Pleco Chinese Dictionary review: price, free version and privacy

Our verdict

Pick Pleco if you study Chinese at any level and need a reliable dictionary and reader. It does not teach on its own, so pair it with a course or graded reading.

What Pleco Chinese Dictionary is

Pleco is a Chinese dictionary first and a study system second. The free app includes CC-CEDICT, with over 110,000 entries, and Pleco's own PLC dictionary, with 125,000 entries and over 25,000 example sentences with pinyin. One search looks up characters, pinyin or English, and paid add-ons bring flashcards with spaced repetition, camera OCR, a full document reader, stroke order diagrams and extra dictionaries.

Who it suits

• A Chinese dictionary at any level
• Reading Chinese texts with tap lookups

Strengths

• Two large dictionaries free, merged into one search
• Simplified and traditional characters, pinyin or Zhuyin readings, and some Cantonese support
• No ads, per the description, and no tracking declared
• From a company making Chinese learning apps since 2001, per the description

Limits

• Not a course: there are no lessons
• Flashcards, OCR, enhanced handwriting and full stroke order (28,000 characters instead of 500) cost extra
• Interface in English only
• The screenshots show an older iPhone design

What the free version does

According to the description, the free app covers lookups in CC-CEDICT and the PLC dictionary, handwriting input, a clipboard document reader, text-to-speech audio and stroke order for 500 characters. Flashcards, OCR, enhanced handwriting and most extra dictionaries are paid add-ons.

Price

On the US App Store in November 2026, add-ons include Stroke Order Diagrams at $4.99, the Flashcard System, Optical Character Recognizer, Enhanced Handwriting and Document Reader at $9.99 each, the Basic Bundle at $29.99 and the Professional Bundle at $59.99. A Classical and Medieval Chinese dictionary is listed at $39.99.

Privacy

The privacy label declares no tracking and no data linked to you. Purchases, identifiers and diagnostics are collected without being linked to your identity.

What the screenshots show

The screenshots show results for the pinyin search shouji with characters colored by tone, and an entry for 几乎 tagged HSK 3 with pinyin, Cantonese jyutping and example sentences with audio buttons.