edgi vs Brilliant: which learning app is better?

By the edgi team Facts checked September 30, 2026

Brilliant is the better app if you want to get good at math or code. edgi, a free iPhone and web app, is the better one if you want to learn whatever you're curious about in 60-second Lessons, and keep each idea as a card on a Map of what you know.

Both teach by making you do something instead of reading about it. The difference is who decides what comes next. Brilliant teaches in courses you take in order, and its free plan gives you two lessons a day with no skipping ahead. On edgi you decide: the Map shows what connects to the idea you just learned, from probability to why red wine dries your mouth, and you pick.

We make edgi, so we're biased. Further down we say when Brilliant is the better pick.

Brilliant's facts come from its website, Help Center, llms.txt and US App Store listing, checked September 30, 2026. We didn't make an account, so anything here about the inside of Brilliant's app is Brilliant's own description.

Who decides what you learn next

Brilliant's Help Center spells out the free plan. You get two "keys" a day, and each one opens one lesson or one practice set. You "must work through courses sequentially," with no skipping ahead, and once both keys are spent "you'll need to wait until the next day to continue." Premium removes the cap and adds the thing the free plan holds back: you can "jump to any lesson in any course" and "learn in whatever order works for you." On Brilliant, choosing your own order is part of what you pay for.

That design makes sense for what Brilliant teaches. You can't do derivatives before functions, and a course that goes in steps is how most math gets learned. The cost is curiosity, which almost never arrives in steps. It shows up in the middle of something else, as a question you want answered now, and it's gone if the answer is six lessons away.

edgi is built for that moment. Finish a Lesson and you own its card, the card lights up that idea on your Map, and the Map shows what sits next to it. There are 296,000 connections between ideas, so there's always a next thing, and you're the one who picks it.

Same idea, two formats: the Monty Hall problem

Three doors, one car, two goats. You pick a door, the host (who knows where the car is) opens another one to show a goat, and offers you the switch. Most people say it doesn't matter. Switching wins two times in three.

Brilliant teaches this in its Bayesian Probability course, as lesson 11 of 13. Ten lessons come first (Guess Who, a counterfeit coin, entropy, compression, a medical test and Bayes' rule among them), and the course suggests knowing some probability before you start. At two lessons a day in order, a free user would reach Monty Hall on day six. The version Brilliant shows the public is an archived wiki page that it no longer maintains: a good written explanation with an outcome table and Bayes' theorem.

Ours you play. You pick a door, the host opens a goat, and you choose. You play five fast rounds, then let the computer play 150 games, one player staying and one switching in each, and watch the two piles grow. Then it's 100 doors and the host opens 98, and the answer stops feeling like a trick.

Monty Hall Problem Switching doors in the Monty Hall problem raises your chance of winning from 1/3 to 2/3 because the host filters out a losing door.

60-second Lesson

Monty Hall Problem

Pick a door. The host shows you a goat and offers a switch. Switching wins 2 times in 3, and 150 games prove it.

Play it here Read about monty hall problem

On edgi's Map, Monty Hall connects to Bayes' theorem and conditional probability, which is where Brilliant's course goes too. It also connects to confirmation bias and the gambler's fallacy: why so many people, math professors among them, refused to believe the answer. A course on probability has no reason to go there. A curious person usually does.

Brilliant is a math tutor now

In March 2024 Brilliant's homepage said "The best way to learn math and computer science," promised "Master concepts in 15 minutes a day" and was "Designed for ages 13 to 113." Today it opens with "Your personal tutor for math and coding," offers two doors ("I'm a learner" and "I'm a parent or teacher"), and says "From grade 5 to college and beyond." It advertises accreditation by ACS WASC, "mastery assessments," progress reports for parents, and Koji, an on-screen tutor that "is there Sunday night before the test." Its App Store listing now begins "Brilliant is a superintelligent tutor for math and coding."

That's a real business: students need math, and a tutor at every kitchen table sells better than puzzles for adults. But the curious adult who wanted to finally understand probability is now one audience among many, and the homepage talks to students and their parents first. Brilliant's course list says so too: its sitemap has 68 course pages, from pre-algebra to neural networks, circuits and quantum computing. None is on history, art or psychology, and biology shows up only in a set of science puzzles.

What Brilliant costs

It depends on when you look. We loaded Brilliant's pricing page several times on September 30, 2026, without an account, and got three prices for the same Individual Premium plan: $20 a month billed yearly ($240), $22.50 ($270) or $30 ($360). The month-to-month price moved with it: $30, $45 or $60. Brilliant appears to be testing prices, and its own llms.txt asks AI engines not to repeat old ones. The App Store lists ten Premium purchases from $19.99 to $191.99, including a "Brilliant Premium with Tutor" at $191.99.

The free plan is real, with streaks and Leagues, but it's two lessons a day with ads and a short preview of Koji. Brilliant's FAQ says free trials are offered "sometimes." K-12 teachers and their students may get Premium free through Brilliant for Educators.

edgi is free: the Lessons, the cards and the Map. Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, and the optional Pro subscription opens two a day without coins.

What edgi teaches that Brilliant doesn't

About 3,600 of edgi's 44,000 Lessons are tagged math or computer science: the Monty Hall problem, compound interest, the gambler's fallacy. The other 40,000 or so are everything else. More than 13,000 are tagged history, about 7,300 biology and 3,500 art. There's a Lesson on how a flying buttress holds a cathedral wall up, one on why the green in Seurat's grass isn't on the canvas, and one on why red wine dries your mouth (a molecule from the grape skins grabs the slippery proteins in your spit).

When Brilliant is the better pick

You want to get good at math or code. Brilliant is built in steps, with practice sets and review. edgi explains ideas; it isn't a course and won't teach you to solve equations.

You're a student, or the parent of one. Brilliant covers math "from grade 5 to college and beyond," maps itself to school standards and sends parents progress reports.

You want a tutor when you're stuck. Koji works through the problem on your screen with you, step by step, without handing over the answer.

You're on Android. Brilliant has an Android app. edgi runs on iPhone and in the browser.

FAQ

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free. A few Sets are open from the start, and the rest unlock with coins you earn by learning. An optional Pro subscription opens two Sets a day without coins, raises the limits on making your own Lessons and adds offline access.

Is Brilliant free? Partly. The free plan gives you two lessons or practice sets a day, in course order, with ads and a limited preview of its tutor. Premium removes the limits.

How much does Brilliant Premium cost? On September 30, 2026, its pricing page showed us $240, $270 or $360 a year for one person, depending on the visit, or $30, $45 or $60 month to month. The App Store lists Premium from $19.99 to $191.99.

Does edgi teach math? Some. About 3,600 Lessons are on math and computer science ideas, like the Monty Hall problem and compound interest. There's no algebra course and no practice sets; for that, use Brilliant or Khan Academy.

Can I use edgi on Android? Not as an app. edgi runs on iPhone (iOS 16 or later) and in a browser at app.edgi.tv, and its Lessons play without an account at edgi.tv/learn.

Can I try Brilliant without an account? You can read its course outlines and its archived wiki, and it has free, account-free math practice for kindergarten through grade 5. Its lessons need an account. edgi's Lessons play in a browser with no account, like the one on this page.