Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a live audience-response tool for quizzes, polls and Q&A. It is best suited to teachers and presenters who want quiz-led participation, with paid tiers for larger groups and more question formats. Its free tier is a useful starting point, but its 40-person ceiling and limited question types quickly narrow the use case.

Overview

Kahoot! brings quiz mode together with live polling and Q&A, plus anonymous responses and slide integrations. That gives hosts options for knowledge checks, audience feedback and questions during a presentation. The trade-off is that participant capacity and question variety depend on the plan: free sessions are capped at 40 people and offer only quiz and true-or-false questions.

The service uses a freemium model and runs on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. Its maker, Kahoot!, was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.

Key features

Quiz mode: The free plan’s quiz and true-or-false formats suit straightforward knowledge checks. Hosts who want a wider range of questions need a paid plan.

Live polling and Q&A: These extend sessions beyond testing, making Kahoot! suitable for gathering opinions or taking audience questions alongside quizzes.

Anonymous responses: Participants can contribute without attaching their identity, which may suit feedback sessions where hosts want responses without attribution.

Slide integrations: Hosts can combine audience interaction with a presentation rather than treating the two as separate activities.

Pricing

Kahoot! offers a free plan and four paid annual plans, with prices shown per month. The free tier has no subscription cost, but its 40-participant limit and two question types make it most appropriate for small, simple sessions.

Kahoot! Go: Free, with up to 40 participants, the classic live experience, and quiz and true-or-false question types. It is the starting point for hosts who can work within those limits.

Kahoot!+ Bronze: $3 a month, billed annually at $36. It raises capacity to 50 participants and adds AI content creation and reports. It is a modest step up for small groups needing those additions, but only adds ten places over the free plan.

Kahoot!+ Silver: $7 a month, billed annually at $84. Capacity rises to 100, with feedback question types and the lecture experience. It better suits sessions that need room for a larger audience and more ways to collect responses.

Kahoot!+ Gold: $12 a month, billed annually at $144. It supports up to 200 participants, all listed review and feedback question types, and advanced reports. This is the stronger fit for larger sessions where those question options and reporting matter.

Kahoot! One: $19 a month, billed annually at $228. It allows up to 800 participants and includes all question types and all live game experiences. It is the tier for hosts who need substantial capacity and the broadest listed session options.

Moving up the tiers buys more capacity and, depending on the plan, more question formats, reports or live experiences. Choose by the size and format of the session: Bronze’s 50-person ceiling is only a small increase over free, while Silver, Gold and One step up to 100, 200 and 800 participants respectively.

Platforms

Kahoot! runs on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, covering desktop and mobile use.

Who it's for

Kahoot! suits teachers, presenters and other hosts who want quizzes to anchor a live session, with polling and Q&A available for broader participation. Free is a reasonable fit for groups of up to 40 using simple quiz formats. Larger audiences or sessions requiring feedback questions, more question types, reports or additional live experiences call for a paid tier. It is less suitable when the free plan’s narrow format or small-group ceiling is a deal-breaker.

Pros and cons

Pro: Quiz mode, live polling and Q&A cover several common audience-response formats in one service.

Pro: Anonymous responses and slide integrations support participation during presentations without requiring every contribution to be attributed.

Pro: Paid tiers scale from 50 to 800 participants, with higher plans adding question options, reporting or live experiences.

Con: The free plan is limited to 40 participants and quiz or true-or-false questions, ruling it out for larger groups or varied prompts.

Con: Bronze costs $3 a month billed annually but only raises the limit to 50 participants; hosts needing a substantial capacity increase must consider a higher tier.

Con: Paid prices are annual commitments, billed at $36 to $228 per year depending on tier.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison, browse Audience Response Systems, Student Response Systems or Interactive Classroom Software.

Poll Everywhere is another freemium option; its free plan allows 40 people, or 700 for 30 days.

iClicker has a freemium plan and a paid Pulse option with attendance tracking, auto-run class sessions and late-arrival tracking.

Particify offers a free plan for up to 200 participants per room, with unlimited rooms and question series.

EngageTime has a free plan for one active session and 20 attendees, plus a paid plan with five active sessions.

Votinova has a free plan for 50 participants per session, six question types and one simultaneous session.

AhaSlides has a free plan for up to 50 participants, with five quiz questions and three poll questions per presentation.

EngageSlide offers a free plan for up to 10 live participants, with unlimited audiences per month and all slide types.

StreamAlive has a free plan with unlimited sessions and up to five participants per session.

Verdict

Choose Kahoot! if you want quiz-led live participation with polling, Q&A and the option to scale beyond a small group on paid plans. Its main advantage is the mix of response formats and tiered capacity; its main drawback is that the free plan is both small and restricted to two question types. Check the annual cost and participant ceiling against the session you need to run before choosing a tier.