50 free courses from IBM, Google, MIT, Caltech, Xanadu, and leading universities worldwide. Covers free quantum programming, free Qiskit courses, and everything in between. All genuinely free, no credit card, no trial period.
Yes, and this is unusual compared to most fields. IBM, Google, and Xanadu have a direct business interest in growing the global pool of quantum developers, so they've invested heavily in free, high-quality education. Several of the highest-rated courses in our entire database are free.
MIT's quantum computing lectures, Caltech's Ph/CS 219 (John Preskill's course), and the Perimeter Institute recordings are the same graduate-level material taught to PhD students, just publicly available. There is no "paid tier" that's meaningfully better for most learners.
You can go from zero to quantum algorithms without paying anything. Here is the exact free sequence, using courses on this page plus our free tools and tutorials.
Understand what a qubit does before any math. Read What Is a Qubit? and Quantum Entanglement Explained, then skim the learning roadmap.
Work through IBM's free Basics of Quantum Information or the interactive PennyLane Codebook for the formalism: states, gates, and measurement.
Go hands-on with the free Qiskit Textbook, then practice live in our circuit builder and the Qiskit Hello World tutorial. No install needed.
Implement the classics with our free tutorials: Grover's algorithm and Shor's algorithm, running code as you go.
For graduate-level rigor, the free MIT Quantum Computation and Caltech PHYS 219 courses are the same material taught to PhD students.
Free quantum programming with Qiskit, IBM's open-source quantum framework. Includes IBM Learning, Qiskit Textbook, and IBM hardware access.
AMAZON BRAKET
Amazon Web Services
AWS's free two-course learning plan covering quantum computing fundamentals and hands-on Amazon Braket development. Earns an AWS digital badge after an 80% pass on the assessment.
Coursera
SpecialisationPackt
A complete beginner's specialization covering quantum fundamentals, Qiskit programming, and real quantum algorithms, from high-school maths to running code on real quantum hardware.
IBM Quantum
Max Rossmannek, Julian Schuhmacher, Alexander Miessen, and Laurin Fischer, IBM Quantum
Free openHPI course on quantum simulation for chemistry and materials science, developed with IBM Quantum. Covers the second quantization, molecular Hamiltonians, VQE for molecular ground states, and Qiskit Nature.
Coursera
Fractal Analytics (Srinjoy Ganguly, Shalini Devendrababu)
A beginner-friendly introduction to quantum computing from Fractal Analytics. Two modules covering the history and theory of quantum computing, then qubits, superposition, entanglement, quantum gates, and circuits, with hands-on practice in IBM Qiskit.
IBM Quantum
Julien Gacon, Dr. Daniel J. Egger, Dr. Stefan Woerner, Lucia Cuervo Valor (IBM Quantum)
Free openHPI course on quantum approaches to combinatorial optimization, developed with IBM Quantum. Covers QAOA, VQE, and the quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) framework with Qiskit implementation.
IBM Quantum
Dr. Christa Zoufal, Julien Gacon, Dr. David Sutter (IBM Quantum)
Free openHPI course on quantum machine learning developed with IBM Quantum Research. Covers variational quantum classifiers, quantum kernel methods, QGANs, and hands-on implementation in Qiskit.
IBM Quantum
Free intermediate course from IBM covering Grover's search, quantum phase estimation, and the fundamentals of quantum algorithm design.
IBM Quantum
IBM's free interactive introduction to quantum information. Covers single and multi-qubit states, quantum circuits, and entanglement with interactive exercises.
IBM Quantum
IBM's free course on utility-scale quantum computing. Covers running large circuits on real IBM hardware, error mitigation, and near-term application areas using Qiskit Runtime.
IBM Quantum
John Watrous
John Watrous's four-course video lecture series covering quantum information theory, algorithms, error correction, and the general formulation of quantum operations. Graduate-level rigor, freely available.
IBM Quantum
IBM SkillsBuild
IBM SkillsBuild's free beginner learning content on quantum computing fundamentals. Visual learning activities and virtual labs covering qubits, superposition, entanglement, quantum gates, and basic circuit building.
IBM Quantum
Dr. Elisa Bäumer and Carmen Recio Valcarce, IBM Quantum
Free two-week Qiskit course on the Hasso Plattner Institute's openHPI platform, taught by IBM Quantum researchers. Covers quantum computing fundamentals, the Qiskit SDK, and implements Deutsch-Jozsa and Grover's algorithm from scratch.
Qiskit
IBM Quantum / Qiskit Team
The original open-source Qiskit Textbook, now archived on GitHub, covering everything from quantum gates and basic circuits to Grover's algorithm, Shor's algorithm, quantum error correction, and quantum machine learning with interactive Jupyter notebooks.
QUBIT
Dr. Donovan
A free, self-paced introduction to quantum computing. Nine modules take you from what a qubit actually is to running your own circuit in Qiskit, using the interactive Bloch sphere and circuit builder throughout. No physics degree required.
No background required, these start from the ground up
AMAZON BRAKET
Amazon Web Services
AWS's free two-course learning plan covering quantum computing fundamentals and hands-on Amazon Braket development. Earns an AWS digital badge after an 80% pass on the assessment.
QUBITS
Dr Steven Herbert, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge's undergraduate Quantum Computing course, with lecture notes publicly available, covering qubits, superposition, entanglement, core quantum algorithms, and quantum cryptography. Accessible at no cost.
QUANTUM CIRCUITS
Prof. Elias Fernandez-Combarro Alvarez, University of Oviedo
CERN openlab's free lecture series on quantum computing covering qubits, quantum algorithms, QAOA, VQE, and quantum machine learning. Taught by a University of Oviedo professor with no physics background required.
D-Wave
D-Wave's free introductory course demystifying quantum computing for general audiences. Covers how quantum computers work, annealing vs gate-model systems, and real-world optimization use cases. No background required.
Coursera
SpecialisationPackt
A complete beginner's specialization covering quantum fundamentals, Qiskit programming, and real quantum algorithms, from high-school maths to running code on real quantum hardware.
WOLFRAM LANGUAGE
Wolfram Research
Wolfram's quantum computing framework for Mathematica and the Wolfram Language, offering a unique symbolic computation approach to quantum circuits, ideal for mathematical exploration, visualization, and analysis without writing low-level circuit code.
Coursera
Fractal Analytics (Srinjoy Ganguly, Shalini Devendrababu)
A beginner-friendly introduction to quantum computing from Fractal Analytics. Two modules covering the history and theory of quantum computing, then qubits, superposition, entanglement, quantum gates, and circuits, with hands-on practice in IBM Qiskit.
IBM Quantum
IBM's free interactive introduction to quantum information. Covers single and multi-qubit states, quantum circuits, and entanglement with interactive exercises.
IBM Quantum
IBM SkillsBuild
IBM SkillsBuild's free beginner learning content on quantum computing fundamentals. Visual learning activities and virtual labs covering qubits, superposition, entanglement, quantum gates, and basic circuit building.
IonQ
IonQ Scientists and Engineers
IonQ's free 2-part lecture series taught by company scientists and engineers. Covers the history of quantum computing, trapped ion hardware architecture, and how to characterize quantum systems.
IonQ
IonQ Researchers
IonQ's free 4-part lecture series on quantum programming. Covers quantum algorithms, circuits, programming with multiple SDKs, and quantum chemistry including VQE. Taught by IonQ researchers.
QUANTUM COMPUTING
Keio University / Rodney Van Meter
Keio University's accessible introduction to quantum computing on FutureLearn, taught by Rodney Van Meter. Explains the motivation for building quantum computers, the key principles, important algorithms, and a look at quantum hardware and the emerging industry, with minimal mathematics.
Microsoft
Microsoft Quantum
Microsoft's free collection of self-paced quantum programming exercises in Q#. Covers quantum basics through advanced algorithms via hands-on kata-style challenges with immediate feedback, runnable in the browser.
Microsoft
Microsoft's free learning path for Azure Quantum covering Q#, quantum concepts, resource estimation, and the Azure Quantum platform.
IBM Quantum
Dr. Elisa Bäumer and Carmen Recio Valcarce, IBM Quantum
Free two-week Qiskit course on the Hasso Plattner Institute's openHPI platform, taught by IBM Quantum researchers. Covers quantum computing fundamentals, the Qiskit SDK, and implements Deutsch-Jozsa and Grover's algorithm from scratch.
PennyLane
Xanadu / PennyLane Team
Interactive browser-based coding exercises teaching quantum computing with PennyLane from scratch, spanning 15 modules from qubits and gates through Grover's and Shor's algorithms, error correction, and variational quantum algorithms.
Qiskit
IBM Quantum / Qiskit Team
The original open-source Qiskit Textbook, now archived on GitHub, covering everything from quantum gates and basic circuits to Grover's algorithm, Shor's algorithm, quantum error correction, and quantum machine learning with interactive Jupyter notebooks.
QUBIT
Dr. Donovan
A free, self-paced introduction to quantum computing. Nine modules take you from what a qubit actually is to running your own circuit in Qiskit, using the interactive Bloch sphere and circuit builder throughout. No physics degree required.
QUBITS
Qubit by Qubit instructors (Stanford PhDs)
A two-semester year-long quantum computing course by The Coding School, taught by Stanford PhDs in partnership with Google Quantum AI. Free for partner schools; scholarships available for individual students.
QUANTUM STATES
QWorld
QWorld's free, self-study quantum computing workshop. Covers quantum states, quantum operators, quantum protocols, and quantum search using Python and Jupyter notebooks. No physics background required.
PennyLane
Xanadu
Xanadu's free interactive quantum computing textbook using PennyLane, now hosted as the PennyLane Codebook. Learn quantum computing through coding exercises directly in the browser.
Hands-on coding with Qiskit, PennyLane, and real IBM hardware
QUANTUM ALGORITHM DESIGN
Classiq engineering and research team
Classiq's free library of hands-on quantum computing tutorials covering algorithm design, quantum machine learning, and optimization using the high-level Qmod language. No circuit assembly required.
Coursera
École Polytechnique / Alain Aspect, Michel Brune
École Polytechnique's acclaimed introduction to quantum optics, co-taught by Nobel laureate Alain Aspect. Learn how light is quantized, how to describe quantum states of light, and how single photons exhibit wave-particle duality in real experiments.
Austin Fowler
Google Quantum AI's free-to-audit Coursera course on quantum error correction. Covers the surface code, stabilizer formalism, and the Stim and Crumble software tools used by Google researchers, with hands-on coding labs.
edX
Purdue University / Pramey Upadhyaya
The first course in Purdue University's Applied Quantum Computing series. Teaches the postulates of quantum mechanics and how they map onto present-day quantum information processing models including computation, simulation, optimization, and machine learning.
IBM Quantum
Max Rossmannek, Julian Schuhmacher, Alexander Miessen, and Laurin Fischer, IBM Quantum
Free openHPI course on quantum simulation for chemistry and materials science, developed with IBM Quantum. Covers the second quantization, molecular Hamiltonians, VQE for molecular ground states, and Qiskit Nature.
Google Quantum AI
Google Quantum AI's free self-paced tutorial series for the Cirq quantum programming framework. Covers circuit construction, noise models, algorithm implementation, and access to Google's Quantum Virtual Machine via Google Colab.
IBM Quantum
Free intermediate course from IBM covering Grover's search, quantum phase estimation, and the fundamentals of quantum algorithm design.
IBM Quantum
IBM's free course on utility-scale quantum computing. Covers running large circuits on real IBM hardware, error mitigation, and near-term application areas using Qiskit Runtime.
IBM Quantum
John Watrous
John Watrous's four-course video lecture series covering quantum information theory, algorithms, error correction, and the general formulation of quantum operations. Graduate-level rigor, freely available.
QUANTUM INFORMATION
Prof. Isaac Chuang and Prof. Peter Shor, MIT
MIT's three-part interactive course on quantum information science covering quantum mechanics, protocols, algorithms, and communication. Fully free with graded exercises on the Open Learning Library.
PennyLane
Xanadu / Community
Xanadu's collection of hundreds of interactive PennyLane tutorials, including 50+ quantum machine learning demos covering VQE, QAOA, quantum kernels, quantum neural networks, and more.
QUANTUM ALGORITHMS
Dr. Donovan
The sequel to Quantum Computing 101. Eight modules on how quantum algorithms actually get their speedup, why real hardware fights you, and what a transpiler does to your circuit before it ever runs. Free and self-paced.
QUANTUM ML
Xanadu
Annual quantum hackathon run by Xanadu, the team behind PennyLane, with coding challenges covering PennyLane, hybrid algorithms, and quantum kernels. Talk recordings and challenge write-ups remain available online after each event.
QUANTUM FOURIER TRANSFORM
QWorld volunteer instructors
QWorld's free intermediate quantum programming workshop covering complex numbers, the quantum Fourier transform, and Shor's algorithm. The follow-on to QBronze, run as mentored online sessions through QWorld's global network.
QUANTUM MECHANICS
Prof. R. Shankar, Yale University
R. Shankar's celebrated Yale Open Courses lectures for PHYS 201, covering electromagnetism and optics before closing with a seven-lecture introduction to quantum mechanics: wave-particle duality, the Schrodinger equation, and quantum measurement.
Graduate-level content from MIT, Caltech, Cambridge, and Perimeter Institute, free for anyone
QUANTUM INFORMATION
Prof. John Preskill, Caltech
Prof. John Preskill's legendary Caltech quantum computation lecture notes. The most comprehensive freely available resource on quantum computing and quantum information.
Coursera
KAIST / Joonwoo Bae
KAIST's beginning-graduate-level introduction to quantum information, taught by Joonwoo Bae. Covers qubits, the axioms of quantum theory, entanglement as a resource, quantum teleportation, gates, circuits, and quantum communication channels.
IBM Quantum
Julien Gacon, Dr. Daniel J. Egger, Dr. Stefan Woerner, Lucia Cuervo Valor (IBM Quantum)
Free openHPI course on quantum approaches to combinatorial optimization, developed with IBM Quantum. Covers QAOA, VQE, and the quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) framework with Qiskit implementation.
IBM Quantum
Dr. Christa Zoufal, Julien Gacon, Dr. David Sutter (IBM Quantum)
Free openHPI course on quantum machine learning developed with IBM Quantum Research. Covers variational quantum classifiers, quantum kernel methods, QGANs, and hands-on implementation in Qiskit.
QUANTUM INFORMATION THEORY
ETH Zurich Physics Department
ETH Zurich's graduate quantum information theory course covering quantum channels, entropy, capacity theorems, and quantum Shannon theory.
QUANTUM ALGORITHMS
Prof. Peter Shor, MIT
MIT's graduate-level quantum computation course covering quantum algorithms, complexity theory, and quantum information. Lecture notes and problem sets freely available.
QUANTUM ERROR CORRECTION
Prof. Isaac Chuang and Prof. Aram Harrow, MIT
MIT's graduate-level follow-on to QIS I, covering quantum states and noise, advanced quantum algorithms, and quantum information theory. Free on the MIT Open Learning Library with graded exercises.
QUANTUM ALGORITHMS
Aleks Kissinger, Dept of Computer Science, University of Oxford
University of Oxford's computer science course on quantum processes and computation, taught with the diagrammatic ZX-calculus approach. Covers string diagrams, teleportation, quantum algorithms, and measurement-based quantum computing. Lecture notes are publicly available.
QUANTUM INFORMATION
Dr. Daniel Gottesman, Perimeter Institute
Daniel Gottesman's graduate-level quantum information lecture series recorded at Perimeter Institute. Fifteen recorded lectures covering entanglement, channels, error correction, and cryptography. Freely available on PIRSA.
edX
Pramey Upadhyaya
The hardware-focused second course in Purdue University's Applied Quantum Computing series. Examines how present-day material platforms are engineered to perform quantum information processing: superconducting qubits, trapped ions and atoms, and spin-based systems.
edX
Pramey Upadhyaya
The algorithms-and-software course closing Purdue University's Applied Quantum Computing series. Covers the quantum Fourier transform, search and Shor's algorithm, plus modern algorithms for optimization, simulation, chemistry, and machine learning, with hands-on cloud hardware access.
QUANTUM CHEMISTRY
Quantinuum
Quantinuum's InQuanto tutorial series for quantum chemistry simulation. 18+ tutorials from basic VQE to advanced molecular simulation of Fe4N2 on real Quantinuum hardware. Free to read; running the notebooks requires an InQuanto licence or trial.
COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY
Scott Aaronson (UT Austin)
Scott Aaronson's famous lecture series connecting quantum computing to computational complexity, philosophy of physics, and mathematical foundations, covering BQP, QMA, quantum proofs, and quantum cryptography with the depth and irreverence of one of the field's leading theorists.
QUANTUM PROGRAMMING
Prof. Dan Boneh and Will Zeng, Stanford
Stanford's CS269Q quantum computer programming course materials from Spring 2019, taught by Dan Boneh and Will Zeng. Lecture slides and project assignments cover pyQuil programming, benchmarking, VQE, QAOA, and error correction.
A concrete coding example to try before or after a course.
A Hadamard gate puts a qubit into superposition. Measuring it produces a truly random bit, not computed, not seeded, decided by quantum physics. This tutorial walks through single-bit QRNG, scaling to random bytes, rejection sampling for any integer range, and running the circuit on real IBM hardware. The best first quantum program you can write.