Is Kaplan profitable in 2026?

Kaplan's segment operating income was $24.6 million in Q4 2025, up sharply from $0.1 million in Q4 2024 (which included a $22.9 million impairment charge), per parent Graham Holdings' February 25, 2026 earnings report. Education segment revenue was $410.1 million in Q4 2025, roughly flat versus $408.2 million a year earlier.

Could AI replace Kaplan's test prep tutors?

Kaplan's core commodity functions like practice questions and essay grading face direct competition from free tools like Khan Academy's Khanmigo, updated May 2026. Kaplan responded by launching its own AI Tutor and essay grader in October 2025, but Test Prep headcount fell 5.8% from 2023 to 2025 with zero job postings in 2025.

Kaplan, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC), the publicly traded successor to The Washington Post Company, which acquired Kaplan for $45 million in 1984. Kaplan itself has no separate stock ticker.

Is it safe to take a job at Kaplan right now?

It depends on the division. Kaplan's overall global headcount was roughly flat at about 14,109 employees as of December 2025, but Kaplan Test Prep specifically shrank to about 885 employees in 2025 from 940 in 2023, with zero active job postings reported that year, per Revelio Labs.

Who is Kaplan's biggest competitor?

In consumer test prep, Kaplan competes with The Princeton Review and increasingly with free AI-powered Khan Academy's Khanmigo tool, updated May 2026. In higher-ed and professional licensure, it competes more with Pearson and McGraw Hill, though Kaplan holds durable multi-year institutional contracts like Purdue Global.

Did Kaplan have a data breach?

Yes. A Kaplan North America data breach with an intrusion window of October 30 to November 18, 2025, was disclosed around March 2026 and exposed names, Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers for approximately 1.4 million individuals, triggering class-action litigation reported May 1, 2026.

Education companies · subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC) · United States

Kaplan

kaplan.com ↗

Global test-prep and higher-ed services company owned by Graham Holdings.

Protection under test

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

Something worth protecting exists and is being tested right now.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from Q2 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Graham Holdings Q2 2026 earnings, watch Higher Ed growth and Pathways stabilization

The call

Kaplan's higher-ed and licensure business grows on locked-in contracts while its consumer test-prep arm shrinks under free AI tutoring.

Kaplan teaches people for college, professional licenses, and tests through schools and online programs. The company is split: its contracts with universities and state job-training programs are hard to replace because schools and employers have long-term deals with them, but its consumer test-prep side is eroding fast as free tools like Khan Academy and ChatGPT now tutor students for free. The real question is whether Kaplan can protect its contracted education business from AI while the test-prep half disappears; if the higher-ed contracts hold through 2026 and 2027, the company survives, but if those customers switch to cheaper AI-powered alternatives, the whole picture changes.

Why

AI pressure: Khan Academy's Khanmigo and general chatbots like ChatGPT. Free AI tutors now generate practice questions, grade essays, and answer prep questions, hollowing out consumer test-prep demand and hiring. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: None apparent. No single big tech company is targeting Kaplan directly, the pressure comes from free AI tools eating consumer test-prep, not a rival platform. Could a giant copy it? Probably.

What protects it. Long, regulation-locked contracts like the 30 year Purdue Global deal and accreditation ties that AI tutors cannot replace.

What would change this call

Kaplan Test Prep headcount and job postings through 2026. Continued zero hiring or further declines would confirm consumer test-prep is shrinking, not stabilizing.
Graham Holdings divests or folds Test Prep into Higher Ed division. Would confirm consumer test-prep is being treated as structurally declining, not invested in.
Purdue Global contract terms or Higher Ed segment growth in Q2/Q3 2026 earnings. Sustained growth would show the durable half offsetting test-prep erosion.

Key numbers

Higher Ed revenue up 7% in Q4 2025 (2026-02-25)
Test Prep headcount down 5.8% since 2023 (2026-06-29)
Purdue Global fees rose to $17.4M in Q4 2025 (2026-02-25)

Named risks

Data breach exposing 1.4 million records leading to class-action litigation, disclosed March 2026. Severity: high
AI tools like Khanmigo displacing commodity test-prep tutoring, zero 2025 Test Prep hiring. Severity: high
Kaplan International Pathways revenue decline of 7% constant-currency in Q4 2025. Severity: medium
Regulatory and reputational exposure from Kaplan's continued for-profit role at Purdue Global. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Khan Academy	gaining on	Free Khanmigo AI tutor improved May 2026, directly substitutes commodity test-prep tutoring
The Princeton Review	contesting	Longstanding direct rival in SAT/ACT test prep market as of 2026
Pearson and McGraw Hill	contesting	Adjacent incumbents in professional training and higher-ed services segments

Questions people ask

Is Kaplan profitable in 2026?: Kaplan's segment operating income was $24.6 million in Q4 2025, up sharply from $0.1 million in Q4 2024 (which included a $22.9 million impairment charge), per parent Graham Holdings' February 25, 2026 earnings report. Education segment revenue was $410.1 million in Q4 2025, roughly flat versus $408.2 million a year earlier.
Could AI replace Kaplan's test prep tutors?: Kaplan's core commodity functions like practice questions and essay grading face direct competition from free tools like Khan Academy's Khanmigo, updated May 2026. Kaplan responded by launching its own AI Tutor and essay grader in October 2025, but Test Prep headcount fell 5.8% from 2023 to 2025 with zero job postings in 2025.
Who owns Kaplan?: Kaplan, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC), the publicly traded successor to The Washington Post Company, which acquired Kaplan for $45 million in 1984. Kaplan itself has no separate stock ticker.
Is it safe to take a job at Kaplan right now?: It depends on the division. Kaplan's overall global headcount was roughly flat at about 14,109 employees as of December 2025, but Kaplan Test Prep specifically shrank to about 885 employees in 2025 from 940 in 2023, with zero active job postings reported that year, per Revelio Labs.
Who is Kaplan's biggest competitor?: In consumer test prep, Kaplan competes with The Princeton Review and increasingly with free AI-powered Khan Academy's Khanmigo tool, updated May 2026. In higher-ed and professional licensure, it competes more with Pearson and McGraw Hill, though Kaplan holds durable multi-year institutional contracts like Purdue Global.
Did Kaplan have a data breach?: Yes. A Kaplan North America data breach with an intrusion window of October 30 to November 18, 2025, was disclosed around March 2026 and exposed names, Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers for approximately 1.4 million individuals, triggering class-action litigation reported May 1, 2026.

Timeline

2026-05-01Inspirit Capital completes acquisition of Kaplan Languages Group
2026-04-20Kaplan announces sale of Kaplan Languages Group to Inspirit Capital
2026-03Kaplan discloses data breach exposing about 1.4 million individuals' records
2026-02-25Graham Holdings reports Kaplan Education Q4 2025 revenue of $410.1 million
2025-11Kaplan Medical launches dedicated AI Tutor for board exam prep
2025-10-30Start of intrusion window later identified in Kaplan data breach
2025-10Kaplan launches AI Tutor, AI essay grader, and KapAdvisor admissions tool
2025Kaplan partners with Illinois for free test prep to 200,000+ students
2022Kaplan and Amazon launch Career Choice partnership for hourly workers
2018Kaplan University assets sold to Purdue for $1, 30-year Kaplan services contract begins

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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