Why We Priced AI for Every School, Not Just the Funded Ones

It is Sunday night and two teachers are marking the same kind of essays. One opens her LMS, and an AI drafts per-criterion feedback against her rubric for her to check and approve. The other has seen the same tool in a demo. It ended with “contact sales for a quote”, the quote went to a committee, and the committee is waiting for next year's budget. She marks by hand until midnight.

Their students notice the difference too. One class gets an AI tutor at 11pm that explains the step they are stuck on, grounded in their own course. The other class gets a closed tab and a question for Monday.

Two teachers, one Sunday night

Nothing about those two teachers explains the gap. They are equally skilled, equally busy and equally keen to try something that gives them their evenings back. The only difference is what their institution could sign this year.

The gap is a budget, not a skill

Most AI for education is sold the way enterprise software is sold: a sales call, a tiered quote, a procurement cycle, and a price that assumes a large budget on the other side of the table. That works for the institutions that have one. Everyone else waits — and the tools that could save their teachers the most time reach them last.

What we changed

Great teaching tools should be priced like a notebook, not a procurement project. So EduGears AI now has one plan, the Educator Seat: $1.67 per educator per month, billed annually ($19.99 per educator per year).

• Learners are always free. You pay for the people who build and mark, never for the size of your intake.
• One seat is enough to start. A single teacher, a department or a whole institution buys exactly the seats it needs, and adds more whenever it is ready.
• No sales call needed. Start on the free plan, try every tool with real courses, and subscribe from the admin portal when you are ready. Enterprise invoicing is still there for institutions that need it.

What it isn't

A low price is not a cut-down product. Every seat gets all 30 AI tools — course building, question generation, AI grading you approve, the AI Tutor, Cog and its data agent, images and video — inside Moodle, Canvas or any LTI 1.3 LMS.

It is not “free AI” either. AI costs real money to run, and pretending otherwise ends in a hidden cap. Each seat comes with AI credits to start; after that, AI runs on credit packs at about a cent per credit, shown on a meter you can always see — or on your own AI account. What AI actually costs a school walks through the numbers.

Your AI, your key

Plenty of institutions already pay an AI provider, under an agreement they negotiated and trust. They should not have to pay for AI twice. Bring your own key on any plan, the free plan included, and every AI tool runs on your provider account — your AI, your key, your data agreement. More in Your AI, Your Key.

Where to start

Add EduGears AI to your LMS in about three minutes, use the free plan to try every tool with your own courses, and pick your number of seats when you are ready. If you are the teacher still marking by hand on Sunday night, forward this to whoever signs for your department.

FAQ