Kahoot vs Mentimeter: which one fits your session in 2026?

• Built around a game or a deck

  In Kahoot the quiz is the session: music, colored answer buttons, a timer and a leaderboard after every question. In Mentimeter you build a slide deck, mixing content slides with polls, word clouds, open-ended questions and Q&A, and a quiz competition is one slide type among 23.

• How the free plan is limited

  Kahoot limits players per game: 40 on K-12 teacher accounts and 10 on others, with no monthly total. Mentimeter limits participants per month across your account: 50, resetting on your signup day, with one session a month allowed to go over.

• Quiz features

  Mentimeter quizzes support select-answer and type-answer questions, award 500–1,000 points by speed and show a top-10 leaderboard, with every question on participants' phones. Kahoot adds game modes, team mode and question types such as puzzle and slider, but type answer needs Gold, and devices show only answer shapes unless the host turns on questions on devices.

• AI on the free plan

  Menti AI, which drafts presentations and quizzes from a prompt, is included on every Mentimeter plan, free included. Kahoot's AI generator needs a paid plan: Bronze ($36/year) handles 3-page PDFs and Silver ($84/year) handles 150 pages.

• Audience size

  Mentimeter's paid plans have no audience limit for polls and other slides; quiz slides take up to 2,000 concurrent participants, and anyone beyond that waits in a waiting room. Kahoot's caps rise with the tier, from 50 on Bronze to 800 on Kahoot! One and up to 5,000 on its top work plans.

As of October 2026, Mentimeter's education plans cost $8.99 (Basic) or $14.99 (Pro) per presenter per month, billed yearly ($107.88 or $179.88), and its business plans cost $11.99 or $24.99 per presenter per month, also billed yearly; monthly billing is offered only in a few countries. Conference plans cost $350 or $750 for one month of use. Kahoot's teacher tiers run from $36 to $228 a year (50 players on Bronze, 100 on Silver, 200 on Gold, 800 on Kahoot! One), and its Kahoot! 360 work plans run from $19 to $79 per presenter per month, billed annually. For teachers, Kahoot is cheaper ($36 vs $107.88 a year at entry level); for business presenters with big audiences, Mentimeter Basic ($143.88/year, no audience cap outside quiz slides) undercuts Kahoot's work plans, which start at $228/year for 50 participants.

• the quiz is the main event and you want game-show energy
• you teach K-12 and 40 free players per game, every game, is enough
• you want self-paced assignments that students finish after class
• you want the cheapest paid plan for teachers: $36 a year
• you want puzzle, slider or team modes

• you're presenting and want polls, word clouds, Q&A and quizzes in one deck
• you want AI on the free plan
• your audience is large or unpredictable and you don't want tiered player caps
• you want to import Keynote or PDF slides as well as PowerPoint
• you want type-answer quiz questions without buying a top tier

• you run live, game-show style quizzes and want one simple price: $9/month, billed monthly
• your groups are big — up to 500 players per game
• players should be able to read every question on their own phone (large rooms, hybrid and video calls)
• you don't need homework, self-paced or presentation features

Choose Kahoot when the quiz is the session and Mentimeter when the quiz is one part of a talk. Kahoot is cheaper for teachers and its free plan resets every game rather than every month; Mentimeter wins on polls, word clouds, Q&A, free AI and audience size on paid plans. If you've outgrown Mentimeter's 50-participant monthly allowance only because of quizzes, Quizzo is a quiz-only third option at $9/month, billed monthly, for up to 500 players.