You’ve probably seen the ads: snap a photo, get the steps, finish faster. Gauth—formerly Gauthmath—sells itself as an “AI study companion” that answers homework questions across math, science, and more. But the real questions people ask aren’t about derivatives. They’re about safety and trust. Who’s behind it? What data does it collect? Does it actually teach, or just hand over answers? Let’s talk through it—plainly, with receipts.
First, the short answer: yes, Gauth is generally safe to install and use, if you’re comfortable with mainstream app-store data practices and you use it as a tutor rather than a shortcut. There are meaningful privacy notes and academic-integrity concerns you should know about, and I’ll spell those out. But the app isn’t malware, it’s not a shady clone, and it runs under a real company with published policies.
Gauth is a homework-help app that lets you take a photo of a problem, parses the text and symbols, and returns a step-by-step solution. It now supports subjects beyond math, and it recently rolled out “AI Live Tutor,” a voice-driven, whiteboard-style helper for real-time explanations. That’s the pitch you’ll see on Google Play and the App Store, where the app has millions of downloads and very high ratings.
You’ll also see language like “accurate answers, step-by-step” and “ask by voice… see problems explained clearly on a live whiteboard.” Users can upgrade to Gauth Plus for unlimited answers, higher accuracy, and access to 20M+ tutorial videos. Think of it as “camera in, structured explanation out,” with an optional live, talk-to-a-guide layer on top.
Who runs Gauth? That matters for trust
Here’s a detail people miss: Gauth is linked to ByteDance, the company behind TikTok. Axios put it bluntly: “TikTok owner ByteDance also quietly operates… Gauth.” That same Axios piece notes the app sits high in the education charts and spells out the basic workflow—upload photos of problems and get solutions with steps. For a lot of folks, that ownership connection is the headline, because it ties the app into broader policy debates and regulatory scrutiny.
On paper, Gauth lists GauthTech Pte. Ltd. in Singapore as the developer and data controller, with a real address (1 Raffles Quay). That’s the entity you’ll see on Google Play, the App Store, and in the privacy policy. Corporate structure aside, you’re not dealing with an anonymous shell.
How Gauth works under the hood
The flow is simple and surprisingly effective:
- Capture: You point your camera at a question—printed, handwritten, or on a screen.
- Understand: Gauth uses computer vision and OCR to read the text, symbols, and layout.
- Solve + Explain: An AI model (and, on paid tiers, human experts) produces a stepwise solution.
- Coach: With AI Live Tutor, you can ask follow-ups by voice and watch the explanation unfold on a whiteboard.
The “photo-to-steps” promise is explicit on both app-store listings, and the live-tutor feature is highlighted in their latest updates and marketing. As Axios summarizes, users “upload photos of problems… and the app populates a solution,” including steps for math and science.
Does it help beyond math? Gauth says yes—chemistry, physics, biology, and writing. The App Store description even mentions a “Study Toolbox” with reading, writing, focus mode, and a calculator. The company also advertises a large video library and a big, searchable question bank for subscribers. If you’re imagining a Photomath-style camera with a ChatGPT-style explainer—and a live tutor bolted on—that’s a fair mental model.
Safety: device security, permissions, and third-party checks
On the security front, the usual first stop is the app stores. Both stores list developer-provided privacy and data disclosures. On Google Play, Gauth notes encryption in transit, the ability to request data deletion, and collection categories like personal info, app activity, and device identifiers. It also says some app activity may be shared with third parties. None of that is unusual, but it’s worth reading before you install.
On iOS, Apple’s privacy label shows “Data Used to Track You: Identifiers” and “Data Linked to You: Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics.” Those labels come straight from Apple’s standardized disclosures and are common in ad-supported or analytics-enabled apps. Still, you should know what’s in the fine print—especially if you’re privacy-sensitive.
A third-party scanner, NowSecure, flags no detected discrepancies in privacy declarations for the Android build it analyzed and shows “none detected” across sensitive data and permissions in that snapshot—while also recommending deeper analysis (which is their standard caution). It’s not a formal certification, but it’s a useful signal that nothing obvious tripped their alarms.
Bottom line on device safety: Gauth behaves like a mainstream, high-volume app. It ships through major stores, publishes policies, and doesn’t show red flags in quick-scan mobile risk tools. That’s a green light for most people on the “Is this going to brick my phone?” question.
Privacy: what they collect, how they use it, where it goes
Gauth’s own privacy policy is detailed and pretty direct. It names Gauthtech Pte. Ltd. as the data controller and explains three intake streams: information you provide (account, grade, user content, chats, purchases), automatically collected information (device IDs, IP, crash logs, approximate location), and information from other sources (payment providers, contacts you choose to sync).
The policy also covers sharing with service providers, advertising and analytics partners, and third-party platforms used for login or content sharing. If you’re in Europe, it notes international transfers protected by adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. That’s the GDPR boilerplate you’d hope to see.
Two extra notes matter:
- The policy says usage data can be used to “train and improve our technology, such as our machine learning models and algorithms.” That’s common across AI tools, but if you’re working with sensitive material, you should avoid uploading it—or at least scrub it—because you’re granting processing for product improvement.
- The policy acknowledges marketing communications and ad/analytics partners. If you’re allergic to profiling, check your in-app settings and system-level ad-tracking preferences.
How do independent privacy reviewers see Gauth? Common Sense Privacy (which evaluates ed-tech) gave the earlier product a “Warning” rating in its 2022 review, with lots of “unclear” items around advertising and data sharing. That rating is old relative to the 2025 policy—and Common Sense focuses on K-12 contexts—but it’s still a helpful counterweight: the disclosures weren’t as crisp back then.
Verdict on privacy: Gauth’s current policy reads like a modern consumer app that mixes analytics and optional ads. It’s not privacy-minimal by default, but it’s also not out of step with popular learning and productivity apps. If you’re a parent or you handle sensitive info, set permissions tightly and use it on low-risk content.
The academic-integrity elephant in the room
Can students use Gauth to cheat? Of course. Any tool that shows steps can be misused. Teachers have been discussing this for a while. One teacher on Reddit didn’t mince words: “Gauth AI is absolutely insane. Any problem is solved within seconds.” Another thread from r/Teachers reads like a practical triage session on how to design assignments that aren’t so easily “snapped.” The vibe is equal parts worry and weary acceptance.
To its credit, Gauth publishes an Honor Code and surfaces a lot of academic-integrity content in its site ecosystem, but the real safeguard still lives with classrooms and students. Apps don’t award credits; people do. If you’re an instructor, you’ll likely shift toward “explain your reasoning” prompts, oral checks, and project work. If you’re a student, use the steps to learn how to solve, then close the app and do a clean pass from scratch. That habit pays off on exams.
Some parenting groups take a strong stance. Brave Parenting flat-out recommends against AI homework helpers for K-12, arguing they short-circuit the “learning how to learn” process. That’s a value call, but it’s an important one for families to wrestle with, especially during back-to-school season when shortcuts look tempting.
What the stores and users say
In public metrics, Gauth scores well. On Google Play, it shows 50M+ downloads and an average rating around 4.6 with more than a million reviews. Apple’s App Store shows 4.8 with over a million ratings and pegs it near the top of Education. Those numbers move, but they confirm real traction and a wide test surface.
Reviews are a mix of “helped me pass” and “wish explanations were clearer,” with occasional connectivity complaints. One typical App Store line: “The AI helper is really good if you ask it for a second explanation.” That mirrors the pattern I’ve seen across tutoring tools: first answers can be dense; good follow-up prompts make them usable.
So… is Gauth safe to use?
If “safe” means legitimate app, no obvious malware behavior, clear policy docs, widely distributed in major app stores, then yes—Gauth clears that bar, and third-party mobile-risk snapshots don’t show glaring issues. If “safe” means privacy-minimal and ad-free by default, with zero tracking—no, it’s not that. It operates like a mainstream, at-scale learning app that collects usage data, links some data to your identity, and can track via identifiers, per Apple’s label. That’s a trade many people accept; privacy-maximalists will not.
There’s also a policy-adjacent consideration: ByteDance association. Axios ties Gauth to TikTok’s parent, and that will matter to some users—especially in regions where ByteDance faces political scrutiny. For most individuals, that’s a contextual risk, not an immediate technical one, but it belongs in your decision set.
How to use Gauth well (yes, that’s possible)
Here’s the thing: you can treat Gauth like an answer printer or like a micro-mentor. The experience you get depends on your questions. If you want it to help you learn, use a rhythm that forces understanding:
- First pass: snap the problem and read the entire solution.
- Talk it out: ask AI Live Tutor to explain the why behind each step.
- Redo blind: close the app and redo the problem from scratch on paper.
- Compare: reopen Gauth and compare your line-by-line reasoning with the model’s.
That little loop flips the app from “shortcut” to “coach.” And honestly, it’s not just for students. I’ve watched plenty of professionals use similar loops to level up in Excel modeling, data analysis, and even prompt engineering. Different domain, same muscle.
For the business-and-AI crowd: what’s interesting here?
A few angles are worth your coffee:
1) Camera as the interface. Gauth isn’t asking users to type latex or drag math symbols; it meets them in reality with OCR and pattern understanding. That’s a reminder that the best UI is often the least UI—especially for knowledge capture in the wild. The adoption numbers in the stores make the point.
2) The “study companion” stack. Gauth isn’t just a solver; it’s a stack: camera → parse → plan → solve → explain → tutor. The new AI Live Tutor pushes from retrieval and reasoning into real-time pedagogy, which is harder to fake. If you’re building in ed-tech or enablement, keep an eye on that live layer—it’s where stickiness lives.
3) Policy posture at scale. The privacy policy reads like a global app trying to satisfy GDPR while running modern analytics and ads. The international transfer bits (adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses) are table stakes now. If you operate in the EU, you’ll also notice DSA references on their site. Consumers won’t parse the acronyms, but regulators will.
4) Trust is brand + disclosure + outcomes. Reviews show massive use and a mostly positive tilt; teacher forums show the corresponding pedagogical worry. That’s the dual reality of AI assistants in any domain: what feels empowering to one group can feel destabilizing to another. Designing for transparent use, not just correct answers, is a competitive moat now.
My verdict
Is Gauth safe? For most adult learners, university students, and professionals: yes, in the sense that it’s a legitimate app with mainstream security posture and clear, public policies. App-store labels, a published privacy policy, and third-party scanning back that up. Is it private? It’s typical for a popular consumer app—analytics are on, identifiers are used, and some data may be shared with partners. Is it good for learning? It can be—if you ask follow-ups, request simpler explanations, and redo the work off-app. If you just copy the steps, it’ll quietly stunt your growth.
If you’re a parent of a younger student, set expectations—and maybe limits. If you’re an educator, design assignments that require reflection, not just computation. And if you’re a builder in the AI space, keep watching the live-tutoring layer. That’s where the real product magic—and the real trust questions—will keep moving.
One last human note. Tools don’t make people cheat; people make choices. Gauth can be a shortcut. It can also be a smart study partner. Like a good calculator, it’s at its best when it speeds up the boring parts and leaves the thinking to you.
