Whether helping with creating study plans, summarising 200-page-long documents, or designing presentations, AI tools are fast becoming a study companion for students on the continent.
For Anjola, a third-year history student at the University of Lagos, they’re a lifeline when course materials are outdated and comprehensive resources are scarce. “You get pages and pages of information based on your request. So when you really want to dig deeper into a topic, it is incredibly useful,” she said.
Beyond ChatGPT, here are some other AI-powered platforms helping students to stay ahead.
7 AI tools for students in 2025
1. Quillbot
Quillbot is an AI-powered tool for paraphrasing and writing. It can help students rewrite sentences by improving clarity and checking for grammar errors. It can help refine essays while maintaining original meaning.
Key features for students:
- It includes a paraphrasing tool with different styles. If you want to sound more academic, creative, or formal, there’s a suitable choice for you.
- An AI Detector that can help analyse if your text sounds AI-generated or human-written.
- A grammar checker and spell-checker
- A summariser for getting condensed versions of long research papers or articles, which can also help speed up your research process.
- Quillbot works in Google Docs and Microsoft Word by downloading extensions.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- The layout is simple to use, despite its various features.
- It is also ad-free and does not require any sign-up.
- You can analyse text in over 20 languages, from English to German to Chinese.
- The free version offers decent paraphrasing assistance.
- The different paraphrasing modes help you appropriately shape your writing according to your needs.
- Cons
- There are word limits on the free plan. You can only paraphrase 125 words at a time on the free plan.
- Some advanced paraphrasing modes require a paid subscription.
- Platforms:
- Web, Android, iOS, Chrome Web Extension, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs.
- Price:
- Freemium (Free plan with limits available, Premium plan offered at around $9.95 per month).
2. Grammarly
Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that checks grammar, spelling, punctuation, and writing style. It helps students improve clarity in essays and writing reports.
Key features for students:
- Offers suggestions for writing tone and clarity. These suggestions can be customised to specific goals you decide each time you start a new document on their platform.
- Provides a real-time grammar and spelling checker.
- Includes plagiarism and AI checkers, but only for premium users.
- Works in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, web browsers, and smartphone keyboards.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- Helpful for professional and academic writing.
- It works across 500,000+ websites and apps, so you can write assignments and get corrections without switching across different platforms and breaking focus.
- The free version covers a good amount of grammar and spelling needs.
- The free version allows you to generate texts using over 100 prompts.
- Cons:
- The plagiarism checker and more advanced features are premium.
- Its grammar and spelling suggestions are not always 100% correct.
- Platforms:
- Web, Android, iOS, Chrome Web Extension, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Gmail.
- Price:
- Freemium (Free plan with limits available, Premium plan offered at around $12 per month).
3. Google Gemini
Gemini is Google’s AI chatbot and search assistant that can help students write, research, code, and generate ideas.
“Gemini is serious business for me,” Anjola said. “When I have serious assignments, I use its deep research option to find in-depth information on things.”
Key features for students:
- Integrated with Google Workspace (Google Docs, Slides, Sheets)
- Includes ‘Gems’, basically special AI assistants designed to serve as an expert for a specific task like writing, brainstorming, or coding.
- It has a model focused on heavy maths calculations and analysis, which can be helpful for students looking for specific help.
- It enhances learning by engaging with users in a conversational style that supports follow-up questions and requests.
- Can analyse images, charts, and documents for answers.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- Capable of handling multiple types of media, such as texts, images, and code.
- Allows you to create custom AI assistants on any topic of interest
- Gemini also has a guided learning mode that helps learners build a deep understanding of complex topics.
- Cons:
- The free version cannot help with understanding and digesting large books and reports. Users cannot upload more than 1,500 pages of content which can be limiting for students trying to do deep research.
- Platforms:
- It is available for use on the Web, Android, and iOS
- Price:
- Freemium (Free plan with limits available, Premium plans are included with the Google AI Pro plan, which starts from $20 a month).
4. Elicit
Elicit is an AI research assistant that finds, analyses, and summarises academic papers for students.
Key features for students:
- It helps students find relevant summaries of academic papers relevant to their research topics.
- It has a feature that lets users compare different parts of a research paper, like methodologies, limitations, and key findings, which saves time that would have been spent aimlessly scrolling through many research journals.
- It also has a library feature that allows you to store papers and extract key data and insights from these papers. You can also chat with the academic papers you upload.
- Users can also create alerts to receive notifications when more academic papers related to topics of interest are available.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- The free plan allows users to search for an unlimited amount of time.
- It helps save hours of manual reading and searching, which can sometimes be overwhelming.
- It is a helpful resource for students conducting literature reviews for their final year projects.
- Cons:
- It is mainly limited to academic research use cases.
- The free plan only lets you compare two aspects of a research paper at a time. This can be limiting for students trying to do deeper research for bigger projects.
Platforms:
- It is only available on web browsers at the moment.
Price:
- Freemium (Free plan with limits available, Premium plans with different benefits and features start from $12 per month).
5. NotebookLM
NotebookLM is Google’s AI-powered research and study tool. It helps students summarise documents, create study outlines, and ask questions about their uploaded materials.
Key features for students:
- It allows students to upload PDFs, plain text, website links, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs, or Slides. NotebookLM can summarise these uploaded materials and highlight connections between the different materials based on the questions you ask it.
- It has an Audio Overview feature that lets you create audio files with explanations of complex concepts.
- With the free version, you can upload up to 50 sources and have a daily limit of 50 chat queries and three audio generations.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- NotebookLM will show clear citations for the responses it generates. This helps users understand and verify whether the information provided is actually from the source materials that they have provided.
- It allows you to organise your different projects into notebooks. This is helpful for users who need to use the app for various research and study projects frequently.
- It allows you to share your notebooks with classmates and other collaborators, which is useful for group projects.
- Cons:
- It is mainly suited for Google Workspace.
- The mobile apps have fewer features compared to the web version.
- The free version does not let users customise the style and tone of the tool to fit their needs.
Platforms:
- It is available for use on the Web, Android, and iOS
Price:
- Freemium (Free plan with limits available, paid plans are included with the Google AI Pro plan, which starts from $20 a month). The Google AI Pro plans include better functionality for Google Gemini as well.
6. Gamma
Gamma is an AI-powered presentation creator that helps students turn ideas and thoughts into presentation slides.
Key features for students:
- It can help generate presentations, documents, and webpages using prompts and notes.
- It allows basic image generation using AI tools.
- It allows you to create these presentations in multiple languages, such as Yoruba and Swahili.
- It also supports real-time collaboration and feedback with other students.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- Creating presentations for class projects can be time-consuming. Gamma can help students save time on designing.
- The collaborative features make group projects that involve presentations easier for students.
- Students can create sleek visual presentations without the need for special design skills.
- Cons:
- The free plan has branding restrictions. There is a “Made with Gamma” watermark that appears on content made with the AI tool.
- It isn’t yet integrated into common presentation tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides. This means users may have to constantly switch between the different apps to edit presentation slides.
Platforms:
- It is only available on web browsers for now.
Price:
- Freemium: There is a free plan available with limits. The monthly plans range from $10-$25
7. Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI search assistant that can deliver detailed answers to complex questions with cited sources.
Key features for students:
- It can combine AI-generated responses with verified citations from the web to support its claims. Currently, tools like ChatGPT may provide citations to sources that did not exist.
- It has a Spaces feature that allows users to upload personal files, including PDFs, Word documents, and combine them with web search results. Users can query and search through these uploaded files and the general web at the same time.
- Perplexity’s Spaces feature lets users invite others to contribute to research projects. This is helpful for students working together on long-term group projects and assignments.
Pros & cons
- Pros:
- It offers a different experience from search engines like Google, which use keywords. Students can ask complex questions and get well-structured answers with clickable sources.
- It can help reduce the time spent cross-checking information because you have easier access to the online sources used.
- It is helpful for quick research because it provides answers backed by credible sources.
- Users have access to multiple AI models such as GPT-5, Claude, and others that can provide different functions depending on the task.
- Cons:
- It can generate incorrect information or misinterpret sources at times.
- Users on the free plan can only make three queries daily on the deep research feature. This can be limiting for students doing more heavy research work.
- Citations on the free plan are also limited sometimes.
Platforms:
Price:
- Freemium (Free plan with limits available, Premium plans with different benefits start from $20 per month).
Balancing the use of AI tools
While AI tools promise to boost productivity, they raise concerns over plagiarism and overreliance, prompting caution among students and faculty.
Some lecturers in Nigerian universities remain wary, arguing that AI could erode students’ intelligence and independent thinking. “I don’t think they see it as a tool to help our education. There’s already this established sentiment against the use of AI,” said Daniel, a third-year architecture student at Covenant University.
Others are taking a more measured approach, quietly encouraging students to explore the technology without letting it replace core learning. Still, some students worry they are becoming too dependent and are deliberately scaling back.
For Anjola, AI’s limits are clear. “AI cannot be so specific to what my lecturers want,” she said. “I am human. My lecturers are human. Only both of us know what’s going on.”
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