Student choices, pieced together in Excel
Hundreds of students, dozens of subject combinations. Every student has to be clash-checked, and moving one subject means starting over — it takes weeks.
AI-native timetabling · IB · A-Level · AP · IGCSE
Say it once. AI builds the whole timetable.
Timetables — solved and explained.
- students get every choice
- 95.8%
- to a clash-free timetable
- 0.6s
- largest class, real school
- 33 → 26
First two: IB DP sample school (144 students, 33 teachers, 97 teaching groups). Third: real G9 choice data from an international school.
AI in every step — not just a button
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1
Say what you need
Plain words or Excel
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2
AI models it
Turned into rules
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3
AI solves
A timetable in seconds
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4
AI explains
What clashes, how to fix
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5
Runs the term
Cover, notices, exams
One engine for every timetable you run
IB DP / MYPA-LevelAPIGCSEChinese Gaokao electivesFixed homeroom classes6 / 10-day rotationsA/B weeksMulti-campusChinese & EnglishIB DP / MYPA-LevelAPIGCSEChinese Gaokao electivesFixed homeroom classes6 / 10-day rotationsA/B weeksMulti-campusChinese & English
Three things every timetabler dreads
“No solution” — and no idea why
The software just fails. You delete rules one by one, and teachers' requests are the first to go.
Change one lesson, break ten more
A teacher is away or a class is added; manual fixes create new clashes and the timetable degrades all term.
How Keyi solves it
Not another grid-filling tool — an engine that optimises, explains and minimises disruption.
01
Sections built from student choices
From student choices, Keyi decides how many sections each subject needs, who teaches them, who sits where and which lessons run together, so no student has a clash. Choice satisfaction always comes first, then your goal: fewest sections, smallest classes or a target size. Schedule sections directly or with option blocks — whichever your school uses.
Fully placed 1381 clash 6
Slot APhysics HL 22Econ HL 18Chinese A 20
Slot BChem HL 21Business 19English B 24
Slot CBio SL 23Math HL 17Psych 16
Slot DCS HL 14Econ SL 22History 19
Student Chen Y.: Physics HL and Chem HL clash in Slot A → suggest the Slot D section
02
Tells you exactly why it can't solve
A pre-solve health check catches capacity problems early. If the timetable is impossible, Keyi returns the smallest set of rules that cannot all hold — and tells “proven impossible” apart from “ran out of time”.
✕ Proven impossible · minimal conflict set (3)
- R12 Mr Wang unavailable all Wednesday
- R07 Mr Wang max 4 lessons / day
- C03 Mr Wang teaches 18 / week (4 days × 4 = 16)
Relax any one of these and the rest can hold.
03
Timetable check-up: how good it is, and how to fix it
Every timetable gets a check-up: a score and findings ranked by impact — unplaced choices, students over their normal slots, evening and weekend lessons, teachers with packed days — each with a one-click fix. Student busyness, a heat map of who is in class when, version-to-version comparison, and a printable report for the principal.
92· Usable, 2 points worth a look
5 students over their normal slotsSee list
60 evening / weekend lessonsSee list
Can still be improvedOptimise
Students in class per slot · compare versions · printable report
04
Drag, drop — and make room
Pick up a lesson and every slot lights up as free, clashing or swappable. Drop it on a clash and the engine moves the fewest other lessons, saving a new version you can roll back.
FreeClashSwap
Math 7A
Drop on a clash → Make room: only 2 lessons move
05
An AI assistant that walks you through it
A step-by-step wizard takes you from blank to timetable. Add rules, look up any teacher or student, or ask why something clashes — in plain English or Chinese. AI proposes; you confirm.
Keep Mr Wang free on Wednesday afternoons, and check if 7A maths is bunched up
Proposal · New rule: Wang — no periods 5–8 on Wednesday
3 lessons move · 7A maths now on alternate days
ConfirmDiscard
06
Term operations: swaps, cover, lesson counts
The cycle timetable unrolls onto the real calendar. Swaps, cancellations, make-ups and cover are change orders — clash-checked, reversible and optionally approved — with taught and missed lesson counts always up to date.
Mon 9 MarMaths 7ACoverLi → Zhou
Tue 10 MarPhysics 8BMoved→ Thu P3
Wed 11 MarYear 8CancelledSports day
Fri 13 MarPhysics 8BMake-upP7
Mr Wang this month: planned 64 · taught 61 · cover +3
07
Publish once, read it on any phone
Share a fixed link — no login — that reads by day on phones and by week on desktops. iCal subscriptions update when lessons move. Export to Excel or sync with ManageBac / PowerSchool.
7A · Tuesday
08:00Maths
08:55English
09:50Physics
10:45PE 🏃
13:30History
🔗 No-login link📅 iCal⬇ ExcelManageBac
How Keyi compares
Excel by handTraditional timetabling software
KeyiBest
KeyiBest
Sectioning from choices
Weeks of manual checkingMostly manualAutomatic, satisfaction first
When it can't solve
Guesswork“No solution”Names the minimal conflicting rules
Mid-term changes
Ripple effectsOften a full re-runMoves the fewest lessons
Swaps / cover / lesson counts
Separate spreadsheetsPartialBuilt-in, dated
Individual student timetables
HardVariesAutomatic, clash-checked
Getting started
—Days of trainingWizard + AI assistant
Real school data, not just a demo
Read the full case study →
An international school's G9 options: same 19 sections, largest class from 33 down to 26
100%choices satisfied
33 → 26largest class
52 → 6total same-subject size gap
30ssolve time
An international school (IGCSE, Grade 9)
Which school are you?
International schools
Keyi turns student subject choices into option blocks and teaching groups, then produces timetables for every student and teacher — with native 6/10-day rotations, HL/SL hour differences, shared block grids across year groups, and a bilingual interface.
Learn more →Gaokao elective schools
Keyi suggests class counts from students' 3+1+2 subject combinations, supports fixed-2, fixed-1 and full-mobility modes, builds homeroom and teaching-group timetables, and works out how many rooms mobile classes need.
Learn more →K-12 homeroom schools
Keyi builds whole-school timetables for homeroom schools, with rules for lesson alignment, distribution, first/last periods, venue capacity, combined classes and multi-campus travel, plus built-in cover and lesson counts.
Learn more →A new term's timetable in four steps
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1
Import
Upload choices and base data from Excel
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2
Section students
Sections from choices, pin and tweak
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3
Solve
First version in seconds, then keeps improving
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4
Publish & run
Fine-tune, publish, handle cover all term
Try free, then subscribe by school size
Try it on your real data and see the quality; exporting, day-to-day operations and AI are in the subscription.
Free trial
Free
- Enter or import all data and rules
- Pre-check, scheduling and quality report
- Full timetable for one class and one teacher
- 20 AI requests to try guided setup and the assistant
Subscription
Tiered by student count, per year
- View, adjust, export and print every timetable
- Publish to the whole school, calendar feeds
- Term operations: cover, exams, workload, rollover
- Section rosters and apply, deep optimisation
- Unlimited AI, more accounts
- Capped pricing; no extra charge for complexity
Frequently asked questions
What is Keyi?
Keyi is an automatic school timetabling SaaS for international high schools, elective-heavy schools and K-12 homeroom schools. It sections students from their subject choices, builds class, teacher and student timetables, and runs term changes and cover.
We don't use option blocks. Can Keyi still schedule electives?
Yes. In direct sectioning, Keyi builds sections straight from student choices and timetables each one on its own, keeping student clashes to a minimum; afterwards it can re-place students without moving any lessons. When electives fill most of a student's week, option blocks avoid clashes more reliably — you can try both.
How long does a timetable take?
The IB DP sample school (144 students, 33 teachers, 97 groups) gets its first clash-free timetable in 0.6 s, then keeps optimising for the time you allow. Sectioning 89 real students takes about 30 s.
What happens when a timetable is impossible?
Keyi returns the minimal conflict set — the few rules that cannot all hold, where dropping any one makes the rest feasible — and distinguishes “proven impossible” from “timed out”.
Which curricula and schedules are supported?
IB (DP/MYP), A-Level, AP, IGCSE, Chinese Gaokao electives and homeroom schools; weekly, 6-day or 10-day cycles, A/B weeks, and per-period times.
How do we get our data in?
One Excel file imports classes, teachers, subjects, hours, combined classes and blocked times; student choices import from Excel too. ManageBac and PowerSchool connectors are available.
Is our data safe? Can we self-host?
In SaaS every school's data is strictly isolated. Private deployment keeps all data on your own servers, with offline licence verification.
How is it priced?
The free trial covers data entry, solving, the quality report and a sample of timetables. The subscription is priced per year in student-count tiers with a floor and a cap; complexity costs nothing extra. Book a demo for a quote.
Does the AI change the timetable by itself?
No. The AI proposes changes and lists exactly what would move; nothing happens until you confirm.
Timetabling guides
Practical answers to the questions timetablers ask most.
What Are Option Blocks? How to Build Them from Student Choices
Option blocks group elective subjects that run at the same time; each student takes one subject per block. Goals, constraints and how to check a result.
Read guide →Gaokao 3+1+2 Timetabling: Fixed-2, Fixed-1 or Full Mobility?
Gaokao 3+1+2 yields 12 subject combinations. Compare fixed-2, fixed-1 and full mobility on class stability, teaching sections and rooms, and pick by data.
Read guide →How to Choose School Timetabling Software: 9 Questions to Ask
Nine questions for evaluating timetabling software: time model, option blocks, infeasibility, minimal-change re-solve, drag-and-drop, term ops, data, security.
Read guide →Timetable Won't Solve? How to Find the Conflicting Rules
When a timetable won't solve: run capacity pre-checks, find the minimal conflict set, relax one rule at a time. Common culprits and infeasible vs timeout.
Read guide →Book a 30-minute demo
We'll run your real choice data live. We reply within one business day.
- Bring your existing Excel choice sheet
- Demo in English or Chinese
- Data used only for the demo, deleted on request