AI Study Tools for University Students: What Each One Does and What It Costs

The short answer: if you don't understand the material, ChatGPT in study mode or Gemini. If you need to remember definitions, a flashcard tool like Quizlet or Knowt. And if the problem is when to study and how to practise before the exam, Focusity. Most of these tools start free, and the big difference between them isn't price but the job they do.

The tools at a glance

What each tool does

ChatGPT: explanations, and study mode

ChatGPT explains almost any topic, and you can upload slides and notes. Study mode is worth knowing: instead of giving the answer, it asks questions, explains in layers and checks you understood. It's available on every plan, including Free. In the US App Store, Go is $8 and Plus $19.99 a month (App Store listing). There's no individual student discount (pricing page).

Good at: the most flexible tool for explanations, and free.

Gemini: a free year for students

Google offers eligible students aged 18+ a free year of Google AI Plus, with study notebooks from your material, custom quizzes and practice tests from your notes (Gemini for students). On the page we checked, you had to sign up by 31 December 2026, and the plan renews as paid after the year unless you cancel. Eligibility varies by country, so check the page for yours.

Good at: a lot of capability without paying in year one. Note the renewal date.

Quizlet: flashcards

A huge library of ready-made sets, and cards from a file with Smart Assist. Plus and Plus Unlimited are annual plans with a 7-day trial (plans page); AI practice tests are for Plus subscribers whose account language is English (help centre). More in how to make flashcards from your notes.

Knowt: free flashcards, AI in Ultra

Knowt offers free flashcards with unlimited learn mode, spaced repetition and Quizlet import. Its AI summarizer for PDFs, slides and videos is listed under Ultra, at $149.99 a year or $24.99 a month (plans page).

Focusity: when to study, and practice before the exam

Focusity doesn't teach the material or do your homework. It imports your timetable and exam schedule and books study blocks into your free hours, for free. Focusity Premium (₪29.90 a month or ₪149.90 a year in Israel, local prices elsewhere, first week free) adds past-paper practice spread over the days until the exam, with a first hint, a second hint and only then the solution; flashcards and quizzes from your course slides; and Pokey, an assistant that plans your day and answers questions about your schedule. Free accounts get up to 10 smart actions a month.

Good at: the only tool here that builds the plan itself around your timetable and exams.

In Israel: GOOL and GuyAI

Israeli students also use GOOL, video courses matched to the institution and course (a single course from ₪199), and GuyAI, GOOL's tool that solves exercises and whole exams step by step in Hebrew, with a free trial and upgrades through GOOL. Both are Hebrew-only.

AI homework help: when it helps and when it hurts

A tool that solves a past paper for you feels like progress, but reading a solution is recognition, not recall. In Roediger and Karpicke (2006), students tested on a text remembered 56% of it a week later, against 42% for students who re-read it. Practice testing is one of only two techniques rated "high utility" in the review by Dunlosky et al. (2013), while rereading was rated "low utility".

• Helps: checking an answer you wrote yourself, getting a hint when stuck, understanding a mistake.
• Hurts: reading the solution before you've tried, and concluding you know it.
• Not allowed: in the exam itself, and in assignments unless your lecturer allows it. Check each course's policy.
• Always check: models make mistakes, especially in long calculations.

The full method is in how to study with past exam papers.

How to choose, by what's missing

1. You don't understand the material: ChatGPT in study mode or Gemini.
2. You're stuck on a problem: ChatGPT study mode, after you've tried alone.
3. You need to remember definitions and formulas: flashcards, in Quizlet, Knowt, Anki, or from your slides in Focusity.
4. You run out of time or don't know when to study: Focusity, which builds the plan and schedules the practice.

Most students combine two: one tool that explains, and one that decides when to study and drills you before the exam. If planning is what's missing, there's a detailed comparison in the best study planner apps.

The other tools explain. Focusity decides when you study and schedules past-paper practice right up to exam day. Planning is free, and the first week of Premium is free.

Build my plan — free

Frequently asked questions

The tool that decides when you study

Focusity builds a study plan inside your free time and schedules past-paper practice and flashcards up to exam day. Planning is free, on iPhone, Android and the web.

Build my plan — free