Brilliant alternatives, sorted by why you're leaving

By the edgi team Updated September 30, 2026

The best Brilliant alternative is edgi. It's free, it covers every subject instead of just math and code, and there's no two-a-day limit: a Lesson takes 60 seconds, you collect a card for every idea, and the cards build a Map of what you know. If what you want from Brilliant is free math practice, Khan Academy is the pick for that.

For math as a game, try Duolingo; for harder math, Art of Problem Solving; for more code, Codecademy; for a syllabus in other subjects, Kinnu. We make edgi, and we built it to be the most fun way to learn anything, math included.

Prices are from each app's US App Store listing or its own pricing page, checked September 30, 2026. Platforms are the ones we confirmed.

Why people leave Brilliant

All three reasons are on Brilliant's own pages.

The price moves. We loaded Brilliant's pricing page several times on September 30, 2026, and it showed the same Individual plan at $240, $270 or $360 a year, or $30, $45 or $60 month to month.

The subject list is math and code, with some science. Brilliant's sitemap lists 68 course pages, from pre-algebra to neural networks and quantum computing. Not one is on history, art or psychology, and biology shows up only in a set of science puzzles.

The order is fixed unless you pay. The free plan gives you two "keys" a day, each good for one lesson or practice set, and you must "work through courses sequentially." Premium is what lets you jump to "any lesson in any course."

Brilliant's own comparison pages are against Khan Academy, IXL, Art of Problem Solving and Prodigy Math. All four teach math. That covers the first reason. edgi covers all three.

Top pick: edgi, for every subject and no daily limit

About 3,600 of edgi's 44,000 Lessons are math or computer science. More than 13,000 are history and about 7,300 are biology. There's one on why red wine dries your mouth, and one on why a slot machine has picked your result before the first reel moves. A Lesson takes about 60 seconds and ends with a question or two that make you use the idea. Finish it, and the idea becomes a card on your Map, next to the ideas it connects to.

There's no daily limit and no course to follow. You lead, and the Map shows you where to go next, across 104,000 ideas joined by 296,000 connections. That's what makes edgi fun in a way a course can't be: the next Lesson is always the thing you just started wondering about, and you can have it right now.

Take a question like why old buildings look better built than new ones. Here's the Lesson that answers it, with some math inside. You decide where to armor a World War II bomber, drag a street from 1900 forward to today, then open five weeks of perfect stock tips from a stranger who knew nothing about stocks. He had told half his list the price would go up and half it would go down. It's one of edgi's interactive Lessons, so it runs a few minutes instead of one.

Survivorship Bias Survivorship bias occurs when we evaluate only surviving entities and overlook failures, leading to false conclusions and inflated success rates.

60-second Lesson

Survivorship Bias

A stranger's five stock tips all came true. He had mailed 32 people and kept writing only to the half he got right.

Play it here Read about survivorship bias

On edgi's Map, survivorship bias sits next to Bayes' theorem and sampling bias, so the next Lesson can be the statistics underneath the trick. It also sits next to confirmation bias, if you'd rather follow the people who fell for it. Either way, it's another card.

Too expensive: Khan Academy, or Duolingo

For math practice at no cost, Khan Academy is hard to argue with. A nonprofit runs it, and the math goes from arithmetic to differential equations and linear algebra, with exercises that give "instant feedback and step-by-step hints." Khanmigo, Khan Academy's tutor, is $4 a month or $44 a year for US learners and parents, and free for teachers. Brilliant sells "Brilliant Premium with Tutor" at $191.99 on the App Store.

Duolingo, the language app, has a Math course for elementary through high school, which it says "makes math feel like a game." It's free with ads, and Super Duolingo is $9.99 to $119.99 on the App Store. It's school math, so it fixes the price and not the subject list.

Other subjects with a syllabus: Kinnu

Kinnu is free too. Its 100 pathways run across seven categories from history to technology, with a built-in review feature called Memory Shield. It fixes Brilliant's subject list and keeps Brilliant's order: you pick a pathway, and Kinnu decides what comes next.

Too easy: Art of Problem Solving

Art of Problem Solving teaches math to grades 5 to 12. Its free practice system, Alcumus, is aimed at "high-performing math students." Its live online classes are not free: an introductory algebra class is $495 for 16 weekly 90-minute sessions.

You want to write code: Codecademy

If code was the part of Brilliant you liked, Codecademy is built around it, with courses from Python to SQL. Basic is free, and Plus is $14.99 a month billed yearly or $29.99 month to month. The courses are on the web; its phone app is for review and practice.

Pick something else only if…

• You want free math drills with hints: Khan Academy.
• You want math competition prep: Art of Problem Solving.
• You want to learn to write code: Codecademy.
• You need Android. edgi runs on iPhone and in the browser.

FAQ

What's the best free alternative to Brilliant? edgi. It's free, with 60-second Lessons on every subject, a card for every idea and no daily limit. If you specifically want free math practice, Khan Academy goes from arithmetic to linear algebra.

Is Brilliant free? Only in part. The free plan allows two lessons or practice sets a day, taken in course order, with occasional ads. Premium lifts the cap and lets you jump to any lesson.

How much does Brilliant cost? Brilliant's own pricing page gave us three answers on September 30, 2026: $240, $270 or $360 a year. Its App Store listing has Premium purchases from $19.99 to $191.99, the top one bundled with a tutor.

Is there an app like Brilliant for subjects besides math? edgi. It's interactive like Brilliant, free, and covers every subject in 60-second Lessons, from survivorship bias to cathedral buttresses. Kinnu's free pathways also cover subjects like psychology and history.

Is Khan Academy better than Brilliant? For math practice at no cost, yes. Khan Academy's videos and exercises are free; Khanmigo, its tutor, is $4 a month. Brilliant's interactive problems are the more polished lessons, and you pay for them.

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free, and Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, not money. An optional Pro subscription adds extras like offline access.

Does edgi teach math? Yes, the ideas. About 3,600 of its 44,000 Lessons are math or computer science, from the Monty Hall problem to survivorship bias, each one a minute or so and a card on your Map.