Duolingo Review 2026: Is Duolingo Worth It?

Duolingo is worth it if you want a free, daily way to start a language and keep going. It is less worth it if you need to speak soon, because most of what you do in a lesson is tapping and typing, not talking. Super makes the app smoother, and in 2026 it adds Video Call, but it does not change what Duolingo is.

Most people who search for a Duolingo review already have the app. They have a streak, maybe a long one, and they want to know if it is taking them anywhere. We used Duolingo Super for several weeks in 2026 and read this year's store reviews and community threads. The question on this page is not whether Duolingo is free. It is whether it is worth your time and, if you pay, your money.

What you get

Duolingo is a course made of very short lessons. Each one takes three to five minutes. You match words, fill gaps, pick the right translation, listen to short sentences and sometimes say them out loud. Units sit on a path, and stories, practice sessions and review lessons are mixed in. Streaks, leagues, friends and the owl pull you back the next day.

It works because it asks so little. You can finish a lesson while the kettle boils. On day six of our French week, we did two lessons on the way to work and one in a queue at the pharmacy. The pharmacy lesson taught Je voudrais une boîte de mouchoirs. We got it right three times by tapping the tiles in order. When we tried to say it without the tiles that evening, we got as far as Je voudrais une and stopped. That gap, between putting the tiles in order and making the sentence yourself, is the whole Duolingo review in one moment.

If you mainly want to know what the free plan allows, we cover the energy system and ads in detail in what you get on free Duolingo.

How far you can get

Further than older reviews say. In May 2026 Duolingo said content up to its Score 129, which it maps to B2 on the European CEFR scale, had launched in its nine most learned languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese [4]. B2 is the level where you can follow most everyday talk and read a news article with some effort. Smaller courses are shorter, and some stop around A2.

Finishing the path is not the same as being B2, though. The course checks whether you recognise and rebuild sentences. It checks much less whether you can produce them under pressure, with someone waiting. At 15 to 20 minutes a day, a big course takes well over a year, which is fine as long as you use that year for more than the app.

Our 7-day test

Our goal: on day 7, hold a short Video Call in French about weekend plans and answer every question without switching to English. We used Super, which gave us Video Call as a new subscriber, and did about 20 minutes a day.

1. Day 1. Placement test put us a few units into French. Two lessons on the future with aller. Easy to tap, harder to say: Je vais aller au marché samedi came out slowly.
2. Day 2. Three lessons and one story. Explain My Answer told us why au marché and not à le marché, which we had been guessing.
3. Day 3. First Video Call with Lily. She asked Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire ce week-end ? We answered in four words and she moved on kindly. The call was short, about three minutes.
4. Day 4 and 5. Review lessons on weekend words. We said every answer out loud on purpose, even when the app only wanted taps.
5. Day 6. Second Video Call. We managed Samedi, je vais voir des amis, et dimanche je vais me reposer. Lily asked a follow-up about the friends and we froze for a few seconds.
6. Day 7. Final call. We answered everything in French, with pauses. One answer was a single word, peut-être, because we could not build the full sentence in time.

The lessons made the words familiar fast, and Video Call was the part that actually moved us. The calls are short and friendly, which is good for nerves but thin as practice. After a week we could talk about our weekend in simple sentences, slowly. Each day took about 20 minutes, less than a third of it speaking.

Where it falls short

• Talking. Most exercises let you answer by tapping. You can go weeks without making a sentence of your own.
• Explanations are uneven. Explain My Answer is free in most courses teaching Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian and Korean [5]. In other courses you still learn a lot of grammar by trial and error.
• Course depth varies. The B2 content covers nine languages [4]. If you learn a smaller one, check how far its path goes before you plan around it.
• The streak can become the goal. It is easy to protect a streak with the easiest lesson of the day and learn very little.

The free plan adds one more limit, energy, which usually means two or three lessons in a row on a phone [7]. Super removes it. None of the other points change when you pay.

Plans and prices

Prices are from the US App Store in September 2026 and vary by country and offer [2]. Max, the old top tier at about 30 dollars a month, is no longer offered to new subscribers [6].

What changed in 2025 and 2026

April 2025: 148 new courses made with AI. Duolingo launched 148 courses built with generative AI and said it would lean on AI instead of contractors. It is still the thing critics mention first when they talk about course quality [8].

January 2026: Explain My Answer became free. The AI feature that explains your mistakes left Max and opened to everyone in the main courses [5].

May 2026: courses up to B2. Content up to Score 129 launched in the nine biggest languages, much faster than before because of AI tools [4].

2026: Video Call moved into Super. Duolingo said in August that all new Super subscribers have Video Call, and existing ones should get it later in the year [1]. New subscribers no longer see Max, and in September press reports said the company may end it [6].

What learners are saying

The store ratings are high and steady, 4.7 on both stores from millions of ratings [2][3]. People praise the same things year after year: it is fun, it is free, and the streak really does get them to open the app every day. The June 2026 Streak Revival event, which let people restore an old streak, brought back 15.4 million learners, which says a lot about how much the streak matters to them [1].

The complaints are just as steady. The most common one on the free plan is energy; in a Duolingo community poll of more than 11,000 users, nearly half said they actively dislike it [7]. On Reddit, the recurring theme is the gap between a long streak and real talking, often from people who went abroad after years of Duolingo and froze. Others still bring up the AI-first shift. Video Call gets mostly positive comments, with the usual note that the calls are short.

Is Duolingo worth it?

Yes, if you are starting a language, you want a daily routine, or you are trying a few languages before you pick one. Nothing else makes showing up this easy, and the free plan is enough to find out if you like it.

Super is worth it if you already use the app every day and the energy bar or ads stop you, or you want Video Call and speak one of its languages.

It is not enough if you need to speak for a job, a move or an exam in the next few months. Keep Duolingo for the habit if you like it, but put your real hours into speaking. Our comparison of Duolingo vs Speak shows what a speaking-first app does differently, and Busuu vs Duolingo covers a course that explains more and lets people correct you. If you would rather learn without translation at all, see Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo.

How to get more from it

• Say every answer out loud. Even when the app only wants taps. It is the cheapest speaking practice there is.
• Close the app and rebuild one sentence. After each unit, say three sentences about your own life with the new words, no tiles.
• Add one listening source. A podcast or a show at your level fills the gap Duolingo leaves between lessons.

Where Slova fits

If Duolingo got you started but you want to talk, Slova is worth a look. It builds your course from why you are learning, whether that is a job, a move abroad or something you love like anime or football, and every lesson can be done out loud with our AI tutors. Every new word goes into one list that brings it back for review.

Conclusion

Duolingo in 2026 is better than its reputation among serious learners. The big courses go further, grammar help is free in the main languages, and Video Call is coming to Super. It is still, at heart, a tapping app that is brilliant at habit and weak at conversation. Use it to start and to keep going. If you are ready to move on, our list of Duolingo alternatives by goal is a good next step.

Frequently asked questions

Sources