AI Tools for Teachers: The Best Apps by Teaching Task

The best AI tools for teachers are the ones built around a single teaching job. A lesson plan generator, a text-leveling tool, a quiz builder and a grading assistant solve different problems, and the apps for teachers that try to do everything usually do one of those jobs well and the rest passably.

Here's the short version:

• Lesson planning: MagicSchool, Brisk Teaching, or Eduaide.Ai.
• Differentiation and leveling: Diffit, or Brisk's reading-level tool.
• Quizzes and review games: Wayground (the platform formerly called Quizizz) or Kahoot!.
• Grading and feedback: Gradescope for paper exams and code, Brisk for comments on student writing.
• General AI assistants with education versions: Gemini for Education, Microsoft Copilot Chat, ChatGPT for Teachers, and Claude for Teachers.

Before any of these touch student work, check whether your school has approved them. The last section of this post covers why, with links to the official U.S. student privacy guidance.

Quick Comparison

The rest of this post goes job by job.

Lesson Planning: The AI Lesson Plan Generators

If you mostly want an AI teacher assistant to turn "Grade 7, photosynthesis, 45 minutes" into a usable plan, start here. These tools wrap a chat model in teacher-shaped forms, so you fill in a grade, a standard and a time slot instead of writing a prompt from scratch.

MagicSchool

MagicSchool bundles dozens of teacher-shaped AI tools in one web app. Its pricing page lists a free plan for individual teachers with 80+ teacher tools, the Raina chatbot, quizzes and class writing feedback. The paid Plus plan adds unlimited generations and output history, plus 50+ student-facing tools. The district Enterprise plan adds a custom data privacy agreement, single sign-on and admin controls.

Best for: teachers who want one place for lesson plans, rubrics, parent emails and quick worksheets.

Brisk Teaching

Brisk works as a browser extension inside the tools you already use, so you can generate a lesson plan or quiz from the Google Doc, slide deck or article that's already open. It also handles feedback and leveling, covered below. Brisk's plans page lists a free plan for teachers that includes the Chrome and Edge extension, generation in 50+ languages, and feedback tools. The school and district plans add admin dashboards, rostering and custom data privacy agreements.

Best for: teachers who live in Google Docs and Slides and don't want another tab.

Eduaide.Ai

Eduaide calls itself an AI workspace for teachers. Its homepage says you can create from over 110 classroom resource templates, then revise, align to standards and export. According to Eduaide's pricing page, the free plan allows up to 8 resources a month with limited input context. Pro removes the cap and adds document chat, YouTube transcripts as sources and a reasoning model.

Best for: building a varied set of materials (organizers, games, assessments) around one unit.

Differentiation and Leveling: Same Content, Different Readers

One class can hold readers three grade levels apart. This is the job where AI saves teachers the most hours, because rewriting a text at several levels by hand is slow.

Diffit

Diffit produces print-ready resources and lets you "scaffold, modify, extend, and adapt" them. When you set up a resource you can pick a language, a challenge level, an MTSS tier, scaffolds and standards. Its outputs include differentiated activities, station rotations, sub plans, intervention materials and slides.

Best for: turning one source text into versions for different readers and support tiers.

Brisk's reading-level tool

If you already use Brisk, it can adjust reading levels or translate content into 50+ languages without leaving your browser. It's the faster option when you just need one article at a lower level for tomorrow.

Quizzes and Review Games

Quiz tools were among the first classroom AI features, because generating questions from a reading is a task AI handles reliably. You still need to check every answer key.

Wayground (formerly Quizizz)

Quizizz has rebranded. Its old domain now redirects to Wayground, whose page title reads "Quizizz is now Wayground." The platform can generate a full activity from a topic, document, standard or upload, and it lists AI generators for question sets, lesson plans, rubrics and worksheets. Quizzes run as games or formal exams, with lockdown mode and tab-switching alerts, and the page cites 25+ built-in accommodations such as read-aloud and dyslexia-friendly fonts.

Best for: self-paced practice and formal assessments, not just live games.

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is built for live review games played on a shared screen. Its AI tools page describes a question generator that works from your existing slides or PDFs, and a generator that builds a whole kahoot from a PDF, a topic or a website URL. The FAQ says these AI tools sit on specific paid plans, including Kahoot!+ Gold for teachers, so check before you plan a lesson around them.

Best for: energy at the end of a unit.

Grading and Feedback

Grading is where teachers should be most careful with AI. Use these tools to speed up your judgment, not to replace it.

Gradescope

Gradescope, now under Turnitin, is built for administering and grading assessments, whether online or on paper. It handles scanned exams, bubble sheets and code assignments, and gives per-question and per-rubric analytics. Its standout feature is answer groups: similar answers are grouped so you apply a rubric item once per group. For some question types, Gradescope AI forms those groups for you. The page notes that answer groups and AI-assisted grading are part of its institutional license, so this is usually a school or university purchase.

Best for: high school and university courses with large stacks of exams.

Brisk feedback tools

For writing, Brisk lets you leave personalized comments on student work inside Google Docs and lists 5+ feedback methods, including "glow and grow" and next steps, plus batch feedback. Read every comment before a student sees it. AI feedback tends to be generic and occasionally wrong about what the student actually wrote.

General AI Assistants With Education Versions

The big AI companies now sell education versions of their assistants. The main difference from the consumer versions is usually data handling and admin control, not new features. If your school already runs Google or Microsoft, start with the one you have.

Gemini for Education

Google says Gemini for Education is included at no extra cost in all Google Workspace for Education editions. Google also says customer data isn't reviewed by humans or used to train AI models. Teacher uses it lists include lesson plans aligned to learning goals, adapting materials for individual students, and generating tests, quizzes and rubrics.

Microsoft Copilot Chat

Microsoft's AI in education page says Copilot Chat with enterprise data protection is available at no additional cost for all educators, staff and students aged 13+. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a separate paid add-on that education organizations buy for users aged 13 and older.

ChatGPT for Teachers

OpenAI offers ChatGPT for Teachers, a version of ChatGPT for verified U.S. K–12 educators and school staff. Eligibility, verification and terms are on OpenAI's own ChatGPT for Teachers page, so check there before you sign up, and confirm your district allows it.

If you're deciding between the general assistants for your own planning, our comparisons of Claude vs ChatGPT and Gemini vs ChatGPT cover how the models differ.

Claude for Teachers

Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers in July 2026 for verified U.S. K–12 educators. Educators who sign up by June 30, 2027 get a full year of access, and Anthropic says it never trains its models on Claude for Teachers conversations, with student information covered by a K–12 Data Processing Addendum. It connects to classroom tools including Brisk, Diffit and MagicSchool. A separate offering for schools and districts launched in August 2026 with centrally managed accounts and single sign-on.

For universities, Claude for Education is a campus-wide plan for students, faculty and staff. Its learning mode works more like a tutor: it asks questions that lead students toward the answer instead of handing it over.

Student Privacy, FERPA, COPPA and School Policy

This is the part most "best AI for teachers" lists skip, and it's the part that can cause real trouble.

Don't paste identifiable student information into a tool your school hasn't approved. Names, grades, IEP details and student writing with names attached are all education records or personal information under U.S. law.

Two laws matter most in the U.S.:

• FERPA protects student education records. The U.S. Department of Education runs studentprivacy.ed.gov, which includes its guidance on protecting student privacy while using online educational services and a model terms-of-service checklist for deciding whether to sign up for an app.
• COPPA covers online services that collect personal information from children under 13. The Federal Trade Commission enforces it and publishes guidance on how it applies to schools. Ask your district how it handles COPPA consent before any tool reaches students under 13.

What that means for you in practice:

1. Check your district's approved app list first. Many districts maintain one.
2. Prefer the version your school pays for. District plans from MagicSchool and Brisk, and the Google and Microsoft education versions, come with contracts or data protections that a personal account doesn't.
3. Strip names before pasting student work into any tool, approved or not.
4. Keep students on student-facing tools your school approved. Age limits apply: Microsoft, for example, sets 13+ for Copilot Chat.
5. Disclose AI-generated feedback if your school policy asks for it.

Outside the U.S., the rules differ (GDPR in the EU and UK, for example), but the same habit applies: check what your school approved before you upload anything.

Building Your Own Classroom AI Tools

Sometimes no app fits. You want a vocabulary drill built on your exact word list, or a feedback rubric that matches your department's marking scheme. Teachers who reach that point usually do one of three things: save a strong prompt and reuse it, build a custom assistant inside Gemini, ChatGPT or Claude, or build an actual app. If you're weighing the third option, our guide to building an education app covers what it really takes, including the compliance work.

There's a middle path too. If you've seen a teacher's AI workflow shared online and couldn't get it running, Taku is an AI-native desktop workspace that mirrors a working AI setup so you can run it, remix it for your class and keep it, without GitHub or environment setup. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now. It isn't a replacement for your school's approved tools, so the privacy rules above still apply.

Key Takeaways

• Pick by job. MagicSchool, Brisk and Eduaide for planning; Diffit for leveling; Wayground and Kahoot! for quizzes; Gradescope and Brisk for grading and feedback.
• Use the education version of a general assistant if your school already runs Google or Microsoft. Gemini for Education and Copilot Chat come with education data protections at no extra cost.
• Free plans exist but are capped. Check each vendor's pricing page before building a routine around one.
• Check the answer key and every comment. AI drafts; you decide.
• Privacy comes first. No identifiable student data in unapproved tools.

FAQ

What is the best AI tool for teachers?

There isn't one. For lesson planning and general teacher tasks, MagicSchool and Brisk are the most common picks. For differentiation, Diffit. For grading paper exams at scale, Gradescope. If your school runs Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, the built-in education assistant is often the best first step because your school has already approved it.

Are there free AI tools for teachers?

Yes. MagicSchool, Brisk and Eduaide all list free plans for individual teachers on their pricing pages, with limits. Google says Gemini for Education is included in all Workspace for Education editions, and Microsoft says Copilot Chat is available at no additional cost to educators. Free plans change, so confirm on the vendor's own pricing page.

What is the best AI lesson plan generator?

MagicSchool and Eduaide are built around lesson plans and classroom resources. Brisk generates plans from whatever document or page you have open. All three need you to check the plan against your standards and your students.

Is it safe for teachers to use ChatGPT?

For your own planning with no student data, generally yes, as long as your school allows it. For anything involving student information, use a tool your school has approved, ideally one covered by a data privacy agreement. The U.S. Department of Education's student privacy site is the official starting point for FERPA questions.

Can AI grade student work?

AI can speed up grading, but it shouldn't make final calls. Gradescope groups similar answers so you grade each group once, and Brisk drafts feedback comments. You review and decide the grade.

What happened to Quizizz?

Quizizz is now Wayground. The old domain redirects to wayground.com, and the site says so in its title.