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Is Duolingo good for learning Chinese? A teacher's review

What Duolingo does well

• It's free. Duolingo gives everyone the same lesson content; paying removes the ads and the hearts limit.
• It's been around for years. Duolingo launched its Mandarin course for English speakers in 2017, and it has kept expanding it since.
• It builds the habit. Streaks and short lessons get you opening the app every day, and in Chinese, consistency is what counts most.
• It goes further than it used to. Since April 2026 the Chinese course goes up to level B2 of the Common European Framework (CEFR), with stories and listening exercises.
• It gets you used to real Chinese. It uses simplified characters with pinyin as a support, and it has a tab for practicing hanzi.

Where it falls short

1. Tones

Duolingo has speech recognition, but it doesn't claim to grade your tones: in 2020 it explained that it scores by phonetic closeness. Its own article on tones recommends listening to the audio again and comparing it with the pinyin. In practice, you can pass exercises with the wrong tones without noticing, and tones learned wrong at the start are very hard to fix later.

2. Grammar

The course teaches through sentences and repetition. Each unit has a short guide, but several learner reviews agree that the explanations are thin. You'll often get a sentence right without knowing why it's said that way.

3. Characters

Sentences are the core of the course. There's a tab for practicing hanzi, but if your goal is to read and write characters, you'll want to add a tool built for that, one that shows you which characters you've mastered and makes you write them.

4. Conversation

The speaking exercises are mostly about repeating sentences. The video call with a character, which in Chinese is only available with the Max subscription on iOS, helps, but it doesn't replace talking to people.

How to use it to really make progress

• Repeat every sentence out loud and record yourself now and then to compare your tones with the audio.
• Write the new characters from each lesson by hand in a notebook, three or four times each.
• Look at the pinyin only when you need it. If you always read it, you'll never learn to read the characters.
• Measure your progress by what you can say and read, not by the length of your streak.
• Add characters and conversation. A character app, videos with good pronunciation and, when you can, classes or a language exchange with native speakers.

Duolingo and Macalaoshi, side by side

They don't compete: they complement each other. This table shows what each one focuses on.

Neither one replaces a teacher for correcting your tones. If you want to compare more options, see the best apps to learn Chinese.

Practice with Macalaoshi

If you already use Duolingo, Macalaoshi is a good complement for the hardest part, the characters:

• Collect 1,300+ characters from HSK 1 to HSK 4, with pinyin, meaning and audio.
• Every character levels up when you get it right, so you see what you've mastered and what to review.
• Writing mode: learn to write them stroke by stroke, in the correct stroke order.
• Challenges and bosses you can only beat with your vocabulary, so reviewing feels like a game.
• A short plan for every day. It's free to start.

Frequently asked questions

Is Duolingo's Chinese course available for English speakers?

Yes. Duolingo launched its Mandarin Chinese course for English speakers in 2017. Today it's also offered from Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and many other languages.

What level does Duolingo Chinese go up to?

Since April 2026, Duolingo says almost everyone studying Chinese in the app can progress up to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It doesn't publish an equivalence with HSK levels.

Does Duolingo teach traditional Chinese or Cantonese?

The course is Mandarin Chinese with simplified characters. Cantonese is only offered to people who already speak Mandarin.

Can you learn Chinese with Duolingo alone?

To get started and build the habit, yes. To read and write with ease and hold real conversations, you'll want to add character practice, someone who corrects your tones and conversation with real people.

Is Duolingo's Chinese course free?

Yes. Duolingo gives every user the same lesson content. The paid subscription removes ads and the hearts limit, which in the free version caps how many exercises you can do in a row.

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