ChinesePod
Course app: Mandarin podcast lessons in six levels, from Newbie to Advanced, each a real conversation talked through by teachers, with its dialogue, words and exercises.
Prices checked 17 Oct 2026 · How we check
Is ChinesePod worth it?
Yes, if you want to learn Mandarin by listening to real conversations explained by teachers, with each dialogue in characters, pinyin and English, and enough levels to carry you past the beginner stage.
What it costs. In the iPhone app, a year costs $249.99 ($20.83 a month); month to month is $29 on ChinesePod's website.
What's free. Every lesson plays free, with ads before it.
Skip it if you want your speaking checked, or an app its users rate well: nothing in it listens to you speak, and its iPhone and Android apps have low store ratings.
What learners rate it. 2.3 out of 5 from 27 ratings in Apple's US App Store and 2.6 from 251 on Google Play, checked 16 Oct 2026.
$249.99 a year $20.83 a month, billed yearly · Premium (iPhone app)
In our comparison: strongest on teaching depth and offline use, weakest on speaking practice.
- Annual plan
- $249.99 a year ($20.83/mo)
- Monthly plan
- $29
- Lifetime plan
- —
- Free tier
- Free to keep using
Every lesson plays free, with ads before it; the dialogues, vocabulary, notes and exercises are limited. Premium opens them in full, with courses, practice tests and downloads. - Languages
- 1
- Speech recognition
- —
- Live tutoring
- —
- Offline mode
- Yes · Premium only, in the app.
- Placement test
- Yes
- CEFR levels
- —
- Refund or trial
- A 14-day trial of Premium. ChinesePod's terms let you cancel a subscription you are not satisfied with in the first 30 days after ordering, and say there is no right to a refund after that.
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web
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How a ChinesePod lesson works
- What you do
- Watch or listen as its teachers talk through a short real-life conversation for 15 to 30 minutes, then read the dialogue line by line in characters, pinyin and English with its audio, study the new words, and finish with exercises such as matching, ordering, multiple choice and dictation.
- What comes back
- Automatic: exercises are marked right or wrong. No person checks your work.
- Not included
- A live teacher or stated CEFR levels.
How a lesson works in a course app
Plans and prices
Every consumer plan on ChinesePod's own pricing page or app-store listing, in US dollars unless marked. Per month is the plan price divided by its term. Each price is what the seller was charging on the day we checked it. When a plan was on sale, its regular price is shown under the sale price; a crossed-out figure that is only a comparison, such as a year at the monthly rate, is in the plan's note.
| Plan | Billing | Price | Per month | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Other | $0 | $0/mo | every lesson, with ads before playback; the dialogues, vocabulary, notes and exercises limited |
| Premium (iPhone app), yearlyPremiumApple's US App Store price for the iPhone app, billed once a year. ChinesePod's own site shows Premium at $29 a month and says it also sells quarterly and annual plans, without giving their prices. | Annual | $249.99 | $20.83/mo | every lesson and course, with the full notes, exercises and downloads |
| Premium (iPhone app), 3 monthsPremiumApple's US App Store price for the iPhone app, billed every 3 months. ChinesePod's own site shows Premium at $29 a month and says it also sells quarterly and annual plans, without giving their prices. | Every 3 months | $78.99 | $26.33/mo | every lesson and course, with the full notes, exercises and downloads |
| Premium, monthlyPremiumStarts with a 14-day trial (ChinesePod's home page). ChinesePod's own site shows Premium at $29 a month and says it also sells quarterly and annual plans, without giving their prices. | Monthly | $29 | $29/mo | every lesson and course, with the full notes, exercises and downloads |
| Premium (iPhone app), monthlyPremiumApple's US App Store price for the iPhone app. ChinesePod's own site shows Premium at $29 a month and says it also sells quarterly and annual plans, without giving their prices. | Monthly | $29.99 | $29.99/mo | every lesson and course, with the full notes, exercises and downloads |
What will ChinesePod cost you?
Total billed over 12 months
$98.01 less on annual billingOne yearly payment of $249.99.
What each plan covers. Monthly: every lesson and course, with the full notes, exercises and downloads. Yearly: every lesson and course, with the full notes, exercises and downloads.
Before subscribing, compare trial, cancellation and refund terms, including how purchases through an app store differ.
How to cancel ChinesePod, and how refunds work
What ChinesePod says about itself
| Feature | What ChinesePod says |
|---|---|
| CEFR levels | — |
| What it is | Course app. A Mandarin podcast course: in each 15- to 30-minute video or audio lesson, teachers talk through a real conversation, then you study its dialogue line by line in characters, pinyin and English, its vocabulary with audio and example sentences, notes on usage and culture, and exercises such as matching, ordering, multiple choice and dictation. Lessons run in six levels from Newbie to Advanced; Say It Right is a 22-lesson pronunciation course on pinyin and the tones, and vocabulary can be saved to flashcard decks. |
| Languages offered | 1: Chinese |
| Free tier | Every lesson plays free, with ads before it; the dialogues, vocabulary, notes and exercises are limited. Premium opens them in full, with courses, practice tests and downloads. |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, Web |
| Offline mode | Yes · Premium only, in the app. |
| Speech recognition | — |
| Live tutoring | — |
| Placement test | Yes |
| Refund or trial | A 14-day trial of Premium. ChinesePod's terms let you cancel a subscription you are not satisfied with in the first 30 days after ordering, and say there is no right to a refund after that. |
| Company | ChinesePod LLC, United States |
How ChinesePod compares
ChinesePod is strongest on teaching depth and offline use, weakest on speaking practice. Each criterion is scored out of 5 from what each app says about itself and from independent reviews, to compare apps that do the same job; it is not a review of the app. How we score.
| Feature | Score (of 5) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching depth | 4 | Mandarin podcast lessons in six levels, from Newbie to Advanced, each a real conversation talked through by teachers, with its dialogue, words and exercises |
| Speaking practice | 1 | — |
| Language coverage | 1 | 1 language |
| Free tier | 3 | A free account with limits |
| Price per month | 1 | $249.99 a year $20.83 a month, billed yearly · Premium (iPhone app) |
| Trial and refund | 2 | A 14-day trial of Premium. ChinesePod's terms let you cancel a subscription you are not satisfied with in the first 30 days after ordering, and say there is no right to a refund after that |
| Offline use | 4 | Works offline |
| Staying power and bugs | – | Not available |
Languages you can learn on ChinesePod
1 language as listed by ChinesePod.
How far its courses go
- ChinesePod: Six levels: Newbie, Elementary, Lower Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced; 4,000+ lessons, by its own count, plus the 22-lesson Say It Right pronunciation course. Each dialogue in characters, pinyin and English; pinyin and the tones from the Newbie level.
Compare ChinesePod
- Best app to learn Chinese (Mandarin): every app that teaches it, compared
- Best language learning apps for beginners, compared
- Best language learning apps for seniors, compared
- Best language apps for travel, compared
- ChinesePod against any other app, side by side
- What ChinesePod will cost you for the months you study
- All 99 apps in one table
References
- ChinesePod: home page (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Apple App Store: ChinesePod listing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- ChinesePod: pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- ChinesePod: terms of service (checked 16 Oct 2026)