The cognition of low-carbon tourism among tourists is closely related to education level. In this study, the degree of coordination of low-carbon cognition with different educational levels is assessed by the coupling model in Wutai Mountain, and the effect of each factor on low-carbon cognition is analyzed by the geographical detector. The results show that: (1) The six cognition aspects of low-carbon tourism gradually transition from the level of intermediate coordination to good coordination with the advancement of the education level. Both the low-level and lower-level tourists belong to the lag type of low-carbon visiting cognition, and the higher-level tourists belong to the lag type of low-carbon shopping cognition, while the high-level tourists show the lag type of low-carbon food cognition. (2) According to the individual factors and interactive effects in the geographical detector, each impacting factor has a decisive effect on tourists' cognition of low-carbon tourism, and the effect of any two factors after interaction shows either a double-factor or nonlinear enhancement. The findings of this study provide valuable practical implications for helping tourism destinations to educate tourists and improve their low-carbon tourism options. At the same time, this study will provide theoretical standards for measuring tourists' cognition of low-carbon tourism, so as to enrich and improve the theoretical research related to low-carbon tourism.