Today we officially launch Soma AI Premium — the paid tier of Soma, Kenya's first AI tutor built exclusively for the CBC and CBE curriculum. Soma has been in free testing for several weeks. From today, learners, parents, and teachers who want unlimited daily access can upgrade to Premium for KSH 500 per month, which unlocks 30 messages every day for 30 days, refreshing at midnight EAT.
Last Updated: 17 May 2026
The Short Version
- Soma AI Premium is now live: KSH 500 / 30 days / 30 messages per day.
- New users get 10 free trial messages first — no payment to start.
- Subscription is tied to your M-Pesa phone number — no separate login required.
- Works for every CBC grade PP1–Grade 12 plus IGCSE/Cambridge.
- One-time KSH 500 payment, no auto-renewal — pay again after 30 days to extend.
What Soma actually is
Soma is an AI tutor — meaning a conversational assistant that answers CBC and CBE schoolwork questions in plain English (and Kiswahili, where helpful). It is built on the same large-language-model technology that powers ChatGPT and Claude, but with one critical difference: every answer is grounded in the Kenyan curriculum. When you ask Soma about the Pythagoras theorem, it does not pull from a generic global syllabus — it cross-checks against the actual KICD Grade 8 Mathematics curriculum design, the rationalised CBE structure, and the typical KJSEA assessment style. The Kenyan context is built into the system prompt at the foundation, not bolted on as an afterthought.
Soma answers questions for three audiences:
- Learners (PP1 to Grade 12, IGCSE/Cambridge) — homework help, exam revision, KJSEA preparation, concept explanations in language a 9-year-old can understand.
- Parents — "how do I help my Grade 7 with this algebra question?", "what does this CBC report comment actually mean?", "how should I think about pathway selection?".
- Teachers — lesson plan ideas, scheme of work suggestions, marking rubric drafts, SBA portfolio prompts, KICD-aligned worked examples.
How the pricing works
| Tier | Price | Quota | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Try Now | Free | 5 questions today (anonymous) | Curious — want a 60-second taste |
| Free Trial | Free (phone-tied) | 10 messages, lifetime | Trying 1-2 hard topics before deciding |
| Premium | KSH 500 / 30 days | 30 messages per day | Daily homework, KJSEA prep, teacher use |
| School License | KSH 5,000 / term | Unlimited learners, per-class | Schools deploying classroom-wide |
Why KSH 500 specifically, not unlimited
The honest answer: every message you send to Soma has a small underlying compute cost. Most consumer AI services charge KSH 1,500–2,500 a month and either limit messages or burn money to attract users. We did the math, and KSH 500 a month for 30 messages a day is the price that lets us cover the infrastructure, build the next features (voice, image input, lesson plan generator), and avoid the trap of unsustainable "unlimited" offers that get throttled or shut down after the marketing phase ends.
30 messages per day is genuinely a lot. For a Grade 8 learner doing maths homework, that is enough for two full topics walked through step by step, plus a few quick clarifications. For a teacher building lesson plans, it is enough to draft a full week of teaching activities. We chose this quota because it covers the realistic working day of a serious user without enabling abuse.
What the free trial actually gives you
If you have never used Soma before, do not pay yet. Click "Start Free Trial", enter your phone number, and you get 10 free messages to test it on the topic you most need help with. These messages are not time-limited — you can use one this week and one next week if you want. They are simply a no-risk way to see whether Soma's answers feel useful for your specific learning needs before you commit KSH 500. About 4 in 10 trial users decide to subscribe within 24 hours of finishing their trial. The other 6 are usually clear about why it is not the right fit (often: they already have a strong subject tutor, or they need a feature that is on our roadmap but not yet live).
How to subscribe
- Go to cbcedukenya.com/somo-ai and click "Subscribe — KSH 500 via M-Pesa".
- Enter your M-Pesa phone number (this becomes your Soma identity — no separate login).
- Complete the M-Pesa STK Push payment of KSH 500.
- Within one minute of payment confirmation, you receive a welcome email and your subscription activates.
- Open Soma at cbcedukenya.com/somo-ai/try, enter your phone, and start chatting. Your 30 daily messages refresh at midnight every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it really KSH 500 a month, with no hidden fees?
Yes. KSH 500 via M-Pesa is the complete cost. No transaction fees on top, no auto-renewal trap, no upsell pressure. After 30 days, the subscription quietly expires — you choose whether to pay again. We deliberately avoided the auto-renewal model because in Kenya it leads to billing disputes and bank-card chargebacks. A simple one-time payment per 30 days is the model we believe works.
What if I do not use all 30 messages in a day?
Unused messages do not roll over. The 30-per-day counter is intentional — it is what lets us price at KSH 500 rather than KSH 1,500. If you find yourself consistently using less than 10 a day, you may not need Premium yet — the 10-message free trial may be enough. If you need more than 30 a day, contact us about the School License.
Can my whole family share one Premium subscription?
Technically yes — the subscription is tied to one phone number, not one user, so a family of four could share. Practically, four users sharing 30 messages a day works out to roughly 7 messages each, which may be tight. If multiple learners in your home use Soma daily, two Premium subscriptions tied to two phones is a more comfortable fit at KSH 1,000 total. The forthcoming Family tier (planned for July 2026) will be optimised for this case.
What is the difference between Soma and just using ChatGPT?
Three things. First, Soma is grounded in the actual Kenyan CBC and CBE curriculum — when it explains a topic, it is using the KICD strand structure your child will be examined on, not a generic global syllabus. Second, Soma is cheaper for sustained daily use — ChatGPT Plus is roughly USD 20 (KSH 2,600) a month versus Soma Premium's KSH 500. Third, Soma accepts M-Pesa as a primary payment method — no need for a Visa card or USD account to subscribe.
Is my child's data safe?
We store the minimum needed to run the service: phone number, message counter, last-message timestamp, and the message content itself (for caching identical questions to keep costs low). We do not sell data, we do not run ads on top of Soma, and we do not use your messages to train external AI models. The full privacy policy is at cbcedukenya.com/privacy.
Try Soma or subscribe now
- Free 5-question taste: cbcedukenya.com/somo-ai/try
- 10-message phone-tied trial: Click "Start Free Trial" on the Soma page
- Subscribe KSH 500: cbcedukenya.com/somo-ai → "Subscribe via M-Pesa"
Premium starts the moment you pay. Tomorrow morning your 30 messages refresh. Use it to walk through whatever topic your child is stuck on tonight — and tell us how it goes.
Have a CBC question this article didn't answer?
Ask Soma — Kenya's first AI tutor. CBC-grounded, Kenyan examples, KNEC 1–7 feedback. 5 free questions/day, no signup.
Try Soma Free →