23 best free online courses for teens

Full courses in math, science, economics and computing, with AP and SAT prep. The best free starting point for any teen. Teens can study at their own pace.

Harvard's intro course, free online with lectures and graded problem sets. It is hard, and many teens say it changed what they want to study.

Search, machine learning and neural networks, with real coding projects. For teens who already know some Python. Projects include building a game-playing AI and a simple language model, with free autograded checks.

A friendly, non-technical intro to what AI is, how it works and what it means for society. No math or coding needed. It takes about 30 hours in total.

A hands-on deep learning course that has students train real models from the first lesson. For strong coders. Lessons are free videos with notebooks that run in a free cloud tool.

One-hour courses on building with AI models, from prompting to simple apps, taught by people who build them. Good for teens who code and want to build with AI tools rather than just use chatbots.

Watch for: Needs an account. Check the age rules in its terms.

Short, free micro-courses on Python, data analysis and machine learning, run in the browser with real datasets. Each course takes a few hours, and teens can practice on public data competitions after.

Watch for: Check the current terms for minors.

Materials from thousands of real MIT courses, including video lectures, notes and problem sets. No sign-up needed. Start with the courses marked for high school students or intro level.

Full recorded lectures from Yale courses in history, science, literature and more, free to watch. Good for teens curious about what college classes feel like, from psychology to astronomy.

A catalog of free Stanford courses across computer science, medicine, business and the humanities. Filter by subject and pace, and look for self-paced courses that fit around school.

Free Harvard courses on coding, history, science and more, most self-paced and open to anyone. CS50 is the most popular, but there are many others in the humanities and sciences.

University courses you can audit for free, from intro physics to AI and data science, from schools around the world. Audit mode lets teens watch every lecture.

Watch for: Its terms require users to be 13 or older.

Courses from universities and companies, many free to audit, on nearly every subject teens might explore. Audit mode is free but often hides graded work, which is fine for learning the ideas.

Watch for: Check the current terms for age rules.

Free, peer-reviewed textbooks for high school and college, from biology to statistics, from Rice University. Download the PDF or read online, and use it alongside a class or for summer study.

Video courses for nearly every high school subject, including AI and media literacy. Great for review. Teens can watch at 1.5x speed for review and pause to take notes on key ideas.

Free modules on coding, cloud and AI tools, with skill paths and badges. Some paths lead to industry certifications teens can list on a resume or college application.

Thousands of hours of web development, Python and data courses with free certificates, from a nonprofit. Its YouTube channel has full-length courses on Python, web development and machine learning.

A free, project-based full-stack web development path. Teens build real websites and a portfolio as they go. Teens finish with a portfolio of real websites, which helps with internships and summer jobs.

Free personal finance lessons on budgeting, credit, taxes and investing basics, made for high school classes. Its free games and short activities work well at home, too, not just in class.

Official free practice tests in Bluebook, the app used for the real test. Pair it with Khan Academy SAT prep. Bluebook is the same app used on test day.

Free world history and Big History courses with readings, videos and writing practice. It also teaches how to read sources and write strong arguments, which helps in every class.

Interactive biology on DNA, cells and the brain, with virtual labs from the University of Utah. Good for AP Biology review or for any teen curious about how DNA works.

Coding practice in over 70 languages, with free feedback from volunteer mentors on your solutions. Teens can learn a new language one small exercise at a time, at their own pace.

Watch for: Mentoring means talking with adult volunteers. Check settings with your teen.