Duolingo
#71 in Education / Studies
« Use AI to learn a language while having fun. Availability: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, etc. »
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Duolingo: 40+ languages taught like a mobile game, streaks included
Duolingo is a gamified language learning app built around five-minute lessons, XP points, daily streaks and a famously pushy green owl. Every course is free from start to finish, ads and an energy meter included, while the Super and Max subscriptions lift those limits. More than 135 million people open the app each month. Math, music and chess now sit alongside the languages, all in the same place.
Pros
- Every course free from the first lesson to the last
- Streaks and leagues make daily practice stick
- 40+ languages, plus math, music and chess
- Spoken practice with an AI-driven character
- Available on the web, iOS and Android
Cons
- Grammar explanations stay lighter than textbook methods
- Ads and the energy meter can slow free practice
- AI conversation features cover a handful of languages only
Five-minute lessons and a streak you will not want to break
Every Duolingo course follows a path of short lessons where you earn XP, climb weekly leagues and protect a streak of consecutive days. Skip a day and Duo the owl pings you with a nudge (the passive-aggressive reminders became a meme, and the company leans into it). Under the game layer, gamification feeds a real teaching engine, spaced repetition driven by Birdbrain, the in-house model.
- Duolingo Score, rolled out across all language courses to track your level
- Leagues, quests and friend challenges to keep momentum going
- Limited energy on the free tier, unlimited with a subscription
Video Call with Lily, plus math, music and chess on Duolingo
Video Call lets you hold a real spoken conversation with Lily, the app's most deadpan character, an AI that adapts to your level and remembers previous calls. Launched for Max subscribers, it covers English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, with a transcript to review after you hang up.
Languages no longer travel alone. Math, music and chess each have their own course paths, the kind of study-hub logic you also find across AI tools for students.
| Subject | What you practice |
|---|---|
| Languages | Vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking across 40+ languages |
| Math | Fundamentals, broken into short progressive lessons |
| Music | Note reading and well-known songs |
| Chess | Openings, endgames, checkmates and matches against real people |
What Duolingo costs, from free to the Family plan
The free tier of Duolingo includes every course, supported by ads. Super Duolingo removes ads and limits for roughly $12.99 per month, or about $95.99 on the annual plan, Duolingo Max adds the AI features such as Roleplay for around $29.99 per month, and the Family plan covers up to six accounts for $119.99 per year. Rates shift by country and app store, so treat the in-app subscription screen as the final word.
Compared with Babbel or Busuu, which lean on more classroom-style paid lessons, Duolingo remains the app whose free tier stretches the furthest.
Frequently asked questions
Is Duolingo free?
Yes, every Duolingo course can be completed for free, with ads and an energy meter that caps mistakes. Paid plans unlock no extra lessons, they remove those frictions and add AI features. A free trial lets you sample the paid tier before committing.
Is Duolingo enough to become fluent?
Not on its own, and that is fine. Duolingo builds solid vocabulary, grammar and listening foundations, enough to reach an intermediate level with steady practice. Speaking confidence grows faster when you pair the app with real conversations, with Video Call acting as a low-pressure warm-up.
Duolingo or Babbel, which one should you pick?
Babbel structures its paid lessons around detailed grammar explanations, while Duolingo bets on playful daily consistency, a complete free tier and a bigger language catalog. For building a no-cost daily habit, the owl wins, and plenty of people run both side by side.
What does Duolingo Max include?
Duolingo Max bundles everything in Super, unlimited energy, no ads and personalized review, plus AI features led by Roleplay scenarios and Video Call practice with Lily. One quirk worth knowing, the Max subscription is sold through the mobile apps rather than the website.
Verdict: A streak measured in years is the real product here. Casual beginners and lapsed learners get a habit that finally sticks, and anyone chasing spoken fluency can pair the owl with live conversation practice.
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