Khan Academy Kids

Review by eFreeware

Khan Academy Kids is built for families with children between the ages of 2 and 8, and for the teachers who work with that age group. It covers preschool through roughly second grade, so a household with a four-year-old and a seven-year-old can use the same app for both, with material that shifts as each child moves up. The pitch is straightforward: reading, phonics and math practice wrapped in games, books and videos, with no advertising and no subscription attached.

What makes it worth a closer look is the combination of scope and restraint. There are more than 5,000 activities in the catalog, and the developer says the content is aligned with Head Start and Common Core Standards. That is a lot of ground for a free app, and it is the main reason Khan Academy Kids keeps coming up when parents ask what to put on a tablet for a young child.

I would think of it as a structured supplement rather than a replacement for school or a full curriculum at home. It gives a child something to do that has a learning goal behind it, and it gives an adult a way to hand over a device without wondering what will appear on screen next.

Reading, phonics and the characters who carry them

The reading side of the app is organized around characters, which is a sensible way to give young children something to hold onto. Ollo the Elephant handles phonics and letter sounds, so the early work is about connecting letters to the sounds they make. Reya the Red Panda takes storytime and writing, which moves a child from recognizing sounds toward putting words together and telling a story.

That progression is what I would expect to matter most for a child in the 4-to-6 range. Letter sounds come first, then blending, then sight words and early writing, and the app spreads those across preschool, kindergarten and the early elementary years rather than bundling them into one level. For a parent watching a child move from naming letters to reading a short sentence, the sequence is the point.

The library of books adds a second layer. There are hundreds of titles and videos, including non-fiction books from National Geographic and Bellwether Media on subjects like animals, dinosaurs and science. A "Read To Me" option reads storybooks aloud in English or Spanish, which is useful when a child wants to revisit a book alone or when a household is working in more than one language.

Numbers, counting and the puzzle side

Peck the Hummingbird covers numbers and counting, and the math work extends into addition and shapes. Sandy the Dingo handles puzzles, memory and problem-solving, which is the part of the app that looks least like schoolwork and most like play. For a five-year-old who resists anything labeled as practice, that division is probably the difference between using the app and ignoring it.

The math content spans counting in the preschool years, then early arithmetic and shapes, then reading comprehension and problem-solving as a child reaches first and second grade. It is the same arc you would see in a classroom, delivered in short activities rather than worksheets. A child can move through a handful of them in ten minutes, which fits the attention span of the age group.

The videos from Super Simple Songs sit alongside the games, mostly as movement and music rather than instruction. I would treat them as the lighter end of the catalog, useful for a younger sibling or a moment when a child needs to reset, with the games and books doing the heavier work.

Teacher Tools, offline downloads and the Halloween theme

The app is not only for home. Teachers can assign work, follow student progress and group children for lessons using Teacher Tools. That turns it into something a classroom can use deliberately rather than as a reward at the end of the day, and it gives a teacher a record of what students have done.

Offline use is handled by downloading books and games in advance, so a child can keep working without a connection. That matters for car trips, waiting rooms and anywhere the wifi is unreliable. It also means a parent can set up a device before leaving the house rather than hoping a signal holds.

The most recent update is a Halloween theme, with seasonal artwork on the home screen, themed books, videos and songs about owls, pumpkins and spiders, and Halloween-flavored lessons across Letters, Reading, Math, Logic+ and Create. If a family does not mark the holiday, the theme can be switched off in the Parent or Teacher Settings, which is a considerate touch rather than an all-or-nothing seasonal takeover.

What it costs, and what it does not ask of you

Khan Academy Kids is free, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases. The developer is a nonprofit, and the app's own summary puts it plainly: no ads, no subscriptions, ever. For a category where free versions often come with pop-ups or a locked set of lessons, that combination is unusual enough to be the headline.

It also means there is no upsell to weigh and no question about whether paying unlocks the better material. The whole catalog is the catalog. A parent can hand over the device without a purchase prompt appearing, and a teacher can plan a lesson without checking whether the school has a license.

The trade-off is that the app stays within its lane. It is a free early learning product for ages 2 to 8, and the content is built around that range. Anyone looking for material beyond the early elementary years will find the app stops where it says it stops.

How it compares with the alternatives

Most of what sits next to Khan Academy Kids in the education category is built around a different model. There are two versions: a paid early learning subscription and a free app with no ads. This one is neither, which is the clearest difference.

There are also single-subject apps, focused on phonics alone or on math alone, and those can go deeper in one area than a broad app does. Khan Academy Kids spreads its effort across reading, math, puzzles, books and videos instead. For a family that wants one app covering the early years, that breadth is an advantage; for a child who has already moved past the basics in one subject, a dedicated tool may go further.

The other comparison is with general video and game apps aimed at children. Those are built to hold attention, and this one is built to teach while holding attention. The developer's claim is that it makes screen time more meaningful, and the structure of the catalog is what backs that up.

What the track record suggests

The app has been available since July 2018 and was updated in September 2026, so it has had years of development behind it and is still receiving content. It holds a 4.6 average from more than 57,000 ratings, with over 10 million installs. Those numbers do not tell you whether your child will take to it, but they do suggest the app has been used widely and by enough people to keep the rating steady.

The developer also points to outside recognition, including a Top Rated Educational App listing from Common Sense Media, an Editor's Choice from Children's Technology Review, a Parents' Choice Gold Award, and an Editor's Choice from the Apple App Store. The app was created with the Stanford Graduate School of Education, which is the kind of detail a parent checking a children's app will want to see.

I would not read any of that as a guarantee of learning outcomes. What it does suggest is that the app has been reviewed by people who look closely at children's media and that it has held up over a long run rather than arriving and fading.

A free starting point for the early years

Khan Academy Kids is worth installing if you have a child between 2 and 8 and you want a learning app that does not ask for money or interrupt with advertising. The breadth is real: letters and phonics, counting and early math, puzzles, storybooks, read-aloud books in English and Spanish, and videos, with Teacher Tools for classroom use and downloads for offline sessions. The Halloween update shows the app is still being added to rather than left as it was.

The families who will get the most from it are those who want one app to cover several years and several subjects, and who value being able to hand over a device without a purchase prompt. Homeschooling households and preschool or early elementary teachers fit the same description. If you need material beyond the early elementary years, or you want a single subject covered in real depth, this app is not built for that.

For everyone else, the combination of a free price, no ads, no in-app purchases and a catalog of more than 5,000 activities makes this an easy app to try. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to unlock, so the only cost is the time it takes to see whether your child takes to Kodi and friends.

What's new in version 9.0.2

Our Halloween update has arrived! Celebrate the season with spook-tacular festive artwork and activities for kids to enjoy. 🎃 A Halloween-themed home screen featuring Kodi and friends in costume 📚 Themed books, videos, and songs about owls, pumpkins, spiders, and more 👻 Halloween-inspired lessons in Letters, Reading, Math, Logic+, and Create Don’t celebrate Halloween? You can disable the theme in the Parent or Teacher Settings.