Three AI companies now want to be your teaching assistant — for free. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google each launched an education tier aimed squarely at K-12 teachers, and the newest one arrived just weeks ago.
The marketing pages all promise the same thing: save time, plan faster, breathe again. The fine print doesn’t say the same thing at all. That’s what this comparison is about.
I read the official documentation, pricing terms, and data policies for all three offerings so you can pick one based on what’s actually written — not on what a headline implied. Every claim below links to a primary source.
ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini: The Quick Answer
If you just need the bottom line: all three are genuinely free for verified U.S. K-12 teachers right now, and none of them trains AI models on your data by default. The real differences are in eligibility windows, what’s bundled in, and how each handles student data.
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Claude for Teachers | Gemini for Education | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who qualifies | Verified U.S. K-12 educators | Verified U.S. K-12 educators | Schools on Google Workspace for Education |
| Free until | June 2027 | Sign up by June 30, 2027 for a full year | Free in Fundamentals edition (no announced end date) |
| Trains on your data? | Not by default | No | No, and not human-reviewed |
| Student data stance | Built to help schools meet FERPA requirements | K-12 Data Processing Addendum written to comply with FERPA | Supports COPPA and FERPA compliance; under-18 guardrails |
| Standout feature | Unlimited GPT-5.1 messages, custom GPTs, shared projects | Standards-aligned planning, scheduled tasks, AI Fluency course | Gems, NotebookLM-style Audio Overviews, deep Workspace integration |
| Best fit | Teachers who want one powerful general assistant | Teachers who want structured workflows and training included | Schools already living in Google Classroom and Drive |
Now the details that the table can’t hold — including the catches.
What Does ChatGPT for Teachers Actually Include?
OpenAI’s offer is the most straightforward of the three: a dedicated workspace, free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2027, with verification handled by a third-party service (SheerID) rather than your school.
Inside the workspace you get unlimited messages on the current flagship model, file uploads, web search, image generation, and integrations with Canva, Google Drive, and Microsoft 365. Two features matter more than the spec list suggests. Custom GPTs let you build reusable templates — a rubric generator tuned to your grading style, for example — and share them with colleagues. Shared projects let a grade-level team co-plan in one place instead of forwarding chat screenshots.
On privacy, OpenAI’s language is clear but worth reading precisely: anything you share “is not used to train our models by default,” and the workspace is “built to protect student data and help schools meet FERPA requirements.” Helping your school meet FERPA is not the same as making your individual use of it compliant — more on that below.
The catch: “through June 2027” is an expiration date, not a promise. OpenAI says it may adjust pricing afterward with advance notice. Plan for the possibility that this becomes a paid tool in your budget cycle after next.
What Does Claude for Teachers Actually Include?
Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers in July 2026, making it the newest of the three — and the most opinionated about how teachers should work.
Instead of a blank chat box, the offering is built around specific teacher workflows: lesson planning connected to state academic standards, differentiation across learner readiness levels, and class data analysis for planning instruction. It can also schedule recurring tasks — a daily review of exit tickets, for instance — which is the closest any of these tools comes to working while you’re not at the keyboard. Verified U.S. K-12 educators who sign up by June 30, 2027 get a full year of access free.
Two inclusions are easy to miss. First, an AI Fluency training course ships with it — model-agnostic and Creative Commons-licensed, which means you can use it for professional development even if your district ends up choosing a different tool. Second, it connects with nine established K-12 tools, including Brisk Teaching, ASSISTments, and Canva Education, rather than trying to replace them.
On data, Anthropic’s terms state that Claude for Teachers data “is not used for model training purposes,” and student information is covered by a K-12 Data Processing Addendum written to comply with FERPA. One honest caveat from their own documentation: whether and how educational data may be used is still determined by your district and state policies. The tool can’t grant you permission your district hasn’t given.
The catch: it’s currently an individual-educator product. A school and district offering is “coming soon,” so if you need admin controls today, this isn’t the one.
What Does Gemini for Education Actually Include?
Google’s play is different: Gemini isn’t a separate teacher app so much as a layer across the Google tools your school probably already uses. If your district runs Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals — which is free — Gemini for Education comes with it at no cost.
The feature set overlaps heavily with the other two: lesson plans aligned to standards, re-leveled texts, quiz and rubric generation. What’s distinct is the ecosystem. Gems are customizable versions of Gemini you can turn into a subject-matter expert for a unit. Audio Overviews convert documents into podcast-style audio — genuinely useful for differentiation. And because it lives inside Workspace, output lands directly in Docs, Slides, and Classroom instead of being pasted across tabs.
Google’s privacy language is the strongest on paper: your data “is not human-reviewed or used to train AI models,” Gemini carries the same enterprise-grade protection as Gmail and Docs, and the platform supports compliance with COPPA and FERPA. Students under 18 get a restricted experience with extra guardrails, and administrators can switch Gemini on or off per user.
The catch: you don’t control it — your district does. If your Workspace admin hasn’t enabled Gemini, none of this exists for you. And the more powerful AI Pro tier runs $15-24 per user per month, which is a district purchase, not a teacher one.
The Privacy Fine Print, Compared Honestly
Here’s the part most comparisons skip, and it’s the part that can get a teacher in real trouble.
All three companies now say roughly the same two things: we don’t train on your data, and we support FERPA compliance. Both statements are true and neither one protects you automatically. FERPA obligations sit with your school and district — a vendor’s addendum helps your district comply, but it doesn’t authorize you, individually, to paste student records into any of these tools. If your district hasn’t approved the tool, the safest reading of all three policies is the same: use it for your planning, your materials, your communication drafts — and keep identifiable student data out of it.
We keep a full breakdown of what should never go into an AI tool in our student data privacy guide, and it applies equally to all three products here.
So Which One Should You Choose?
The honest answer depends on one question: who decides what software you use?
If your district decides — and you’re a Google school — start with Gemini, because it’s the only one your admin can actually govern today, and it’s already inside your workflow. If you decide, and you want the most capable general assistant with the fewest opinions about your workflow, ChatGPT for Teachers is the strongest raw toolkit. If you decide, and what exhausts you is the structure of the work — planning against standards, differentiating for three levels, the same review tasks every day — Claude for Teachers is built closest to that shape, and the bundled AI Fluency course makes it the best on-ramp if AI still feels foreign.
Whichever you pick, pick one and go deep for a month. The time savings teachers report — about six weeks a year in the latest Gallup data — come from building repeatable routines, not from owning three logins. Our AI workflow guide for teachers shows how to turn one tool into a system, and if you’re starting from burnout rather than curiosity, start here instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ChatGPT really free for teachers?
Yes — ChatGPT for Teachers is free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2027. Verification runs through SheerID, not your school. OpenAI has said it may adjust pricing after that date with advance notice.
Is Claude for Teachers free?
Yes. Verified U.S. K-12 educators who sign up by June 30, 2027 receive a full year of free access. It’s currently an individual product; a district version is planned.
Do these AI tools train on what teachers type?
By their current official policies, no. OpenAI says teacher workspace data is not used for training by default, Anthropic says Claude for Teachers data is not used for model training, and Google says Gemini for Education data is not human-reviewed or used to train models. Policies can change — recheck them each school year.
Can I use all three at once?
You can — eligibility for one doesn’t exclude the others. In practice, most teachers get further mastering one tool than sampling three. Pick the one that matches your school’s ecosystem and your biggest time drain.
Are these tools FERPA compliant?
No AI tool is FERPA compliant by itself — compliance depends on your district’s agreements and policies. All three vendors offer FERPA-oriented protections, but individual teachers should still keep identifiable student data out of any tool their district hasn’t approved.
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Sources
- OpenAI — A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers
- OpenAI Help Center — ChatGPT for Teachers
- Anthropic — Introducing Claude for Teachers
- Google for Education — Gemini for Education
- Google for Education — Compare Workspace editions
- Gallup/Walton Family Foundation — Three in 10 Teachers Use AI Weekly, Saving Six Weeks a Year
Product details, pricing, and data policies verified against official vendor documentation on August 17, 2026, and subject to change — always confirm current terms before adopting a tool. This article is for informational purposes and isn’t legal advice; consult your district before using any AI tool with student information.
Hi, I’m Marcos Antonio — a researcher with a deep passion for education and technology.
I created GrowthLane because I’ve seen firsthand the exhaustion that takes hold of so many teachers, and how few people talk about the ways out. I believe educators deserve more time, less burnout, and the freedom to build the next chapter of their own careers — and that artificial intelligence, used the right way, can make all of it happen faster.
Here you’ll find practical strategies to ease your workload with AI, recover from burnout, earn extra income, and — if you choose to — transition into a career beyond the classroom. No magic formulas. Just honest, tested advice, written for the real lives of the people who teach — and grounded in deep research on the subject.
When I’m not writing, you’ll find me exploring new tools, going for long walks, drinking too much coffee, playing online games, and spending time with my family — the greatest purpose of my life. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s build a brighter path together.