Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an American educational nonprofit organization founded in 2008 by Sal Khan. It provides free online learning resources for students and teachers all over the world.

The Khan Academy platform offers instructional videos, practice exercises, teaching tools, test preparation, and assessment tests. You can find lessons on many subjects, including mathematics, sciences, history, literature, economics, and computer science. The lessons are usually short videos with interactive practice activities to help you learn.

Khan Academy is supported by donations from generous people and organizations. Because of this support, all of its educational materials are available for free, so anyone with an internet connection can learn and grow.

History

The Khan Academy began in 2004 when Sal Khan started teaching math online to his cousin using Yahoo! Doodle Images. As more family members used these lessons, he began making videos and sharing them on YouTube so everyone could learn. He recorded these early videos on his computer using simple drawing tools like SmoothDraw and ArtRage, sometimes with a Wacom tablet.

Because many people liked these videos, including news coverage in USA Today, Khan officially started Khan Academy as a nonprofit group in 2008. He left his job to focus full time on helping students learn for free.

Khan Academy uses short videos with practice exercises to help students. In 2014, a school called Khan Lab School opened in Mountain View, California. In 2026, Khan Academy worked with Google to use AI for better learning tools that help teachers, not replace them. They also added Google’s Gemini AI to help students with reading.

Funding

Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported by donations from many helpful groups. In 2018, it had $31 million in money coming in, and in 2019, it had $28 million.

Big companies and people have helped too. In 2010, Google gave $2 million to make new courses and translate videos into different languages. In 2013, Carlos Slim helped create Spanish versions of the videos. In 2015, AT&T gave $2.25 million so people could watch the videos on phones and tablets using apps. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $1.5 million, and in 2021, Elon Musk gave $5 million through his Musk Foundation.

Content

Khan Academy provides educational videos on YouTube and a website with tools to help students learn. The website includes practice exercises, progress tracking, and teaching tools. Students can learn at their own pace and earn badges and points to show their progress. Teachers can use Khan Academy to support their lessons in a Flipped Classroom style.

The videos show drawings similar to a teacher’s lecture and cover many school subjects for all grades. Khan Academy also offers courses to help students prepare for tests like the SAT, AP Chemistry, and more. In 2017, Khan Academy became a practice partner for the College Board's Advanced Placement exams.

Khan Academy has a tool called Khanmigo, a chatbot that helps with math, science, humanities, and coding. It was introduced in March 2023 and uses advanced technology to support learning. There are also free tools for teachers and a special app for young children aged two to seven.

The videos are available in many languages, thanks to volunteers and international partners. Khan Academy works with groups to bring these lessons to areas without easy access to the internet. The platform is fully available in several languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Chinese, among others.

Criticism

Some people have said that Sal Khan, who started Khan Academy, doesn’t have formal training as a teacher. They also questioned if some of the videos about math and science were completely accurate. In reply, Khan Academy fixed mistakes in the videos, brought in more teachers, and worked with over 200 experts to check the content.

In a talk from January 2016, Khan said that the online videos are helpful but not enough for a full education. Khan Academy tries to support classroom learning by helping teachers spend less time on regular lectures and more time helping each student individually.

In February 2024, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal tested Khan Academy’s AI tool for math help and found that it sometimes made simple math mistakes.

Recognition

In 2012, Khan Academy received a Webby Award for being an excellent educational website or mobile app. Then, in 2016, it was given a Shorty Award for being the best in education.