The best app to learn chemistry, starting in the kitchen

By the edgi team Facts checked October 19, 2026

edgi is the best app to learn chemistry, because it starts with the chemistry you already meet, like the onion that makes you cry and the wine that dries your mouth. It has more than 2,600 free chemistry Lessons of about 60 seconds each, and every one becomes a card on a Map of what you know. Khan Academy and EasyChem are where you go for a chemistry class.

We make edgi, and we built it to be the most fun way to learn chemistry, starting from whatever's on your cutting board.

We checked the other apps on the US App Store and their own websites on October 19, 2026. The edgi number counts chemistry-tagged ideas on its Map that have a Lesson.

Why edgi is the best way to learn chemistry

Search for a chemistry app and you get equation balancers and periodic tables, plus a lot of exam prep. That's school chemistry. The chemistry most people would like to understand is on the stove. Why does a sliced onion sting your eyes when a whole one sits on the counter doing nothing? Why does a steak brown in a hot pan and go grey in a cool one? Why does a chili burn when nothing in it is hot?

Each of those is an edgi Lesson. The onion's answer is a gas, syn-propanethial S-oxide. A whole onion doesn't make it. Cutting one does, and it takes a second enzyme, found in 2002, to make it. The steak is the Maillard reaction, and on the Map it sits next to coffee roasting and the smash burger.

The chili plays right here:

Capsaicin Capsaicin is the chemical compound that gives chili peppers their heat by triggering heat receptors in mammals while leaving birds unaffected.

60-second Lesson

Capsaicin

A chili makes capsaicin to burn the mouths that chew its seeds, and the birds that spread them can't feel it.

Play it here Read about capsaicin

Finish it and capsaicin is your card. It lights up on your Map beside the Scoville scale and piperine, the molecule behind black pepper's bite, and each of those is another Lesson and another card. A streak counts the days you keep going.

The dry mouth after red wine is tannin from the grape skins grabbing the slippery proteins in your spit. That one is interactive, the longer kind of Lesson that takes a few minutes, and edgi has 24 of them in chemistry. Wine faults are another, and cork taint ruins a wine at a few parts per trillion. The Scoville scale is a third: it rates a chili by how many times it must be watered down before you stop tasting the heat.

Chemistry doesn't stay in the kitchen. Its ideas on edgi's Map lead most often into biology, then physics. A soil sample from Easter Island became rapamycin, a drug that protects transplants. That's a Lesson too.

Other chemistry apps

Khan Academy is a free nonprofit, and its chemistry follows school: videos and practice exercises, then tests. Open it with a class or an AP exam coming.

EasyChem calls itself "an interactive textbook covering a full high school chemistry course," in 14 chapters "ranging from atoms and molecules to chemical reactions and the periodic table." Its listing promises "eight exercise formats." It's free to download on iPhone and iPad.

Kinnu's public site has one chemistry pathway, The Periodic Table, with 10 written lessons. The app is free to download.

If you're weighing Brilliant for chemistry: on October 19, none of the 69 courses in Brilliant's sitemap was a chemistry course, and its App Store listing calls it "a superintelligent tutor for math and coding."

Pick something else only if…

• You're taking a chemistry class or AP exam: Khan Academy.
• You want a high-school chemistry course in order, with exercises: EasyChem.
• You want to build molecules and run reactions in a simulator: PhET, $0.99 in the App Store.
• You need an Android app. edgi's Lessons play in a browser at edgi.tv/learn.

FAQ

What is the best app to learn chemistry? edgi, for chemistry you can taste. It has more than 2,600 free Lessons of about 60 seconds each, from onions to the Maillard reaction, and each one becomes a card on your Map.

Can you learn chemistry on your own? Yes. edgi is free and starts from everyday questions about food and drink. Khan Academy is free too, if you want a course that follows school.

What's a good chemistry app for adults? Most chemistry app lists are written for students with an exam. edgi is for the adult who wants to know why food and drink behave the way they do, a minute at a time.

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free, and Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, not money. An optional Pro subscription adds extras like offline access.