Free vs paid Chinese apps

Free forever, in software, is almost never a miracle. Someone pays: ads, your data, a quality cut, or a subscription that appears once the streak already hurts to lose. Streak apps are not “bad.” They monetize differently. Some live on advertising. Others sell extra lessons, extra lives, or a mascot as premium. I will not invent their prices. The pattern is enough: the free product keeps you; the charge arrives when quitting feels expensive.

That is not immoral on its own. It is a different design from an HSK path. On a path, the value is knowing what to study today. It is getting 买 (mǎi, to buy) back before you flatten it into 卖 (mài, to sell). On a streak, the value is not breaking the flame. You can pay and still have no exam plan.

The honest question fits in a week. Can I tell whether the system works for me, without theater? If the answer is no, it is not a free plan. It is a hook. “Best free Chinese app” does not mean the one that never charges. It means the one that lets you actually practice before it asks for money.

A serious Chinese app should let you do three things unpaid. Enter HSK 1–2 for real, not with five sample cards. Use the system on a workday: flashcards, a bit of listening or writing, and a clear cap. Leave without a maze.

That, in prose, is the table other pages put in cells. Should be free: HSK 1–2 vocabulary with no word cap, a daily quota per practice type, and a few tutor messages. Basic sentences such as 你好 (nǐ hǎo, hello) and 我要这个 (wǒ yào zhège, I want this) belong there. Does not have to be free: the HSK 3–7 catalog, serious model use, voice, memory of your weak points.

This product’s cut is specific. Free covers HSK 1–2 with daily limits: unlimited vocabulary at those levels, about 3 exercises per day per feature, 3 tutor messages. HSK 3–7 stays locked. The inventory is in what’s inside Chinese Trainer. This page is only the rule for paying.

Classic HSK 1 is about 150 words, with pinyin on the test, in the frame summarized on Wikipedia’s HSK page. Registration lives on chinesetest.cn (Chinese Testing International). CLEC coordinates international Chinese language education. This site’s public list is 12,432 words. You do not need them in month one. The lists by level and the HSK guides exist so you do not swallow the ocean. Free, done honestly, is HSK 1–2 with a quota. It is not pretending 12,432 words fit in a €0 plan.

A daily limit is not stingy if it lets you run a session. Three writing drills and three listening drills are enough to know whether the loop fits. Zero drills and a “go Premium” wall is not a trial. It is an ad. If you still stumble on 老师 (lǎoshī, teacher) at HSK 1, you do not need to buy HSK 6. You need tomorrow’s queue.

What actually costs money is not a badge. It is model inference, and content that continues after you leave the ~150 words of HSK 1.

AI is not a cheap ornament. Each correction, each voice dialogue, and each generated reading consumes a model. This is an independent product. Premium exists because that usage has a bill. If an app promises unlimited AI at coffee-money prices, it is subsidizing, cutting quality, or charging you later. Do not compare figures I have not checked this week. Compare whether they name the cost or hide it.

Higher levels cost in a second way. HSK 3 already asks for about 600 words in the six-level system. HSK 6, about 5,000. Keeping the same SRS queue, the same mocks, and the same grammar when the syllabus widens is not “more icons.” It is the long work. Standard opens the 1–7 catalog: vocabulary, practice, grammar, readings, and exams, with the tutor at 20 messages a day. It starts at €5 a month. Premium adds tutor memory, voice, and generated readings. It costs more because the model costs more.

AI answers can be wrong. A tutor with memory cuts the “every session you are a stranger” problem. It does not replace a weekly teacher or the official exam. You still register on chinesetest.cn. This app does not book a room or guarantee a pass.

If you only want lists, do not pay for AI. If you want 了 (le) corrected in 我买了咖啡 (wǒ mǎi le kāfēi, I bought coffee) at your level, someone pays for the token.

A streak measures whether you opened the app. An HSK path measures whether you are moving through a syllabus the exam recognizes.

You can keep a 400-day flame and still flatten 四 (sì, four) into 十 (shí, ten). The fire does not warn you. The spaced-repetition queue does: it brings the pair back as it was about to drop. That is why why Chinese Trainer exists is not “streaks are stupid.” It is that they occupy the slot that direction should occupy.

Habit apps do the first tap well. Lessons are short. Mistakes sting little. That matters for starting. The cost shows up when you want to speak or sit the test. Then you need aligned vocabulary, exam-speed listening, and output. Tapping the right gloss for 老师 is not producing 你好，我是老师 (nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì lǎoshī).

If your day only has 20 minutes, two streak apps plus SRS do not fit. The 20-minute routine cuts new words, not review. Paying for a second streak “just in case” does not show up in Stripe. It shows up in hours.

Five euros a month do not buy the FSI’s 2,200 classroom hours for professional working proficiency in Mandarin (FSI page). That figure is not HSK 1, and it is not a 30-day plan. It is “hours until you can work in the language.” At 20 minutes a day you are at about 2.3 hours a week. Do the arithmetic before you ask a subscription for miracles.

What €5 can buy is not throwing those hours away. If for three months you opened a streak app 10 minutes a day, that is about 15 hours. Fifteen hours of tapping glosses are not 15 hours of an HSK queue. The euro is visible. The time is not.

Standard at €5 a month opens the catalog when HSK 1–2 has become too small. It does not open fluency. It does not open the official exam. It opens continuing the same loop through HSK 3–7 without building decks by hand or hopping tools. If that sentence does not describe you, stay free.

A month at €5 is less than many one-off classes. It is also not a teacher. It is software with a model quota. The usual mistake is treating the receipt as if it paid for 2,200 hours. The other is treating streak time as free because there is no charge.

Do not pay if, in seven days of HSK 1–2, you never used the queue. The problem was not a level wall. It was the habit. Free already lets you see that.

Do not pay if what you want is a three-minute game. Other apps will feel better. That is not an insult. It is a different job.

Do not pay for Premium if you will not speak or ask for corrections. Standard covers the catalog. Voice and memory are for output. If you will not use them, you are buying tokens for a vacuum.

Do not pay if you need a human every week. This app is not a live course. The tutor helps between sessions. It can be wrong. The official HSK still lives elsewhere.

Do not pay for unlimited AI anywhere if your bottleneck is review. A chat that does not know your level is expensive even when another tool includes it on the free plan.

If Anki already works and you maintain the deck, you do not have to move the lab. Paying here makes sense when you want the same SRS science with listening and writing attached, without building the system.

Paid plans include a 7-day trial. A card may be required to start. You are charged only if you do not cancel before it ends. You cancel in the Stripe portal, from Settings. You do not have to keep paying in order to delete the account.

That is not a trick if it is said in the open. It is a trick if cancellation is hidden, if the price changes on day 8 with no notice, or if “free” was one minute of product. The order here is the other way around. First HSK 1–2 on the free plan, with a daily quota. If the loop holds, you look at the trial. If it does not, there is no charge to chase.

During those 7 days, do not try to “finish” HSK 3. Run the same day that already worked: queue, one audio, one sentence. See whether the extra catalog and the extra tutor actually get used. If you only chase the Premium badge, cancel.

The trial does not replace the exam. It does not unlock a pass. It unlocks features. If on day 8 you go back to free HSK 1–2, you did not fail. You measured.

If the rule above fits, the next step is see plans, not another feature list. Chinese Trainer is an independent product at chinesetrainer.com. Standard starts at €5 a month. Premium costs more because AI costs more. There is a 7-day trial. The official exam still lives on chinesetest.cn.

Stay free if HSK 1–2 still fills the week. Pay when the ceiling is the syllabus or the model, not when a streak scares you. If it does not fit, cancel. Long-haul Mandarin is built with hours spent well, not with a magic receipt.

Pinyin is the official romanization of Mandarin. Hanzi are the written Chinese characters. HSK is Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi. Reviewed by Javier Garcia Floriano. About us. Contact.

• Apply one method today, not a second streak.
• Measure one pair or one mock, not XP.
• Use the single CTA on this page.