Du Chinese review: price, free version and privacy

Our verdict

Du Chinese suits learners who already know some basics and want to read real sentences at their level with audio support. Complete beginners who need speaking drills or a guided course should pair it with a course app.

What Du Chinese is

Du Chinese is a reading and listening app for Mandarin. Its library of stories, courses and articles runs from beginner to advanced, including HSK-aligned content, and every reading has native speaker audio. Tap a word for its pinyin and definition or a sentence for its translation, then save words to the built-in flashcards. You can switch between simplified and traditional characters.

Who it suits

• Chinese learners who want graded reading practice
• Intermediate learners building listening and vocabulary

Strengths

• Pinyin, definitions, grammar notes and sentence translations a tap away inside the text
• Native speaker audio for every reading, with an audio player and speed control
• Content tagged from beginner to advanced, including HSK-aligned material
• Links to Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese, and no tracking declared in the privacy label

Limits

• Most of the library (3,000+ articles, stories and courses), offline study and audiobook mode need Premium
• Not a complete course: the listing mentions no speaking practice or pronunciation feedback
• The app interface is English only
• A small rating base for a reading app (about 4,600 ratings), though it averages 4.9

What the free version does

The description says you can learn Chinese for free, and that upgrading unlocks 3,000+ articles, stories and courses, offline study and an audiobook mode for listening. The listing does not say how many readings are free.

Price

Du Chinese Premium is listed at $14.99, $79.99 and $119.99 on the US App Store in November 2026. The item names do not give billing periods, and there is no lifetime item in the list.

Privacy

The privacy label declares no tracking. Identifiers, usage data and diagnostics are collected but not linked to your identity.

What the screenshots show

The screenshots show a dialogue about the days of the week with pinyin above each character, an English translation box and a pop-up offering Grammar, Dictionary and Save, plus a listening screen for an upper-intermediate story with repeat, speed and skip controls.