Productivity & Business · Education & Productivity

OpenMAIC

OpenMAIC is Tsinghua University's free, open-source AI classroom that turns a topic or PDF into a lesson led by AI teachers and classmates.

Our take: OpenMAIC is a serious research-backed project with fast, frequent releases and a licence that lets you build on it commercially.

Best forAI interactive lessons

ReviewedOct 2026Free

6.85 criteria · see breakdown

Try OpenMAICFree (MIT); model API costs are yours

OpenMAIC is a free, open-source AI classroom from Tsinghua University's THU-MAIC team: give it a topic or PDF and it builds a lesson with slides, quizzes and simulations led by AI teachers and classmates. The code is MIT-licensed and free even for commercial use, but you pay for your own AI models and hosting.

The bottom line

A free, powerful AI classroom engine for people who can host it.

Our score

Reviewed by the Conversion Gems editorial team. Hover a facet to focus it; click to pin.Tap a facet to focus it.

What it is, and why we rate it

One line each. Open a row for detail.

What it really isOpen-source software that generates and runs an interactive class with AI teacher and classmate agents from a prompt or document.

Our takeOpenMAIC is a serious research-backed project with fast, frequent releases and a licence that lets you build on it commercially.

It goes further than most AI lesson generators by running the class, not just writing the materials. The cost is technical: you need a server, a database and paid model keys, and you are your own support desk. Also check the address bar, since several look-alike sites rank for the name.

Why we rate itBroad lesson generation, an open licence and very active development.

The catchSelf-hosting setup, your own model bills, and no official hosted plan or support.

Best / not good for

Best for

Interactive lessons from PDFs or topics
Edtech teams building on open source
Researchers studying AI tutoring

Not good for

Teachers who want a ready hosted app
Schools needing contracts and SSO
Users without API budgets

Trade-offs

Friction report

Trade-offs to know before signing up.

Time to value
An hour or more to self-host (Node.js, pnpm, PostgreSQL, API keys); minutes with a demo access code.
Scale breakpoint
When many students generate lessons, since every lesson consumes paid model tokens and needs server capacity.
Walled garden
None: MIT code, bring-your-own models and storage, .pptx and HTML export.

Still a fit?

If none of these block you, start on the free plan.

Try OpenMAIC

What OpenMAIC costs

Option	Price	What you get
Self-hosted (open source)	$0 licence	MIT code; you pay your own LLM, voice and image providers and hosting
Official demo at open.maic.chat	Not published	Access code needed; no published limits

From the OpenMAIC README on GitHub, checked 4 October 2026. Third-party sites such as openmaic.chat are not run by the Tsinghua team and set their own prices.

What you need to self-host

Requirement	Detail
Runtime	Node.js 22.19 or newer, pnpm 10 or newer
Database	PostgreSQL 16 (pnpm db:up starts one in Docker)
AI provider	At least one LLM key, or a local model via Ollama or Lemonade
Deployment	Local, Docker Compose or Vercel with an external PostgreSQL
Optional	Render service for MP4 export; ffmpeg for audio and video extraction

From the OpenMAIC README (v1.1.2), checked 4 October 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenMAIC?

OpenMAIC (Open Multi-Agent Interactive Classroom) is an open-source AI platform from the THU-MAIC team at Tsinghua University. It turns a topic or document into an interactive lesson with slides, quizzes, simulations and project work, delivered by AI teachers and AI classmates.

Is OpenMAIC free?

Yes. The software is free under the MIT licence, and the README says commercial use is permitted free of charge. Running it is not free in practice: you pay your own AI model providers and host a PostgreSQL database (checked 4 October 2026).

What is the official OpenMAIC website?

The project lives at github.com/THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC, and its README links open.maic.chat as the official live demo. openmaic.chat says in its footer that it is an independent community site not affiliated with the Tsinghua team, and it sells its own credits.

How do I run OpenMAIC?

Clone the GitHub repo, install with pnpm (Node.js 22.19 or newer), start PostgreSQL 16 (pnpm db:up does this in Docker), add at least one LLM API key and run pnpm dev. Docker Compose and Vercel deployment are also documented. For quick testing, request an access code at open.maic.chat.

Which AI models does OpenMAIC support?

OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, MiniMax, Grok, OpenRouter, GLM and others, plus local models through Ollama or Lemonade and any OpenAI-compatible API.

Can OpenMAIC export to PowerPoint?

Yes. You can download editable .pptx slides or interactive .html pages. MP4 video export is available when you run the optional render service.

OpenMAIC alternatives

Other AI tools for teaching and learning:

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Sources checked October 4, 2026: OpenMAIC on GitHub, OpenMAIC official live demo, MAIC paper (JCST 2026).

Conversion Gems independently reviews every tool.

OpenMAIC

What OpenMAIC costs

What you need to self-host

Frequently Asked Questions

OpenMAIC alternatives

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