What it is
Overview
Course Hero houses 184 million student-shared study documents alongside 24/7 expert tutoring across 130,000 schools. Students upload and access class notes, study guides, practice exams, and homework solutions. The service draws 5.2 million monthly visits from undergraduates hunting for course materials and tutoring help. Early reviewers describe the document database as the main draw — finding uploaded materials from their specific class or textbook.
At a glance
Usability & Quality overview
Best for
- students in popular, well-covered courses
- users looking for shared study documents
- quick help on simpler homework questions
Watch out for
- answer quality varies by course
- monthly pricing can feel steep for light use
- tutor-side payouts can be slow
Real product, not a wrapperIndependent product
Course Hero offers access to 184 million student-shared study documents from 130,000 schools - a massive proprietary database that general AI tools like ChatGPT don't have. It also provides specialized academic tutoring and workflow integration designed specifically for coursework assistance.
Strong evidenceQuality score
Course Hero is a crowdsourced study-help platform for student documents, tutoring, and homework support, but coverage is uneven.
This score is our editorial judgment, computed automatically from the sources, weights, and dates shown above. It reflects the data we could verify as of October 12, 2026, not a guarantee or statement of fact about Course Hero. Third-party ratings and quotes belong to their original platforms and authors. Thin data lowers our confidence label, and we say so instead of guessing. Work on Course Hero? Dispute any datapoint and we will review it, publish your response, and correct verified errors.
Plans
Pricing
How free is free?
Trial only
Free plans require payment after initial access; subscription-based model
What you get for free
- Access to course-specific study documents and materials
- Ask AI feature for study assistance
- Expert tutor access (24/7)
- Textbook solutions and step-by-step explanations
Behind the paywall
- Continued access to all features after trial periodPremier subscription
- Document downloads without restrictionsPremier subscription
- QuillBot Premium and Symbolab featuresPremier Plus subscription
Cost to actually use
Based on 31 classified review complaints about rate limits, credits, and billing.
Community feedback
Aggregated reviews
Ratings and quoted comments below are aggregated from third-party sources and reflect those users' views, not SearchTools.ai's.
What reviewers talk about
themes inside the Sentiment pillar — not score ingredients
60Output Quality29 mentions
“PLEASE USE THIS: This App! It saved my life in like 10 minutes when I had to turn an assignment in before my next class that I needed it for! It gives thorough steps in how to do the equations too! THANK YOU!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩”
“Terrible: You’ll find the laziest tutors here. The app is absolutely useless and never works. Their website is not any better.”
“DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY: Don’t believe the 4.6 rating this app has. This is basically a huge elaborate scam. If you want the free unlock with 10 documents, don’t bother, they’ll “decline” your documents (despite them being perfectly fine) but still steal and use your work. The prices are absurd and should honestly be classified as literal robbery. Don’t contribute your school work to this company.”
“So to start I would like to say that the app itself and all the help is outstanding. However I do not and will never support shady business practices. You are unable to cancel your subscription without emailing the company directly. The only options readily available is to pause your subscription for one month and then it will automatically renew itself. For the price you will pay for course hero I strongly recommend alternatives as they are comparable and most likely have far more content.”
14Value & Pricing37 mentions
“Excellent source for homework help in all subjects, with plenty of resources and study guides, as well as documents that provide a starting point if a topic or question is confusing. If able, the one-time, annual subscription is the best option, so you at least don't have a monthly bill or auto-deduction. It is well worth it. I don't generally use paid services, but it has helped tremendously!”
“I like their promise to help with your hard points in the courses. Unfortunately, which they fail to do. They promise to let you download, but give you broken downloads. They don't tell how many you get in a download but seem to be in somewhere at a small print. In your place to pay they say you get refunded unquestioned, but when your downloads didn't work and you ask for a refund and they'll say sorry we don't refund. Absolutely disgusting company. When their downloads didn't work (they give y”
“Answers to questions. I liked when it was free to get an answer to a question. But now you have to pay for it just to get an answer to a question. This compares to Brainly because they both answer your questions. But with one u atleast have the option to view an ad to see the answer. They ask you to subscribe to even view one question, and I am a student- I don't have the money for that. And they say they are here to help students, well it aint helping me. It is not solving any of my problems, C”
“Bull: Was charged without my knowledge apparently my card was on file so they charged it. I haven’t used it in months. I need a refund !”
7Reliability12 mentions
“App is working great now!: Subscription is pricey, but you can pause whenever you need to.”
“Terrible: You’ll find the laziest tutors here. The app is absolutely useless and never works. Their website is not any better.”
“Scam: After paying for the subscription the app wouldn’t let me access it. And won’t take my phone number for verification and now I can’t use the app to help me with anything. They just took my money.”
“Keep crashing: My app keep crashing”
18Supportthin data · 7 mentions
“EDIT: I sent an email and they are refunding my and canceling my subscription for me. They got back to me very quickly. I paused my subscription, but it automatically un-paused and charged me $40 this month. So, I went to cancel my subscription but the 'manage subscription' page won't work. Also, other than 'submitting feedback' there is no customer support, so I'm just out $40 and can't cancel my subscription from the app.”
“Deceptive and illegal: There is no costumer service phone number and they don’t answer emails. Please avoid uploading files. When you upload a document there is no way to delete it while you are not even a subscriber. All scam website. They don’t care about privacy policy.”
“BEWARE: Company kept charging me months after I cancelled my subscription. I tried to reach out to support several times with no luck. Honestly the stress and the below average help provided by this company in terms of support and homework help is definitely not worth it. I’d think of looking somewhere else”
“This is the second time I paid and can't unlock documents. I've sent screen shots of transactions from course hero website, my debit card, and Google play store. That should be enough for them to unlock. I've contacted support, they make it seems as it's I'm a fraud. I'm disputing it with my debit card. Reading the reviews I know now I'm not the only one this has happened to. It's safe to say it's Course Hero iss6snd not ours.”
33Ease of Use12 mentions
“Easy to learn courses and at your pace learning. I haven't found anything I didn't like about the course. I like the handouts and to be able to locate content at ease.”
“This is singlehandedly the worse app I've ever used. I wanted just 1 document, just 1! And wanted to access via website but it didn't work. I downloaded the app but it's even worse! they're telling me to subscribe. For what? One document? Not everyone wants to use this thing for a long time. I just needed one document. And your preview of the files succcckssss hard! Terrible.”
“I like it When you take a course; you can access documents of people who have taken the same class which can be of crucial help to you. I like how easy it is to navigate the platform. Course hero pays tutors well. I don't like how easy it is to plagiarise via course hero. I don't particularly appreciate how tutors and experts who are not experts in the field give random answers to your inquiries and questions. I don't like how pricey the premium membership is. I worked as a tutor in Course hero ”
“So much red tape: Website and app are very annoying to use. Rate, post, blah, blah. On top of a monthly fee. Not worth it. Chegg is better.”
30Trust derived from dimensions + predator detectionview math
A composite of the quality dimensions weighted by mention volume, then capped by predator / abuse-detection rules.
Reasoning
Capabilities
Key features
Education Assistant
Supports teaching and studying by explaining concepts and answering learner questions
Homework Helper
Walks students through assignments and problems with step-by-step explanations
The honest take
What users love & flag
Distinct themes surfaced across 81.2K reviews from 4 sources — each grounded in real review text, ranked by how often it comes up.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is Course Hero?
Course Hero is an educational platform that provides access to 184 million study documents shared by students from over 130,000 schools, plus 24/7 expert tutoring help. Students can find course-specific materials like past exams, lecture notes, and assignments, while also getting step-by-step solutions to difficult problems from verified tutors.
Is Course Hero free to use?
Course Hero offers both free and premium access tiers. The free tier allows limited document views, while premium accounts (Premier and Premier Plus) provide unlimited access to AI-powered answers, explanations, recommendations, and one-click tutor help.
How does Course Hero find materials specific to my school and courses?
Course Hero's database is organized by specific schools and courses, making it easy to find materials directly relevant to your assignments and exams. You can search for documents contributed by students who have previously taken the same courses at your institution.
What types of study materials can I find on Course Hero?
You can access past exams, lecture notes, assignments, study guides, and other course materials shared by students. The platform also includes integrated tools like flashcards, grammar checkers, paraphrasing tools, and a math solver for detailed problem explanations.
How does the tutoring feature work?
Course Hero provides 24/7 access to verified expert tutors who can help with difficult problems and provide step-by-step solutions. Premium users get one-click tutor help and can ask questions to receive detailed explanations and guidance.
What platforms is Course Hero available on?
Course Hero is available as a web tool through browsers, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and a Chrome extension. The mobile app allows you to upload documents by taking photos for easy sharing and access.
What's included in the Premier Plus plan?
Premier Plus is a study bundle that includes Course Hero access plus QuillBot Premium writing tools and Symbolab math solver features. This plan combines Course Hero's document database and tutoring with additional AI-powered writing and math assistance tools.
How can I contribute to Course Hero and unlock more access?
You can upload and share your own study materials to unlock additional document access. This peer-to-peer sharing model helps build the platform's database while giving contributors more access to resources from other students.
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