italki vs Preply for learning Chinese: prices, rules and which to pick

Is italki or Preply better for learning Chinese?

italki is the better default for Chinese. It lets you pay as you go, try teachers cheaply and stop without losing anything. Preply is the better buy for one kind of learner: someone who already knows they'll meet the same tutor every week.

We think the right answer depends on your goal more than on the sites. Here's our pick for each one:

Source: italki's and Preply's help centres and Chinese tutor pages, read 27 October 2026. The picks are ours.

If you're not sure which learner you are, you're the italki learner for now. You can move to a weekly Preply plan once the habit is real.

The two sites are built on different promises

italki is a marketplace with a wallet. You buy credits, book any teacher's lesson, and pay only for what you book. Preply is a marketplace with a subscription. You take a trial, then sign up to one tutor for a set number of lessons every 28 days.

That one design choice runs through every rule. On italki, the risk sits with the teacher: you can disappear for a month and lose nothing. On Preply, the risk sits with you: the subscription page says plainly that lessons you don't schedule before renewal expire.

Size is the other big difference. When we checked, italki's Chinese page listed 981 Mandarin tutors and Preply's listed about 9,500. More tutors means more choice at odd hours and in niches like business Chinese. It also means more sorting to do.

One caveat: the tutor counts we quote are each company's own figure, and neither says how many tutors are active each week. Treat them as a sense of scale, not of quality.

Every rule and fee, side by side

These four tables hold every rule a Chinese learner is likely to hit. We built them only from each company's own pages, and the date matters: Preply rewrote most of its student help pages in August and September 2026.

First, how you pay:

Sources: italki's help pages on booking, packages and the processing fee; Preply's on subscriptions and charges. Read 27 October 2026.

Next, trial lessons:

Sources: italki on trials and its satisfaction guarantee; Preply on booking a trial and replacements. Read 27 October 2026.

Then the rules for when plans change:

Sources: italki on cancelling, lesson problems and credits; Preply on cancellation, no-shows, pausing, refunds and its refund policy. Read 27 October 2026.

Last, teachers and extras:

Sources: italki on teacher types, group courses and Smart Lessons; Preply on Professional Tutors and Lesson Insights; Apple's App Store. Read 27 October 2026.

If we had to keep one row, it would be "lessons you don't book". It decides whether a busy month costs you nothing or costs you lessons.

Preply's own price figures don't agree

Preply publishes four different answers to "what does a Chinese tutor cost?", and they don't line up. italki publishes none, so the only italki prices a visitor sees are on its first page of tutors.

We read each site's first page twice, logged out and in US dollars, the way any visitor would. The order changed between reads, so the ranges cover both. Here's what each number says:

Sources: italki's Chinese tutors, Preply's Chinese tutors and Preply's HSK tutors, two page views each on 27 October 2026. Preply shows its "Our top picks" order by default.

We think the gap is the useful part. Preply's terms say it orders tutors by how well they match you, from reviews to availability and your time zone. In both our reads, that first screen ran well above its own averages, so use the price filter before you judge the site.

On italki, the first page mostly shows trial prices, which are discounted. In our first read, only two tutors there showed a standard hourly price, $20 and $24.

italki's own rules set the outer limits instead. Community tutors may charge from $5 a lesson and professional teachers from $10, with a ceiling of $120 for both.

How much does a month cost on each?

At the same price per lesson, a month costs almost exactly the same on both sites. The difference is what you get for it: Preply's lesson is shorter, and its 28-day cycle bills you 13 times a year.

To compare the rules and not the tutors, we priced both sites at $23 a lesson. That's the average Preply publishes for native Chinese-speaking tutors. Here's a month at one, two and three lessons a week:

Source: our arithmetic at $23 a lesson. italki: lessons a week × 4.33 weeks, since a month is 52 ÷ 12 weeks; one a week is $23 × 4.33 = $99.67. Preply: plans of 4, 8 and 12 lessons renew every 28 days, 365 ÷ 28 = 13.04 times a year or 1.086 a month; four lessons is 4 × $23 × 1.086 = $99.94. Minutes use 60 and 50 per lesson; per hour, Preply's lesson costs $23 × 60 ÷ 50 = $27.60. Processing fees and tax, shown only at checkout on both, are left out. Preply labels its $23 average per hour, while its tutor cards price 50-minute lessons; we use it as a lesson price.

Per hour of lesson time, that's $23 on italki and $27.60 on Preply. Many tutors price the two sites differently anyway, so check the tutor you actually want.

The bigger cost is a skipped week. On a four-lesson Preply plan, any lesson you don't book before renewal expires. Here's what that does to the price of each lesson you actually take:

Source: our arithmetic from Preply's subscription rules and italki's pay-per-lesson booking, 27 October 2026. A four-lesson plan costs 4 × $23 = $92 a cycle, divided by the lessons you take: $92 ÷ 3 = $30.67, $92 ÷ 2 = $46. On italki you pay $23 for each lesson you book.

To be fair to Preply, expiry is avoidable. A lesson you book before renewal is protected even if it takes place later, and you can pause for up to 20 days once a cycle. The learners who lose money are the ones who don't book ahead.

So the rule we'd use is simple. If you'll book your four lessons the day your cycle starts, Preply costs the same per lesson as italki. If your weeks are unpredictable, italki is cheaper in practice.

Commissions explain what tutors offer you

Both companies take a cut from the tutor, and the cut shapes the prices you see. italki's commission runs from nothing on trials to 21% on single lessons. Preply takes all of a trial lesson with a new student, then a share of later lessons that shrinks as the tutor teaches more.

Here's what a tutor keeps from a $23 lesson under each company's published commission:

Source: our arithmetic from italki's commission table and Preply's commission model, read 27 October 2026; Preply's page is dated 19 September 2024. Each bar is $23 × (1 − commission): italki 0% on trials, 21% on single lessons and 15% on 20-lesson packages; Preply 100% on a trial with a new student, 33% for a new tutor and 18% after 400 hours.

This explains two things you'll notice. italki teachers often discount packages, because italki's cut falls from 21% to 15% as packages grow. And Preply tutors have every reason to turn your trial into a subscription, since they earn nothing for the trial itself.

None of this makes either tutor worse. We'd just keep it in mind when a trial lesson ends with a sales pitch for a 12-lesson plan.

Trials: three cheap tries or two free do-overs

Finding the right Chinese teacher usually takes more than one try, and the two sites handle that very differently. italki makes trying cheap. Preply makes a bad trial free to replace.

On italki, each new student gets three trial lessons at a lower price, with three different teachers. If a trial goes badly, the satisfaction guarantee returns the credits for up to two of them, if you ask within two days.

Those trials are cheap. On the first page of Chinese tutors we read, trial prices ran from $5 to $29.

On Preply, a trial is a paid lesson of 25 or 50 minutes. If it disappoints, you can ask for up to two free replacement trials with different tutors. A tutor who simply doesn't show up is handled separately, with no limit.

Here's the trial plan we'd use on either site:

• Before the trial, message the tutor your level and one goal, such as "order food in Mandarin" or "pass HSK 3".
• In the trial, ask the tutor to correct your tones on one sentence and watch how they do it.
• After the trial, book a second lesson only if you spoke for more than half the time.

So italki suits you if you want to sample widely before committing. Preply suits you if you'd rather pay full price once and rely on a free do-over.

Check a Chinese teacher's training, not just the stars

Ratings on both sites cluster near five stars, so they won't separate teachers for you. Preply's Chinese page shows an average of 4.97 out of 5 from tens of thousands of learners. In our view, training tells you more.

On italki, a professional teacher has had to upload proof of teaching qualifications. That can be a recognised certificate, a degree in language teaching, a teaching licence or proof of work at a language school. For Chinese, the certificate italki names is the CTCSOL, for teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages. An HSK certificate doesn't count, because it proves language level, not teaching skill. Community tutors don't need credentials and, in italki's words, offer conversation practice.

On Preply, the Professional Tutor badge means a certificate from a course of at least 120 hours, or Preply's own teaching course, checked by hand. The Super Tutor badge measures something else: recent activity and ratings over the last 90 days.

For HSK, the label matters more than usual. The new HSK adds a compulsory speaking paper from HSK 3, starting with the December 2026 sitting, and a trained teacher knows how such papers are marked.

Both sites have plenty of exam tutors. Preply lists about 4,700 tutors under HSK, and in one read of italki's first Chinese page we counted 8 of 20 tutors with a Test Preparation tag.

Before you book, ask any HSK tutor one question: "Have you prepared a student for the new speaking paper?" Our guides to the HSK exam and the HSK speaking test explain what it involves.

italki review: right for Chinese, with two catches

We think italki fits how most adults actually learn Chinese: in bursts, around work and travel. Its pay-per-lesson model means a busy month costs nothing, and its three cheap trials make finding a teacher easy.

It also does more for Chinese specifically. Its Smart Lesson summaries list the topics, vocabulary and grammar from a lesson taken in italki Classroom, and Chinese is a supported language. italki Plus, at $5.99 a month, adds error corrections and an AI role-play based on your lesson.

The two catches we found are both about money:

• Your money stays on italki. Credits never come back as cash. A cancelled lesson, a declined request or a refunded trial goes back into your italki wallet.
• Packages punish quitting. If you end a package early yourself, your finished lessons are repriced at the teacher's full single-lesson price.

Our verdict: italki is the best place to start Chinese lessons. Buy credits in small amounts until you've found a teacher you'll stay with.

Preply review: right for a weekly habit, strict on the rest

In our reading, Preply suits the learner who needs structure from outside. A plan that books and bills itself every 28 days is a good defence against "I'll schedule it next week". Its pool of Chinese tutors is also about ten times italki's.

We found its 2026 help pages clear, and some of its protections are generous. Your rate can't rise without your consent, you can pause your plan for up to 20 days, and you can move unused lessons to another tutor. Cancelling a lesson is free until half a day before, half italki's notice period.

The strict parts are the ones we'd read twice:

• No single lessons. The subscription page says one-off purchases aren't available, even through support.
• Refunds are narrow. Preply may refund a charge, case by case, only if you used none of that cycle's lessons and ask within 28 days.
• Its AI help skips Chinese. Lesson Insights, its AI lesson summary, works only for English lessons.

Our verdict: Preply is worth it for Chinese if you'll keep a fixed weekly lesson. If you can't promise that, its rules will cost you.

When a human tutor is the better buy

For some jobs, no app comes close to a good teacher, and it would be wrong to say otherwise. A human tutor is the better buy whenever the thing you need is a trained ear, judgement, or someone expecting you.

Here's where we'd pay a person:

• Your first weeks of tones. Mandarin uses tone to tell words apart: buy, 买(mǎi), and sell, 卖(mài), differ only in pitch. In a 14-week online course for beginners, a teacher repeating the word back correctly improved learners' tones.
• Exam speaking. A teacher who knows how speaking papers are marked can tell you why an answer loses points.
• Corrections you can trust. Corrective feedback works, with a medium, lasting effect across 33 studies of human teachers.
• Accountability. A person waiting for you on Tuesday is hard for any app to copy.

Machines still mishear. In a test by Hacking Chinese, ChatGPT scored the same native speaker anywhere from 6.5 to 8.5 out of ten in separate chats. We found no published accuracy test of any AI Chinese tutor's tone feedback, SayMei's included.

Our advice: spend your tutor money on what only a tutor does. Use cheaper tools for the hours of repetition in between.

Where SayMei fits, and where it doesn't

SayMei is an AI tutor for spoken Mandarin. You talk with Mei Lin, your AI teacher, in short lessons planned for your HSK level. We built it for the days between tutor lessons, and it doesn't replace the tutor. For practice without either, our conversation practice dialogues at HSK 1 to 3 come with audio and phrases to say back.

SayMei Premium costs $5.99 a month for 200 minutes with Mei Lin. Depending on your country, you start with a free first lesson or a free week that needs a card.

We priced the mix we'd suggest to most learners: one italki lesson a week at $23 plus Premium comes to about $106 a month.

Here's where it fits:

• Daily speaking practice. Ten minutes on the days you don't see your tutor.
• Nothing to book. You start a lesson when you have ten minutes, without a calendar or a notice period.
• Low stakes. You can repeat the same sentence twenty times without feeling you're wasting someone's hour.

And here's what it can't give you:

• A trained human ear. Its tone feedback has no published accuracy test.
• Someone expecting you. A reminder isn't a teacher waiting on Tuesday.
• Exam coaching from experience. It can rehearse speaking tasks, but it hasn't sat with candidates for years.
• A phone app. SayMei runs in the browser only.

For more AI options, see our comparison of the best AI apps to learn Chinese. For tutors beyond these two sites, including schools, see our guide to online Chinese tutors.

What to do next

• Start on italki if you're unsure. Use your three trials on three different teachers.
• Move to Preply only for a fixed slot. Book every lesson in a cycle on the day it starts.
• Filter by price on Preply. Its first screen shows the priciest tutors.
• Ask about training and the HSK speaking paper. Stars won't tell you who can teach.
• Practise speaking daily between lessons. Save your tutor's time for correction.

When you're ready to practise, try a lesson with Mei Lin, or browse Chinese conversation practice by topic.