Choosing an AI lesson planner in Australia
There are more of us than you'd think, and the honest answer is that different tools suit different teachers. Here's the field as we see it, what each does well, and where TeachKoala deliberately differs — with free samples so you can judge the work, not the marketing.
The short version of how we're different
Most tools generate resources — a deck, a worksheet, an outline. TeachKoala generates teaching: complete lessons a relief teacher could run (teacher notes, answer keys, misconception flags), curriculum codes verified against official ACARA v9 data so they can't be invented, and unit plans in the Queensland adjusted-unit format — the document your HOD actually asks for. Fewer formats, deeper artefacts, priced by the school term.
Head-to-head comparisons
TeachKoala vs Chalkie →
A polished AI slide and resource generator with a mature editor and many resource formats.
Free tier · Pro US$8.99/mo · Max US$16.99/mo (3 months free yearly)
TeachKoala vs Kuraplan →
An AI lesson, unit and worksheet planner for Australian and New Zealand teachers.
Free tier (planner tools included) · Pro A$9/mo · Schools A$99/teacher/yr
TeachKoala vs My Curriculum Mate →
An AI teaching assistant for Australian K–12 teachers with a credits-based model.
Free (50 credits) · Pro A$10/mo (500 credits) · Schools A$99/yr (5,000 credits)
TeachKoala vs Lesson Creator →
An AI resource generator for Australian teachers — one learning intention in, many resource types out.
Free (3 lessons/week) · Plus A$12/mo or A$99/yr, unlimited
And the two defaults everyone considers
ChatGPT (or any general AI)
Free-to-cheap and endlessly flexible — but it invents curriculum codes, formats nothing for the classroom, and every lesson starts from a blank prompt. Great for ideas; a lot of work for artefacts.
Teach Starter / Twinkl
Huge libraries of pre-made, human-reviewed resources. The opposite trade-off to AI generation: high polish, but the resource is what it is — it wasn't written for your class, your week or your code.
Honest guidance on choosing
- Want maximum resource variety on a budget? Lesson Creator's 13 formats or Chalkie's activity types may suit you better than we do.
- Teaching to NSW, Victorian or WA syllabus documents? My Curriculum Mate covers those explicitly; our verified codes are AC v9 (state selections work, without code verification).
- Need complete, walk-in-and-teach lessons and formal unit plans? That's the job TeachKoala was built for — start with the free samples below.
Competitor details from published pricing/feature pages (and our own dated evaluation for Chalkie), August 2026. All names are trademarks of their owners; check their sites for current details.