Khan Academy for Learning at Home: A Parent's Guide

Khan Academy is a free, nonprofit learning site with courses for kindergarten through early college. A parent can set up an account in a few minutes, add a child, assign work, and watch progress from a Parent Dashboard.

What is Khan Academy and who runs it?

Khan Academy describes itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its stated mission is to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere.

The site lists more than 840 free courses for K-12 and early college. Subjects include math, science, English language arts, social studies, economics and computing, plus life skills and test prep. Content comes as articles, videos, exercises, quizzes and unit tests, and the help center says it is available in 50+ languages.

What does Khan Academy cost?

The core site is free. The help center says all content is completely free, and the About page calls it a free tool for students, teachers and parents. The paid extra is Khanmigo, covered below.

Is Khan Academy a complete curriculum or a school?

No. The help center states that neither Khan Academy nor Khan Academy Kids is an accredited school, and that work completed there does not count toward a formal diploma or degree. It describes the site as material that can complement a child's education, help them keep pace with peers and prepare for standardized tests.

That affects how a parent uses it. Rules about records, subjects and reporting come from the state, so check state requirements separately.

What is Khan Academy Kids?

Khan Academy Kids is a separate free app designed for kids ages two to eight. Its lessons cover early literacy, reading, writing, language and math. Khan Academy says the app is 100% free, with no ads and no subscriptions, and it is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

The help center recommends it for children under 7 or children working on foundational skills. It also links weekly planners for ages 2 to 8.

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How do parent and child accounts work?

A parent starts by making their own account, then opens the Parent Dashboard and chooses Add a child. If the Parent Dashboard option is missing, the help center says to confirm the Parent role is selected on the account settings page.

• Child under 13, no account yet: the parent creates the account by choosing a username and password. The child account does not need its own email address, and the parent becomes the child's permanent coach.
• Child 13 or older, no account yet: the parent sends an invitation to the teen's email address. The teen signs up and can then invite the parent from their Learner Home.
• Child already has an account: a teen with an email on file gets a parent invitation to accept from Learner Home. A child under 13 without an email logs in and invites the parent from Settings.

Under-13 accounts have extra privacy limits. According to the help center, they cannot add personal information to a profile, cannot join forum discussions, and do not receive email from Khan Academy; messages go to the parent. A child can also sign up alone and enter a parent's email, but the parent then has 7 days to approve the account.

Those restrictions turn off automatically at age 13 only if a date of birth was entered when the account was created. Otherwise, the parent contacts Khan Academy support.

How do mastery levels and course challenges work?

Each skill carries a level: Not started, Attempted, Familiar, Proficient or Mastered. Per the help center, finishing an exercise with fewer than 70% correct is Attempted, 70% to 99% is Familiar, and 100% is Proficient. Mastered comes from answering correctly on a later mixed-skill assessment.

The mastery percentage is the share of skills in a course or unit at Proficient or Mastered. For example, 5 of 20 skills equals 25%. Levels can also drop, so the percentage can fall as well as rise.

Course Challenges and unit tests can move skill levels up or down. The help center suggests a parent can assign a Course Challenge to gauge skills in a course where a child may need extra practice. Mastery Challenges are a separate spaced-review feature: 6 questions covering 3 skills, unlocked after a child has reached Familiar on at least 3 skills and Proficient on at least 1. The help article says they are, for now, only in Math courses.

One caution on screens: Khan Academy has a reimagined classroom experience that replaces course mastery percentages with Unit Missions. Per the help center, learners who use Khan Academy on their own may still see the classic version, but an account with the teacher role, including a combined Parent plus Teacher account, sees the reimagined version. The screens a parent sees can therefore differ from the descriptions above.

What is Khanmigo, and who can get it?

Khanmigo is Khan Academy's AI-powered tutor. For learners, its page says it helps by never giving the answer outright, and it also describes writing feedback and code feedback in JavaScript, HTML, Python and SQL. Khanmigo is optional; the free courses do not require it.

• Price: the help center lists a Learner plan and a Parent plan at $4 per month each, U.S. only. The Khanmigo learner page also shows $44 per year, with sales tax not included. Checked October 8, 2026.
• Age: a subscriber must be at least 18, or have a parent or guardian sign them up. Children under 18 use it through a parent's plan.
• Place: a billing address in one of the 50 states or Washington, D.C. is required.
• Limits: the Parent plan requires 10 or fewer children connected to the account, and a parent can turn Khanmigo on or off per child in Settings.

The Parent plan also adds parent-side features. Per the help center, a parent can view their children's Khanmigo conversations, receives moderation alerts for conversations flagged for safety concerns, and gets 20 Khanmigo tools on the Parent Dashboard, including a lesson plan tool and a quiz tool.

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How can a parent use Khan Academy as a spine or a supplement?

Khan Academy's help center says a parent can decide which content to use, how often, and how it fits the daily routine. Two patterns follow from that, and the choice is a matter of reasoning from how the tool works, not a hands-on verdict.

• As a spine: a parent who wants a ready sequence in math or another core subject can pick a course, assign units, quizzes and course challenges from the Parent Dashboard, and track progress in the Activity and Assignment Scores reports. Because Khan Academy is not accredited and does not give a diploma, records and other subjects stay the parent's job.
• As a supplement: a parent who already has a curriculum may prefer to use Khan Academy for practice, review of a weak area, or test prep (the About page lists test prep), and let children work independently on topics of interest.

1. Make a parent account Sign up on khanacademy.org and make sure the Parent role is selected.
2. Add each child Use Add a child on the Parent Dashboard. Under 13, create the account; 13 and older, send an invitation.
3. Pick a course and assign work Under Assignments, create a class for each child (one child per class, up to 10 children), then assign quizzes, unit tests, videos, articles or a course challenge.
4. Check progress Use the Activity Overview report, the Individual Student Report and Assignment Scores.

Parents cannot assign Unit or Course Mastery goals, so assignments are built from individual items.