I typed 2x + 3 = 11 and I wanted the page to put the answer back in before it called anything an answer. It did. x is 4. The left side becomes 11. The right side is 11. The check is the product. The steps are how it got there.
The sample on the new page is the one with parentheses, 2(x + 3) = 10. Distribute first. The left side is 2x + 6. Then 2x = 4. Then x = 2. Put 2 back into what you typed. 2(2 + 3) is 10. The right side is 10.
The page is Math Solver with Steps.
The check is the last step, and it can veto
A step that sounds smooth is not a check. The check is arithmetic on the original equation, with the candidate in place of the letter. Both sides have to be the same rational number.
For 2x + 3 = 11 the candidate is 4.
2 times 4 is 8. 8 plus 3 is 11. The right side was already 11. The status line is x = 4, and the check is 11 = 11.
If those two numbers differed, the page would not print 4 as the answer. It would say the substitution did not match. I would rather show that sentence than a wrong root with a paragraph under it.
Put 4 back into the original equation. The left side is 11 and the right side is 11.
That is the substitution step on 2x + 3 = 11. The sample uses 2 instead of 4, and the same rule. 10 = 10, or there is no answer.
Parentheses come apart before the division
2(x + 3) = 10 is not "divide by 2 and hope." The first rewrite is the multiplication. 2 times x is 2x. 2 times 3 is 6. The equation is 2x + 6 = 10.
Move the 6. 2x = 4. Divide by 2. x = 2.
Each of those is a step you can leave open or close. The title is the move. The lines under it are the equation before and the equation after. Nothing is hidden behind a login, and nothing is generated by asking a model to narrate.
0.5x = 2 is the decimal case. The box reads 0.5 as the fraction 1/2 before any step, so the half does not become a binary approximation. Half of x is 2, so x is 4. The check is 2 = 2.
| Equation | Result | Check |
|---|---|---|
| 2x + 3 = 11 | x = 4 | 11 = 11 |
| 2(x + 3) = 10 | x = 2 | 10 = 10 |
| 0.5x = 2 | x = 4 | 2 = 2 |
| 1/(x - 1) = 2 | x = 3/2 | 2 = 2 |
| x^2 = 4 | no answer | not linear |
The last row is the refusal. It is in the table because a blank cell would look like I forgot. The page says the equation is not linear, and it stops.
x squared is not given a root
x^2 = 4 has two real roots, 2 and -2. A page that prints 2 and never mentions -2 has taught the wrong lesson. This page does not solve squares. The reason on the status line says it solves linear equations, and this one is not linear. There is no equals-something under that.
I am not going to add a quadratic formula in the same breath and call the page finished. A square needs its own steps, its own check for both roots, and a sentence about when the discriminant is negative. That is a different tool. Until it exists, the honest line is the refusal.
Two letters get the same refusal. x + y = 3 does not have one answer. The page says to use one letter. It does not set y to zero so that x can be 3. An empty box, and a line with no equals sign, are refusals too. 2x + 3 is an expression. It is not an equation until something sits on the other side of the equals sign.
1 is not a solution just because the algebra wrote it
1/(x - 1) = 2 is linear once you clear the denominator, and the clearing has a condition. x cannot be 1. Multiply both sides by x - 1 and you get 1 = 2(x - 1). Then 1 = 2x - 2. Then 3 = 2x. Then x = 3/2.
3/2 is not 1. Put it back. The denominator is 3/2 - 1, which is 1/2. 1 divided by 1/2 is 2. The right side is 2. The check matches, and the domain line still says x cannot be 1.
(x - 1)/(x - 1) = 2 is the trap. Cancel in your head and you might say the left side is 1, so 1 = 2, which is never true. Do the algebra without cancelling and a candidate appears: x = 1. That candidate is exactly the value that makes the denominator zero. The page throws it out. The result is no solution. It does not print x = 1.
The twin, 1/(x - 1) = 1/(x - 1), is the other shape. After you move everything to one side you get 0 = 0. That is true wherever the original equation is defined. It is defined for every number except 1. The status says every allowed number works, and the excluded value is 1.
3x + 1 = 3x + 2 drops the variable and leaves -1 = 0, or whatever the constant difference is. A non-zero number equals zero. No number works. 2(x + 1) = 2x + 2 leaves 0 = 0 and no denominator to exclude. Every number works.
What "linear" means on this page
One letter. The letter to the first power. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and parentheses. A small whole-number power is allowed when it is a power of a plain number, because 2^3 is 8 and there is no x in it. A power of the letter, other than the first, makes an x squared term or worse, and the page stops.
A sum of two fractions that both have the letter in the denominator can force a denominator that is not a straight line. 1/x + 1/(x + 1) = 1 is that shape. The page will not clear it and then guess which roots to exclude. It says the denominator is more than a straight line. That is a limit, not a puzzle you failed.
The input stops at 200 characters. Past that, the box will not take more. A homework line fits. A pasted page of problems does not, and it should not: this page solves one equation.
Numbers with a decimal point become fractions from the digits you typed. 0.5 is 1/2. 0.25 is 1/4. The steps stay in fractions when the fraction is not a whole number, so 3/2 stays 3/2 and does not become 1.5 and then 1.499999.
The steps you can close
The answer, when there is one, is the status line. Under it, every move is a block you can close down to its title.
The first block writes each side as one fraction. 2(x + 3) becomes 2x + 6. A side that was already a sum stays a sum. The second block, when a denominator exists, names the values that are not allowed. The third block moves every term to one side, so you are looking at something = 0. If the coefficient of the letter is not zero, the next block divides by it. The last block is the substitution, and it shows the two sides as numbers.
If the coefficient is zero and the constant is zero, the block says there is nothing left to solve. If the constant is not zero, the block says no number works. If the only candidate was excluded, the block says so, and the status is no solution rather than that candidate.
Close the blocks if you already know the move and you only wanted the check. Open them if you wanted the move. They are on the page either way. There is no second screen that asks you to pay to see them.
What the link carries
Copy equation link builds an address with the equation in the box. For the sample, the address contains that equation, encoded so the spaces and the plus sign survive. It does not contain the steps. The steps are computed again when the other person opens the link and hits Solve, or you can leave the equation in the box for them.
Copy it only if you want that equation seen. A homework line you would not write on a whiteboard should not go into a link either. The preview under the button is the address itself, so you can read it before you copy.
A ?v= on the end, with no equation, is a cache buster. It does not replace an equation this browser already stored. The store is one key, softery.math-solver-with-steps.equation. Clear saved equation removes it. The page does not keep a history of every problem you typed, beyond Undo for the last sample swap.
Mixpanel and Google Analytics load with Softery.io. They see that someone opened the tool. A length bucket can go out with the share click. The equation does not. I will not tell you the whole site makes no requests. The characters you typed do not leave with them.
The sample is one click
The sample button puts 2(x + 3) = 10 in the box and solves it. Undo puts back whatever was in the box before that, and it clears the result until you hit Solve again. Clear saved equation empties the box and removes the browser store. Those three controls are the whole memory of the page. There is no account to log into, and there is no list of past problems on a server.
If you had typed 2x + 3 = 11, hit Solve, and then opened the sample, Undo returns 2x + 3 = 11 to the box. It does not re-solve it for you. Hit Solve if you want 4 and the check of 11 = 11 again. I kept that split so Undo is a text restore, not a second opinion.
The share address, after the sample, contains the sample equation and not the sentence "x = 2". Anyone who opens it still has to look at the steps on the page. That is the point of a link to a problem, rather than a link to a naked number.
Neighbors that are not this
A question that is "what is 18 percent of 40" is not an equation in x. The Percentage Calculator does the six forms, and it prints the formula under the answer. Use that when the word percent is the whole problem.
A question that is "how many metres in 10 kilometres" is a conversion. The Unit Converter is one pair of units at a time. It is not going to solve 2x + 3 = 11, and this page is not going to convert kilometres.
I am not stuffing a third link in because a math page can point at anything. Those two are the everyday arithmetic next door. If your line is linear, stay here.
What I left out
No camera. A photo of a textbook page is a different product, and a wrong reading of the photo becomes a wrong equation with confident steps. Type the line.
No word problems. "A train leaves at noon" needs the equation extracted from the sentences. That extraction is where a model invents a number. This page starts after the equation exists.
No systems of two letters. No squares. No sine. No matrices. If the algebra after clearing still has an x squared term, the result is the refusal, not a root I liked.
No account, and no sync. The last equation sits in this browser if storage allows. Another phone does not have it unless you copied the link or typed it again.
The check uses the original expression, not the simplified one. A bug that cancelled badly and then checked the simplified form would congratulate itself. Substitution into what you typed is the veto.
Do this with one line
- Type one equation with one equals sign, or open the sample.
- Read the status. If it says no answer, believe that before you believe a number from somewhere else.
- If there is a value, read the check. The two sides are numbers. They match, or the value would not be there.
- Open the step that lost you. The before and after lines are the whole move.
- If a denominator was in the original, read the line that says which values are not allowed. A candidate on that list is not a solution.
- Copy the link only if the equation in the preview is one you want seen.
2x + 3 = 11 ends at 4, and both sides are 11. x^2 = 4 ends in a refusal. That split is the page.
Last updated: September 22, 2026 | Reading time: 11 minutes
Written by Softery.io, which would rather refuse a square than hand you one of the roots.