Parents fund it. Students never pay.
A parent pays $99 a year — less than one tutor hour.
Two choices only. No credits to count.
Thrifty
For the student with a full course load.
Best for: exam season, daily study, multi-course semesters.
- Ask as much as a full course load needs
- Teach back after any explanation — the student explains, Sugar grades it
- Every miss returns on schedule, right up to the test
- Upload slides, PDFs and photos of the worksheet
- Exam dates turn into a plan: 6 days, 3 days, 1 day, morning of
- Timed mock exams with a real score, not a text quiz
Every new account starts with 14 days of Thrifty free, no card. After that, stay on Lo-Fi free forever or keep Thrifty for $99 a year — about $8.25 a month. Cancel anytime.
- Secure payments
- 30-day money-back
- Same price for every student
Lo-Fi vs Thrifty — what students actually get
Tap any row for a quick preview of how it works. Start free. Upgrade only when one class isn't enough or finals show up.
| Capability | Student use case | Lo-Fi | Thrifty ★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Messages | Quick homework questions, concept checks | 20 / week | 750 passes / mo |
| Courses & syllabi saved | Context-aware help that knows your class | 1 course | Every course |
| Premium models (GPT-5, Claude, Gemini Pro) | Hard problem sets, essay drafts, research | — | |
| File uploads per prompt (PDFs, slides, images) | Summarize readings, study from lecture decks | 3 / prompt | 5 / prompt |
| Voice notes | Study while walking to class | — | |
| Image / diagram generation | Visualize bio cycles, physics setups, flowcharts | — | |
| Mock Exam + Flashcards | Timed practice quizzes, spaced-repetition study decks | — | |
| Share-to-Story 9:16 cards | Send classmates a clean answer screenshot | — | |
| Tool-Kit — Tiny Tool code-gen | Generate study utilities, calculators & mini-apps from a prompt | — | |
| Tutor Mode (Socratic) | Learn the material, don't just get the answer | ||
| Chat history | Find that explanation from last week | 30 days | Full semester |
| Routing Quality dashboard | See proof the cheap model is matching the frontier one | — | |
| Chrome extension + mobile app | Study anywhere — laptop, phone, library PC |
Tap any row for a 10-second preview. Both plans include Tutor Mode, automatic model selection, and the 30-day money-back guarantee.
“I have a personalized tutor for every topic.”
A master’s student in cybersecurity walks through Recipe Study Guide, Quiz Me, and Mock Exam — the three Thrifty features she uses every day.
Is there an AI homework app where the parent pays, not the student?
Yes — LemonSugar Ai. A parent buys Thrifty at $99 a year on their own phone, and the student account never asks a kid for a card. Under-18 accounts have checkout turned off entirely; a parent approves the account by email first. Students on Lo-Fi keep asking for free, forever.
What the year buys is the loop, not a pile of models: Guide me asks questions instead of handing over the answer, teach back makes the student explain it, and every miss comes back on schedule until it sticks. Homework that ends. Misses that return.
Upgrade FAQ
The honest answers we'd want before paying $99 a year.
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