The best apps for reading Chinese (2026)

Six reading apps, what each one is best for, and what it costs. Start with what you want to read.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 21 October 20264 min read

We make Mandarin The Wild. Everything we say about the other apps comes from their own pages, with each source listed below.

The list at a glance

App	Best for	Price
1. Mandarin The Wild	Free graded stories, then the same card on the web, YouTube and your own books	Free to look up, read the Library and review¹
2. Du Chinese	Graded lessons in six levels on your phone	Some lessons free; premium from $14.99 a month³
3. The Chairman’s Bao	Graded news lessons in six levels	Free samples; $11 a month or $88 a year⁵
4. LingQ	Importing pages and captions into one reader, in many languages	20 saved words free; Premium from $14.99 a month⁷
5. Pleco	A phone dictionary, with a reader and graded readers as add-ons	Free dictionary; add-ons are paid¹¹
6. Migaku	Flashcards from what you watch and read, in ten languages	A 10-day free trial, then a paid plan¹³

1. Mandarin The Wild

We make it, so judge this one hardest. The Library has more than 250 graded stories and articles, from HSK 1 to 6, each with a recording in two voices, all free. Tap or point at any word for its card: the meaning it has in that sentence, its pinyin as it is read there, its parts and its sound.

这个故事我看了两遍。

“I read this story twice.”

故gù事shi

Noun

story; tale

No account is needed to read or look things up. Open the Library.

Every page and every video. The same card on any web page and in YouTube captions, in Chrome or Edge. The video keeps playing, and Previous, Replay and Next sit in the player.
Captions when a video has none. On a Chinese YouTube video with no captions, sign in and press Make captions: we make them from its sound.
Backpack and Review. Press M and the word is kept with its sentence and the page or video moment it came from. Review brings it back by sight and by sound, on every device you sign in on.
The Library. More than 250 graded stories and articles from HSK 1 to 6, each with a recording in two voices, free.
Immersion for your own Chinese. Links, Google Docs, EPUB, PDF and Word files, and recordings with their subtitles or a transcript made from their sound, every word ready to explain.
Your phone, offline. Add the site to your home screen: Review, the reader, and the chapters and sources you keep work with no signal.
Your words, in and out. Bring in a Pleco or Anki list, and download your words for Anki whenever you like.

2. Du Chinese

An app for iPhone, Android and the web with lessons in six levels, each with native-speaker audio, a tap-for-definition dictionary and flashcards.² Some lessons are free; premium unlocks the rest, at $14.99 a month, $79.99 for six months or $119.99 a year.³ It works inside its own lessons only. See how the two compare.

3. The Chairman’s Bao

A news-based graded reader on the web, iPhone and Android, with lessons in six levels, audio, a one-tap dictionary and flashcards.⁴ Sample lessons are free when you register; full access is $11 a month, $88 a year or $154 for two years.⁵ See how the two compare.

4. LingQ

A reading app for many languages. Its LingQ Importer extension brings web pages and video captions into LingQ’s own reader, where you tap words to look them up and save them.⁶ The free plan saves 20 words and phrases and imports 5 lessons; Premium is $14.99 a month or $119.99 a year.⁷ See how the two compare.

5. Pleco

A dictionary app for iPhone, iPad and Android, with no browser extension.⁸ You look a word up and choose from its entries. Its file reader, graded readers and flashcards are paid add-ons.^{9, 10} See how the two compare.

6. Migaku

A Chrome extension with phone apps for ten languages. You click a word on a streaming site or a web page for its dictionary entry, and make a flashcard from it.¹² It has no graded stories: you bring the content. It starts with a 10-day free trial, then needs a paid plan.¹³ See how the two compare.

How to choose

Stories at your level first. You follow a story on your own when you know about 98% of its words.¹⁴ Graded stories get you there sooner than real Chinese does.
Then the Chinese you actually meet. Graded stories are where reading starts, not where it ends. An app that also works on web pages, captions and your own books keeps going when you leave its library.
Somewhere for the words to go. A word you look up once is gone tomorrow. Keeping it with its sentence, and seeing it again later, is what makes it stick.

Read the same story level in two of them for a week, and keep the one you still open without being told to.

Questions

What is the best app for reading Chinese?

Mandarin The Wild: more than 250 free graded stories and articles from HSK 1 to 6, each with a recording in two voices, and a word card that shows the meaning each word has in its sentence, also on YouTube captions and any web page. Du Chinese and The Chairman’s Bao are paid graded lessons.

Is there a free alternative to Du Chinese?

Yes. Mandarin The Wild’s Library has more than 250 graded stories and articles from HSK 1 to 6 with recordings, free. Du Chinese’s premium is $14.99 a month, $79.99 for six months or $119.99 a year on its pricing page.

Is there a free alternative to The Chairman’s Bao?

Yes. Mandarin The Wild’s graded stories and articles are free, and its word card also works on real Chinese news sites in Chrome and Edge. The Chairman’s Bao is $11 a month or $88 a year after its free samples.

Which reading app works on any web page?

Mandarin The Wild and Migaku work on web pages in the browser. LingQ imports a page into its own reader first; Du Chinese and The Chairman’s Bao work inside their own lessons only.

Is Mandarin The Wild free?

Looking words up, the Library with its recordings, and Review are free. Looking up needs no account; a free account keeps your words.

Sources

Checked on 21 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.