The best math apps for kids 6 to 12 in 2026, honestly compared

Start with the free ones: Khan Academy for a full course, Zearn for lessons that follow the school year and XtraMath for math facts. Pay only for a specific need, such as a game your child will ask to play, class leaderboards, or practice built from the homework sheet.

11 minute read · Updated October 9, 2026

A note on fairness: we make Plusy, one of the apps on this page. It is listed where it fits and it is not our first pick for most families. Prices and features of the other apps were read on each app's own site or store listing on 5 October 2026.

What are the best math apps for kids 6 to 12 in 2026?

The best math app depends on the job. Khan Academy and Zearn are free and teach whole courses. XtraMath and Times Tables Rock Stars build fast recall of facts. Prodigy wraps math in a game. SplashLearn and IXL are broad paid programs. Photomath explains a problem, and Plusy turns homework into practice.

The table compares ten of them. Prices are for a family, in the currency and place we saw them, and only where we could confirm the figure on 5 October 2026.

Which math apps for kids are free?

Three strong math programs cost a family nothing: Khan Academy, Zearn and XtraMath's Standard plan. Khan Academy Kids is also free for ages 2 to 8. Between them they cover a full curriculum and daily fact practice at no cost.

Khan Academy: a full course, free

Khan Academy is a nonprofit that offers free courses from kindergarten through grade 12 and early college, in math and other subjects, as its site says. It is the place to send a child who needs a topic taught, with lessons and then practice. It is a course, not a game. Its AI tutor, Khanmigo, is a separate paid add-on at $4 a month or $44 a year.

Zearn: lessons that match school

Zearn is a nonprofit math platform for kindergarten to grade 8 that many schools use, and its family page says families can create an account for free. Lessons mix on-screen teaching, online problems and paper-and-pencil work.

XtraMath: math facts in a few minutes a day

XtraMath is a fact fluency program whose Standard plan is listed as free forever on its pricing page, with a Family Pro plan at $6 a year for three children. Sessions run about 10 minutes. Families like that it is free and sends reports. Some parents report that the timed questions stress their child and that the drills feel repetitive, according to reviews on Common Sense Media. Its support site says the timer can be hidden. We go into this in Plusy vs XtraMath.

Which app is best for a full math curriculum?

For a full curriculum, start with the free ones, Khan Academy and Zearn. If you want a paid program, SplashLearn covers math and reading from preschool to grade 5, IXL covers preschool to grade 12 across several subjects, and Mathletics covers ages 5 to 16. All three are subscriptions.

• SplashLearn. Learning games, books and worksheets for math and reading, with no ads, as stated on its App Store page. The US App Store lists monthly memberships from $7.99 to $11.99 and yearly ones at $69.99 or $89.99. Families praise the games. Some parents report billing trouble after a free trial on Trustpilot, from a small number of reviews. More in Plusy vs SplashLearn.
• IXL. Practice in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish for preschool to grade 12, as listed on its App Store page, which also lists 10 practice questions a day for free. We could not open its membership page on 5 October 2026, so we print no price. More in Plusy vs IXL.
• Mathletics. A program for ages 5 to 16 with curriculum activities, live math races and printable worksheets, as described on its site, with a 14-day free trial that renews automatically. Its current price was not on the page we read.

Which math app is best for a child who wants a game first?

Prodigy Math is the best known game-first math app: a fantasy adventure for grades 1 to 8 in which a child answers math questions to play. Its site says the in-game math questions are free. Sumdog is another, with math and spelling games for ages 5 to 14.

• Prodigy Math. The math questions are free, and a membership adds rewards and extras. On its site on 5 October 2026 the plans ran from $9.95 a month or $74.95 a year for Core up to $19.95 a month or $134.95 a year for Ultra, in US dollars. Families like the adaptive questions and the parent dashboard. Some parents report frequent prompts to buy a membership, according to reviews on Common Sense Media. More in Plusy vs Prodigy.
• Sumdog. Game-based practice with 39 math and spelling games, as listed on its families page, at $8.99 a month for up to 3 children and 2 adults. Its free trial asks for payment details.

Which app is best for fast math facts and times tables?

For math facts, XtraMath is the free pick and Times Tables Rock Stars is the low-cost pick for times tables, at £7.20 a year for up to three children. Hit the Button is a one-time purchase for quick mental math. Monster Math is aimed at kindergarten to grade 3 and has no timers.

• Times Tables Rock Stars. Timed multiplication and division games with leaderboards and live multiplayer, with no ads, in-game purchases or chat, as listed on its site. Best when your child's class plays it. More in Plusy vs Times Tables Rock Stars.
• Hit the Button. One-minute games on number bonds, times tables, division, doubling, halving and square numbers, aimed at 5 to 11 year olds, with a mode that has no countdown. The app is £3.49 once on the UK App Store, with no in-app purchases listed. Its maker, Topmarks, also has a browser version on its own site. That page would not open for us, so we could not confirm what it costs.
• Monster Math. A fact fluency game for grades K to 3 with no timers, at $59.99 a year after a 7-day trial that needs a card, as listed on its site.
• 99math. A fast math facts game for grades 1 to 6, free to use, as its App Store page says. A Math Pass is listed there at $9.99 a month, $59.99 a year or $149.99 for a lifetime pass, a one-time purchase.

Which app helps with math homework?

Two apps start from the homework itself, and they do opposite things. Photomath scans one problem and shows the solution with steps, for elementary math up to calculus. Plusy scans a worksheet and turns it into questions your child answers, with help one step at a time. Which you want depends on who should do the work.

Photomath: see how a problem is solved

Photomath scans a problem with the camera and shows a step-by-step explanation, as described on its site. The Basic plan is $0 and includes those explanations, and Photomath Plus is $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year. It suits a parent checking an answer or an older student who is stuck. It solves the problem, so it is not practice. More in Plusy vs Photomath.

Plusy: practice from your child's own homework

Plusy is our app, for ages 6 to 12. You type the homework questions, scan a worksheet or describe a list, and your child plays it as short rounds. Plusy also has five roads of its own: four for whole numbers, up to long multiplication and long division set out in columns, and one for fractions.

After a wrong answer Plusy shows the answer, says what went wrong when it recognises the slip, gives a trick and brings the question back later in the round. On column questions, Hint asks a guiding question, and Show me fills in one step and hands the question back. See hints and steps. Plusy is free to start, and Unlock Plusy is $29 once.

Plusy's limits, plainly: whole-number arithmetic, and fractions up to mixed numbers (no multiplying or dividing fractions). No decimals, money, time or geometry. Ages 6 to 12. One child per account. The app is in 14 languages. It runs in the browser today, an iPhone and iPad app is on the way, and there is no Android app. No teacher dashboard, no reports, no leaderboards.

How do you choose a math app for your child?

Choose by the problem you are trying to solve, not by the longest feature list. Name the one thing that is hard this month, pick the app built for that, and try its free part for a week before paying. The list below matches common situations to the apps on this page.

• Your child is behind on a topic and needs it taught: Khan Academy, or Zearn if school uses it.
• Your child knows how but is slow on facts: XtraMath, or Times Tables Rock Stars for the tables.
• Your child will not practice unless it is a game: Prodigy Math or Sumdog.
• Your child is under 6, or you want reading too: SplashLearn or Khan Academy Kids.
• A timer upsets your child: Monster Math for grades K to 3, Hit the Button's practice mode, or Plusy.
• The homework sheet is the problem: Plusy for practice on it, Photomath to see a worked solution.
• Carrying, borrowing or long division keep going wrong: Plusy for practice on the written method, Khan Academy to have the topic taught again.
• You do not want a subscription: see math apps with no subscription.

How we chose and checked

We chose apps that parents of children 6 to 12 commonly search for and compare, and grouped them by the need each one serves. On 5 October 2026 we read each app's own site and store listing for prices, ages and features. Parent reports come from review pages named in the sources.

We make Plusy, so we have an interest. We did not test every app with children, and this page does not rank the apps from first to last. Where we could not open a page that day, we left the figure out.

Plusy is not affiliated with the apps named here, and the names belong to their owners. Prices and features were checked on 5 October 2026 and change, so check each site before you buy.

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