The best apps to learn Chinese, by goal (video)
One app for each job: the best Chinese course, dictionary, flashcard, reading, handwriting and speaking apps for your goal, with prices checked in October 2026.
Chapters
- 0:00Start
- 0:18The short answer
- 0:42Your stack depends on your goal
- 1:08Chatbots agree on three apps
- 1:38Start free, then pay for one app
- 2:34Courses: HelloChinese first, Duolingo for free
- 3:35Pleco and Anki: free tools you'll keep
- 4:01Reading and handwriting
- 4:55Speaking is where apps fall short
- 5:55What to do next
Transcript
Start
Ask four chatbots for the best app to learn Chinese, and you'll hear the same three names. They're good apps. But none of them does the hardest job well: getting you to speak. From SayMei Guides, by Mei Lin: the best apps to learn Chinese in 2026, by goal.
The short answer
The short answer: there's no single best app, so build a small stack, one app per job. Most beginners should start with HelloChinese, at $11.99 a month, or free Duolingo. Add Pleco, a free dictionary, and Anki for flashcards. Then add what your goal needs: Du Chinese to read, Skritter to write, and a tutoring app or a person to talk to.
Your stack depends on your goal
Most learners need three or four apps. Which ones? That depends on your goal: starting from zero, speaking, passing an HSK exam, reading, writing, or getting by on a trip. At 30 minutes a day, every goal's stack fits under $20 a month. From zero, we'd pick HelloChinese, Pleco, Anki and SayMei: $17.98. And every goal has a free version too.
Chatbots agree on three apps
We asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity for the best app for a beginner, and the best free one. In 34 answers, HelloChinese came up every time. Pleco and Duolingo, in 33. Anki, in half. SayMei, ours, in none. The chatbots are right about the core. What they skip is speaking. And when we asked what a full set costs, one answer offered a range: about $20 to $50 a month.
Start free, then pay for one app
You can start for nothing, and the free tools aren't toys. Duolingo: the whole course, with ads. HelloChinese: the first lessons. Pleco: two dictionaries, offline. Anki: everything but the iPhone app. Mandarin Bean: every graded reading. Gemini Live: spoken conversation. And HelloTalk: chats with native speakers. Paying buys polish and structure. Spend more, and our top pick for every job costs $18 to $43 a month, depending on your goal. Paying for one app? Make it the one that plans your learning: the course, or later, your reader. A yearly plan cuts a third to nearly two thirds off. Speak drops from $17.99 a month to $7. But you pay up front, so try first. Hack Chinese gives you 21 days free without a card, and Speak and Skritter give you 7.
Courses: HelloChinese first, Duolingo for free
A course decides what you learn next, so you don't have to. For most beginners, the best is HelloChinese. Its units follow the HSK levels, with listening, speech recognition and handwriting. Premium is $11.99 a month, or $69.99 a year, and the free part is small. The best free course is Duolingo. We found its words cover most of HSK 1 to 4. But none of its screens in our review trains tones. Aiming past the basics? SuperChinese runs furthest up the HSK levels, from zero to HSK 5, and every line you say gets a pronunciation score. Its Plus plan is $11.99 a month, and Chao, with a conversation tutor, is $24.99. Going on a trip? Pimsleur gives you 30-minute audio lessons you answer out loud, hands-free and offline, for $19.95 a month. And Babbel? It doesn't teach Chinese at all.
Pleco and Anki: free tools you'll keep
Two free apps outlast every course. Install them on day one. Pleco is the dictionary learners recommend most: free, offline, with handwriting input. Look up a word, and it shows the tone that changes its meaning. 买, buy, is one tone away from 卖, sell. Anki is the free flashcard app. It shows each card just before you'd forget it, and you can download shared HSK decks.
Reading and handwriting
Graded readers turn words you've drilled into words you understand. Du Chinese is the one we'd start with: more than 3,000 stories and articles, each with native audio, for $14.99 a month. A beginner story, 'I'm a Cat', uses just 150 characters. And to spend nothing, Mandarin Bean keeps all its graded readings free. Writing from memory is a separate skill. Spotting 谢, the 'thank' in thank you, is easy. Writing its 12 strokes in order, from memory, is not. Skritter is built for that: you write each character on screen, and it grades every stroke, for $14.99 a month. And you may need less handwriting than you think. By HSK 6, the new syllabus asks you to read about 1,940 characters, but write only 700.
Speaking is where apps fall short
Course apps have you read lines aloud. But answering a waiter who asks 几位, 'how many of you?', takes something that talks back. Free conversation is easy to find: Gemini Live talks with you, and HelloTalk pairs you with native speakers. Structured speaking costs money. Speak is $17.99 a month. A weekly italki lesson comes to about $86.67, but a trained ear hears tone habits that apps miss. We found no public test showing that any app reliably checks your tones. Where does SayMei fit? It's the cheapest way to get spoken lessons sorted by HSK level: $5.99 a month for 200 minutes. Each lesson takes 5 to 10 minutes and practises one grammar point. Mei Lin plays the waiter or the hotel clerk, and corrects you as you go. But it's the wrong pick for a course, a dictionary or flashcards, or for hours of talk a day. And it runs only in a browser.
What to do next
What next? Pick your goal first. Install the free three: Duolingo or HelloChinese's free lessons, plus Pleco and Anki. After a few weeks, pay for the one app you open every day, and go yearly once you're sure. Start speaking in week one. And add the specialist your goal needs. You can talk with Mei Lin for free: your first lesson is up to 10 minutes, with no account and no card. The stack builder, with every price, is on the page at saymei dot app.