Mondly: Short Daily Language Lessons with a Chatbot That Listens
Mondly is a language learning app from Pearson for Android, iPhone, iPad and the web that teaches 41 languages through short topic lessons, native-speaker audio and a speech-recognition chatbot. It suits beginners and lower-intermediate learners who want to speak everyday phrases, and it costs $74.90 a year or $15.90 a month on the US App Store, or $299.99 once for the lifetime plan covering every language.
You want to order dinner in Lisbon and you have ten minutes on the bus, not an evening class. Mondly is built for that slot: a few minutes of tapping, listening and speaking, with instant feedback on whether it understood you.
Quick facts
- Developer: ATi Studios (Brașov, Romania), part of Pearson since May 2022
- Version: 10.41.5 on Android (August 31, 2026), 10.67.0 on iPhone and iPad (March 19, 2026)
- Runs on: Android, iPhone and iPad (iOS 16 or later), Apple silicon Macs (macOS 13 or later), Apple Vision, and in a web browser on any PC or Mac
- Languages: 41, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Latin, Tagalog and Urdu, taught from your own native language
- Level: beginner to upper-intermediate (A1 to B2)
- Free plan: Daily Lessons, the Hello category and one chatbot lesson
- Trial: 7 days of Premium, then billed automatically unless you cancel
- Price: $15.90 a month or $74.90 a year (US App Store), $299.99 for the lifetime plan with all languages
What we checked: on October 18, 2026 we read the Google Play listing (version 10.41.5, updated August 31, 2026, 4.5 stars from 927,673 ratings, 50M+ downloads) and the US App Store listing (version 10.67.0 from March 19, 2026, 263.6 MB, iOS 16 or later, 4.7 stars from about 33,000 ratings, yearly plan $74.90, monthly $15.90). We didn't take lessons in the app ourselves, and Mondly's order page blocked our automated check, so we couldn't confirm the lifetime price there.
Before you buy
- The free trial turns into a paid plan by itself. Mondly's 7-day trial bills you automatically when it ends. This is the most common complaint on Trustpilot, where people expected the trial to stop on its own.
- Cancel where you bought it. A subscription bought in the iPhone app is managed by Apple, one bought on Android by Google, and one bought on the web by 2Checkout. Deleting the app doesn't cancel anything.
- It stops at B2. Mondly covers beginner to upper-intermediate material. Advanced learners will run out of content.
- Offline lessons are mobile-only. You can download categories on iOS and Android, but not in the web app.
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Overview
Mondly started in 2014 at ATi Studios, a Romanian company founded by brothers Alexandru and Tudor Iliescu, and reached the top of the Education charts in many countries before Pearson bought it in 2022. Mondly says more than 150 million people have used it. The app opens on a map of topics: Hello, Core Vocabulary, Countries and Languages, Objects and Numbers, and so on. You work along the path, and each topic holds a handful of short lessons with an estimated time and a word and phrase count.
Mondly teaches the inductive way: you see and hear whole phrases in context and pick up the rules from examples, instead of starting with grammar tables. Tap any verb and you get its full conjugation, so the rules are there when you want them. Around the main path sit Daily Lessons, a Review tab with every word you've met so far, a Statistics tab, and leaderboards against friends, your country or the world.
Mondly on Android, a tablet and an iPhone: the Hello lesson with a Daily Lesson ready, the topic map (5 of 301 lessons done), and the Review list of Spanish terms learned so far with audio buttons. Images from Mondly.
Features
A chatbot you talk to out loud
Mondly's chatbot lessons use speech recognition, so you answer questions by speaking, the app transcribes what you said, and the conversation moves on when it understands you. It also gives feedback on pronunciation. This is the feature reviewers praise most, and also the one they complain about most: the recognizer can be strict with accents and with languages like Japanese, where it may expect kanji you can't "speak". You can skip the microphone in regular lessons, but not in the Conversations.
Practical topics instead of a textbook order
Mondly Premium opens 250+ lessons in 40 practical topics, plus 36 vocabulary builders and 50+ conversations recorded by fluent speakers. Topics cover things like ordering food, asking for help, the bank and the doctor's office, and you can study them in any order. Exercises range from picking the right picture to arranging words into a sentence and saying it aloud, and they get harder as you go: early on you translate into the new language, later out of it.
A picture exercise: "Select the correct translation: bicycle", with perro, gato, bicicleta and auto to choose from, a Check button and a microphone button.
Hands-free lessons
Mondly's Handsfree mode plays a lesson by voice, so you listen and answer out loud without touching the screen. It's meant for walking, cooking or lying in bed, and one learner quoted on Mondly's site says that's exactly how they use it. Each lesson in a topic shows a Start button and a Handsfree button side by side.
The Objects and Numbers topic: 107 words, 52 phrases, an estimated 120 minutes, and Lesson 1 (Valuables) with Start and Handsfree buttons.
Daily Lessons, quizzes and spaced review
Mondly adds a new Daily Lesson every day, a Weekly Quiz on Sundays once you've done the week's lessons, and a Monthly Challenge. Premium opens the whole archive: over 2,600 Daily Lessons, 320 Weekly Quizzes and 60 Monthly Challenges. The Review tab collects every word and phrase you've learned, with its audio, and Mondly brings older words back with spaced repetition so they don't fade.
Progress stats and leaderboards
Mondly tracks your progress, time spent and word count on a Statistics screen, along with your level, points, streak and monthly achievements. A Social tab ranks you against friends, learners in your country or everyone, which some people find motivating and others ignore.
The Statistics tab: level 1 with 52 points, a 1-day streak, 22% progress, 12 minutes spent, 37 words, and three trophies earned this month.
Business and English-exam content
Mondly Premium includes 300+ business lessons: ten courses such as Business Communication, Meetings, Negotiations and Finance and Banking in 10 languages, and job courses for flight attendants, restaurant staff, hotel receptionists, healthcare workers and shop assistants in all 41. English learners also get Pearson English progress tests. Premium includes Mondly Kids and Mondly's augmented-reality lessons too.
Eight Mondly screens: the Review list, a conjugation table for ser (yo soy, tú eres...), the topic map, Statistics, a picture quiz, a topic's lesson list, a chatbot dialogue ("Buenas tardes... Me llamo...") and a "Move the word to the correct answer" exercise.
Benefits
- You start speaking on day one. Most apps keep you tapping. Mondly makes you say phrases out loud early, which is where most self-taught learners freeze in real life.
- You learn from your own language. A Polish speaker can learn Korean through Polish, not through English, which removes a layer of translation.
- It fits in dead time. Daily Lessons take a couple of minutes, and Handsfree mode works when your hands are busy.
- One plan covers every language. Premium isn't priced per language, so switching from Spanish to Italian costs nothing extra.
Real-World Uses
- A trip in six weeks. Work through Hello, travel, food and directions topics and the hotel and taxi conversations, a few lessons a day.
- Keeping a language alive. A former student uses Daily Lessons and the Review tab to stop school French from fading.
- Family language. Learn enough Tagalog, Hindi or Greek to greet in-laws and follow simple conversations, in a language few apps teach.
- English exam practice. An English learner uses the Pearson progress tests to check their level between lessons.
Who It's For, and Who Should Skip It
Mondly is a good fit for beginners and lower-intermediate learners who want conversational phrases and pronunciation practice in short sessions, for people learning a less common language (Afrikaans, Latvian, Tagalog, Urdu), and for anyone who plans to try several languages on one plan.
Skip it if:
- You're already advanced. Content stops at B2. Reading graded books, a tutor or conversation exchange will serve you better.
- You want grammar explained. Mondly shows rules through examples and conjugation tables, but it doesn't explain why. A course with written grammar lessons, or a textbook alongside, fits that learner better.
- You need a specific dialect. Spanish, for example, isn't split into Mexican and European versions.
- You only want a free app. Mondly's free plan is small. Duolingo's core course is free.
Usage Guide
- Install or open it. Get Mondly from the App Store or Google Play, or open the web app in your browser on a PC or Mac.
- Pick your languages. Choose the language you speak and the one you want to learn, and set your level. If you've studied before, a higher level moves you from A1 toward B2 faster.
- Allow the microphone. Let Mondly use the microphone and speech recognition. On the web, click Allow when your browser asks, or turn it on in the site settings next to the address bar.
- Start on the map. Open Hello, tap Start on Lesson 1, and work through the exercises. Use Handsfree when you can't look at the screen.
- Do the Daily Lesson. It takes a couple of minutes and builds toward the Sunday quiz.
- Review. Open the Review tab to replay the words you've learned, and save the tricky ones.
- Download for travel. On iOS or Android, tap your profile, then Download content, and pick categories to use offline.
Where it falls short
- Speech recognition can be stubborn. App Store and Mondly-site reviewers describe the chatbot rejecting correct answers, refusing a French accent while accepting German, and marking Japanese wrong for using hiragana instead of kanji.
- Some grammar gets skipped. A German learner on the App Store pointed out that nouns aren't taught with der, die and das, and a Thai learner said pronouns are hard-coded to the female form and some sentences are word-for-word English.
- It gets repetitive. Actual Fluency found the games "can get boring and repetitive" once you catch on to the basics.
- Billing complaints are common. Trustpilot's 1-star reviews are mostly about trials turning into yearly charges and subscriptions that were hard to cancel.
- The update notes say little. Recent App Store and Play updates list only performance and bug fixes, and the iPhone app's last update was in March 2026.
What Users Say
Mondly rates well in the app stores and poorly on Trustpilot. Those groups review different things: app-store reviewers judge the lessons, while Trustpilot reviewers mostly write about billing.
Google Play: 4.5 out of 5 from 927,673 ratings
Nick C. (February 22, 2025): "Great for language learning from a company that knows how to craft educational materials. The lessons are short and well organized with a variety available to keep your interest. There is actual scaffolding from known to unknown and sneaky learning by context thrown in, as well."
Bonni Douglas (June 25, 2025): "It's fine. It's no different from any other popular language app except supposedly more correct to native speakers. It does not explain grammar or the reasons for word use and sentence structure or formatting which is a total failure for all current popular language apps in my opinion. I don't want to memorize things, I want to understand them."
Shelly H (September 9, 2026): "For now I'm using only the free lessons to supplement my learning while focusing on apps with Mexican Spanish options. For me, the different verb tenses and pronunciations are confusing. But Mondly has such an engaging, visual design and learning structure that I love! I will buy a lifelong membership if they create a Mexican Spanish option."
Apple App Store (US): 4.7 out of 5 from about 33,000 ratings
lanajewell, "Mondly" (September 12, 2021): "As a former language teacher I'm impressed that in 5 days I have learned lots of basic vocabulary as well as phrases that I will use in my coming travel to Greece. As well, the app is cleverly introducing the Greek alphabet. It combines pictures, audio and print."
BriKaiBag, "Love this app!...except for the chatbot sections" (May 5, 2021): "I repeat the dialogue exactly as they ask me (it even is recorded the same) but they mark me as wrong for using hiragana instead of kanji for some words. How do you "speak" in hiragana vs kanji?"
rippinguanew1, "Excellent App!" (January 23, 2021): "The only disappointment is the nouns are not taught with the definite article, Die, Der, Das. ... The best thing about the app is the ability to create conversations for speaking practice. That is the most useful."
Trustpilot: 2.5 out of 5 from 782 reviews
Trustpilot's reviews split hard: 45% five-star and 27% one-star. Most of the one-star reviews are about billing rather than lessons.
- Rex Jackson, "The 7 day free trial is very deceptive" (1 star, May 19, 2025): "I attempted to acquire a 7 day free trial but was charged for a $70 annual subscription."
- Shaun Morrell, "Impossible to cancel my subscription" (1 star, November 27, 2025): "they just keep taking your money without any way to cancel!" In its reply, Mondly said the account held a lifetime Premium purchase, which is why there was nothing to cancel.
- DMAN, "I generally really like the app" (3 stars, January 16, 2026): "I generally really like the app, but the conversational AI portion of this leaves a little to be desired."
- Steve, "Refund given, but my error" (5 stars, June 25, 2025): "After complaining to Mondly they were very good and refunded my payment immediately."
Independent reviewers
TechRadar (Bryan M Wolfe, Best language learning app roundup, updated November 28, 2025) ranked Mondly sixth and called it "A great app for anyone brand new to a language", with "Not for advanced learners" and "Pricey without a discount" as its minuses: "If you are beginning with a language, Mondly does a great job. However, its overall content is lacking at more advanced levels."
Actual Fluency (Kris Broholm, February 2021) gave it 3.5 out of 5: "Mondly is a decent spaced repetition app for mastering the basics, but it will not get you substantially towards fluency alone." The review added that a lifetime offer or sale "might be worth picking up" but the regular price is "probably not worth" it.
On Mondly's own reviews page
These are chosen by Mondly, so they lean positive, though a few include a complaint.
- Roger Nadon: "I have been a Mondly student since 2015. Now 77 years old and have a lifetime membership. Only bug is the AI will never pass my accent on French but will for German. Keeps telling me to try again! However it's a great app but addictive. Lol"
- John Shankowsky: "I really like this more than Duolingo and it's important to remember that this will likely get someone to a B2. Fix the voice recognition for 5 stars because I love the conversation feature."
- Deborah Markward: "For the lifetime price it is a good value. I find it better as an intermediate learner than as a beginner. I have only studied Italian so far."
The pattern: people like the short, well-organized lessons, the visuals and the speaking practice, and beginners get the most from it. The recurring complaints are a speech recognizer that rejects some accents and scripts, thin grammar explanations, and, on Trustpilot, trials that renewed into paid plans before people noticed. The Trustpilot reviews above came through a page summarizer, so they're short excerpts.
Comparisons
Mondly vs Duolingo
Mondly and Duolingo both teach through quick game-like exercises, and both have chatbot-style practice. Duolingo's core course is free, so if you don't want to pay, it's the better choice. Mondly's advantages are its emphasis on speaking full phrases from the first lesson, conversations recorded by fluent speakers, and lessons in your own native language rather than English.
Mondly vs Babbel
Babbel takes a more serious, grammar-led approach, with lessons that explain rules, while Mondly teaches by example. Actual Fluency's review made the same point: Babbel "offers grammar lessons" and "provides more depth". If you'd rather understand the rules than absorb them, Babbel fits you better. If you want several languages on one plan, Mondly's Premium covers all 41.
Editions and Pricing
| Plan |
Price |
Billing |
What you get |
| Free |
$0 |
None |
Daily Lessons, the Hello category, one chatbot lesson |
| Premium monthly |
$15.90 a month (US App Store) |
Renews monthly |
All 41 languages and all Premium content |
| Premium 12 months |
$74.90 a year (US App Store) |
Renews yearly |
All 41 languages and all Premium content |
| Premium lifetime |
$299.99 once |
One-time payment |
All 41 languages, no renewal |
Mondly runs frequent sales. Prices on Mondly's website vary by country and promotion and can be well below the app-store prices, so compare before you subscribe inside the app. The lifetime plan pays for itself after about four years of the yearly plan at app-store prices.
FAQs
Can I use Mondly on a Windows PC?
Yes. Mondly has no Windows program, but its web app runs in any browser on a Windows PC or a Mac, and your progress syncs with the phone app when you sign in to the same account. The web app can't download lessons for offline use.
How do I cancel a Mondly subscription?
You cancel Mondly where you bought it: in your Apple ID subscriptions for an iPhone purchase, in Google Play for Android, in Huawei AppGallery, or through 2Checkout (Verifone) for a purchase on Mondly's website. Cancel before the next billing date. Deleting the app doesn't stop the subscription.
Does the Mondly free trial charge me automatically?
Yes. Mondly's 7-day Premium trial bills the plan you picked as soon as the trial ends unless you cancel first. Set a reminder for day six if you're only testing it.
Does Mondly Premium cover all languages or just one?
Mondly Premium covers all 41 languages and lets you switch freely between them, so you don't pay again to start a second language.
Can Mondly make me fluent?
Mondly can take you from zero to about upper-intermediate (B2) in vocabulary and everyday phrases, but on its own it won't make you fluent. Reviewers agree you'll need real conversation practice, reading and some grammar study alongside it.
Can I keep my Mondly progress if I change phones?
Yes. Mondly stores your progress and purchase in your Mondly account, so you sign in with the same account on the new phone. A subscription bought through Apple or Google stays tied to that store account.
Is Mondly VR included in Mondly Premium?
No. Mondly VR is a separate app for Meta Quest headsets and Steam, sold on its own. Premium in the main app includes Mondly Kids and the augmented-reality lessons, not the VR app.
Why won't Mondly hear me in the web app?
Mondly's web app needs your browser's permission to use the microphone. Click the padlock or site settings icon next to the address bar, set Microphone to Allow for app.mondly.com, and reload the page.
System Requirements
- iPhone and iPad: iOS or iPadOS 16 or later, about 264 MB
- Android: phones and tablets through Google Play
- Mac: macOS 13 or later on an Apple silicon (M1 or later) Mac, or the web app
- Windows and other computers: the web app in a current browser
- Also: a microphone for speaking lessons and an internet connection (offline download on iOS and Android only)
Conclusion
Mondly is worth paying for if you're a beginner who wants to speak everyday phrases in one or several languages and will practice a few minutes a day. The reason to buy it is the speaking practice: a chatbot and fluent-speaker dialogues that make you say things out loud, across 41 languages on one plan. The main reason not to is its ceiling: grammar is light and content ends at B2, so intermediate learners outgrow it. Try the free lessons first, cancel the trial before day seven if you're not sure, and if you'll use it for years, the one-time lifetime plan beats renewing a subscription.
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