Gimkit

Gimkit: the class review game built by a student who hated review games

Gimkit calls itself a live learning game show, and the economy is the hook: students answer questions on their own devices to earn in-game cash, then decide whether to bank it, buy upgrades and multipliers, or spend it on power-ups that affect other players. That single loop — answer, earn, invest — means questions repeat naturally for reinforcement, and slower students stay in the game instead of falling off a leaderboard.

What started as a quiz engine has grown into a set of genuinely distinct 2D game modes. In Don't Look Down students platform-jump upward, in Tag and Capture the Flag they roam a shared arena, in Fishtopia they fish between question rounds, and in One Way Out they escape together — with correct answers powering progress in every mode. Teachers build kits by hand, import flashcards, use KitCollab to have students contribute the questions, or let the AI question generator draft a kit. The free plan lets you host games (with a 5-player cap on Pro-exclusive modes); Gimkit Pro runs $14.99/month or $59.88/year and unlocks all modes at full class size, image uploads, and the full Creative toolset.

Key Features

• In-game cash economy: students earn money per correct answer and spend it on strategic upgrades
• Distinct 2D game modes, including Don't Look Down, Tag, Capture the Flag, Fishtopia, and One Way Out
• KitCollab, letting students submit the questions that build the class kit
• Flashcard import and AI-assisted question generation for fast kit creation
• Assignments mode for asynchronous practice with progress reports
• Gimkit Creative for building and sharing custom game maps

Ideal Use Case

A middle or high school teacher whose students have burned out on standard quiz leaderboards and who wants review sessions with real gameplay — movement, strategy, and teamwork — layered on top of the question bank.

How Gimkit differentiates

Gimkit began in 2017 as founder Josh Feinsilber's high school project in Seattle, built because he found existing classroom games repetitive. Nine years on, the company remains an independent team of roughly seven people serving more than three million monthly users — a rare bootstrapped-scale story in edtech, with a public Discord community shaping each new mode.

FAQ

Is Gimkit free? There is a free tier for hosting games, but Pro-exclusive modes cap at 5 players on it. Gimkit Pro ($59.88/year or $14.99/month) unlocks everything for a full class, with a free trial available.

Do students need accounts to join? No — students join live games with a code and a name, so playing requires minimal personal information.

How does Gimkit handle student data privacy? Codes-and-nickname joining keeps data collection light for live play. Gimkit publishes a privacy policy for student data in assignments and accounts; districts should verify it against COPPA/FERPA policies before assigning account-based work.

How is Gimkit different from Blooket or Kahoot? Gimkit's modes are closer to actual multiplayer video games — platformers, tag, escape maps — with an earn-and-spend economy, whereas Kahoot is a synchronous quiz and Blooket wraps quizzes in lighter strategy layers.

tl;dr

A live game-show platform where right answers become in-game currency, built by a student and still run by a tiny independent team serving millions.

Related

Looking for more options? Browse the Education & Learning directory or read our best AI education tools listicle. Gimkit is also tracked on Crunchbase.