The best free resources to learn Mandarin Chinese (2026)

You can learn Chinese well past the beginner stage without paying. Here is what is truly free in each, and where the free part ends.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 28 October 20265 min read

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

The list at a glance

Resource	Best for	What is free
1. Mandarin The Wild	Graded reading and listening, look-ups on any page and video, review, and practice tools	Looking up, the Library, Review and the practice tools¹
2. Duolingo	A beginner course and a daily habit	Every course, with ads and an energy limit²
3. Pleco	Looking words up on your phone	The dictionary; add-ons are paid⁶
4. Anki	Flashcards on a schedule	On computers and Android⁷; $24.99 once on iPhone⁸
5. Mandarin Corner	Real conversations on video with pinyin	The videos, PDFs and MP3s⁹
6. Learning Chinese Through Stories	Stories told all in Chinese, as a podcast	Listening; transcripts are paid¹⁰
7. Coffee Break Chinese	A friendly beginner podcast in English	The podcast; the full course is a one-time purchase¹¹
8. MDBG	A dictionary website, and looking up a whole pasted text	All of it¹²

A free plan, in order

Months 0 to 3: the sounds and tones with a pinyin chart and tone practice, and Duolingo’s course for your first few hundred words.
From about 300 words: a graded story a day in the Library, with its recording, and Review for the words you keep. Readers follow a text on their own at about 98% of its words.¹³ Graded stories get you there.
Then real Chinese: YouTube, podcasts and web pages, with a word card for each word you don’t know.

1. Mandarin The Wild

We make it, so judge this one hardest. Everything a learner does every day is free, with no trial and no card: the Library of more than 250 graded stories and articles from HSK 1 to 9 with recordings, the word card on any web page and in YouTube captions with the extension, and Review. Beside them are free tools, each on its own page:

Tone practice hears you say a word and draws your pitch over a native speaker’s.
Listening practice plays real sentences at your level for you to type back.
Handwriting practice checks every stroke you write.
HSK practice tests for every level, and an online dictionary that takes English, pinyin, Chinese or a drawn character.

我每天练习说中文。

“I practise speaking Chinese every day.”

练liàn习xí

Noun

to practice; exercise; drill

Also written 練習

See all the free tools.

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. On Netflix, Disney+ and Viki, the Chinese subtitle line is ours too: point at a word and the video waits while you read its card.
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 9, each with a recording in two voices, free.
Look a word up here. How to say it in Chinese for an English word and What does it mean in Chinese? for a Chinese word or its pinyin, each with toned pinyin, its characters and a real sentence, free with no sign-up.
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. Duolingo

Free, with every course free, and the easiest way to make Chinese a daily habit.² By Duolingo’s own count its Chinese course covers HSK 1 to 3 and about half of level 4.³ The free plan has ads and a limit on energy. What to do after Duolingo.

3. Pleco

The standard Chinese dictionary for iPhone, iPad and Android. The dictionary is free; its reader, graded readers and flashcards are paid add-ons.^{4, 5} The best Chinese dictionary apps.

4. Anki

A flashcard app that schedules each card for the day you are about to forget it, free on Windows, Mac and Linux and as AnkiDroid on Android.⁷ AnkiMobile for iPhone is $24.99 once.⁸ Mandarin The Wild downloads your kept words, with their sentences, for Anki.

5. Mandarin Corner

Real conversations on video with pinyin, plus PDFs and MP3s to go with them.⁹ Good listening once you know a few hundred words.

6. Learning Chinese Through Stories

A podcast of stories told all in Chinese, at graded levels, free to listen to; transcripts are on its paid tier.¹⁰ The best free Chinese listening practice.

7. Coffee Break Chinese

A beginner podcast that explains Chinese in English, free to listen to; the full course is a one-time purchase.¹¹

8. MDBG

A free Chinese–English dictionary website: search by characters, pinyin or English, write a character by hand, or paste a passage and look up all its words.¹²

How to use free resources well

One of each kind, not ten. A course to start, one place to read and listen at your level, one dictionary, one review. More tabs is not more Chinese.
Every day, a little. Fifteen minutes of reading or listening every day beats two hours on Sunday.
Keep the words you meet. A word looked up once is gone tomorrow; one kept with its sentence and seen again sticks.

Questions

What are the best free resources to learn Mandarin?

Mandarin The Wild for free graded stories with recordings, look-ups on any web page and YouTube, review and practice tools; Duolingo’s free course to start; Pleco’s free dictionary; Anki for flashcards; and Mandarin Corner and Learning Chinese Through Stories for listening.

Can you learn Chinese for free?

Yes, well past the beginner stage: a free course for your first words, then graded stories and real Chinese with a free word card and review. Pay only for what you use every day after a few weeks.

What is the best free app to learn Chinese?

Duolingo for a free beginner course; Mandarin The Wild for free reading, listening, look-ups and review once you know a little. Pleco’s dictionary is free too.

Is Mandarin The Wild really free?

Looking words up, the Library with its recordings and Review are free, with no trial, and so are the practice tools; the few that cost us to run, such as turning audio into text, have a daily limit before they ask for a free account. Looking up needs no account; a free account keeps your words.

Sources

Checked on 28 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.