Brilliant vs Surge AI

Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and ratings

Analysis reviewed Live tool data as of 2026-10-09
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At a glance

DimensionBrilliantSurge AI
Target UserStudents & lifelong learners in STEMAI labs & enterprise teams needing expert feedback
Primary Use CaseInteractive STEM learning with AI tutorExpert human feedback for RLHF & red teaming
Key FeatureKoji AI tutor with adaptive problem-solvingExpert workforce (doctors, lawyers, engineers) + proprietary benchmarks
Latest NewsNo recent newsMicrosoft used Surge for MAI-Thinking-1; launched Antidote, Riemann-bench, GDP.pdf, EnterpriseBench
Best ForBuilding personal STEM skillsEvaluating & aligning frontier AI models
Try BrilliantTry Surge AI
Brilliant
Brilliant

Brilliant is an interactive math and coding tutor whose Koji AI guide asks questions and sketches on a shared canvas instead of handing you answers.

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Surge AI
Surge AI

Surge AI supplies expert human RLHF data, red teaming, and public benchmarks like GDP.pdf and the Tuesday Work Index for frontier model

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Pricing
Freemium
Contact Sales
Plans
$0/mo
$30/mo
$149.99/yr billed as one annual payment
$60/mo
—
Popularity
26 views
7.4k views
Skill Level
Beginner-friendly
Advanced
API Available
Platforms
WebMobile
Web
Categories
📚 Study Tools🧮 Homework Help & Math Solvers
🏷️ Data Labeling & Training Data
Features
Koji AI tutor that guides via questions and hints instead of giving answers
Shared interactive canvas where Koji sketches and annotates your work
Voice or chat guidance from Koji during lesson interventions
Adaptive learning plans built around your mastery gaps
Mastery assessments that trigger targeted practice when you fall short
Personalized practice sessions focused on concepts needing review
Interactive coding environment where you write and run code yourself
Real-time progress dashboards showing strengths and weak areas
Regular progress notifications for learners and parents
Math courses from fractions and quadratics to derivatives, matrices, and calculus
Computer science courses in Thinking in Python, recursion, algorithms, and neural networks
Science courses including circuits, digital circuits, and quantum computing
Data analysis courses in visualizing data, probability, clustering, and regression
Real-world projects like Instagram-style image filters and website security
iOS, Android, and web access with one subscription across devices
Expert human workforce of doctors, lawyers, engineers, and writers for frontier AI data
RLHF preference data collection and human feedback for model fine-tuning and post-training
Red teaming and adversarial testing staffed with credentialed domain specialists
Off-the-shelf post-training runs built on expert evaluation data
SWE consultant network for software engineering and technical tasks
Agentic coding task sets: 1,700 tasks gave Kimi K2.7 +20.0pp on SWE-Marathon and +12.4pp on DeepSWE
GDP.xlsx benchmark for professional spreadsheet comprehension, spanning 70 tasks across 12 knowledge-work domains
sudo L7 benchmark for staff-level engineering judgment in coding agents
GDP.pdf benchmark for real-world professional document comprehension, cited in the GPT-5.6 release
Chartography benchmark for chart reasoning: Kaplan-Meier curves, candlesticks, contour maps, Bode plots
ComplexConstraints benchmark for instruction following with mutually dependent constraints
HANDBOOK.md benchmark for long-context policy adherence against expert handbooks
DAYJOB vertical benchmark suites for economically valuable agents in Healthcare and Finance
Tuesday Work Index composite benchmark scoring frontier models on real professional work
RL environments including CoreCraft and EnterpriseBench with Python SDK and REST API access

What real users say: Brilliant vs Surge AI

Not marketing copy and not our opinion — a structured sweep of public discussion (reviews, forums, communities and video comments), showing what people praise and what they complain about for each tool.

Brilliant

87 mentions across 6 sources · 21% positive — critical (averaged across 6 sources)

Hacker News, Product Hunt, App Store, Stack Overflow, GitHub, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Interactive, visual problem-solving makes STEM concepts intuitive and fun
  • • AI tutor Koji adapts to knowledge level and provides guided hints
  • • Bite-sized lessons with instant feedback keep learning momentum
  • • Gamified streaks and XP system motivates daily practice

What frustrates them

  • • Free tier limits to only 2 lessons per day after first week
  • • $20/month subscription is expensive for casual learners
  • • Instructions are often unclear, even for STEM graduates
  • • App occasionally suffers from slow loading times

Researched Jul 2, 2026

Surge AI

48 mentions across 3 sources · 38% positive — critical (weighted across 3 sources)

Hacker News, YouTube, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Credentialed workforce of doctors, lawyers and engineers instead of generic crowd annotators
  • • GDP.pdf cited by OpenAI in the GPT-5.6 release with a concrete 30.7% flagship score
  • • Kimi K2.7 post-training run published measurable SWE-Marathon, DeepSWE and Terminal-Bench gains
  • • Benchmark catalog spans chart reasoning, dependent constraints, long-context policy and verticals

What frustrates them

  • • Contact-only pricing means no public rate card, no tiers, and no way to self-serve
  • • Benchmark sponsorship and independence questions raised directly in HN threads
  • • Expert-credential verification process is never explained in any community source
  • • No community data on support responsiveness, uptime, or SLAs at enterprise scale

Researched Oct 7, 2026

Who should pick which

  • High school student struggling with calculus
    Pick: Brilliant

    Brilliant's adaptive AI tutor Koji provides step-by-step guidance and practice problems tailored to a student's level, making it affordable and engaging.

  • AI safety team at a frontier lab
    Pick: Surge AI

    Surge's expert workforce and benchmarks like Antidote and Riemann-bench are designed for rigorous red teaming and RLHF, as proven by Microsoft's use.

  • Adult learner refreshing Python
    Pick: Brilliant

    Brilliant's interactive, visual approach simplifies programming concepts and fits into a daily routine with streaks and goals.

  • Enterprise building a document-reading AI
    Pick: Surge AI

    Surge's GDP.pdf benchmark and expert labeling of complex PDFs directly addresses multimodal document understanding.

  • Homeschooler seeking complete STEM curriculum
    Pick: Brilliant

    Brilliant is WASC accredited and covers math, coding, and science from elementary to college prep, replacing textbooks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Brilliant help me prepare for a coding interview?

Yes, its Python and algorithm courses build problem-solving skills, though it's not interview-specific like LeetCode.

Does Surge AI offer automated evaluations without human graders?

No, Surge's core value is human expertise; for automated eval they recommend other tools.

Is Brilliant free?

Brilliant has a limited free tier; full access requires a Premium subscription (~$24.99/month).

What is the price of Surge AI?

Pricing is custom based on project needs—contact sales for a quote.

Can Surge AI help with RLHF for a small startup?

Yes, but it's best suited for teams with budget for expert annotators; minimum project size may apply.

Does Brilliant have a mobile app?

Yes, available for iOS and Android for learning on the go.

What benchmarks does Surge AI provide for evaluating models?

Antidote (expert-graded leaderboard), Riemann-bench (extreme math), GDP.pdf (PDF understanding), ComplexConstraints (entangled instructions), Hemingway-bench (creative writing), and EnterpriseBench (agentic RL).

Is Brilliant suitable for college-level math?

Yes, it covers calculus, linear algebra, probability, and statistics—ideal for reinforcing core concepts.

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Explore each tool further

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Last reviewed: July 2, 2026