Free AI tools for teachers cover much of the prep around a lesson: planning, readings at several levels, quiz questions, parent flyers and classroom visuals. The three main free programs, ChatGPT for Teachers, Gemini for Education and Canva Education, come from OpenAI, Google and Canva, and each one needs teacher verification or a school account. Below, each teaching job gets the tool that fits it, wording or a prompt you can copy, and the thing to check before you start, followed by the AI tools for students and what to be careful about.
Free AI tools for teachers at a glance
As of September 2026, these AI tools for teachers cost nothing, or close to it:
| Tool | What's free | Who qualifies | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Unlimited messages, search, file uploads and image generation, free through June 2028 | US K-12 teachers and staff, verified through SheerID | Lesson plans, readings at several levels, quiz drafts |
| Gemini for Education | Included free in every Google Workspace for Education edition, or as a standalone app | Schools on Google Workspace for Education, or the standalone app through Google for Education Fundamentals | Planning, custom Gems, Audio Overviews of documents |
| Canva Education | Free for K-12 teachers, their students and qualified districts | Teachers verified with a school email or proof of employment, usually within a few days | Slides, worksheets and posters from templates |
| MagicSchool | A $0 plan with 80+ teacher tools; Plus costs $8.33 per user per month billed annually, or $12.99 monthly | Individual teachers | Quizzes, writing feedback, lesson tools |
| Khan Academy | Free teacher and student tools from a nonprofit | Teachers and students | Practice, planning and feedback in math, reading, writing and science |
| Toybox AI | Not free for images: 20 free credits once; Flyer Maker currently costs 80 credits, Image Generator 50, Handwriting to Text 10 | Anyone 13 or older, with a parent's permission under 18 | Flyers, posters, worksheet pictures and typed-up notes |
Lesson planning and readings at several levels
For planning, use the chat assistant your school has approved. ChatGPT for Teachers gives verified US K-12 educators a free workspace through June 2028, and OpenAI says it doesn't train its models on what teachers share there, by default. Gemini for Education comes with every edition of Google Workspace for Education, and Google says people don't review that data and it isn't used to train AI models.
The thing to check first is who decides. Your district may keep a list of approved tools, so check it before you paste in anything about students, and keep student names and photos out of prompts.
A request that gets two usable versions of one reading, written for a chat assistant:
"Rewrite this 400-word article on monarch butterfly migration at a third grade and a sixth grade reading level. Keep every fact the same, add three comprehension questions to each version, and list the words a student might need defined."
Check the facts in both versions against the original before you hand them out.
Parent night and open house flyers
A parent night flyer has to answer who, what, when and where at a glance, whether it hangs on a hallway wall or sits in a class newsletter. Put the event name, day and date, start and end time, the room and street address, who it's for, whether it's free, and how to RSVP.
Translation is the thing to check first for family events. Ask your district how it handles notices for families who read another language, since it may have a translator or a translation service. An AI translation is a draft for that person to review, not a job for a student. For bilingual layouts, see Spanish flyers.
Flyer Maker designs a finished flyer from your description. There's no language setting, but you can type the flyer text in Spanish; check every accent (á, é, ñ, ¿, ¡) before you print. A description with every detail looks like this:
Family Math Night at Quillbrook Elementary. Thursday, October 22, 6:00 to 7:30 PM, in the school cafeteria, 410 Linden Avenue. For K-5 students and their families. Free, with pizza and a math game station for every grade. Every child takes home a deck of math cards. RSVP by October 16 at mathnight@example.com. Bright, friendly colors with illustrated dice, rulers and number blocks.For back-to-school nights and fall open houses, see back to school flyer ideas.
Classroom posters and anchor charts
A classroom poster gets read from the back row, so keep it to one title, five or fewer short lines, and one small picture per line. In Flyer Maker, the Tall (3:4) size matches the shape of an 18 x 24 inch poster, and for printing, choose 2K or 4K. At 4K, Tall is 2480 x 3312 pixels: about 138 pixels per inch on an 18 x 24 inch poster, and about 290 on a letter-size sheet, so the smaller print looks sharper up close. For more poster layouts, including event and business posters, see the AI poster maker guide.
If a poster or flyer image also goes on the school website, give it a short text description, often called alt text, for people who use screen readers. Schools often have accessibility rules for their websites, so ask your web team what its checklist asks for. Post the flyer's text as plain text next to the image, so the date and room can be read aloud and copied.
Classroom poster titled "Our Reading Rules" for Room 12. Five rules, each with a small cheerful illustration: "1. Pick a just-right book." "2. Read the whole time." "3. Stay in your reading spot." "4. Use a bookmark." "5. Share one thing you learned." Bottom line: "Need a new book? Pick one from the Room 12 class library." Tall poster, bright primary colors, large rounded letters readable from across the room, no other text.Worksheet and slide pictures
For a picture on a worksheet or slide, an image generator draws it from a description. Ask for the picture with no words in it, then add your own labels in your slide or worksheet editor, where you can spell them right and change them later. A description for a science slide: "A simple illustration of the water cycle over a lake and mountains: the sun, clouds, rain, a river running back into the lake, and curved arrows showing the loop. Flat colors, white background, no words, wide 16:9 shape." Check every arrow and label against your textbook before class.
Toybox's Image Generator draws one picture for 50 credits currently. Landscape (4:3) and Wide (16:9) fit slides, and Square (1:1) fits a worksheet corner. It can take up to 3 reference photos, but don't upload pictures of students.
If you sell worksheets, read the marketplace's rules for AI pictures before you list them. Write the questions, answer key and layout yourself, and treat the AI picture as one piece of a page that is mostly your own work.
Typing up handwritten notes
To turn a page of handwriting into text you can edit, photograph it and run it through a handwriting reader. Lay the page flat, use daylight or a bright lamp, and fit the whole page in the frame with no shadow from your phone.
Privacy decides what you photograph. Student work carries names, grades and sometimes notes about a child, so use a handwriting tool for your own planning notes, meeting notes or a whiteboard brainstorm, and cover names before you photograph student work, unless your district has approved the tool.
In Toybox, Handwriting to Text reads one photo per run for 10 credits currently. Under "Format", "Plain text" gives paragraphs, "Bullets" a list and "Structured" headings. The tool skips any printed text in the photo and marks words it can't read, so compare names, numbers and dates with the original. The 20 free credits new accounts get once cover two pages.
Tutoring flyers and student project posters
Two more flyers turn up at school: a tutoring notice and a student's own project poster. A tutoring flyer needs the subject, grades, days, times, room and how to sign up, such as "After-School Reading Help. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:15 to 4:15 PM, Library Room B. Grades 2 to 4. Free. Sign up at the front office." For more headlines and layouts, see tutoring flyer ideas.
Students making their own posters need an age check first. OpenAI requires ChatGPT users to be 13 or older, with a parent's permission under 18, and Toybox's Terms set the same 13-and-over minimum with parent or guardian permission for under-18s. For younger students, run the tool yourself and let them write the words. For project poster ideas, see flyer ideas for a school project.
Free AI tools for students
Free AI tools for students depend more on age than on price. ChatGPT and Gemini's image tools start at 13 on personal accounts, and school accounts can have different rules set by the district.
Best AI tools for students by age
- Under 13. Use tools the teacher controls. Canva Education is free for K-12 students their teacher invites. Khan Academy's student tools are free.
- 13 to 17. ChatGPT allows teens with a parent's permission. Gemini lets personal accounts generate images from 13 but edit them only from 18, and school accounts may have other limits.
- College students, 18 and older. US college students who qualify can get Google AI Pro at no charge for a year if they sign up by December 31, 2026. Google requires a payment method and bills $19.99 a month afterward unless the plan is canceled.
For a class quiz or a simple calculator students can use in a browser, building a one-screen app with AI covers the options.
What to be careful about
- Student data. Check your district's approved-tools list, and keep student names, photos and grades out of prompts for any tool that isn't on it.
- Photos of students. Get your school's photo permission before any student appears in an AI edit, and never upload a student's face to a tool your district hasn't approved. Toybox's Terms prohibit generating images of real people without their explicit consent.
- Accessibility. Give every image on the school website a text description, and post the flyer's words as plain text too.
- Translations. A translation for families should be checked by your district's translator, not a student.
- Accuracy. Proofread every date, name and fact on AI output before it goes home in a backpack.
Make a parent night flyer in Flyer Maker
- Sign in with a free account, then open Flyer Maker.
- In "Describe your flyer", write the event name, day and date, time, room and street address, who it's for, "Free" if it is, and how to RSVP.
- Under Size, choose Tall ("Printing") for the hallway, or Portrait ("Instagram post") for a class newsletter or social page.
- Open More options and pick Quality 2K or 4K for printing, Flyer type "Education", and put the school office number in Contact info.
- For an online sign-up form, switch on "Leave a blank square for your QR code" and paste your real QR code into that space afterward.
- Tap "Create flyer". It's usually ready in about 30 seconds.
- Proofread every date, time, room number and phone number. Type a fix into "Want to change something?" under the flyer (currently 60 credits, 70 for 2K, 90 for 4K), or edit the description and create it again.
A flyer currently costs 80 credits (90 for 2K, 100 for 4K), about 80 cents at top-up prices, so the 20 free credits new accounts get won't cover one. Top-ups start at $4.99 for 500 credits with no subscription.