Photomath

Photomath is a mobile app for solving math problems by pointing your camera at them. It reads handwritten and printed equations, returns the answer, and walks you through how to get there one step at a time, covering arithmetic through calculus.

Photomath is owned by Google and no longer publishes a formal version number. Support for the app now lives on support.google.com/photomath rather than a separate Photomath help site.

Core capabilities include camera scanning of printed and handwritten problems, a built-in calculator, and more than 400 AI-powered animated tutorials with voiceover that explain the reasoning behind a solution rather than just giving the answer. The paid Plus tier adds deeper explanations and contextual hints.

Pricing is freemium. Photomath's documentation states that core step-by-step solutions to symbolic math problems, camera scan, and the calculator will always remain free of cost. Photomath Plus costs $9.99 per month, or $69.99 per year billed annually (about a 50 percent discount versus paying monthly), and a discounted six-month option is also offered in some markets, though its price is not published.

Limitations are worth noting. Handwriting recognition can misread messy or unusual notation, the deepest teaching content (animated tutorials, contextual hints) sits behind the Plus paywall, the lack of a published version number makes it hard to track what has changed and when, and being owned by Google means account access and support run through Google's ecosystem.

Photomath suits students who want to understand method rather than just copy an answer, as well as parents helping with homework and anyone who needs to check work quickly. If you only want a final number, a plain calculator is enough; Photomath earns its place when you want the steps.