italki vs Preply for learning Chinese: prices, rules and which to pick (video)
Both help centres read on 27 October 2026: what italki and Preply charge for Chinese, how trials, cancelling and refunds work, and which suits your goal.
Chapters
- 0:00Start
- 0:24The short answer
- 1:06Lessons or a subscription
- 1:35Every rule, side by side
- 2:22Preply's price figures
- 2:51What a month costs
- 3:40Commissions and trials
- 4:30Training over stars
- 4:57Our verdict on each
- 5:42When a person is worth it
- 6:32What to do next
Transcript
Start
Same $23 Chinese tutor, same month: about $100 on italki, and about $100 on Preply. So why can a skipped week double what each lesson costs you on one of them? One rule decides it. From SayMei Guides, by Mei Lin: italki versus Preply for learning Chinese. Prices, rules, and which to pick.
The short answer
The short answer: for most Chinese learners, start on italki. You pay per lesson, try three teachers cheaply, and nothing expires while you're busy. Choose Preply if you'll keep a weekly slot with one tutor. At the same price, a month costs about the same. But Preply's lesson is 50 minutes, and italki's is 60. Which learner are you? Trying several teachers cheaply? italki. A fixed weekly lesson? Preply. The widest choice of tutors? Preply again. HSK prep, or group classes? italki. Daily speaking between lessons? A tutor app. Not sure yet? Then you're the italki learner, for now.
Lessons or a subscription
The two sites make different promises. italki is a marketplace with a wallet: you buy credits and pay only for the lessons you book. Preply is a subscription: one tutor, a set number of lessons every 28 days. So on italki, a month away costs nothing. On Preply, lessons you don't schedule before renewal expire. And size? italki listed 981 Mandarin tutors. Preply listed about 9,500.
Every rule, side by side
We read both help centres on 27 October 2026. italki sells single lessons, or packages of 5, 10 or 20. Preply's smallest purchase is four lessons: no single lessons, even through support. Trials? italki gives you three discounted trials, each with a different teacher. Preply's trial is a paid lesson, one per tutor. When plans change? Free cancellation runs until 24 hours before on italki, and 12 on Preply. italki returns money to your italki wallet, never as cash. Preply may refund your payment method, case by case, for an unused cycle. But the row we'd keep is lessons you don't book. On italki, credits wait. On Preply, they expire at renewal.
Preply's price figures
So what does a Chinese tutor cost? Preply publishes four answers, and they don't line up. Its FAQ says an average of $13. Its averages by tutor's country run $18 to $28. But the 10 tutors it showed us first cost $29 to $70. italki publishes no average; its first page showed trial prices from $5 to $29. So on Preply, use the price filter first.
What a month costs
Now compare the rules, not the tutors. Price both at $23 a lesson, Preply's own average for native Chinese-speaking tutors. One lesson a week is about $100 a month on each. But italki's $100 buys 260 minutes, and Preply's buys 217. Per hour, that's $23 against $27.60, before fees and tax. The bigger cost is a skipped week. A four-lesson Preply plan is $92 a cycle. Take three lessons, and each costs $30.67. Take two, and it's $46. On italki, every lesson stays $23. To be fair to Preply, this is avoidable. Book all four the day your cycle starts, and you pay the same per lesson.
Commissions and trials
Why do tutors offer what they offer? Commission. From a $23 lesson, an italki tutor keeps all of a trial, and $18.17 of a single lesson. A Preply tutor keeps nothing from a trial with a new student, then between $15.41 and $18.86. So italki teachers often discount packages, and Preply tutors want your trial to become a plan. Neither makes a tutor worse. Trials work differently too. italki makes trying cheap: three discounted trials, with credits back for up to two, within 48 hours. Preply makes a bad trial free to replace, up to twice. On either site, ask the tutor to correct your tones on one sentence. And book again only if you spoke for more than half the time.
Training over stars
Ratings cluster near five stars on both sites, so check training instead. An italki professional teacher has proved a teaching qualification, such as the CTCSOL certificate. Preply's Professional Tutor badge means a checked certificate from a course of at least 120 hours. For the HSK, ask one thing: have you prepared a student for the new speaking paper? It starts with the December 2026 sitting.
Our verdict on each
Our verdict on italki: it fits how most adults learn Chinese, in bursts. A busy month costs nothing, and its Smart Lesson summaries support Chinese. Two catches, both about money. Credits never come back as cash. And if you end a package early yourself, your finished lessons are repriced at the full single-lesson price. Our verdict on Preply: it suits a learner who wants structure from outside. A plan that books and bills itself is a good defence against putting lessons off. Your rate can't rise without your consent, and you can pause, or move unused lessons to another tutor. The strict parts: no single lessons, narrow refunds, and Lesson Insights summaries for English lessons only.
When a person is worth it
When is a person the better buy? When you need a trained ear, or someone expecting you. Buy, 买, and sell, 卖, differ only in pitch, and across 33 studies, corrective feedback from teachers had a lasting effect. Machines still mishear. In a Hacking Chinese test, ChatGPT scored the same native speaker anywhere from 6.5 to 8.5 out of ten. So where does SayMei fit? You talk with Mei Lin, SayMei's teacher, in short spoken lessons at your HSK level, on the days between tutor lessons. It doesn't replace the tutor, and its tone feedback has no published accuracy test. Premium is $5.99 a month. With one italki lesson a week, the mix is about $106.
What to do next
So, what next? Unsure? Start on italki, and use your three trials on three different teachers. Move to Preply for a fixed weekly slot, and book each cycle on its first day. Ask any tutor about training. And practise speaking daily between lessons. You can practise speaking with Mei Lin, SayMei's teacher, in a short spoken lesson at your level. The full guide, with every source and check date, is on the page at saymei dot app.