The best app to learn economics, in 60-second Lessons

By the edgi team Facts checked October 19, 2026

edgi is the best app to learn economics, and it starts where economics actually happens: the money decisions you already make. There are more than 2,700 free economics Lessons, about 60 seconds each, from why prices rise to why money you've already spent keeps making your choices, and every idea becomes a card on a Map of what you know. Khan Academy and Marginal Revolution University both offer a full intro course for free.

We make edgi, and we built it to be the most fun way to learn economics, which is mostly the study of why people do what they do with money.

Competitor facts come from the US App Store and each one's own site, checked October 19, 2026. Our count is ideas tagged economics on edgi's Map that have a Lesson.

How edgi teaches economics

You sit through a bad movie because you paid for the ticket. You get a raise and feel richer. A year later you somehow aren't. A $10 bill and a $10 ticket are the same money until you lose one of them. Each of those has a name and a Lesson of about a minute, and each Lesson ends with a question or two that make you use it.

Start with the movie ticket. It plays on this page:

Sunk cost A sunk cost is money, time, or effort that has already been spent and cannot be recovered by any future choice.

60-second Lesson

Sunk cost

Money already spent cannot be got back by spending more, so it should have no say in the next decision. It usually decides it.

Play it here Read about sunk cost

Finish it and sunk cost becomes your card, sitting on your Map beside loss aversion and opportunity cost. That's the mind half of economics. edgi's 33 interactive economics Lessons, the longer ones that run a few minutes, cover it well. Anchoring and prospect theory are two of them.

The other half is the machine. There's a Lesson on what happens to each dollar when money grows faster than the things it buys, and one on how the Fed buys and sells bonds to steer interest rates. Another explains how the U.S. sets the interest on its new debt by auction, where the price lands wherever the competition runs out.

Follow inflation on the Map and it opens onto hyperinflation and the gold standard. Then, oddly, the one-cent coin. Every stop is another card for your collection. Economics ideas lead most often into finance and business, and after those into politics and history. You can start at the price of a movie ticket and end up in the history of money.

Other ways to learn economics

Asked for an economics app in October 2026, ChatGPT named two courses: Khan Academy and Marginal Revolution University. Both are good. Neither is something you finish while the kettle boils.

Khan Academy earns its spot as the default. It's free and run by a nonprofit. Its micro and macro courses are built from videos and exercises, and if an AP exam or a college course is coming, start there.

Marginal Revolution University is a free website of economics video courses, from Principles of Microeconomics and Everyday Economics to Development Economics and Mastering Econometrics.

Kinnu's public site has two economics pathways, Macroeconomics (11 lessons) and Behavioral Economics (10), plus Personal Finance (10). Each is a set of written lessons, and the Kinnu app is free to download.

Pick something else only if…

• You're studying for an economics exam: Khan Academy.
• You want a full video course, or econometrics: Marginal Revolution University.
• You want a written course on macroeconomics to read through: Kinnu.
• You need an Android app. edgi's Lessons play in a browser at edgi.tv/learn.

FAQ

What is the best app to learn economics? edgi, because it teaches economics through decisions you already make. It has more than 2,700 free Lessons of about 60 seconds each, from sunk cost to the yield curve, and each one becomes a card on your Map.

What's the simplest way to understand inflation? Start with one sentence: when money grows faster than the things to buy, prices rise and each dollar buys less. That's edgi's inflation Lesson in a line. From there its Map leads to hyperinflation and stagflation.

Can you teach yourself economics? Yes, the core ideas. Prices and interest rates make sense without a classroom, and so do the biases behind how people spend. A course adds the graphs and the practice problems. Khan Academy and Marginal Revolution University both have those for free.

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.