A free Mathway alternative
Mathway is a capable solver with one structural catch: it will show you an answer for free, but the full work behind every step is what the subscription unlocks. Here the full work is the default output.
How to switch
- 1
Type the problem, same as you would there
Plain text works, and the formula editor is one click away for anything with a fraction or a root in it.
- 2
Read the steps — all of them
There is no partial view and no upgrade prompt between you and the working. The answer, the steps, the check and the pitfalls all render for everyone.
- 3
Keep the photo path
Photograph the problem the way you would in the Mathway app. The difference is that you see what was read before it is solved.
What actually differs
Mathway's own upgrade page puts it plainly: the service is free to use, and an optional subscription unlocks the full work shown for every step. That is a reasonable business model and a poor fit for somebody who needed one problem explained properly at eleven at night.
This site has no tier to upgrade to. The honest trade is that it runs on a shared daily AI allowance rather than a paid API budget, so on a heavy day the site can run out — and when it does you are told plainly instead of being shown a price.
What Mathway still does better
It has native iOS and Android apps, a graphing calculator built in, and a computer algebra engine behind it, which makes it more reliable on heavy symbolic manipulation than any language model is.
If you need a guaranteed-correct symbolic answer to a long algebraic manipulation, a CAS is the right tool. If you need to understand why the third line of your own working went wrong, it is not.
Side by side
| Mathway | MathGPT.app | |
|---|---|---|
| Account required | Optional | None exists |
| Full working shown free | No — an optional subscription unlocks it | Yes, always |
| Step-by-step by default | Partial | Yes |
| Photo of a problem | Yes, in the app | Yes, in the browser |
| Shows what it read before solving | No | Yes |
| Checks working you did yourself | No | Yes |
| Generates practice problems | No | Yes |
| Graphing calculator | Yes | No |
| Computer algebra engine | Yes | No — a language model |
| Native mobile apps | Yes | No — a web page |
| Formula reference pages | Yes, a glossary | 326, with worked examples |
| History attached to you | Yes | No — nothing is stored |
Checked September 2026 against Mathway’s own public pages. Features and tiers change — verify anything that matters to you before deciding.
Questions about switching
- Is the full working really free here?
- Yes, with no account and no counter. Every solution renders the complete steps, the substitution check and the common pitfalls — there is no deeper tier holding anything back, because there is no tier.
- Do I have to make an account here?
- No. There is no sign-up on this site at all, including for the photo solver — which is the point in the flow where most alternatives ask for one.
- Is there a catch?
- One, stated plainly: the whole site shares a daily AI allowance. If it is exhausted you get a message saying so rather than a paywall, and it resets at midnight UTC.