Pimsleur
Audio course: half-hour audio lessons built on spoken recall, made for commutes.
Prices checked 20 Oct 2026; Pimsleur's on 6 Sept 2026 · How we check
Is Pimsleur worth it?
Yes, if you want to speak first: half-hour audio lessons get you answering aloud, offline, on a commute.
What it costs. A year costs $131.96 ($11 a month); month to month is $20.95 ($19.95 for one language); lifetime access is $478.80 once. Lifetime costs the same as 3.6 years of the yearly plan (3.0 years at the $399 sale price Pimsleur has offered).
What's free. No free tier; 7-day free trial on subscriptions.
Skip it if you want to read and write, or want something free: it is audio first, with a 7-day trial.
What learners rate it. 4.7 out of 5 from 30,200 ratings in Apple's US App Store and 4.1 from 16,679 on Google Play, checked 11 Oct 2026.
What unhappy reviewers mention. Of the 54 one- and two-star reviews among the 500 most recent in Apple's US App Store, 16 mention the price, billing or the subscription; 4 customer support; and 4 the use of AI. Read 15 Oct 2026; a review can mention several.
$131.96 a year $11 a month, billed yearly · All Access
In our comparison: strongest on the number of languages and trial and refund terms, weakest on the free tier.
- Annual plan
- $131.96 a year ($11/mo)
- Monthly plan
- $19.95 for one language, $20.95 for all its languages
- Lifetime plan
- $478.80 once, all languages. Also sold: the complete course for one language, owned for good, $402.50; one level of one language, owned for good, $105
- Free tier
-
None - Languages
- 51
- Speech recognition
- Yes
- Live tutoring
- —
- Offline mode
- Yes
- Placement test
- —
- CEFR levels
- —
- Refund or trial
- A 7-day free trial on subscriptions. Pimsleur's 30-day money-back guarantee covers only a subscription bought on pimsleur.com or by phone without a free trial of 7 days or more, once per customer; App Store and Google Play purchases are not covered.
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links to the app makers' own sites earn us nothing. Commissions never affect which apps we recommend. Affiliate disclosure and how the data is collected.
How a Pimsleur lesson works
- What you do
- A 30-minute audio lesson: you hear a prompt, answer aloud, then hear the right answer.
- What comes back
- Automatic: exercises are marked, and speech recognition scores how you say words. No person checks your work.
- Not included
- A live teacher or stated CEFR levels.
How a lesson works in an audio course
Speaking and feedback
The core audio asks you to produce an answer before hearing it. It does not listen back as a human conversation partner.
Before you choose
Skip it as your only writing practice. Its core routine asks you to listen and respond aloud.
- Grammar
- Patterns appear inside spoken exchanges. Pick an explanation-led course if you want written rules as you go.
- Review
- Previously introduced language returns at intervals inside the lessons.
- Course depth
- Latin American Spanish starts with complete beginners. Pimsleur’s numbered course levels are not CEFR levels.
Plans and prices
Every consumer plan on Pimsleur'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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Access AnnualAll AccessA sale takes 20% off the first year; later years renew at the regular price. | Annual | $131.96regular $164.95 | $11/mo | all languages |
| Premium AnnualPremiumRead on the Spanish (Latin American) course page, whose plan data prices the Premium Annual plan for French and Japanese the same; the year starts with a 7-day free trial. | Annual | $149.95 | $12.50/mo | one language |
| Premium MonthlyPremiumAs shown on Pimsleur's Latin American Spanish course page. | Monthly | $19.95 | $19.95/mo | one language |
| All Access MonthlyAll Access | Monthly | $20.95 | $20.95/mo | all languages |
| Individual level (one language)PremiumOne level of one language; the price varies by language and level. | Lifetime | $105regular $150 | one-time | one language |
| Complete course, Levels 1-5 (one language)PremiumOne language's complete course; the price varies by language. | Lifetime | $402.50regular $575 | one-time | one language |
| All Access LifetimeAll AccessA Labor Day sale offered it for $399. | Lifetime | $478.80regular $798 | one-time | all languages |
What will Pimsleur cost you?
Total billed over 12 months
$89.45 less on annual billingOne yearly payment of $149.95.
What each plan covers. Monthly: one language. Yearly: one language.
How lifetime and yearly plans compare across apps
Before subscribing, compare trial, cancellation and refund terms, including how purchases through an app store differ.
How to cancel Pimsleur, and how refunds work
Pimsleur's lessons are also sold on Audible as audiobooks (Pimsleur Spanish Level 1, Lessons 1-5, and the other Level 1 sets). See Audible plans. See Audible for current trial terms and the subscription price. A paid link, like the Amazon buttons.
What Pimsleur says about itself
| Feature | What Pimsleur says |
|---|---|
| CEFR levels | — |
| What it is | Audio-first course of 30-minute spoken lessons using graduated interval recall, with reading lessons and review games in the app. |
| Languages offered | 51: Albanian, Arabic (Eastern), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Modern Standard), Armenian (Eastern), Armenian (Western), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari Persian, Dutch, Farsi Persian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Ojibwe, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Spain-Castilian), Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese |
| Free tier | None |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, Web |
| Offline mode | Yes |
| Speech recognition | Yes |
| Live tutoring | — |
| Placement test | — |
| Refund or trial | A 7-day free trial on subscriptions. Pimsleur's 30-day money-back guarantee covers only a subscription bought on pimsleur.com or by phone without a free trial of 7 days or more, once per customer; App Store and Google Play purchases are not covered. |
| Company | Simon & Schuster, LLC (Pimsleur is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio) |
How Pimsleur compares
Pimsleur is strongest on the number of languages and trial and refund terms, weakest on the free tier. 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 | 3.5 | Half-hour audio lessons built on spoken recall, made for commutes |
| Speaking practice | 3.5 | Speech recognition scores your pronunciation |
| Language coverage | 5 | 51 languages |
| Free tier | 1 | No free tier |
| Price per month | 2.5 | $131.96 a year $11 a month, billed yearly · All Access |
| Trial and refund | 4.5 | A 7-day free trial, and a 30-day money-back guarantee only on pimsleur.com plans sold without a trial |
| Offline use | 4.5 | Works offline |
| Staying power and bugs | 4 | Reviewers report people keep using it and few bugs |
Languages you can learn on Pimsleur
Pimsleur states 51 languages; the 50 below are the ones it enumerates on its pages.
How far its courses go
- Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Spain-Castilian), German: Levels 1 to 5; 5 levels of 30 half-hour lessons; about 100 reading lessons.
- French, Italian: Levels 1 to 5; 5 levels of half-hour lessons; about 100 reading lessons.
- Japanese: Levels 1 to 5; 5 levels; Level 1 is 30 half-hour lessons; about 100 reading lessons. About 100 reading lessons for the new script.
- Korean: Levels 1 to 5; 5 levels of 30 half-hour lessons; about 100 reading lessons. About 100 reading lessons for the new alphabet.
- Chinese (Mandarin): Levels 1 to 5; 5 levels of 30 daily lessons, about 15 hours each. Pinyin reading lessons in Levels 1 to 4.
- Portuguese (Brazilian): Levels 1 to 5; 5 levels, 150 lessons.
- Portuguese (European): Levels 1 and 2.
- Chinese (Cantonese): level not stated; one level: 30 daily lessons, about 15 hours.
- Arabic (Modern Standard), Arabic (Eastern): Levels 1 to 3.
- Arabic (Egyptian), Finnish: level not stated; 30 lessons.
- Dutch: Level 1 only; 30 half-hour lessons.
- Polish: Level 1; 30 lessons of 30 minutes.
- Turkish: Level 1.
- Greek: Levels 1 and 2; 60 lessons.
- Vietnamese: level not stated; 30 half-hour lessons.
- Hindi: Levels 1 and 2; 60 lessons over two levels: 30 daily lessons a level, about 15 hours each.
- Swedish: Level 1; one level: 30 daily lessons, about 15 hours.
Albanian, Arabic (Eastern), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Modern Standard), Armenian (Eastern), Armenian (Western), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari Persian, Dutch, Farsi Persian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Ojibwe, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Spain-Castilian), Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese
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References
- Pimsleur: Latin American Spanish (checked 11 Oct 2026)
- Pimsleur: lifetime and course prices (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Pimsleur: languages (checked 6 Sept 2026)
- Pimsleur: home page
- Pimsleur: business enquiries (checked 6 Sept 2026)
- Lindie Botes, the reviewer used the app (16 Dec 2025)
- Eurolinguiste, the reviewer used the app (21 May 2022)