

Before you rely on a free tier

Whichever free tool you pick, get answers to these first:

• When does the free period end, and how much notice will you get before the terms change?
• Does it cover students, or only staff?
• Which data agreement covers it, and has your state signed it?
• Who can turn new features on, and will the vendor turn them on by default?
• If teachers build a year of work on it, what will it take to move?
• Can teachers and students export what they've made?

Tom Semko put the risk plainly on LinkedIn: "Is school AI access going to quickly become gated by finances?" (LinkedIn). Planning for the end of a free period now is cheaper than scrambling in 2027 or 2028.

Where Flint fits

Flint is a student-learning platform. Teachers describe what they're teaching and upload their own materials, and students work through AI activities (tutoring, writing feedback, speaking practice, simulations, quiz review) with Sparky, Flint's AI tutor. The AI asks questions instead of handing over answers, stays grounded in the teacher's materials and adjusts to each student's level.

Around that, Flint covers the gaps above.

Students under 13 can use Flint with school consent. Every paid plan comes with a customer success manager and professional development for teachers.

Flint also has teacher tools, but if all you need is teacher prep, the free tools may be enough, and we'd rather you know that before you buy.

How to choose

1. If

   Only teachers will use AI, and mostly for prep

   Then

   Start with a free tool

   ChatGPT for Teachers or Claude for Teachers work anywhere; Gemini makes sense if you're already a Google school.

2. If

   Teachers want templates or AI inside Google Docs

   Then

   Try MagicSchool or Brisk for free

   Pay when you need district admin controls.

3. If

   Students 13 and older will use AI for study help, and your district is comfortable governing it in the Google Admin Console

   Then

   Gemini may be enough

   Read the Youth AI Safety Institute's review first.

4. If

   Students will use AI as part of instruction, especially under 13, or teachers need to see what students say

   Then

   Use a student-learning platform

   SchoolAI, Khanmigo or Flint.

Plenty of schools do both: a free AI tool for teacher prep and a paid platform for students. For head-to-head detail, see Flint vs. Gemini for Education, ChatGPT for Teachers, Claude for Teachers, MagicSchool, Brisk, SchoolAI and Khanmigo.

The easiest way to see the difference is to try it with your students: Flint is free for up to 80 users, or you can book a demo and we'll walk through your school's goals.

Last updated: September 2026