AI tutoring lands between "free, because the school pays" and "£40 an hour for a human". The cheapest honest entry point is a free demo, and the cheapest paid one is not us. This is the cost breakdown for UK families, with the prices re-checked against each provider's own site on 12 August 2026.
Correction, 12 August 2026: an earlier version of this page treated our £14 Extra Time top-up as a month of unlimited practice and worked the per-session maths down to £0.23. It is 100 turns with a 30-day expiry, so those figures were wrong and are rebuilt below.
What it actually costs (aitutors.me example)
aitutors.me starts free: a live Socratic tutor in your browser for ten turns, no card and no sign-up. When a child runs out mid-evaluation, Extra Time is a £14 one-time top-up that adds 100 turns, expiring after 30 days. For coach-led tuition — a named human Coach plus that subject's professor — PRO is £360 per term, per subject, per child. Current tiers live at /pricing.
A "turn" is one exchange: your child says something, the tutor answers. A short working session is around ten of them. So the top-up is worth roughly ten sessions, and the honest table looks like this:
| What you buy | Price | What it gets you | Per session |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free demo | £0 | 10 turns — about one session | £0 |
| Extra Time | £14 | 100 turns within 30 days — about 10 sessions | ~£1.40 |
| PRO | £360/term | Unlimited tutoring in one subject for one child, plus a named human Coach | Falls with every session used |
The top-up has a floor: the eleventh session in a week does not get cheaper, it just is not there. That is the difference between a metered top-up and tuition, and it is why the top-up exists to finish an evaluation rather than to replace a tutor.
Cost vs UK alternatives
1. A human KS3 maths tutor
UK 2026 norms: £30–60/hour for 1:1 KS3 maths tutoring.
| Frequency | Per week | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 hour/week | £40 | £160 | £1,920 |
| 2 hours/week | £80 | £320 | £3,840 |
Verdict: AI tutoring is ~10× cheaper than weekly human tutoring.
2. After-school maths club / group tutoring
UK 2026 norms: £15–25/hour for small-group tutoring.
| Frequency | Per month |
|---|---|
| 1 hour/week | £80 |
| 2 hours/week | £160 |
Verdict: AI tutoring is ~5× cheaper than group tutoring, with 1:1 attention.
3. DIY (parent-led)
Cost: £0 + parent's time.
For maths-confident parents, this works for early KS3. By Year 9, most parents are out of their depth on the algebra. Time cost is also non-zero — a parent spending 30 minutes daily helping with maths is real labour.
Verdict: only "free" if you don't value your own time.
4. Exam-prep books + past papers
Cost: ~£50/year for books, £0 for past papers (free from exam boards).
Verdict: cheap, but no feedback loop. A child working through a past paper doesn't know what they got wrong until a parent or tutor marks it.
5. Free online resources (Khan Academy, BBC Bitesize)
Note: Khan Academy's free content library is available in the UK. Khanmigo, its AI tutor, is not — Khan Academy requires US residence and a US billing address (checked 12 August 2026).
Cost: £0.
Verdict: legitimate option. Khan Academy + BBC Bitesize cover most KS3 maths. The catch: no personalisation, no Socratic dialogue. Self-directed students benefit; struggling ones often drift.
The real comparison — value, not just price
Cost-per-session is one dimension. The others:
| AI tutoring (PRO) | Human £40/hr weekly | Free resources | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost / month | £90 (£360 per 4-month term) | £160 | £0 |
| Availability | 24/7 | Booked slots | 24/7 |
| Personalisation | Yes | Yes | No |
| Socratic dialogue | Yes | Yes | No |
| Motivation / accountability | Lower | Higher | None |
| Energy-awareness | Yes | Variable | No |
| Exam strategy depth | Improving | Strong | Variable |
| Risk of being "AI does homework" | Low (Socratic) | None | Variable |
When AI tutoring is worth it
- Your child does 3+ sessions per week (at that rate a term of PRO costs less per session than one human hour)
- You want a daily habit, not booking friction
- You can't afford weekly human tutoring (£160+/month)
- Your child responds to conversation-style help
- You want UK National Curriculum alignment
When AI tutoring is NOT worth it
- Your school already provides CENTURY or Sparx (use them first)
- Your child uses tutoring sporadically (<2 sessions/week)
- You want guaranteed exam-grade outcomes (no AI can promise this)
- Budget is genuinely zero (Khan Academy is the move)
The free demo: how to evaluate
The free live demo is the honest way to evaluate AI tutoring before you spend anything. During it, watch for:
- Engagement — does your child voluntarily return for another session?
- Stuck-resolution — does Pi help on a real homework question your child was stuck on?
- Tone fit — does your child like the personality?
- Speed — does it feel slow (you can speed it up by being more specific in questions)
If the demo and a first top-up aren't producing three or more self-initiated sessions a week, it isn't the right fit for this child yet — and there is nothing recurring to cancel.
The cumulative argument
Over a 3-year KS3 (Year 7–9):
- Weekly human tutor = £5,760 total
- Coach-led AI tuition (PRO, one subject, three terms/year) ≈ £3,240 total
- Hybrid (AI daily practice + occasional human check-in) = far less again
AI tuition does the daily lift at a fraction of weekly human cost; a human check-in adds exam strategy and motivation where it matters most. The hybrid model is most families' sweet spot.
A note on how to try it cheaply
The honest way in costs nothing: run the free demo first — ten turns, no card. If your child engages and wants to keep going, the £14 Extra Time top-up buys another 100 turns, about ten sessions, for less than one human tutoring hour. Only step up to coach-led PRO tuition once you have watched your child actually use it two or three times unprompted. Current tiers are always at /pricing.
And if budget is the binding constraint, the honest answer is not us: CENTURY sells home-learning plans direct to parents from £8.33 a month on an annual plan, covering English, maths and science.
FAQ
How much does AI tutoring cost in the UK?
Free if your school funds it (CENTURY, Sparx). Otherwise roughly £8–25 a month direct to parents — CENTURY's home plans start at £8.33 a month on an annual plan. aitutors.me is a free ten-turn demo, then a £14 Extra Time top-up (100 turns, 30 days), then coach-led PRO tuition at £360 per term, per subject. See /pricing.
Is AI tutoring cheaper than a human tutor?
Substantially. Coach-led PRO works out around £90 a month for one subject, against roughly £160 a month for a weekly one-hour human tutor — and the AI is there on the evenings the tutor is not. It does not fully replace a human for motivation and exam strategy.
What's the cheapest legitimate option?
School-funded (CENTURY, Sparx) is £0 if your school has it. The cheapest paid option available to a UK family is CENTURY's home-learning plan, from £8.33 a month on an annual plan. Khanmigo is cheaper at $4 a month but is US-only.
Related reading
Written by Duke Harewood at aitutors.me — and yes, I pay for a human tutor for my own daughter once a month. Updated 20 May 2026.