IXL vs Khan Academy for Math: Which Is Better for Your Child?

What you actually pay

Khan Academy runs on donations. “As a non-profit, we rely on your support to build a brighter future for millions of learners,” its about page says. It states the mission plainly too: “to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere”, available “in 190+ countries and in 55+ languages”.

The one paid piece is Khanmigo. Khan calls it “an AI-powered personal tutor from trusted education nonprofit Khan Academy” and prices it at “$4 a month or $44 for an annual plan”, with a parent subscription able to enable it “for up to 10 of your children”. Khanmigo also asks that you “be 18 years or older, live in the United States, and have a billing address in the U.S.” Khan's wording on everything else is flat: “The Khan Academy content library and learning platform will always remain 100% free.”

IXL charges by the month, and the price depends on how many subjects you want. Its family pricing page lists a single subject, either “Math (Pre-K to Calculus)” or “Language arts (Pre-K to 12)”, at $9.95 a month. A combo package with both of those is $15.95 a month, marked “Best value!” Core subjects, which adds “Science (K to Physics)” and “Social studies (K to 12)”, is $19.95 a month. There is a “30-day satisfaction guarantee” on the page too.

IXL describes what a membership opens as “Full access to IXL's 20,000+ K-12 skills in math, English, science, social studies, and Spanish”, and says “IXL's Diagnostic pinpoints your child's knowledge levels and reveals the skills they're ready to learn next”.

What I take from that is fairly simple. If you only want math, the choice is free against $9.95 a month. So whether it is worth paying has almost nothing to do with how much content each one holds, and almost everything to do with the next section.

How each one makes your child practice

IXL scores every skill with its SmartScore, and the score moves in both directions. IXL's own SmartScore guide says that from 0 to 70 “there will be large SmartScore increases for correct answers, and low penalties for incorrect answers”, and that “At 80, learners are considered proficient in a skill!”

Then it changes. At 90 a child enters what IXL calls the Challenge Zone, where “SmartScore increases for correct answers will be small (1-2 points), and penalties for incorrect answers will be larger (3-8 points)”, and where “Students will need to answer as many as 10 questions correctly in a row to achieve mastery.” IXL is open about why. It calls this the “productive struggle” and says the process “locks in learning”.

That design is the whole story of IXL in our house. A child who treats the number as a target will grind up to 100 and feel brilliant. A child who is already shaky about math sees a wrong answer cost more than a right one gives back, and reads that as the machine telling them they are bad at this. One product, two very different evenings, is how I would put it. If that is where you already are, I have written up the alternatives separately in IXL alternatives for kids.

Khan Academy levels skills instead of scoring them. Its help center lists the levels as “Not started”, “Attempted”, “Familiar”, “Proficient” and “Mastered”, says they change “When you complete activities such as exercises, quizzes, unit tests, and course challenges”, and notes that “Your skill level can move up or down based on your performance as you continue practicing.”

So Khan can go backwards as well. What I think differs is what your child sees when it does. A word changing from Proficient to Familiar lands much softer than a number dropping in front of them. Khan's own description of what a child can get tutoring on is “every exercise, video, and article on Khan Academy”. My view is that having something to go to other than another question matters most for a stuck child.

My honest read is that IXL is the better drill and Khan is the better teacher. If your child knows the method and needs reps, IXL's scoring gives those reps a shape. If your child does not understand the thing yet, more scored questions is the wrong medicine, and I would reach for a lesson first.

Which one fits your child's age

IXL's single subject covers “Math (Pre-K to Calculus)”. Khan's free platform covers “K-12 and early college”. The under-eights are where the two of them really separate.

For early years, Khan Academy Kids is my answer and I would not spend long deciding. Khan describes it as “a free app for early learners ages 2-8” that “covers foundational topics for preschool through second grade, and can be used by educators or parents”. My own view is that this is the right shape for a child who cannot read an instruction yet, and that a skill list is the wrong shape.

IXL does go that young in math. But working down a list of named skills, with a score attached, is a school-shaped task. In my experience that clicks a couple of years into school, and not reliably before.

Further up, I would say both are usable and the choice goes back to your child. Later on I also think the subscription starts to earn itself. Working out which exact sub-skill is missing is hard to do by eye, and pointing at it is what IXL says its Diagnostic is for.

Try this tonight, before you pay for anything

I keep pushing this because it answers the question better than any review does, including this one. The same thinking shaped how we built our own practice, which I will come to next, and I have written the longer version of it in turning tonight's homework into practice games.

Where our Power-Up Arcade fits

The way I end up using both of these is to go hunting in their lists for the right skill first, then practice it from there. That is the right design for a homeschool year. It is the wrong one for a Tuesday evening when you are holding a worksheet with red marks on it and you want practice on those exact questions.

So that is the job I wanted ours to do. Our family page explains it in one line: “Take a photo of a math worksheet or homework page (1 or 2 pages). We make up to 15 practice questions that test the same thing with different numbers. You check them before your child plays.” The games page then says “All the games share each player's practice, so questions come back when they're due in any of them”, so the reps land inside a game rather than down a list.

Ours is a much narrower thing than either of these, and I would rather say so than oversell it. By the games page's own description it is 17 games sharing 1260 questions, with a player picker that runs from 4 to 12. I would not expect it to teach a topic your child has never seen. The games page puts it like this: “Free: a sample of 87 questions, saved on this device only. The Family Plan unlocks all 1260 questions, new ones made up as your child plays, and progress on every device.” The signup page states the price as “7 days free, then $9.99 a month. Cancel before day 7 and pay nothing.” That is more than IXL's single subject.

The reason to choose it, in my view, is the worksheet photo. It is not a cheaper way to do what IXL does.

If a friend asked me, I would say use Khan for the teaching and pay IXL if your child chases a score. Use ours when the problem is one page.

The three at a glance

How to choose

Here is the order I would work through.

Is your child under about eight? Khan Academy Kids, free, ages 2 to 8. That is the one.

Does your child not understand the topic, or just need reps? Not understanding is a teaching problem, and Khan is where I would start for that. Needing reps is a drill problem, and that is where paying IXL starts to make sense to me.

How does your child react to a score going down? This is the one I would weigh heaviest. A child who shrugs and tries again will do well in the Challenge Zone. A child who takes it personally will not, and no feature on the page fixes that.

Is the problem a curriculum or a worksheet? A curriculum gap is Khan or IXL. A specific page your child got wrong this week is ours, and you can look at the games before you decide anything.

Frequently asked questions

Is Khan Academy better than IXL for math?

If a friend asked me, I would say yes. The main reason is that you find out for nothing, sitting beside your child, which is the only test I trust. IXL's cheapest way in is its single-subject math membership at $9.95 a month. That membership is where the Diagnostic and the SmartScore sit. The score is the gamble. In my experience some children chase it and some fold under it, and you cannot tell which yours is from a feature list.

Is Khan Academy really free?

The content library and the learning platform are. Khan Academy is a non-profit that relies on donations, and it says those two will always remain free. Khanmigo is the paid piece. Khan describes it as an AI-powered personal tutor, sells it monthly or yearly, and asks that the parent buying it be 18 or over with a US billing address.

How much does IXL cost for a family?

There are three memberships, and the right one depends on how many subjects you want. Math on its own is $9.95 a month. Math plus language arts is $15.95. All four core subjects, which adds science and social studies, is $19.95. The page also offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. Worth knowing if you suspect your child will not get on with it.

Why does my child get upset using IXL?

In our house it was the score rather than the math. Below 80 the SmartScore climbs quickly and a wrong answer barely dents it, and 80 counts as proficient. From 90 it flips. A right answer adds one or two points, a wrong one takes off three to eight, and your child may need as many as ten right in a row to reach mastery. IXL builds that on purpose and calls it productive struggle. For a confident child I think that is a challenge. For a child who already believes they are bad at math, it reads as proof.

Which one is better for a five-year-old?

Khan Academy Kids, and I would not spend long on the decision. It is free, built for ages 2 to 8, and covers preschool up to second grade. That is why I would hand it to a young child ahead of anything with a skill list in it. IXL does go down to Pre-K in math. But working through a named list of skills is a school-shaped job, and five feels early for that at your own kitchen table.

Can I use IXL and Khan Academy together?

You can. I would run them in order rather than side by side, using the free one to find the gap and the paid one to drill it. Khan's skill levels can move down as well as up, and IXL's SmartScore does the same. Running both at once hands your child two of those to worry about, and a worried child does not need a second scoreboard. For the practice routine I would build around either of them, see math practice games.