The best language learning apps for 2025

Chat provides a classic approach to learning and takes users step by step into a language. The app has different levels to learn new phrases and vocabulary and will unlock more from that vocab list as you go. The lessons are simple and low-pressure, allowing you to listen to the phrases being used in conversation. It also encourages you to spell out the word so your writing skills improve.

Like most apps on this list, Babbel provides regular lessons that increase in difficulty as you complete each previous level. It also understands that sometimes the best form of teaching is a classic one: the classroom. The app offers live language lessons with a tutor, where you’ll join a group of up to five other learners. The lessons are tailored to your skill level and can be scheduled based on your availability.

I opted for the more antisocial approach, not feeling as though I was confident to meet with a teacher yet. Babbel’s AI conversation partners encouraged me to build a story with them in Spanish and provided prompts for every new line — each prompt harder than the last. Once I finished, its podcast offerings were great for perfecting my listening skills. With each episode, Babbel immerses you in the culture behind your chosen language.

You can try the first lesson of every course and even attend one live lesson before you need to start paying. Babbel’s monthly plan will set you back $18, but if you commit to a longer plan, you get a better deal. Currently, you’ll pay $9 per month for 12 months, which comes out to about $108 for one year. Otherwise, you’ll pay $218 for a full year. For that personalized attention from a live tutor alone, it might be worth the investment for serious learners.

It’s easy to start off strong when learning a new language, only to then drop it after a week. With Duolingothey’ll make sure you keep coming back for more — or else. Pseudo-threats aside, Duolingo does its best to gamify language learning, tracks your scores and attendance in the app and somewhat mercilessly notifies you to come back each day to keep up your streak.

The free version of Duolingo provides a decent number of ways to learn more of the language with each new level. You start off each session with five hearts, then you gain XP by learning new words and lose hearts when you make mistakes. You can even play against your real-life friends, which is a good incentive if you’re competitive like me. If that doesn’t do enough to bring you back consistently, maybe the app will — I was too often guilted with notifications about keeping my streak alive or returning for the next lesson. It was just enough for me to learn to say “déjame quieta” and start another lesson each day.

The cast of characters encouraging practice also made me feel connected to the app, and I hoped I could get Lily to smile with a perfect score in Spanish. She may have seemed like the perfect mascot to be Duolingo’s AI chatbot since she’s their “moody teenager” type, but like a teenager, she keeps conversations short. I left feeling like she dismissed me before I could get a hang of talking in Spanish.

I also appreciated that Duolingo allowed me to start at an intermediate Spanish level after testing my skills. Some levels felt too easy for me, so I enjoyed taking a challenge quiz to bypass those. Even then, I still felt accomplished.

Duolingo is free, but Super Duolingo without ads costs $13 a month or a discounted $84 when you pay for a whole year. If you want more practice, Duolingo Max includes an AI chatbot that you can use to improve your skills, but that will set you back $30 a month or $168 a year.

Maybe you heard that new Shakira song and wanted to know what she was saying — well there’s an app for that, too. Using song lyrics to teach its users the meaning of words and song context, Lyric provides a creative way to learn a language. Like the other apps on this list, there is a clear path for leveling up your language skills, but instead of hearing native speakers simply talk, you learn through song. Each lesson takes you line by line through a song and combines vocabulary and grammar, helping you understand its meaning.

Besides just learning lyrics, Lirica will show you how to use terms from the song in real life. For example, Lirica taught me a whole lesson on how to ask questions in Spanish by using Nicky Jam’s “Until dawn.” Now, when I need to ask someone’s name or where they’re from, I just think back to the song. It feels like a quick and easy way to put an earworm to good use.

For only $9 monthly or $25 annually, you can unlock their entire song library, download the lessons and take them with you. However, the library is limited, with only three languages available and no ability to upload other music to learn from. For a low annual cost, it’s a great purchase but would be an even better investment if they had Spotify as a partner.

With Speakit’s all in the name. Speak uses AI tools to get you to speak the language as if you were talking to a real person. The app is a great option for anyone who wants to practice a language, but can’t handle being corrected by their family or a teacher in real-time. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Speak’s FreeTalk section gave me enough real-world prompts that made me comfortable enough to try my best to talk back. It’s as though they built patience into the app; as you speak in the conversation, they provide three prompts to choose from, and if you say a phrase or word incorrectly, a star gets added next to it. Lessons are then built from your mistakes and you are provided a custom review afterward.

Speak’s interface is simple enough to find general lessons up top and your custom lessons underneath it. If you need even more practice, you can use their AI bot directly, choosing your topic of choice, which could be ideal for speaking with someone about a topic not already offered in their Free Talk area.

If you want to unlock all of Speak’s lessons, the app costs $20 monthly or $99 annually. However, with full access to only two languages (English and Spanish), Speak has a lot of catching up to do with its competitors.