Gaplight and Khan Academy: what each one does, and how they fit together
By Volodymyr Shpodarunok · Updated 19 October 2026
The short answer
Khan Academy is a free library of lessons and practice, with Khan's own exercises and an AI tutor, used by students and teachers worldwide. Gaplight does a different job: it reads the answers students give on the school's own quizzes and courses, in any subject, and gives each teacher a list of who needs them and on which skill. Khan helps a student practise; Gaplight helps a teacher see where the class's own work shows gaps. Many schools could use both.
Khan Academy does a great deal, for free
Khan Academy is a nonprofit with a large library of video lessons and practice exercises in maths, science, humanities and test preparation, free for students and teachers. Teachers can assign Khan content and see how students do on it, and its AI assistant, Khanmigo, is free for teachers in many countries. School districts can buy Khan Academy Districts for rostering, reporting and support. For a student who wants to practise, and a teacher who wants ready-made material, it is hard to beat on price.
Gaplight does a different job
Gaplight is not a content library and has no video lessons. It starts from what the school already does: the quizzes and tests its teachers already give, in any subject and curriculum. It reads every answer, maps each question to the skill it tests, and shows each teacher which students need them and on which skill, grouped so one short lesson reaches everyone with the same gap. It also shows which questions the class loses and the wrong answer most students chose.
Side by side
| Khan Academy | Gaplight | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Lessons and practice for students | Showing teachers where each student comes up short |
| Whose content | Khan's own library | The school's own quizzes, tests and courses |
| Subjects and curricula | Khan's catalogue, mostly US-aligned | Any subject, any curriculum (IB, British, national) |
| Who uses it day to day | Mostly students | Mostly teachers and learning support |
| What the teacher sees | Progress on Khan assignments | Who needs them, on which skill, and the shared wrong answers |
| Price | Free; district plans by quote | $150 per student per year; $500 ten-week pilot |
Khan Academy details from its own published information as of October 2026; check Khan Academy for current features and pricing.
When Khan Academy is the right choice
- Students need lessons and practice material, and the school does not have its own.
- The school follows a curriculum close to Khan's catalogue, and teachers are happy to assign Khan content.
- The budget is zero.
When Gaplight adds something
- Teachers already write or use their own quizzes, and want to know what those answers say, skill by skill.
- The school follows a curriculum Khan does not cover closely, such as IB or a national programme.
- Teachers have no evening to go back through every paper, and the school wants the analysis done for them.
- Learning support staff need evidence of where a student keeps getting stuck, not only how much they practised.
Using both
The two fit together. A teacher can give their usual quiz, see in Gaplight that six students keep missing one skill, and send those six to the matching Khan Academy lesson for practice. Khan supplies the practice; Gaplight shows who needs it and on what.
If you already use Khan Academy
- Keep using it for practice and lessons.
- Pick one class and one of your own quizzes.
- Look at which skills that quiz shows students missing, and match each to a Khan lesson.
- Check the same skills on new questions a week later.
Volodymyr Shpodarunok
Co-founder and CEO, Gaplight
Has spent two years building and measuring a learning engine used daily by students preparing for Ukraine’s national exam, and now works with schools on reading their own quiz results.
Khan Academy and Khanmigo are trademarks of Khan Academy, Inc. Gaplight is not affiliated with or endorsed by Khan Academy.
Examples marked as illustrative are made up to show the method; the history example comes from Gaplight’s own course data.
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