The Best Apps to Learn Portuguese, and the Variant They Skip
The first question in Portuguese is not which app, it is Brazilian or European. They differ enough in pronunciation, vocabulary and some grammar to matter, and here is what almost no comparison says out loud: nearly every app teaches Brazilian Portuguese only. Duolingo, Babbel and Mondly all teach the Brazilian variant. If your target is European Portuguese, the mainstream apps will mostly teach you the wrong one.
The honest shape: for Brazilian Portuguese, start free on Duolingo, add a native teacher on italki for speaking, with community tutors from 5 dollars a lesson, and use Mondly for self-study if English is not your first language. For European Portuguese, accept early that apps will not reliably teach it, and go straight to a native European Portuguese teacher on italki, which is the one dependable route on this page. One fact to save you time: Lingoda does not teach Portuguese at all. Verified July 24, 2026.
Why Portuguese is a different shopping trip
With Spanish or French, every app can teach you and the choice is about style. Portuguese narrows the field in a way most articles never mention, and it is not about difficulty.
There are two Portuguese, and the apps quietly pick one. Brazilian Portuguese, spoken by the roughly 200 million people in Brazil, has the most speakers, the most media and the most learning resources. European Portuguese, spoken in Portugal, sounds noticeably different, unstressed vowels are often swallowed so it can seem faster and more clipped, and it carries some different vocabulary and grammar habits. The two are mutually intelligible, but not interchangeable: learn one and you will be understood by speakers of the other while sounding distinctly foreign to them. Every major self-study app on this page teaches the Brazilian variant, and most never make that clear before you have paid.
European Portuguese is the underserved one. This is the single most useful thing to know before you start. Duolingo teaches Brazilian only. Babbel teaches Brazilian only. Mondly, in practice, teaches Brazilian. If you specifically need European Portuguese, because you are moving to Portugal, have family there, or are studying for its residency requirements, no mainstream app is a dependable teacher of it. The route that works is a native teacher, and italki lets you choose one born in Portugal.
The sequence that works for Portuguese: decide Brazilian or European first, then pick tools that actually teach that variant. For Brazilian, an app can carry the early stretch; for European, a teacher is the plan from the start. Everything below is sorted into that order rather than by which company we can earn from.
Duolingo, the free start for Brazilian Portuguese
Duolingo is the right first step for Brazilian Portuguese because building vocabulary and a daily habit at no cost is the earliest layer, and a free app suits it. Its Portuguese course is Brazilian, so if that is your target you get a well-built, gamified introduction to the basics for nothing. Everyone can use its courses for free, with ads for free users and paid tiers that add an ad-free experience and AI features.
Where it stops, honestly: it teaches Brazilian Portuguese only, so it is no help for European Portuguese, and like every app it cannot hear you and correct your pronunciation, which is the hardest part of Portuguese in either variant. Use it for the Brazilian basics, then add a teacher for speaking. We do not publish a Super or Max price here; prices vary by region and channel, so check the number shown in your own app. There is no commercial relationship between Fawnio and Duolingo, and no link to it.
italki, for speaking and for European Portuguese
A marketplace where you book one-to-one video lessons with individual Portuguese teachers who set their own prices, with no subscription and no schedule imposed on you. italki lists more than 700 Portuguese teachers, and, crucially for this language, both native Brazilian teachers and native European teachers born in Portugal, so you can choose the exact variant you need rather than accepting whatever an app defaults to. Teachers split into professional teachers, who upload documents showing training and experience, and community tutors, who provide conversation practice. Its published price bands are 10 to 120 dollars per lesson for professional teachers and 5 to 120 dollars for community tutors.
For Portuguese this is the highest-value step on the page, and for European Portuguese it is essentially the only one, because a native teacher does the two things no app here does: teaches the European variant at all, and corrects the pronunciation that makes Portuguese hard, especially the swallowed vowels of the European accent. italki's own estimate is that Portuguese takes around 576 to 600 hours to reach a solid working level and roughly 2000 hours for fluency, so the earlier a teacher shapes your accent and variant, the less of that time is spent on habits you later unlearn.
The trade-off is the money mechanic, and we say it on every italki page: you buy italki Credits rather than lessons, the payment terms state that no refunds are given for credits purchased, credits expire after twelve months of account inactivity, and lesson packages must be used within six months. Top up for the lessons you have scheduled. There is a real protection worth knowing: the satisfaction guarantee covers trial lessons, twice, claimed within 48 hours.
Our italki review covers the tiers and the guarantee in detail, how much italki costs turns the ranges into monthly budgets, and italki vs Preply compares it with the other big tutor marketplace.
Choose a Brazilian or European Portuguese teacher on italki
Mondly, if English is not your first language
A self-study app that teaches Portuguese and whose genuine differentiator is that it teaches from your own native language rather than routing every lesson through English. If your household speaks Spanish, French or another language, that removes a translation step. Mondly's lessons are short and daily, built around common phrases with native-speaker audio and scripted conversation practice. The free tier covers daily lessons; Premium adds conversation practice, pronunciation lessons, grammar guides and kids content.
Two honest limits. Its Portuguese is, in practice, the Brazilian variant, so it does not solve the European Portuguese problem, and the scripted conversation feature is drills rather than an open-ended tutor, so it will not make you fluent on its own. The refund position is regional: Mondly's terms state that amounts are non-refundable unless stated otherwise and grant a 14-day cooling-off right only to subscribers in the UK and EU. On the US App Store the listing showed a 4.7 out of 5 rating while Trustpilot showed 2.6 out of 5, with the low scores driven by billing rather than teaching. Our Mondly review works through the free-versus-Premium split, the current prices and the refund terms.
See what Mondly Premium includes
Babbel teaches only Brazilian; Lingoda not at all
Two names people expect on a Portuguese list need a clear word, because both are easy to recommend by mistake.
- Babbel teaches Portuguese, but the Brazilian variant only. It is a well-regarded, structured course, so for Brazilian Portuguese it is a genuine option alongside Duolingo; for European Portuguese it is another app that teaches the wrong one. We name it as a benchmark and do not link to it.
- Lingoda, the live-class school we cover elsewhere, teaches six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Business English. It has no Portuguese classes in either variant. For a scheduled live-class format in Portuguese you would need a different provider; on this page the live-teacher role goes to italki.
The options side by side
| Teaches Portuguese? | Brazilian or European | Corrects your speaking | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Yes, free | Brazilian only | No | Courses free, ads for free users; paid tiers add ad-free and AI features |
| italki | Yes, native teachers | Both, teacher by variant | Yes, one to one | Teacher-set: 5 to 120 dollars per lesson within italki's bands |
| Mondly | Yes, self-study | Brazilian in practice | No, software feedback only | Free tier; Premium subscription, prices in our review |
| Babbel | Yes | Brazilian only | No | No single published price; benchmark, not linked |
| Lingoda | No Portuguese | n/a | n/a | n/a |
If the learner is a child
The same sequence holds with one addition: an adult stays in the loop. italki states that most of its users are adults, asks parents to create and manage the account and to communicate with teachers themselves, warns that not all teachers are prepared to teach kids and points to its Kids category filter, and tells parents to supervise lessons. Mondly includes kids content in Premium and, because it teaches from your own language, suits a household where Portuguese is a heritage language spoken by relatives but not fluently by the child. For a child with family in Portugal specifically, choosing a European Portuguese teacher for the speaking step keeps the learning aligned with the family's own accent.
What we would do
Decide Brazilian or European before you spend a cent. For Brazilian Portuguese, run the free Duolingo course for the basics, then book two or three trial lessons with native teachers and keep the one worth meeting again, because pronunciation is where Portuguese actually gets hard. For European Portuguese, skip the app-shopping and go straight to a native European Portuguese teacher on italki, since no mainstream app reliably teaches that variant. And do not pay Lingoda for Portuguese, because it does not teach it. The full comparison of the teaching shapes, and the credit and renewal mechanics behind each, is on our language learning hub. Weighing another Romance language? Our best apps to learn Spanish and best apps to learn Italian line up the same tools, and our best apps to learn Dutch covers a language that is easy to learn but unusually hard to practice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to learn Portuguese?
It depends first on which Portuguese you mean. For Brazilian Portuguese, Duolingo is the best free start and covers the basics well, italki is the strongest way to actually speak, with native teachers from 5 dollars a lesson, and Mondly is good self-study if English is not your first language. For European Portuguese, the picture is different and most people do not realise it: the big apps teach Brazilian, so a native European Portuguese teacher on italki is effectively the only reliable route. Lingoda, which people sometimes expect here, does not teach Portuguese at all.
Should I learn Brazilian or European Portuguese?
Choose by where and with whom you will use it, because the two differ enough to matter. Brazilian Portuguese has by far the most speakers and the most media, and every major app teaches it, so it is the easier path to resources. European Portuguese, spoken in Portugal, has noticeably different pronunciation, some different vocabulary and a few grammar preferences, and crucially almost no app teaches it. So if your ties are to Brazil, learn Brazilian and you will have every tool available; if your ties are to Portugal, accept early that apps will mostly teach you the wrong variant and that a European Portuguese teacher is the dependable route.
Which apps teach European Portuguese?
Very few, and this is the honest catch of the whole category. Duolingo teaches Brazilian Portuguese only, Babbel teaches Brazilian Portuguese only, and Mondly in practice teaches the Brazilian variant too. None of the mainstream apps is a dependable way to learn European Portuguese. The reliable route is a native teacher: on italki you can choose a tutor born in Portugal who teaches European Portuguese specifically, which no self-study app on this page does. If a comparison article tells you a Brazilian-Portuguese app will teach you European Portuguese, treat it with suspicion.
Is Portuguese hard to learn?
For an English speaker Portuguese is one of the more approachable languages. italki's own estimate is around 576 to 600 hours of study to reach a solid working level, and roughly 2000 hours for fluency, which is at the easier end of the range. The grammar shares a lot with Spanish, and the vocabulary is familiar to anyone who knows another Romance language. The genuinely tricky part is pronunciation, especially in European Portuguese, where unstressed vowels are often swallowed, and that is exactly the thing an app cannot correct, which is why a teacher matters even in an "easy" language.
Do Babbel or Lingoda teach Portuguese?
Babbel does, but Brazilian Portuguese only, so it is a solid structured course if Brazilian is your target and no help if you need European. Lingoda does not teach Portuguese at all; its live classes cover six languages, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Business English. So if an article recommends Lingoda for Portuguese, it is wrong on a basic fact. For Portuguese, look to Duolingo for a free Brazilian start, italki for speaking and for European Portuguese, and Mondly for self-study from your own language.
How we reach these verdicts, and the sources behind them, is on our methodology page. italki's "more than 700 teachers" figure, its price bands, credit rules, and its 576-to-600-hour and roughly-2000-hour estimates were read from italki's own pages and verified July 24, 2026; that Duolingo and Babbel teach Brazilian Portuguese only, and that Mondly teaches the Brazilian variant in practice, was confirmed against their own course materials; that Lingoda teaches no Portuguese is from Lingoda's own language list. We publish no price for Duolingo or Babbel because neither returned a public figure we verified, and no Mondly price here because it belongs with the current figures in our review. App store and Trustpilot ratings are attributed to their platforms. We earn a commission if you sign up to italki or Mondly through our links; Duolingo, Babbel and Lingoda are named for comparison only and are not linked.