\u20b9<\/span>1-2 lakh per student. But real estate in hubs like Kota or Delhi, faculty salaries, hostels and operations compress margins to less than 20%.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Online offerings alter that equation. Once created, digital test series can scale at marginal additional cost. Distance learning modules and live online batches still incur teacher and marketing expenses. Test series, by contrast, are typically small-ticket but high-margin.<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s Major Test Series, priced around \u20b9<\/span>3,800-4,700 plus taxes, leans on its Kota pedigree. Aakash\u2019s AIATS, at roughly \u20b9<\/span>5,800, foregrounds All India Rank and structured national competition.<\/p>\n PhysicsWallah undercuts both. Its test series are currently listed at \u20b9<\/span>999-1,999 after discounts of up to 70%, down from earlier tags near \u20b9<\/span>6,999.<\/p>\n What Gemini lacks is a national leader board. Its focus is on instant feedback and explanations rather than rank-based competition. If free AI-led mocks divert even a slice of standalone demand, the pressure would likely be felt first in this high-margin segment.<\/p>\n
In FY25, Allen clocked \u20b9<\/span>41 crore in profits, down sharply from \u20b9<\/span>243.8 crore in FY23 and \u20b9<\/span>135.9 crore in FY24.<\/p>\n After reporting losses in recent fiscals, PhysicsWallah turned profitable in Q2 of FY26.<\/p>\n
In FY25, Allen Career Institute reported revenue of \u20b9<\/span>3,300 crore, narrowly ahead of PhysicsWallah, which posted \u20b9<\/span>3,040 crore in the same fiscal year.<\/p>\n According to Redseer, India\u2019s test-prep market was valued at approximately \u20b9<\/span>1,00,000\u20131,10,000 crore in FY25.<\/p>\n Why PhysicsWallah is partnering with Google<\/strong><\/p>\n PhysicsWallah is supplying content used within Gemini\u2019s mocks, a move that may affect one of its more profitable product lines. But Gemini\u2019s placement inside Google\u2019s ecosystem could offer PW access to millions of students, along with added credibility and brand recognition.<\/p>\n
Founders in the segment argue that mock tests are becoming commoditized and therefore vulnerable to disruption. Question banks and previous-year papers are already public. Basic mocks are no longer scarce.<\/p>\n
Real differentiation, they argue, lies in rankings, analytics, mentorship and doubt support.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreparation for important competitive exams isn\u2019t a mock test problem; it\u2019s an outcomes problem,” Nitin Kukreja, chief executive of Allen Career Institute, said, adding that students may get questions for free, but they will still pay for accuracy, security, and results.<\/p>\n
Kukreja also argued that what remains hard to replicate at scale is the end-to-end layer: faculty mentorship, disciplined routines, and human coaching that builds temperament and confidence.<\/p>\n
AI can enhance each piece, he said, but \u201cit cannot replace the full system.”<\/p>\n
The trade-off is clear. If free mocks replace paid ones, profits shrink. If they instead push students toward paid courses, coaching firms can adjust.<\/p>\n
How coaching firms are responding<\/strong><\/p>\n Startups and established players alike are investing in AI.<\/p>\n
PhysicsWallah, in its earnings call and draft red herring prospectus, had highlighted the rollout of AI tools across its learning stack. The company said its AI stack now resolves millions of interactions each month through offerings such as AI Guru, Ask AI, AI Grader and AIMentor. It is also building Aryabhata, a custom-built large language model tailored for Indian competitive exams such as JEE.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allen said it is actively developing and using AI tools to augment its learning system, without sharing further details.<\/p>\n
Queries sent to Unacademy and Aakash did not elicit a response till press time.<\/p>\n
Students preparing for the highly competitive JEE exams for entry into top engineering institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) can now access practice tests directly on the Gemini platform for free as part of that pilot. The move targets a lucrative layer of India\u2019s coaching economy: mock test series. While classroom programmes drive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[45517,45519,45513,45516,263,262,260,259,45512,258,45511,45518,45514,265,202,45520,45515,261,264],"class_list":["post-419492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metaverse","tag-aakash-test-series-aiats","tag-ai-in-indian-education-sector","tag-ai-test-prep-india","tag-allen-career-institute-earnings","tag-axie-infinity","tag-axs","tag-decentraland","tag-facebook","tag-free-jee-mock-tests","tag-game","tag-google-gemini-jee-mocks","tag-iit-entrance-exam-preparation","tag-jee-coaching-industry-profits","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-nft","tag-online-jee-mock-tests-free","tag-physicswallah-google-partnership","tag-sandbox","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419495,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419492\/revisions\/419495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}