The Best Free Study Apps in Kenya (and What They Cost)

Search "free study app in Kenya" and every result promises the world for nothing. Then you download it, answer two questions, and hit a paywall. This is an honest roundup of the study apps Kenyan students actually use, focused on the only thing that matters when the data bundle is finishing: what is genuinely free, what is paywalled, and what the paid part really costs. Prices here were checked in mid-2026 and do change, so always confirm the current figure inside the app before you pay.

First, understand the four "free" models

Almost every learning app in Kenya uses one of four business models. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you where the cost is hiding.

• Free with ads. The content is free; you pay with your attention and your data bundle loading adverts. Common with past-paper apps.
• Freemium. A slice is free, the good part is behind a subscription. You will usually meet the paywall on day one.
• SMS or USSD billed. No smartphone or bundle needed. You are charged a small amount per day or week, deducted from airtime. Cheap per day, but it adds up quietly.
• Subscription. A flat weekly, monthly or yearly fee for full access. Predictable, but you pay whether you study that month or not.

None of these is wrong. But "free to download" and "free to use" are very different promises, and the app store rarely tells you which one you are getting.

The apps Kenyan students actually use

Free KCSE past-paper apps (Past Papers KE, KCSE Revision App, and similar)

There are dozens of these on the Play Store, and the honest truth is many are genuinely free. Apps like Past Papers KE and various "KCSE Revision" apps let you download years of KNEC past papers and marking schemes, often for offline use, at no charge beyond the adverts and your bundle. Cost: free, ad-supported. The catch: they are PDF libraries, not tutors. Nobody checks whether your answer is right, nobody explains the step you missed, and the marking schemes are only as accurate as whoever typed them. Brilliant for exposure to real exam questions; not a substitute for actually learning the concept.

Shupavu 291 (Eneza Education)

A Kenyan pioneer, and still the most accessible option on this list because it needs no smartphone. You dial *291# or use SMS on Safaricom to get quizzes, an "Ask a Teacher" service and revision content for primary and secondary learners. Cost: a small SMS/USSD charge that has sat around KES 10 per week (it has also run at roughly KES 3 per day or KES 30 per month at various times, so check the current rate). Best for: students on a basic phone with no data. The catch: it is Safaricom-only, text-based, and the weekly charge is easy to forget you are paying.

Zeraki Learning

A polished, video-based platform with KICD-approved lessons across roughly 15 secondary subjects, quizzes and performance tracking, taught by strong Kenyan teachers. Cost: Zeraki's own video subscription has been priced around KES 150 per day, KES 800 per week or KES 1,900 per month; a subsidised remedial version via Safaricom has run as low as KES 20 per day. Best for: a student who learns well from video and has the bundle and battery for it. The catch: video is data-hungry and the standalone monthly price is one of the higher ones here. Excellent quality if it fits your budget and your phone.

Soma AI

One of the newer AI tutors built specifically for the Kenyan curriculum, with a strong CBC and CBE focus (and Cambridge/IGCSE support). It answers questions in a chat, grounded in the local syllabus. Cost: a free tier of around 5 questions a day with no sign-up, plus a batch of free trial messages; Premium has been priced at about KES 500 per month for roughly 30 messages a day, paid by M-Pesa and tied to your phone number with no auto-renewal. Best for: CBC and CBE learners who want conversational help. The catch: like any AI chat, you are trusting the model's answer unless it is independently checked, and the free tier is a handful of questions before you are nudged to pay.

EasyElimu

A long-running Kenyan site and app covering CBC and KCSE with notes, revision papers and set-book guides. Cost: freemium — a lot is readable free with adverts, and a premium subscription removes ads and unlocks the rest. EasyElimu does not publish a single headline price openly, so confirm it in the app; for context, comparable revision sites have charged around KES 500 per month or KES 950 per year. Best for: topical notes and set-book summaries. The catch: the pricing is not transparent up front, and the free layer is ad-heavy.

Elimufy

Full disclosure: this is our app, so weigh what follows accordingly — we have tried to keep every figure checkable. Elimufy is a free AI study tool built in Kenya. The difference is the model: instead of picking from a fixed library, you upload your own material — a photo of your notes, a PDF, a topic — and it turns that into interactive practice and step-by-step tutoring, with progress tracking, aligned to KCSE and CBC.

Cost: genuinely free to start — a daily free practice allowance plus 30 starter credits, no card required. When you want more, you top up by M-Pesa at roughly 1 KES per credit, and credits never expire, so you pay only for what you use rather than a monthly fee that runs whether you study or not. It is built to work on low-end Android, and there is a free Telegram bot at @elimufy_bot if your phone is tight on space. The point of difference: every AI-generated question is put through an independent second-model check of the answer key before it reaches you — because an unverified answer key is worse than no answer key. The honest catch: it depends on the material you bring, and heavy daily users will eventually top up.

An honest, side-by-side view

• Truly free to start: free past-paper apps and Elimufy's daily practice ask nothing up front. Soma AI and EasyElimu give you a taste, then a paywall. Zeraki and Shupavu charge from early on.
• Cheapest ongoing: Shupavu 291's few shillings a week is unbeatable if you are on a basic phone. For pay-as-you-go on a smartphone, Elimufy's non-expiring M-Pesa credits mean a quiet month costs you nothing.
• Lowest device needs: Shupavu 291 (any phone), then Elimufy's Telegram bot and low-end Android build.
• KCSE and CBC fit: all are Kenya-built and curriculum-aware; Zeraki and the past-paper apps lean KCSE, Soma leans CBC/CBE, and Elimufy and EasyElimu cover both.
• Verified answers: this is the real gap. Past-paper apps and AI chats rarely check their own answer keys. Independent verification of every item is where Elimufy is deliberately different.

So which should you choose?

If you have a basic phone and no bundle, Shupavu 291 is the sensible pick. If you learn from video and can afford it, Zeraki is high quality. If you want free exam exposure, grab a good past-paper app. If you want a free-to-start, pay-only-for-what-you-use AI tutor that turns your own notes into verified practice, that is exactly why we built Elimufy — try a free session, see the M-Pesa pricing, and read more in our guide to using a free AI tutor in Kenya and the best apps to help your child study.