CodeIt guide
Code.org Is Now CodeAI: What Changed
Code.org rebranded org-wide as CodeAI in June 2026. The domain is still live, CS curriculum still exists, and the emphasis moved to AI literacy.
Code.org announced an organisation-wide rebrand to CodeAI on 2 June 2026. The name changed; the URL did not. code.org is still live, still in active use, and still free, so if you have been told "Code.org shut down" or "Code.org no longer exists," that is wrong, and it is the single most repeated error about this story.
What did change is the organisation's stated emphasis. CodeAI now describes its mission in terms of digital fluency spanning AI science, computer science and data science, rather than computer science alone. The December Hour of Code event is now the Hour of AI. Whether that shift is good for your child is a real question with a real answer, and it depends on what you wanted out of the site. This page lays out the evidence and then answers it directly.
Last verified: 21 August 2026.
How we know this is a real rebrand, not a sub-brand
Organisations launch AI-flavoured sub-programs all the time, and those are usually not worth a headline. Three things separate this from that pattern.
- The organisation says so in the first person. The page at code.org/en-US/codeai states plainly: "Code.org is now CodeAI."
- The branding reaches the boring pages. CodeAI branding now appears on the newsroom and the Terms of Service. Marketing pages get rebranded for campaigns; Terms of Service pages get rebranded when the legal entity's public identity actually changes. This is the strongest single tell.
- Independent coverage treated it as an org-level change. GeekWire framed it as solidifying a shift to AI education; the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Education Week also covered it.
Leadership context: Karim Meghji has been CEO since February 2026, roughly four months before the rebrand was announced.
The honest answer to "does it still teach coding?"
Yes, and the emphasis has moved.
The computer science curriculum still exists. CS Discoveries, CS Principles, the block-based courses for younger students, the whole existing library. That material did not evaporate on 2 June 2026. A parent whose child is halfway through a course is not stranded.
At the same time, an organisation does not rename itself, restate its mission around digital fluency, and rename its flagship annual event without meaning it. The new material, the new promotion, and the framing at the top of the funnel are AI-forward. CS is now one of three named strands rather than the whole point.
Both of those sentences are true at once. Anyone telling you only the first ("nothing changed, it's just a logo") or only the second ("they abandoned coding") is selling you something. What you should expect over time is that the CS material remains available while the newest, best-promoted, most-maintained content skews toward AI literacy.
Deciding what that means for your child
| If you wanted... | CodeAI in 2026 | What to consider |
|---|---|---|
| A free, structured K–12 CS course sequence | Still there, still free | Fine to continue. Bookmark your course directly rather than navigating from the homepage |
| Your child to understand how AI works and how to use it critically | Now a core strength | This is the direction the organisation has chosen; expect the newest material here |
| Deep, typed programming practice | Was never CodeAI's centre of gravity | Look at CodeCombat, CodeMonkey, or Codecademy, and note Codecademy's Terms of Service §1.A require users to be 16 or older |
| Open-ended creative building | Limited | Scratch remains the strongest free option here |
| A classroom platform for a school | Still a schools platform | CodeAI and CodeHS (grades 6–12) remain the main free/low-cost school-facing options |
Free alternatives if you want CS without the AI framing
| Option | Cost | Ages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scratch (MIT) | Free | 8–16 | Block-based, huge shared project community, no AI repositioning |
| Khan Academy | Free | ~10+ | Solid teaching, but the CS content runs on legacy ProcessingJS and is visibly aging |
| freeCodeCamp | Free | Nominally 13+ | Excellent and genuinely free, but built for adults; not designed for kids |
| Kodable | US$119.99/yr for families, four children | 4–10 | K-5 focused. Its free Kickstart plan is a school plan |
| CodeCombat | Freemium | ~9+ | Typed Python/JS in a game |
Scratch is the closest thing to "Code.org before the shift" that still exists at zero cost, and it is not going anywhere. It is an MIT project, not a venture-funded product.
The follow-up questions parents actually ask
"Is it still free?" Yes. CodeAI remains free for K–12 use.
"Do my child's saved projects survive the rebrand?" A rebrand is a naming and positioning change, not a platform migration, and accounts and saved work were not reported to be affected. That said, the cheap insurance is universal and worth doing once: if your child has work they care about, download or screenshot it now. This applies to every platform in this document, not just this one.
"Should I be worried that my child will only learn AI prompting instead of programming?" This is a fair concern and the honest answer is: watch what they actually do, not what the platform is called. There is a real difference between a child who produces a result with AI and a child who can open up the result, read it, and change it. If your child is using AI tools and never looks underneath, that is a gap regardless of which site they are on. The fix is picking activities that end with the child writing and running code themselves, not picking a vendor.
"Is Hour of AI still worth participating in?" For most families and classrooms, yes. The value of that event was always the low-friction, one-hour on-ramp, and that has not changed. Just know what your child is signing up for is now framed around AI concepts.
Disclosure: who published this page
This page is published by CodeIt (codeitlearn.com). We make a browser-based coding studio for kids and we compete for the same attention CodeAI gets, so weigh our framing accordingly. We have tried to describe the change without spinning it: CodeAI is free, it is large, its CS curriculum is still real, and for many families continuing there is the right call.
Where CodeIt is a genuine fit is the specific gap described above. Kids describe a website, game or quiz, play what comes back, and change it by moving things and picking colours. A tab then shows what the project is made of and opens the lesson behind each idea in it. AI can help generate a project, but the output stays editable instead of becoming a locked AI result: which is the whole point if your worry is that AI tools produce black boxes. The free plan does not expire and needs no card: ten assisted project builds a month and two learner profiles under a parent view. A paid family plan is available at CA$12 a month, cancellable at any time. There is also a 31-lesson beginner Python sequence.
Where CodeIt is not a fit: we are a consumer product for families. We have no school, district, rostering, LMS or teacher-dashboard features. If you are a teacher looking at this because your school used Code.org, CodeAI or CodeHS is the right place to stay. And if your child is under 8 and pre-reading, use codeSpark or Kodable, not us.
Questions parents ask first
Is it still free?
Yes. CodeAI remains free for K–12 use.
Do my child's saved projects survive the rebrand?
A rebrand is a naming and positioning change, not a platform migration, and accounts and saved work were not reported to be affected. That said, the cheap insurance is universal and worth doing once: if your child has work they care about, download or screenshot it now. This applies to every platform in this document, not just this one.
Should I be worried that my child will only learn AI prompting instead of programming?
This is a fair concern and the honest answer is: watch what they actually do, not what the platform is called. There is a real difference between a child who produces a result with AI and a child who can open up the result, read it, and change it. If your child is using AI tools and never looks underneath, that is a gap regardless of which site they are on. The fix is picking activities that end with the child writing and running code themselves, not picking a vendor.
Is Hour of AI still worth participating in?
For most families and classrooms, yes. The value of that event was always the low-friction, one-hour on-ramp, and that has not changed. Just know what your child is signing up for is now framed around AI concepts.
What you can do on CodeIt
Last verified 2026-08-21.