Mathway: Scan & Solve Problems

Review by eFreeware

Math homework has a way of stalling at the same point every time: you know the method, but the working goes sideways somewhere in the middle and there is nobody free to walk you through it. That gap between a wrong answer and understanding why it is wrong is what most solver apps try to close.

Mathway: Scan & Solve Problems is one of the better-known attempts, published by Chegg, Inc. and free to download on Google Play. It has been on the store since early 2012 and now sits past 50 million installs with a 4.1 average across more than 414,000 ratings, which tells you it has settled into a long run as a default choice for students who want an answer checked quickly.

Snap a problem or type it in

The core of the app is simple to describe. You point your camera at a printed or handwritten problem and take a photo, or you type the question in yourself, and the app returns a solution. The developer frames it as a math calculator for algebra, graphing, calculus and beyond, and the answers come with the steps laid out rather than as a bare result.

That last part is the reason to consider it. A number on its own only tells you whether you were right; a sequence of steps shows where your own working diverged, which is the part that actually transfers to the next problem. The developer describes access to solutions as unlimited, so the model here is not a fixed number of free solves.

It is pitched as a calculator for the hardest homework problems, and the range it lists — algebra, graphing, calculus — suggests it is meant to follow a student across several years of coursework rather than serve one topic. Typing remains the fallback when a photo does not capture what you need, which matters for problems with awkward notation.

Where the free download sits

The app carries advertising and offers in-app purchases, which is not unusual for a study tool with this many users.

Because of that, I would treat Mathway as one part of a study routine rather than the routine itself. Using it to confirm an answer after you have attempted the problem keeps the value in the steps; leaning on it before you have tried turns a learning tool into an answer key, and the working becomes something you skim instead of something you follow.

The app is rated for Everyone and sits in the Education category, which fits a tool built around coursework rather than a game or a general reference. It was last updated in September 2026, so it is a current app rather than an abandoned one.

Best suited to students working through problem sets

The people this fits are students who already have a problem in front of them and need to see the path through it: high school and college learners working through algebra, graphing or calculus assignments, and parents or tutors who want a second reference while checking someone else's work. The photo option makes it convenient when a problem is printed in a textbook and retyping it would be tedious.

It also suits anyone who learns by comparing methods. Seeing a worked solution next to your own attempt is a different exercise from reading a textbook chapter, and for some people it is the one that makes a technique stick.

What it is built for is solving problems you bring to it, so it rewards users who arrive with a question rather than a topic to be taught from scratch. If you need a course, a lecture or a structured curriculum, this is not the shape of the thing.

A quick check for homework, with ads attached

Mathway does one job and has done it for a long time: take a problem, by photo or by typing, and hand back a worked solution across algebra, graphing and calculus. The install count and the 4.1 average suggest that job is done well enough to keep people coming back, and the step-by-step output is the part worth paying attention to.

It is free with advertising and in-app purchases, and it is a solver rather than a teaching course. That is worth knowing before you install.

I would suggest it to students who want their homework answers checked with the working shown, and to tutors and parents who want a fast second opinion on a problem. Arrive with an attempt of your own and the steps will do more for you than the final answer ever could.