🎮 Learning games and sites · 🎨 Art, music and story makers · 💻 Coding
Scratch
By Scratch Foundation. Visit Scratch
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
The free block-coding language and online community where kids make games, animations and stories and share them with others around the world. Children snap colored blocks together to make characters move, talk and react, then publish projects that others can play, comment on and remix. Designed for ages 8 to 16. There is also an offline app. The community is moderated, and accounts need a parent's email.
Our take: The standard first real coding tool for kids 8-16; parents should review the community guidelines and the new AI-training language together with their child.
| Ages it suits | 8-16 |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Anyone under 18 may use the service only if a parent or guardian first agrees to the terms on their behalf. Sign-up asks for a parent or guardian's email. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free (Oct 2026); nonprofit. |
| Works on | Web, Chromebook |
| Account | The child's own account |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No AI in the coding tool; the privacy policy says the site uses AI tools to personalize features and recommendations. |
What's good
- Free, nonprofit, no ads
- Huge library of projects to learn from and remix
- Moderated community with clear guidelines
- Offline Scratch app available
Watch for
- Public sharing and comments with strangers
- Privacy policy now allows training AI tools on usage data
- Kids can see others' projects of mixed quality
- Needs a parent's okay to join
Data and privacy
Collects little at sign-up and does not sell or rent account information. Its March 2026 privacy policy says it uses personal information, such as location and activity, to train AI tools that personalize the site, and may share de-identified data with outside parties to train AI models for safety and new features. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
Many independent studies exist with mixed results: a 2025 systematic review found Scratch helps computational thinking, especially in math, while a Brazilian 9th-grade quasi-experiment found no significant difference from other methods.
In the Big Index
- On the list 12 weekend AI projects for families
- On the list 16 AI coding tools and AI-assisted coding for kids and teens
- On the list Top 50 free game sites for kids (2026)
- On the list 19 best coding games for kids
- On the list 19 best learning games for tweens (10-13)
- On the list 22 kinds of learning games, explained
- On the list 14 learning games for kids who say they hate learning games
- On the list Top 50 free learning sites for kids (2026)
- On the list 23 best free sites for kids to learn coding
- Scratch
- Scratch for parents and guardians
- The maker in the who's who: Scratch Foundation
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Where these facts come from
- https://scratch.mit.edu/parents/
- https://mitscratch.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/4000219182-scratch-terms-of-service
- https://mitscratch.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/4000219339-privacy-policy
- https://sol.sbc.org.br/index.php/wei/article/view/29653
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.