Photomathvs
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Photomath
Camera based maths solver that shows step by step working, owned by Google since 2022
As of 1 September 2026, Photomath is free to use. App that scans a handwritten or printed maths problem with the phone camera and returns a worked solution with steps, from arithmetic through calculus. Softwr lists it under Education. Photomath is made by Google, available on iOS, Android.
Overview
What Photomath does
Photomath uses the phone camera to recognise a maths problem, typed or handwritten, and returns a step by step solution rather than just the answer, covering basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. It also accepts typed input through a built-in calculator interface for problems that do not photograph well. The commercial fact that matters is ownership and the free-to-paid boundary. Google acquired Photomath in 2022, folding a previously independent maths tool into a company whose core business is advertising and data, which is relevant for parents and schools evaluating what happens to usage data long term. On pricing, basic step by step solutions for most problem types are free and unlimited; Photomath Plus, a subscription commonly priced around $9.99 a month or roughly $59.99 a year, unlocks deeper explanatory detail, animated tutorials, and word problem support, and textbook-specific solutions for certain publishers. Buyers are students from middle school through early university and parents helping with homework. The trade-off schools and parents weigh is pedagogical: showing full worked steps for free makes it easy for a student to copy an answer without understanding it, and Photomath itself frames the product as a study aid rather than a plagiarism tool, but the distinction depends entirely on how a student actually uses it.
What people use it for
- A student checking their own worked answer against the app steps to find where a method went wrong
- A parent who cannot help with unfamiliar high school maths and needs a worked explanation rather than just an answer
- A student working through word problems in a subject not covered by the free tier who needs the Plus subscription
- A school evaluating whether to recommend or restrict the app given the ease of copying a full worked solution
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Photomath.
- Full free step by step solutions make it straightforward for a student to submit copied working without doing the reasoning themselves, which is a real concern for teachers assigning homework.
- Word problems, a common school assessment format, are gated behind the Plus subscription, so the free tier is weaker on exactly the problem type many students struggle with most.
- Camera recognition of messy handwriting or complex notation such as matrices or multi-line proofs is unreliable, and misreads produce confidently wrong steps.
- Since the 2022 Google acquisition, the product sits inside a company whose primary business is advertising and data, which is a relevant factor for schools with strict student data policies.
- It solves problems rather than teaching underlying concepts from scratch, so a student with no foundational understanding gets a worked answer but not necessarily comprehension.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Photomath
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- PhotomathvsElevate
Elevate: If you want broader cognitive skills practice rather than maths-specific homework help
Pricing
What Photomath costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Photomath Plus
$9.99 /mo
- Step by step solutions for most problem types free and unlimited on the base app
- Plus unlocks word problems, animated explanations and deeper steps
- Plus available at roughly $59.99 billed annually as a cheaper alternative to monthly
- Textbook-specific solutions for supported publishers, Plus only
Capabilities
Features
Camera scanning
Point the camera at a printed or handwritten problem to get instant recognition
Step by step solutions
Worked solutions showing method, not just the final answer, for most problem types
Built-in calculator
Typed input for problems that do not scan well from a photo
Word problem support
Plus subscription unlocks solving for worded, not just symbolic, problems
Animated explanations
Plus subscription adds richer visual walkthroughs of methods
Textbook alignment
Solutions matched to specific textbook publishers for some curricula, Plus only
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Photomath free?
Basic step by step solutions for most maths problem types are free and unlimited. Word problems, animated explanations and some textbook-specific solutions require Photomath Plus.
Who owns Photomath now?
Google acquired Photomath in 2022. It operates as a standalone app but is owned by Google.
Does it just give the answer or show working?
It shows step by step working for the method used, not only the final answer, on both free and Plus tiers, with Plus adding more detail.
Keep looking
Where to go from Photomath
- Photomath alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Photomath pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Photomath badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Education softwareThe full category
- Best Education softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Photomath, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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