Google has launched free, AI-powered SAT practice tests through its Gemini platform, marking a significant expansion of artificial intelligence into the standardized test preparation market. Announced on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, the new offering provides students with on-demand, full-length practice exams vetted by The Princeton Review, with personalized feedback delivered by Google’s AI technology.
The service allows students to take complete SAT practice tests and receive immediate, AI-generated explanations for questions they don’t understand. Carol Walport from Google DeepMind explained that Gemini helps students “identify specific knowledge gaps” and “empowers you to turn those insights into action.” While currently limited to SAT preparation, Google has indicated that additional standardized tests will be added in the future.
This development represents another significant disruption to the traditional tutoring industry, a lucrative sector that has long served students preparing for college admissions. The financial stakes are considerable: one SAT tutor reported charging between $135 to $155 per hour, while an essay tutor claimed earnings of $200,000 working just nine months annually.
The tutoring industry has already experienced technological disruption through PDF practice tests and platforms like Quizlet and Chegg. However, AI presents an unprecedented challenge. In 2023, Chegg’s stock plummeted 49% in a single day after the company acknowledged students were using ChatGPT for studying. The impact continued, with Chegg laying off 45% of its workforce (388 employees) in 2025, explicitly citing “new realities of AI.”
Education has become a major battleground for AI companies. Sal Khan of Khan Academy proclaimed in 2023 that AI could be “the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen,” aiming to provide every student with an AI personal tutor. Anthropic launched Claude for Education in April with student programs and learning modes. Elon Musk’s xAI offers Grokipedia, while OpenAI introduced Study Mode in July 2024, prompting Business Insider to declare education “a new battlefield in the AI war.”
Bill Gates, in his influential 2023 letter about AI’s future, devoted significant attention to education, predicting that while teachers would need to adapt, they wouldn’t disappear entirely. He emphasized that “learning will still depend on great relationships between students and teachers” and that AI would “enhance — but never replace — the work that students and teachers do together in the classroom.”
Key Quotes
For anything you don’t understand, you can ask Gemini to explain the correct answer. By helping you identify specific knowledge gaps, Gemini empowers you to turn those insights into action.
Carol Walport from Google DeepMind explained how the AI-powered SAT prep tool provides personalized learning, highlighting the platform’s ability to offer individualized feedback that adapts to each student’s specific weaknesses.
AI could be the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.
Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, made this statement in 2023 while advocating for AI tutoring that could provide every student with an “artificially intelligent, but amazing, personal tutor,” reflecting the optimistic view of AI’s educational potential.
Even once the technology is perfected, learning will still depend on great relationships between students and teachers. It will enhance — but never replace — the work that students and teachers do together in the classroom.
Bill Gates wrote this in his influential 2023 letter about AI’s future, offering a balanced perspective that acknowledges AI’s transformative potential while emphasizing the irreplaceable human element in education.
Our Take
Google’s free SAT prep offering is strategically brilliant — it positions Gemini as an essential tool for millions of students while their habits and preferences are still forming. Unlike previous educational disruptions, AI tutoring offers genuinely personalized feedback at scale, something human tutors struggle to match at accessible price points.
However, the Chegg case study is sobering: a 49% single-day stock crash and 45% workforce reduction reveal how quickly AI can devastate established players. The question isn’t whether AI will transform education, but whether any educational technology company without proprietary AI capabilities can survive.
The real test will be learning outcomes. If AI-tutored students perform comparably to those with human tutors, it validates the technology and accelerates adoption. This could genuinely democratize test prep — or create new digital divides based on access to premium AI features that inevitably follow free offerings.
Why This Matters
This launch represents a pivotal moment in AI’s democratization of education and highlights how artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping access to educational resources. By offering free, personalized SAT preparation that was previously available only to affluent families who could afford expensive tutors, Google is addressing educational inequality while simultaneously disrupting a multi-million dollar industry.
The broader implications extend beyond test prep. This signals intensifying competition among tech giants — Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI — to dominate the education sector, which represents both a massive market opportunity and a way to establish AI as indispensable to younger generations. The collapse of Chegg’s business model demonstrates that traditional education technology companies face existential threats from AI-native solutions.
For workers, this continues the pattern of AI displacing knowledge-based professionals, raising questions about which jobs remain AI-resistant. The tutoring industry’s struggle foreshadows similar challenges across education and professional services sectors as AI becomes more sophisticated at personalized instruction and feedback.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-free-sat-test-prep-human-tutors-2026-1