🧑🏫 AI tutors and tutoring · 💬 Chatbots and assistants · 📝 Study and homework tools
ChatGPT
By OpenAI. Visit ChatGPT
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
ChatGPT is OpenAI's general chatbot. Teens use it for homework, writing, ideas and questions of every kind. Since August 2026, anyone who says they are 13 to 17, or whom OpenAI's age prediction guesses is under 18, is placed in ChatGPT for Teens, with stricter content rules, no ads, Study Mode, homework reminders and quizzes. Parents can link accounts to set quiet hours, turn off voice, memory and images, opt out of training, and get alerts in serious safety situations.
Our take: Most teens will meet it anyway, so link a parent account and turn on Study Mode; families wanting a tutor that never gives answers should look at a purpose-built one.
| Ages it suits | 13-17 in the teen experience; adults |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | 13 or older (or the minimum age in your country); under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's permission. Not for children under 13. (terms) |
| Price | Free, with paid extras. Free; Go $8, Plus $20, Pro from $100 a month (Oct 2026); free ChatGPT for Teachers for verified US K-12 teachers through June 2027 |
| Works on | Web, iPhone and iPad, Android, Windows, Mac |
| Account | The child's own account |
| Ads | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes |
| The AI in it | Large language models answer questions, write, make images and talk by voice; Study Mode switches to step-by-step questions and hints. |
What's good
- Teen mode is automatic for stated or predicted minors
- Parent linking with quiet hours and feature switches
- Study Mode can be set on by default
- Works for nearly any subject
Watch for
- Common Sense rates it unacceptable for under-18s
- Hands out full answers outside Study Mode
- Ads and model training on adult free plans
- Age prediction can be wrong both ways
Data and privacy
OpenAI may use chats to train its models unless you opt out, and shows personalized ads to Free and Go users; it says it will not show ads in the teen experience. It says it does not knowingly collect data from children under 13; age prediction looks at signals such as topics, times of use and account age. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
Common Sense Media (Oct 2026) rated ChatGPT an unacceptable risk for everyone under 18 after testing more than 4,000 prompts before and after the teen launch; parent alerts did not fire in its tests. A 2025 PNAS field study of nearly 1,000 high school math students found plain GPT-4 access lowered later scores, while a tutor version with guardrails avoided most of the harm. OpenAI cites only its own early evaluation of Study Mode.
In the Big Index
- On the list 12 AI tutors for kids, compared (with each one's age rules)
- On the list 16 AI math helpers: the ones that teach and the ones that just answer
- On the list 11 AI art tools that are safer for kids
- On the list 14 AI homework helpers for teens that build understanding
- On the list 11 "kid-safe" AI chatbots and assistants, and what kid-safe really means for each
- On the list 14 AI study tools for high schoolers (flashcards, NotebookLM, quizzes)
- The maker in the who's who: OpenAI
Alternatives to ChatGPT
Desk researchFree, with paid extrasNo ads
Claude
Anthropic · ages 18+ (adults)
A tool for parents and adult students, not for children; families wanting a teen chatbot need one whose terms allow teens.
Desk researchPaidNo ads
Curio plush (Grem, Grok, Gabbo)
Curio Interactive · ages about 3-12
One of the more careful AI plush toys on paper, but it is still an open chatbot for small children; suits parents who will read transcripts, while families who want no AI conversations should skip it.
Desk researchPaidNo ads
DIY.org (ChatDino, game builder)
DIY (AstroSafe family) · ages about 8-18 (the maker says 8 to 18)
Suits kids 8 and up who want to make and share games with a parent watching the portal; skip if you want kids learning to code by hand.
Desk researchPaidNo ads
Echo Dot Kids (with Alexa+)
Amazon · ages 3-12
Fine for bedtime stories and quick questions if parents check and delete recordings; skip it if a microphone in the bedroom bothers you.
Desk researchPaid
Explore with Alexa
Amazon · ages young kids with an Amazon Kids profile
Fits families already on Echo and Prime who want voice-only curiosity chats; families wary of AI chat or always-on microphones should skip it.
Desk researchFree, with paid extrasNo ads
Flint
Flint, Inc. · ages grades 3-12 (schools usually start in grade 3)
A reasonable choice for schools that want an AI tutor teachers can supervise closely; children under 13 can use it only through a school.
Where these facts come from
- https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/
- https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing/
- https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy/
- https://openai.com/index/introducing-parental-controls/
- https://openai.com/index/building-towards-age-prediction/
- https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12652064-age-prediction-in-chatgpt
- https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-study-mode/
- https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-teens/
- https://institute.commonsensemedia.org/risk-assessments/chatgpt-teens
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2422633122
- Reviews on G2: https://www.g2.com/products/chatgpt/reviews
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.