Most AP prep is either free and shallow, or excellent and expensive

Free — nonprofit, no paid tier

A genuinely free nonprofit, and the best-known name in free online instruction: strong video teaching, exercise sets, and teacher dashboards with class rosters. We have deliberately left most rows blank — their AP-aligned coverage and tooling change over time and we have not audited it subject by subject, so we will not put marks in boxes we have not checked.

AP Classroom comes with an AP course at a participating school; each exam carries a fee College Board sets annually

The official source, and nothing here replaces it: College Board defines every AP course, publishes released free-response questions, and sells official practice through AP Classroom. Access runs through a teacher at a school that has completed the AP Course Audit, and official practice exams are released by that teacher rather than opened by the student. Exam fees are set annually and fee reductions exist, so we print no number — check the current year’s published fee.

Free — from the University of Colorado Boulder

Free, research-backed interactive science and math simulations out of the University of Colorado Boulder — the closest free analogue to our labs, and genuinely excellent at that one job. It is a simulation library rather than an AP program: no AP-aligned units, no question banks, no scoring.

Free tier plus a paid subscription

An enormous library of user-made flashcard sets, with spaced repetition as the core study mode. Two caveats we would want to know as a student: subscription pricing moves and we have not verified it here, and the content is user-generated, so accuracy varies set to set rather than being guaranteed.

Hourly, negotiated per tutor

The strongest option for individual feedback, and the one we refuse to price. Rates run from volunteer and peer tutoring through independent tutors to premium agency packages, and shift by subject, region, and season. A human reading your work and adjusting on the spot is something no software here matches — including us. Ask any tutor for their current rate in writing.

Per-course or per-package pricing, varies by provider

Group classes, spring review courses, and cram weekends from national and regional prep companies. List prices differ by brand, subject, hour count, and time of year, and are discounted often enough that any figure we printed would be wrong by the time you read it. Ask for the all-in price including materials, and ask how many students are in the room.

One-time purchase, per title and per edition

Still one of the best value-per-dollar options in AP prep, and the format is the honest limit: a book cannot run a simulation, read your essay, or keep a class roster. Practice tests are on paper, so you time and score them yourself. Cover prices change by edition and retailer, so we do not quote one — check the current listing for your subject.

Included with enrollment at a public school; the exam fee is separate

Your teacher is the best resource you have and you are already enrolled. Nearly every row is blank here for a real reason: course offerings, review sessions, lab equipment, and mock-exam practice vary enormously school to school, so the only honest answer is “ask yours”. Everything on this site is built to sit alongside that class, not to replace it.