fast.ai: Free Deep Learning Course | Practical Deep Learning for Coders
fast.ai is free nonprofit deep learning course teaching 500,000+ students practical AI. Open-source fastai library, Jupyter notebooks, no prerequisites except Python.
fast.ai is a nonprofit offering completely free 7-week course on practical deep learning for 500,000+ students globally. Course covers computer vision, NLP, recommendation systems via top-down implementation-first approach. Open-source fastai library reduces code by 95%. No costs, only need intermediate Python knowledge.
Pricing
Completely free. No pricing tiers, paywalls, or enrollment fees. All courses and fastai library permanently free as nonprofit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is fast.ai?
fast.ai is a nonprofit organization founded 2016 offering completely free deep learning education. Practical Deep Learning for Coders course teaches computer vision, NLP, recommendation systems via top-down practical-first approach. Includes open-source fastai library and community forums.
How much does fast.ai cost?
Completely free. No pricing tiers, paywalls, or enrollment fees. All courses, video lessons, Jupyter notebooks, fastai library, and Deep Learning for Coders book are permanently free.
What are the main features?
Main features include 7-week free course, open-source fastai library, video lessons with notebooks, community forum support, and Deep Learning for Coders book. Covers image classification, CNNs, NLP, time series, generative models, recommendation systems.
Is fast.ai free to use?
Yes, completely free as nonprofit with no paywalls. Only need intermediate Python knowledge and free GPU access through Kaggle or Google Colab for training models.
What are alternatives?
DeepLearning.AI for certification courses (some paid), Andrew Ng's Coursera courses, Stanford CS231n for computer vision, MIT OpenCourseWare for theory-first approach. For hands-on free learning, fast.ai is unmatched.
Who is fast.ai best for?
Best for Python developers wanting practical deep learning without academic prerequisites, working professionals building AI expertise, and researchers optimizing models. Not ideal for programming beginners or those needing live instructor support.
Does fast.ai have an API?
fast.ai is primarily educational; fastai library integrates with PyTorch and Python for programmatic use in research and production. Available on GitHub at github.com/fastai, installable via pip.