K-12 learning 🇬🇧 Ampthill, United Kingdom Since 2019 4.7 · 17K ratings

NumBots

Addition, subtraction and number bonds game for ages 5 to 7, from Maths Circle.

Visit numbots.com Try NumBots free All companies
levels in Story Mode
1,300+
stages, from Rust to Diamond
18
suggested starting age
5–7
UK App Store, 17,054 ratings
4.7

About NumBots

NumBots is a maths game for addition, subtraction and number bonds, made by Maths Circle Ltd in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, the company behind Times Tables Rock Stars. Children start with subitising and move through more than 1,300 levels to two-digit addition and subtraction, matching Years 1 to 3 of the National Curriculum in England. Maths Circle suggests most children start between the ages of 5 and 7. Pupils log in at play.numbots.com or in the free NumBots app with the username and password their teacher gives them. On 15 October 2026 the UK purchase page listed £102.20 a year excl. VAT for a whole school and £7.20 a year for a family of 3 children.

NumBots teaches mental addition and subtraction. A child first learns to subitise, which means seeing how many objects are in a group without counting them. Then come number bonds to 5, 10, 20 and 100, adding and subtracting within 10, bridging 10 and finally two-digit numbers. The questions use 10-frames, bead strings, cherries, bar models, number lines, hundred squares and, since September 2021, rekenreks.

Teachers who used Times Tables Rock Stars asked Maths Circle for a similar programme for addition and subtraction. The team spent two years on it and drew on material from the NCETM, White Rose Maths, teachers in Shanghai and Singapore and academics. NumBots came out in 2019, and the iPhone app arrived on the App Store on 2 October 2019. In April 2020 Maths Circle received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for TTRS and NumBots.

Maths Circle Ltd, company 09861676, publishes both games. Founder Bruno Reddy is CEO, and since 10 May 2022 Maths Circle Holdings Limited owns 75% or more of the shares. A school subscription covers all pupils and teachers. Schools that already use TTRS get their classes set up in NumBots, and pupils log in with the same details. Families and tutors buy their own 12-month plans.

History

  1. 2010 Bruno Reddy starts Times Tables Rock Stars in his maths lessons at a London secondary school.
  2. 2015 Maths Circle Ltd is incorporated on 9 November in England.
  3. 2019 NumBots launches after two years of development. The iPhone app goes live on the App Store on 2 October.
  4. 2020 Maths Circle wins the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for TTRS and NumBots, announced on 21 April.
  5. 2021 Colour-blind colour schemes arrive in August. Rekenreks join Story Mode on 15 September.
  6. 2022 Challenge Mode gets 30 one-minute challenges in four topics on 22 April. Maths Circle Holdings Limited becomes the parent company on 10 May.
  7. 2023 Scrapheap Stories, free 10-minute audio stories about growth mindset told by the NumBots characters, come out in December.
  8. 2024 Schools can log pupils in through Wonde’s MyLogin SSO from 18 July.
  9. 2026 Ready-made lesson starters, the Bot Trumps and Represent card games, are added for subscribers in January.
  10. 2026 App version 2.1.167 is released on the App Store on 14 September.

Leadership

  • Bruno Reddy Founder and CEO of Maths Circle, director since 9 November 2015
  • Nicola Reddy Chief of Operations, director since 20 March 2020
  • Helen Newies Director of Product and Services
  • Sarah Parrish Learning and Game Architect
  • Tom Bolshaw Education Specialist, Production
  • Alex Ford Finance Director

Roles from the Meet the team page on numbots.com and Companies House, checked on 15 October 2026. The same Maths Circle team builds NumBots and Times Tables Rock Stars.

How NumBots practice works

Story Mode levels
1,300+
one-minute challenges
30
days a week, at least 3 minutes, suggested
4–5
  • Subitising before counting
  • Two stars to unlock a level
  • 10-frames, bead strings, rekenreks and bar models
  • One element changes per question
  • Custom Shack robot avatars
  • Badges and trophies
  • Colour-blind colour schemes and screen reader support
  • Read-aloud questions and adjustable timer
  • Curfew and shop closing for schools
  • No chat, no ads, no in-game purchases

What NumBots teaches

Early number3

  • Subitising numbers up to 5
  • Subitising two groups together
  • One or two more and less than

Number bonds3

  • Number bonds to 5 and 10
  • Number bonds to 20
  • Number bonds to 100

Adding and subtracting5

  • Within 10
  • Bridging 10
  • Near doubles
  • Two-digit numbers
  • Partitioning and compensation

NumBots learning objectives follow Years 1, 2 and 3 of the National Curriculum in England. Every child starts at Rust Level 1, and an adult can switch off topics a child already knows so that they skip those levels. Maths Circle expects most children to need at least 2 years to finish the programme.

Products

  • Story Mode 18 stages from Rust to Diamond with levels in a set order. A child earns two stars to unlock the next level and collects parts that help RustyBot upgrade. Within a level, questions change one element at a time. NumBots for schools
  • Challenge Mode 30 one-minute challenges on subitising, number bonds, adding and subtracting. The questions are abstract and train speed of recall. Challenge Mode unlocks after Iron (Stage 2) Level 26 in Story Mode. Play NumBots
  • Teacher dashboard Teachers log in at manage.numbots.com, add colleagues and upload pupils from one spreadsheet. Stats show progress and usage by class and by pupil, and the dashboard prints leaderboards and certificates. Data updates overnight. Teacher login
  • Family plan and parent area Parents create child accounts, set each child’s picture PIN and see levels passed, usage and the daily goal. Two adults can log in and play too. NumBots for families
  • Scrapheap Stories Seven free audio stories told by the NumBots characters. Each 10-minute story is about one attitude to learning, such as practising little and often or asking for help. Listen

How much is NumBots?

  • NumBots for schools £102.20/year £102.20 a year excl. VAT, unlimited pupils and teachers, £10.95 off with an active TTRS subscription
  • No auto-renewal NumBots family plan £7.20/year £7.20 a year incl. VAT, 3 children and 2 adults, extra child £2.40 a year
  • NumBots for tutors £2.40/year £2.40 per tutee a year, minimum 3 tutees, school plan suggested above 49

Is NumBots free?

Schools get a free trial of the full package, usually 4 weeks, with unlimited pupil and teacher accounts and no charge when it ends. Families get no trial, but can ask for a full refund within 30 days. A child whose school subscribes plays at home with the school login at no extra cost.

UK prices in pounds as printed on numbots.com/purchase, numbots.com/families and numbots.com/tutors, checked on 15 October 2026. School prices exclude VAT, family prices include VAT. All plans last 12 months and are paid once. The pages print different UK figures: numbots.com/schools shows £113.15 a year for a school, and numbots.com/tutors shows £3.00 per tutee. The live calculator loads prices for the visitor’s country: from the Netherlands it showed €225 a year per school, €206 for a school that also has TTRS, €18.15 for a family and €6.05 per tutee.

How to cancel NumBots

NumBots for families
  • Family plans are a one-off payment and do not renew automatically.
  • Extra child accounts bought mid-year are pro-rated to the plan’s expiry date.
  • A school trial expires after about 4 weeks without a charge.

Refund rules

Families
Full refund within the first 30 days, on request by email.
Schools
A new subscription starts at once. After a trial or during a subscription, it starts when the current one ends.

From numbots.com/families, numbots.com/schools and the Maths Circle help centre, checked on 15 October 2026.

NumBots for schools

Pricing for schools
  • 01One subscription covers the whole school, with no limit on pupils or teachers.
  • 02A school that already uses TTRS keeps its classes and logins, and gets £10.95 a year off NumBots.
  • 03Schools can pay by card or by invoice and add a purchase order number.
  • 04Pupil data from a trial stays for 12 weeks after the trial ends. Schools outside the UK can subscribe too.

£102.20 a year excl. VAT on the UK purchase page, checked on 15 October 2026. NumBots has no bolt-ons.

App ratings

NumBots app

Released
2 October 2019, App Store
Version
2.1.167 (14 September 2026) on the App Store
Devices
iPhone and iPad on iOS 13 or later, Android, Amazon Appstore, web at play.numbots.com
Age rating
4+ on the App Store
Price
Free download, needs a school, family or tutor subscription. No ads and no in-game purchases
Downloads
500K+ on Google Play

Latest news

  1. Ready made lesson starters on NumBots, NumBots blog
  2. Use MyLogin SSO to log in to NumBots, NumBots blog
  3. Behind the making of the NumBots audio stories, NumBots blog
  4. Challenge Mode update boosts number fluency, NumBots blog
  5. Introducing rekenreks, NumBots blog

Contacts and company data

Legal entity
Maths Circle Ltd, The Ossory Offices, Hazelwood Lane, Ampthill, Bedford MK45 2HF, United Kingdom
Company
Maths Circle Limited, 09861676, England and Wales
Incorporated
9 November 2015, private limited company, active
Activity
SIC 85590 other education not elsewhere classified
Parent company
Maths Circle Holdings Limited, 14097257, 75% or more of shares since 10 May 2022
VAT number
GB 246401820

Alternatives to NumBots

How we built this profile

  1. Sources. Facts come from the company’s own website, press room, imprint and careers page, from Wikipedia, the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot. Every source is listed on the page.
  2. Checks. Kinescope checked every number on 15 October 2026. Prices, ratings and job counts change, and we refresh them with each update.
  3. Our words. Descriptions are written by the Kinescope team. Quotes from reviews are marked with the author and source, and we do not rate the company ourselves.
  4. Corrections. The company can send new facts or corrections, and we update the profile.

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NumBots FAQ

Go to play.numbots.com or open the free NumBots app and tap Log in. Pupils choose Schools and enter the username and password their teacher gave them. The same details work at home. Pupils whose school uses Wonde MyLogin tap the NumBots icon on the MyLogin page. Families log in with the parent email and password, then each child taps their tile and enters a 4-animal picture PIN. Teachers log in at manage.numbots.com with their email address and password.

For a school account, ask the teacher. Maths Circle does not give out children’s login details for data protection reasons. Teachers print username labels and parent letters with each pupil’s details. In a family account, the parent sees each child’s PIN under Manage Users. A parent who forgot the password clicks “I’ve forgotten my password” on the login screen.

NumBots is a maths game for addition, subtraction and number bonds from Maths Circle Ltd, the maker of Times Tables Rock Stars. Children play Story Mode, with more than 1,300 levels in 18 stages, and Challenge Mode, with 30 one-minute challenges. It runs in the browser and in apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire.

Maths Circle suggests most children start between the ages of 5 and 7. The learning objectives match Years 1, 2 and 3 of the National Curriculum in England. Every child starts at the first level, and most need at least 2 years to finish. An adult can let an older child skip topics they already know.

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