Is Thai on Duolingo?

Is Thai on Duolingo?

No. Duolingo teaches 39 languages to English speakers, from Spanish and Japanese to Hawaiian, Navajo, Zulu and the fictional High Valyrian, but not Thai. We checked Duolingo's public course list on 8 October 2026, and Thai isn't offered as a language to learn from any starting language.

Thai does appear on Duolingo, but in the other direction. Thai speakers can learn English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian, and Duolingo's own figures show nearly 3 million learners on the English course for Thai speakers alone. That's why searching "Duolingo Thai" turns up pages in Thai.

Some learners try the "reverse course" trick: switching the app to Thai and taking English for Thai speakers. It's not a realistic way in. The course teaches English grammar to Thais, explains it in Thai script you can't read yet, and never asks you to produce a Thai sentence.

Will Duolingo add Thai?

There's no sign of it. Duolingo hasn't announced a Thai course, and its recent growth has gone in a different direction. In April 2025 it launched 148 new courses built with generative AI, but they made its seven most popular languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin) available from more interface languages, including Thai. No new language was added for English speakers. Duolingo's smaller courses used to be built with volunteer contributors, a programme it ended years ago.

So if you're waiting for the owl, don't. We re-check Duolingo's course list every quarter and will update this page if anything changes.

Why Thai is hard for apps

Thai isn't impossible for an app, but it breaks several things a generic course engine takes for granted:

• Tones. Five tones change the meaning of a word: ใกล้glâi is near, ไกลglai is far. Tapping word tiles doesn't train your ear or your voice; you need clean audio for every word and, ideally, feedback on your own tones.
• The script. 44 consonants, vowels written before, after, above and below the consonant, and tone rules that depend on consonant classes. Reading needs a real course of its own, and typing answers needs a Thai keyboard.
• No spaces between words. Thai writes ห้องน้ำอยู่ที่ไหนhâwng-náam yùu tîi-nǎi (where's the bathroom?) as one unbroken string, so an app has to know where each word starts before it can make word tiles.
• Male and female speech. Men end polite sentences with ครับkráp and women with ค่ะkâ, and the word for "I" differs too. Every sentence a learner says exists in two versions, and multi-language apps often hard-code only one.
• Romanization. There's no agreed standard, so each app invents its own, often without tone marks. "Khob khun", "kop kun" and "kàwp-kun" are the same word.

The best Duolingo-style ways to learn Thai

Prices are in US dollars, from each company's own pages in October 2026; they vary by country and change often. We make Learn Thai For Free, so read our entry with that in mind.

Learn Thai For Free (our app)

• Free tier: everything. You can start without an account; the AI features have usage limits, with a daily allowance once you sign in (also free).
• Tones: every syllable shows its tone; tone trainer and minimal pairs.
• Script: an optional Read Thai course, and you choose Thai script, romanization or both.
• Speaking: an AI speech trainer with word-by-word feedback, and AI role-plays.
• Price: free.
• Keep in mind: it's new, and the audio uses AI voices rather than recordings of human teachers.

Ling

• Free tier: the first two units.
• Tones: speech recognition on your pronunciation.
• Script: yes, including tracing the letters.
• Speaking: pronunciation checks and chatbot dialogues.
• Price: $16.99 a month or $89.99 a year (7-day trial on the yearly plan).
• Keep in mind: one course engine for 70+ languages, though Thai is the language it's best known for.

Drops

• Free tier: 5 minutes of play every 10 hours.
• What it teaches: vocabulary only, over 2,000 Thai words with pictures and audio.
• Speaking and grammar: none.
• Price: about $13 a month or $70 a year, with a lifetime option.
• Keep in mind: great as a word-game side dish, not a course.

Memrise

• Free tier: yes, with limits.
• What it teaches: an official Thai course with 300+ lessons, 3,000+ words and videos of native speakers.
• Speaking: AI conversation practice.
• Price: Pro subscription for full access.
• Keep in mind: one course engine for 20+ languages, built around phrases and video rather than reading.

Mondly

• Free tier: a few lessons.
• What it teaches: short lessons with a chatbot and speech recognition; Thai is one of its 41 languages.
• Price: changes constantly, with frequent heavy discounts.
• Keep in mind: one course engine for 41 languages, so Thai-specific things like particles get less attention than in a Thai-only course.

Not Duolingo-style, but often compared: Pimsleur is an audio-only course. For Thai it has one level of 30 half-hour lessons, at about $15 to $21 a month after a 7-day trial. It's good for getting your mouth moving, but it doesn't teach the script, and there's no second level to move on to. Our guide to the best apps to learn Thai compares these and more in detail.

Try a free Duolingo-style Thai lesson

If you came here wanting the Duolingo experience for Thai, start Unit 1 of our course, "Hello, Thailand". It's free, and you can start without an account. In five to ten minutes you'll meet สวัสดีsà-wàt-dii (hello), ขอบคุณkàwp-kun (thank you), ขอโทษkǎw-tôot (sorry) and ไม่เป็นไรmâi bpen rai (no problem), and practise them the way you're used to: listening, matching, building sentences from word tiles. Then you'll do what matters most in Thai: say them out loud and get feedback on your tones. Lessons adapt to you, so men hear and practise ครับkráp and women ค่ะkâ.

The words from the lesson are below, with audio, if you want a taste first.

What apps can't do for you

Any app, ours included, is the easy part. A few things only come from outside:

• Real conversations. Real people answer unpredictably, talk fast and use slang. Practise with a tutor, a language-exchange partner or, if you're in Thailand, the people you meet every day.
• Hours of listening. Understanding natural Thai takes far more listening than any app contains. Add graded YouTube channels such as Comprehensible Thai, then songs and Thai series.
• A human ear. AI feedback on tones is useful, but a good tutor also hears your rhythm, your vowel length and the mistakes you don't know you're making.
• A reason. Streaks help for a while; a trip, a partner's family or a life in Thailand keeps you going for years.

The combination that works: an app every day for structure and review, listening every day, and a real conversation every week.