PurposeThe continuous development of information technology leads to intelligent education research. In the context of internationalisation, the study aims to understand the relevant research status worldwide, research similarities and differences that need to be discovered, and research frontiers that need to be explored.Design/methodology/approachWeb of Science (WoS) core collection was used as the data source, descriptive statistical analysis, geographic data visualisation and coupling analysis are used to reveal coupling relationships, present a cooperative situation and discover research frontiers.FindingsIntelligent education research has been widely carried out in countries around the world, and there is extensive scientific research cooperation. According to coupling analysis results, the coupling strength of bibliographic between countries has been continuously improved, while the coupling strength of keywords has remained balanced, and there is standardisation and diversity of research.Research limitations/implicationsThe weakness of the research lies in the limitations of the data sources. Important research achievements on a certain topic in many non-English speaking countries are usually published in native journals. In the future research direction, more coupling analysis objects can be carried out, such as focussing on authors and institutions.Practical implicationsThrough the coupling analysis of country bibliographic and keywords, it reveals the consistency and divergence of intelligent education research between different countries at different time spans.Originality/valueDesign and implement country bibliographic coupling (CBC) and country keyword coupling (CKC) strength indicators to calculate the strength of coupling between countries.