
AI Study Rooms Are Filling China’s Tutoring Gap — For a Price
Can a machine replace a tutor? That’s the promise behind AI-powered study rooms, a fast-growing industry in China where students sit in silent cubicles, eyes locked on tablet screens. Software tracks mistakes, compiles errors, and adjusts lessons in real time — no certified teachers, just AI supervision, with instructors limited to monitoring and encouragement.
Marketed as self-study spaces rather than tutoring centers, AI study rooms have rapidly expanded across China to circumvent government restrictions on off-campus tutoring for grades one through nine.
Targeting students aged 8 to 18, these centers now number over 50,000 nationwide, offering a low-cost alternative to private coaching. Operating in a gray area, they promise personalized learning without direct classroom instruction.
Instead of live instruction, students in AI study rooms follow preloaded courses and AI-generated learning plans on tablets. Some centers sell tablets bundled with a free month of study room access, while others charge membership fees and include the device as part of the package.
The software analyzes accuracy, identifies mistakes, and compiles them for targeted, repetitive practice. Many also claim to map out personalized learning paths, adjusting exercises based on progress. Parents can even track their child’s performance remotely through mobile apps, receiving detailed reports on mastery levels and accuracy rates.
According to Beijing-based tech firm RUNTO, sales of e-paper tablets in China’s omnichannel market reached 1.83 million units in 2024, a 49.1% increase from the previous year.
Domestic media reports have underscored that AI study room operators deliberately distance themselves from education-related branding to avoid violating China’s tutoring regulations.
Business registrations and marketing materials omit terms like “education,” “tutoring,” or “training,” instead opting for labels such as “cultural media” or “technology services” to appear unrelated to private coaching. And by operating on a membership system rather than charging tuition, study room fees are framed as facility rentals or usage rights.
A tablet bundled with one month of free study room access typically costs 5,000 yuan ($687). After that, students pay for supervision services on a monthly, seasonal, or yearly basis, with fees ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 yuan per month — often higher during holidays.
Compared to traditional tutoring, AI-powered study rooms offer a cheaper alternative. A single one-on-one tutoring session can cost hundreds to nearly 1,000 yuan for just two hours, making AI learning systems a more affordable long-term option.
On social media, business owners boast about the profitability of AI study rooms, with some claiming they open four locations a year and generate average monthly revenues of 90,000 yuan.
A sales representative from a study machine brand told domestic media that the devices retail for 5,780 yuan, while wholesale prices top out at 3,680 yuan. “Setting up an AI study room costs 20,000 to several hundred thousand yuan, with a typical payback period of 1–3 months and profit margins of 65%,” the representative said.
Yet, education experts remain skeptical about their effectiveness and regulatory implications.
Xue Haiping, an expert on off-campus training policies at the Ministry of Education, told state broadcaster CCTV that AI study rooms are essentially a new, smaller-scale but harder-to-regulate form of off-campus tutoring widespread in smaller cities.
“The primary purpose is to drill questions and improve scores,” Xue said. “It’s just a more dispersed, invisible version of traditional tutoring.”
According to Wu He, a senior researcher at a K-12 learning software company, such study rooms lack true AI capabilities, relying instead on preset prompts rather than real student interaction. “Exam-oriented students rarely ask questions, and these machines don’t encourage critical thinking,” Wu said.
Editor: Apurva.
(Header image: An AI-powered study room. From Douyin)