Best Spanish audio courses
Pimsleur to answer aloud from the first lesson, with separate courses for Latin America and Spain; Language Transfer for a free course that explains Spanish as it goes; Michel Thomas for a recorded class you buy once; Glossika for whole sentences by ear once you know the basics; and Rocket Spanish for audio lessons with a full course behind them.
Prices checked 6 Sept to 13 Oct 2026 · How we check
Which Spanish each course teaches, and how much of it
Each course's lesson in a line, the Spanish it teaches and its size as its maker states them, what you can download, how to try it and what it costs.
- Pimsleur
A 30-minute audio lesson: you hear a prompt, answer aloud, then hear the right answer.
- Rocket Languages
Audio lessons built on conversations, with language and culture lessons and voice-recognition drills alongside.
- Glossika
Listen to whole sentences and repeat them aloud, with spaced review and little explanation.
- Language Transfer
Listen as a teacher guides a student through building sentences, and pause to answer aloud before the student does.
- Michel Thomas Method
Join a teacher and two students in a recorded class: when the teacher asks for a sentence, pause and say it before the students do.
Our picks
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Best Spanish course for a commute
Pimsleur
Audio course
$149.95 a year$12.50 a month, billed yearly · Premium
Why it's here. Half-hour audio lessons get you answering aloud, which suits a commute or a walk. Download lessons before you leave and you can practise without a connection.
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.
51 languages · offline lessons
5 of the 52 apps we cover teach Spanish mainly by ear.
An audio course has you understand and answer spoken Spanish while your eyes are busy: on a commute, a walk or a run. Choose the Spanish first. Pimsleur sells Latin American and Castilian Spanish as separate courses, Glossika has courses for Spain and Mexico, Rocket Spanish teaches Latin American Spanish, and Michel Thomas's one course uses Spain's pronunciation and vosotros. Audio cannot teach you to read and spell, so plan another tool for that once the sounds stick.
Every Spanish audio course, compared
Recommended first within each type of app. Sort any column or filter by what matters to you.
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| Best for | Free tier | Speech | Tutor | Offline | CEFR | Refund or trial | Where to buy | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course apps | ||||||||||||
| Rocket LanguagesCourse app | Paying once per level, not a subscription | $149.95Rocket Spanish Level 1, once | — | — | Free trial A free trial; the page does not say what it includes or for how long. | 13 | Yes | No | Yes · audio lessons download in the app; voice recognition needs a connection | A1 to B2Spanish course | A free trial; 60-day money-back guarantee on purchases. | |
| Audio courses | ||||||||||||
| PimsleurAudio course | Audio lessons for a commute | $149.95 a year$12.50 a month, billed yearly | $19.95one language | $798 | No | 51 | Yes | — | Yes | — | 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. | |
| GlossikaAudio course | Sentence drills by ear | About $199 a year$16.58 a month, billed yearly | $19.99one language | — | Free trial 7-day full access with no credit card, plus a permanent Freemium tier covering nine minoritized languages | 63 | No | No | Yes | A1 to C1Spanish (Mexico) | 7-day free trial with no credit card; monthly payments are non-refundable, annual plans refundable pro rata within 60 days of purchase | |
| Language TransferAudio course | A free audio course that explains as it goes | Free | — | — | Free to keep using Every course free, with no adverts and no sign-up; it runs on donations. | 11 | No | No | Yes | — | Free; nothing to buy. | |
| Michel Thomas MethodAudio course | Speaking from the first hour, with no writing or homework | $11.99Start course | — | $273 | Free sample A free lesson and a free booklet for every course (sign-up needed, no card); the app that plays the courses is free. | 19 | — | No | Yes | — | A refund or exchange within 14 days of buying, if you have not finished the course; the Start course is not refunded if you then buy Foundation. | |
Which to choose
You want to speak from the first lesson
Pimsleur
Pimsleur's lessons are 30 minutes of prompts you answer aloud, then the right answer. Its Spanish comes as two courses, Latin American and Castilian, each five levels of 30 half-hour lessons; the Latin American course uses speakers from Colombia and Argentina in Levels 1 to 3, and from Mexico in Level 4. Lessons play offline once downloaded. Premium is $149.95 a year for one language after a 7-day free trial, or you can buy a level to keep for $150.
You want to understand why, and pay nothing
Language Transfer
Language Transfer's Complete Spanish is a recorded teacher guiding a student through building sentences; you pause and answer before the student does, and the grammar is explained as you go. It is free, with no adverts and no sign-up, and every Complete Spanish audio file can be downloaded to your computer.
You would rather buy a course once
Michel Thomas or Rocket Spanish
Michel Thomas puts you in a recorded class with a teacher and two students: the 8-hour Foundation course is $100, a short Start course $11.99, and a 5-hour Vocabulary course covers the top 1,000 words. Rocket Spanish builds audio lessons on conversations, with a written course and voice-recognition drills beside them: Level 1 is $149.95, and Levels 1 to 3, 382 hours of lessons with Level 3 at B1 to B2 by Rocket's own count, are $449.85, with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
You know the basics and want to hear whole sentences
Glossika
Glossika plays whole sentences for you to repeat and record, with spaced review and little explanation. Its Spanish comes as courses for Spain and for Mexico, each 5,000+ words and 6,700+ sentences, and Glossika says they go from A1 to C1. It gives 7 days of full access with no card; Basic is about $199 a year.
Questions people ask
What is the best audio course to learn Spanish?
Pimsleur, to answer aloud from the first lesson, in a Latin American or a Castilian course. Language Transfer if you want the grammar explained and pay nothing. Michel Thomas or Rocket Spanish if you would rather buy a course once, and Glossika for whole sentences once you know the basics.
Is there a free Spanish audio course?
Language Transfer's Complete Spanish is free, with no adverts and no sign-up, and its audio files can be downloaded. Pimsleur gives a 7-day free trial and Glossika 7 days of full access; Michel Thomas's short Start course is the cheapest paid way in.
Can you learn Spanish just by listening?
You can learn to understand and speak a good deal of it, because these courses make you answer aloud. Reading and spelling need another tool: a course app such as Babbel or Busuu, or a vocabulary app.