Moodle AI Quiz Generator Plugins Compared on Cost

Moodle has no built-in AI quiz generator. Its AI features (Moodle 4.5 and later) can generate text or an image inside the editor and summarize or explain course content, but nothing in core writes quiz questions. To get that inside Moodle you install a plugin, and every one of them needs a site administrator to install it, plus either your own OpenAI account or a vendor's hosted service. Of the five plugins compared below, two are actively maintained for Moodle 5.x, two have not had a release since 2023, and none of them reads a lecture video. If you are a teacher without admin rights, or your source is a recording, a hosted generator that exports a GIFT file gets the questions into the same question bank without touching the server.

MC means multiple choice. Everything in the table was read from each plugin's listing on the Moodle Marketplace, its README and its source code. Where a vendor publishes no price, the table says so rather than guessing one.

Moodle AI quiz generator plugins compared

Plugin	Moodle versions	Where the AI runs, and who pays	What it reads	Question types	Maintenance
Generative AI Question Bank (qbank_genai)	4.5, 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2	Your own OpenAI key. You pay OpenAI	The file in a course File resource	MC (3 to 5 options), essay	Active, stable
AI questions generator (qbank_questiongen)	5.0, 5.1 and 5.2	Your AI provider, via the AI Manager plugin	A topic, pasted text, course content	MC, true or false, matching, short answer, numerical	Active, but still marked Alpha
AI Quiz Generator (local_hlai_quizgen)	Listed for 4.1 to 5.1	Vendor hosted. Price on request	PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, course activities, pasted text	MC, true or false, short answer, essay, matching	Stable, March 2026
AI Text to questions generator (local_aiquestions)	4.0 to 4.2 in the directory	Your own OpenAI key	Pasted text	Multiple choice only	June 2023
OpenAI Question Generator (block_openai_questions)	Up to 4.3	Your own paid OpenAI account	Pasted text	MC, true or false, short answer	December 2023, experimental
VidQuiz (not a plugin)	Any version, through GIFT import	Hosted. From $19 a month	YouTube link, recording plus transcript, pasted text	MC, true or false, short answer	Nothing on your server

A sixth plugin, Raison Quiz (formerly Corolair), also turns course resources into quizzes. It works differently from the rest: an administrator installs a companion plugin and registers the site with Raison, the quiz is served from Raison's own servers inside the course, and ongoing use, after an initial evaluation account, needs a formal agreement with the company. It publishes no price.

Does Moodle have a built-in AI quiz generator?

No. The AI subsystem that arrived in Moodle 4.5 offers two placements: the text editor, where it can generate text or an image, and course assistance, where it can summarize text and, from 5.0, explain it. Providers have grown with each release, from OpenAI and Azure AI in 4.5 to Ollama in 5.0, DeepSeek in 5.1, and AWS Bedrock and Gemini in 5.2. None of that generates questions, and none of the plugins in the table above uses the core subsystem either. Each one brings its own connection to an AI service, which is why each one asks for its own key.

Which Moodle AI question generator plugin is best?

It depends on the version you run and on who pays for the AI.

On Moodle 4.5 or 5.x with course material already uploaded as files, qbank_genai is the steadiest choice. It is actively maintained, covers 4.5 through 5.2, and puts generated questions into a new category in the course question bank where teachers edit them. Its limits are narrow question types (multiple choice and essay only) and a hard dependency on OpenAI.

On Moodle 5.0 or later, if you want the widest range of question types, qbank_questiongen covers five of them and reads the most kinds of course content. It is still labeled Alpha, and it depends on a separate AI Manager plugin, so plan for testing before a whole faculty relies on it.

If your institution would rather buy a supported product than run an open source plugin, local_hlai_quizgen reads the most file types and walks teachers through a five step review wizard. Budget for a sales conversation, since no price is published.

The two older plugins, local_aiquestions and block_openai_questions, have not shipped a directory release for a current Moodle version. Neither is a sensible thing to install on a 4.5 or 5.x site today.

How much does a Moodle AI quiz plugin cost?

The open source plugins are free to download under the GPL. The AI behind them is not. With qbank_genai, local_aiquestions and block_openai_questions, every generation request is billed to the OpenAI account whose key is in the settings, usually the institution's. The qbank_questiongen README is blunt that the plugin puts no limit on users, so whoever pays the provider has to watch token usage themselves. For a department that already runs several AI and SaaS subscriptions, that is one more line to track alongside the rest of your cloud and software spend, because a busy exam week shows up on the invoice, not in Moodle.

The hosted options move that cost into a contract. local_hlai_quizgen and Raison both quote on request. A standalone generator like VidQuiz prices per account, from $19 a month, which a single instructor can put on a card without involving IT.

Do I need a Moodle administrator to install an AI quiz plugin?

Yes, for every plugin in this comparison. Installation happens under Site administration, API keys are entered in plugin settings, and hosted plugins also need the site registered with the vendor. On a university or district Moodle, that usually means a ticket, a security review of where course content is sent, and a wait.

A teacher can skip all of that, because importing questions needs no plugin. Editing teachers can import a GIFT file into their course question bank by default. Generate the questions outside Moodle, download the file, and import it. Our Moodle GIFT format generator page shows exactly what that file contains and the import steps for Moodle 4.x and 5.x, and the page on how to import questions into Moodle covers the other formats the question bank accepts.

Can a Moodle AI plugin make a quiz from a lecture video?

Not the ones compared here. Their inputs are topics, pasted text, files and course activities such as Pages, Books and Lessons. None of them reads a YouTube link or a video file. If your course runs on recorded lectures, the words have to be turned into text before any of these plugins can use them.

That is the gap VidQuiz fills. Paste a YouTube link and it reads the video directly. For a Panopto, Kaltura or Zoom recording, paste the transcript alongside the upload, since VidQuiz has no speech-to-text of its own. It drafts multiple choice, true or false and short answer questions with the correct answer marked, writes a one line explanation that imports as Moodle feedback, and adds a timestamp back to the minute of the lecture each question covers. The Moodle quiz generator page walks through that route from recording to finished quiz.

When is a plugin the better choice, and when is an external generator?

A plugin wins when the decision is institutional. If IT wants one approved AI provider, one bill and questions that never leave Moodle as a file, a maintained plugin like qbank_genai or qbank_questiongen fits that model, and teachers never see a download.

An external generator wins when the decision is yours. It works on any Moodle version without an install, it reads video, and the same question set also exports as a QTI 1.2 package for Canvas or Brightspace, a Blackboard file, a Google Forms CSV or a PDF with the answer key, which matters if you teach the same course on more than one platform. In both cases, treat what comes back as a first draft. Review every item before it goes into a graded quiz.

To try it on your own material, paste a lecture link or a page of notes into the generator at the top of this page and export the result as Moodle GIFT.