Home / Best apps to learn a language / Portuguese
Prices and language coverage checked in September 2026.
Portuguese has 267 million speakers, 250 million of them native, by Ethnologue’s 2025 count, and the CPLP, the community of Portuguese-speaking countries, has 9 member states. Brazil has about 213 million people (IBGE, July 2025) and Portugal about 11.4 million (INE, end of 2025), and the apps follow the numbers: Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Mango and Rosetta Stone teach Brazilian Portuguese only. A learner headed for Portugal needs a European specialist such as Practice Portuguese, or an app with both varieties, such as Pimsleur, Memrise or LingQ.
Babbel’s help centre calls the two varieties “mutually intelligible”, and on the page they are close; by ear they are further apart than the spelling suggests. Free Portuguese input is thinner than for Spanish or French (4.1% of websites, W3Techs), and free European Portuguese thinner still. So the apps below are compared on the variety they teach, where their course stops, what is left free on day 30 and how much of the language you hear.
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Portuguese in category I (of I to IV), about 750 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency.
Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Mango and Rosetta Stone teach Brazilian Portuguese only; Babbel’s help centre says “We don’t currently offer a European Portuguese course”. The two differ in more than accent: Brazil says estou fazendo for I am doing, Portugal estou a fazer, and a train is a trem in Brazil and a comboio in Portugal. For Portugal, the choice is Practice Portuguese, Pimsleur’s 2 European levels, Memrise’s Portugal course, LingQ’s European Mini Stories and a tutor born there. Learn the Portuguese of the place you are heading to, and learn to understand the other.
Portuguese has nasal vowels and diphthongs (ão, õe, em) that English lacks, and in Portugal the unstressed vowels shrink: speakers reduce the unstressed a and elide some unstressed vowels altogether, so European speech sounds clipped next to Brazilian, which keeps its vowels full. A course in one variety does not prepare you to hear the other. Pick apps with audio in the variety you need beside every text, and listen for hours beside any course.
Every noun has a gender, ser and estar both mean to be, and Portuguese uses two verb forms most learners have not met: the future subjunctive (quando eu for, when I go) and the personal infinitive (para fazermos, for us to do). Where the object pronoun goes depends on the variety: Brazilian Portuguese puts it before the verb (me dá), European Portuguese after it (dá-me), and the Brazilian order can sound wrong in Portugal. Practice Portuguese, Babbel and Busuu explain the grammar; Duolingo and Pimsleur leave most of it implicit. Learn the grammar of the variety you chose.
Duolingo labels its Portuguese course B2, and we found no independent test of the label; a March 2026 review, before the B2 extension, put finishers at “maybe A2 level, possibly B1”. Busuu’s course page and help centre agree on A1 to B2. Babbel’s help centre stops Portuguese at B1, with topics to B2. Practice Portuguese runs its Units to B1/B2 by its own label; Pimsleur ends its Brazilian course at “an intermediate level” and its European course after 60 lessons. Past B2, switch from courses to books, radio, podcasts and people.
Portugal’s nationality law, Lei Orgânica 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026, asks for 10 years of residence (7 for EU and CPLP citizens) and A2 Portuguese, plus a civic knowledge test whose format is still being defined. The CIPLE, the A2 exam of the University of Lisbon’s CAPLE, is “o nível mínimo” for nationality in CAPLE’s own words. Brazil’s ordinary naturalisation asks for 4 years of residence and the ability to communicate in Portuguese, and a Celpe-Bras certificate is one way to prove it. Book the exam of the country you will live in.
Best free daily course
The Portuguese course runs to B2 by Duolingo’s own label (April 2026), and an unofficial tracker counts 1,031 units and 1,183 short Stories. We found no variety named on the Duolingo pages we could read, and 2026 reviews by Migaku and Portugalist agree it is Brazilian only. It builds a daily habit better than it trains your ear.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A free daily Brazilian Portuguese habit from zero; on a laptop, without the Energy cap.
Best free course with corrections
Busuu teaches Brazilian Portuguese, and its free plan gives you the whole Complete Portuguese course, with ads: 140+ lessons, A1 to B2 on both the course page and the help centre. Portuguese speakers in the community correct your written and spoken answers. It is the free course to choose if you want a syllabus rather than a game.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B2 learners of Brazilian Portuguese who want a syllabus they can use free and a speaker checking their answers.
Best European Portuguese course
Made in Lisbon and European Portuguese only: 100+ Units that run from beginners (A1/A2) to intermediate learners (B1/B2), in the vendor’s words, plus an archive of 950+ audio and video episodes from A1 to C1. It is the one full European course in this list, and the one we would pay for if Portugal is where you are going.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone moving to Portugal, from A1 to B2, and CIPLE candidates who need European listening practice.
Best for speaking from lesson one
Pimsleur sells both varieties as separate courses: Brazilian in 5 levels (150 half-hour lessons) and European in 2 levels (60 lessons). You answer out loud in every lesson and words come back at spaced intervals. Pimsleur publishes no CEFR level; it says the Brazilian course takes you to “an intermediate level”.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A trip in two months, a long commute, or anyone headed for Portugal who wants to hear and speak European Portuguese from day one.
Best structured course
Babbel teaches Brazilian Portuguese only, with speakers from across Brazil, grammar explained inside the lessons and no ads. Its help centre takes the course “up to B1, with additional topics up to B2”, lower than its Spanish or French. It is the paid syllabus for Brazilian Portuguese; Busuu gives you a course to B2 free with ads.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B1 learners of Brazilian Portuguese who want grammar in order, no games and no ads, and will pay for it.
Best live tutors
Preply lists 2,519 Portuguese tutors and 711 on its Brazilian Portuguese page; there is no European Portuguese tutor page, so filter by country of birth for a tutor from Portugal. Below B1, pick a trained teacher who can explain in your language; from B1 on, a weekly lesson gives you a person who hears your Portuguese and corrects it.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone from A1 who needs a person to talk to, from the country whose Portuguese they are learning.
Best for reading real books
Lingo7 puts a translation in your own language under every sentence of a Portuguese book (49 languages), reads it aloud and drills saved words in 12 kinds of exercise. Of its 100 books, 97 are C1 by our estimate, so start below C1 with the Stories or an imported graded reader. It is our app, and it has no course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: C1 readers who want the classics of Portugal and Brazil with their own language under the text, A2 to B2 learners starting with the Stories, and anyone with their own EPUBs.
Best free Brazilian listening
Virginia Langhammer’s podcast, 200 episodes and still running in September 2026, and nearly 300 free YouTube videos with “over 12 million views”, all on the Portuguese Brazilians speak, words and pronunciation included. It is the free listening we would pair with Busuu or Duolingo from about A2.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 to B2 learners of Brazilian Portuguese who want free listening beside a course.
Best for phrases with native video
Memrise teaches “Portuguese from Portugal (PT) and Brazil (BR)” as separate official courses, each phrase drilled with clips of native speakers saying it. For a learner headed for Portugal it is one of the few cheap ways to hear European phrases from the first day. It teaches no grammar.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: The first few hundred phrases with real voices, European Portuguese especially, at the yearly price.
Best for reading with audio
LingQ keeps both varieties in one Portuguese library, with separate Mini Stories courses in Brazilian and European Portuguese, and turns any article, ebook or YouTube video into a lesson with audio. It is a reading and listening tool for either variety, and the free tier is a demo.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 and up in either variety, from the Mini Stories to whatever you import, with the budget for it.
Best free course with a library card
Mango teaches Brazilian Portuguese only, in lessons built on conversations, with 71 grammar articles and 158 practice and study resources beside them. Many US public libraries give it free with a library card, which makes it a second free course next to Busuu or Duolingo.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to A2 learners of Brazilian Portuguese with a US library card.
Best for video input
Portuguese subtitles and a translation into your language side by side on YouTube, with a dictionary on click; the subtitles and lookups cost nothing. It works on Brazilian and European videos alike, wherever there are subtitles. The Netflix side broke in June 2026 and in September works with known bugs.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up with a laptop, turning Portuguese YouTube into listening practice.
Busuu + Duolingo + Practice Portuguese
Decide on Brazil or Portugal first. For Brazilian Portuguese, pick one free course and do it every day: Busuu if you want a syllabus and a speaker correcting you, Duolingo if the game keeps you going, Mango if your library card covers it. For Portugal, Practice Portuguese is the course, with Pimsleur’s 2 European levels in the car and Memrise’s Portugal course for phrases; Pimsleur is also the paid choice for Brazilian if you want to speak before you read.
Speaking Brazilian + LingQ + Preply
Keep your course going to B1: Babbel stops there, Busuu goes on to B2 and Practice Portuguese to B1/B2. Listen every day (Speaking Brazilian for Brazil, the Portuguese Lab or Portuguese With Leo podcasts for Portugal), read LingQ’s Mini Stories in your variety, and book a Preply tutor from that country once a week. Start reading with Lingo7’s Stories at A2, then graded readers you import; its shelf of classics starts at C1 in practice, by our estimate.
Lingo7 + Language Reactor + Preply
Courses thin out here. Read your own books in Lingo7 and, from C1 by our estimate, the classics on its shelf, watch Portuguese YouTube with Language Reactor, move from learner podcasts to RTP Play or a Brazilian podcast for natives, and talk about all of it with your tutor. With a CIPLE, DIPLE or Celpe-Bras date, book a tutor who has taught that exam.
| App | Role | Levels | Coverage for Portuguese | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Best free daily course | A0 to B1 | Brazilian only, per 2026 reviews; B2 by Duolingo’s label; 1,031 units and 1,183 Stories by an unofficial tracker | Every lesson; Energy cap on a phone | US$13 to 17 a month, US$7 to 10 a month yearly |
| Busuu | Best free course with corrections | A1 to B2 | Brazilian only; 140+ lessons, about 64 hours; A1 to B2 on the course page and in the help centre | Whole course, with ads | US$10 to 15 a month, US$6 to 12 a month yearly |
| Practice Portuguese | Best European Portuguese course | A1 to B2 | European only, made in Lisbon; 100+ Units, A1/A2 to B1/B2 by the vendor; 950+ episodes, A1 to C1 | Podcasts and grammar notes | US$20 a month in the app; €15 a month on the web |
| Pimsleur | Best for speaking from lesson one | A0 to A2 | Brazilian (5 levels, 150 lessons) and European (2 levels, 60 lessons) as separate courses; no vendor CEFR claim | 7 day trial | About US$20 a month, or US$150 to 575 once |
| Babbel | Best structured course | A1 to B1 | Brazilian only; to B1 with extra topics to B2, by Babbel’s help centre | First lesson per course | About US$9 a month yearly |
| Preply | Best live tutors | A1 to C2 | 2,519 Portuguese tutors, 711 on the Brazilian page; no European page, filter by country of birth | None | US$3 to 40+ a lesson, subscription only |
| Lingo7 | Best for reading real books | A2 to C1 | 100 public domain books, by our estimate 3 at B2 and 97 at C1; Stories in two versions, adapted for A1 to A2 and original for B1 to B2; your own books in 7 formats (EPUB, PDF, FB2, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML); native audio in a Portugal or Brazil accent, the book in its author’s Portuguese; translation into 49 languages | First page of each book | US$5 a month, US$2.50 a month yearly |
| Speaking Brazilian | Best free Brazilian listening | A2 to B2 | Brazilian only; 200 podcast episodes and nearly 300 YouTube videos; A2 to B2 by our estimate | Podcast and videos | Free podcast and videos |
| Memrise | Best for phrases with native video | A0 to A2 | Portugal (PT) and Brazil (BR) as separate courses; native speaker video; no CEFR mapping | Limited, with ads | US$25 a month, US$5 a month yearly |
| LingQ | Best for reading with audio | A2 to C1 | Both varieties in one library; separate Brazilian and European Mini Stories | 20 saved words | US$15 a month, US$10 a month yearly |
| Mango Languages | Best free course with a library card | A0 to A2 | Brazilian only; specialty courses in tourism, romance and football; no level stated | Free through many US libraries | Free via many libraries; US$10 a month yearly |
| Language Reactor | Best for video input | B1 to C2 | Any Portuguese YouTube video with subtitles, either variety; Netflix working with known bugs in September 2026 | Most of it | US$6 a month, US$3.33 a month yearly |
Prices are US store or vendor prices as of September 2026, yearly plans shown as the monthly equivalent. The same app often costs less on its own site than in the App Store, and more in Europe than in the US.
Free on this site: public domain Portuguese books you can open in the app, and short Portuguese texts at A1, A2 and B1 with a translation.
We have no affiliate deals with any app named here, and none of the links pay us. Prices and coverage come from the vendor’s own help or pricing pages or its US store listing, checked in September 2026, and every other figure names its source in the text; the judgement calls lean on independent reviews, and on the one star reviews for the parts a landing page never shows, like what happens on renewal. Where a vendor’s pages contradict each other, the card says so.
Refund rules, the traps to avoid and the same apps compared by level for every language are on the best apps to learn a language page.
For a start, yes, and it is free: the Portuguese course runs to B2 by Duolingo’s own label, with 1,031 units and 1,183 short Stories by an unofficial count. On its own it is not enough: it teaches only Brazilian Portuguese, on a phone the free plan’s Energy runs out after about 2 to 3 lessons a day, by a third-party count (the web version runs on hearts), and a March 2026 review, before the B2 extension, put finishers at “maybe A2 level, possibly B1”. Add listening (Speaking Brazilian, or Practice Portuguese’s free Shorties for Portugal) and a person to talk to once you can put a few sentences together.
Either works: learn the Portuguese of the place you are heading to, and learn to understand the other. Brazil has about 213 million people (IBGE, July 2025) and Portugal about 11.4 million (INE, end of 2025), and Babbel’s help centre calls the two “mutually intelligible”. Nearly every big app is Brazilian: Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Mango and Rosetta Stone. For European Portuguese, use Practice Portuguese, Pimsleur’s Portuguese (European) in 2 levels, Memrise’s Portugal course, LingQ’s European Mini Stories, the free Portuguese Lab and Portuguese With Leo podcasts, and a Preply or italki tutor born in Portugal. The Portuguese of Africa and Asia generally follows the European written standard.
None of them is an exam course, so start with the exam bodies. The CIPLE, from the University of Lisbon’s CAPLE, is the A2 exam Portugal asks for nationality, and Portuguese universities ask for the DIPLE (B2). CAPLE holds sessions in May, July and November, with 4 US centres (Boston, Berkeley, Washington DC and Newark); in Washington, registration for November closes on 20 October 2026. Practice Portuguese has listening quizzes aimed at the CIPLE. Brazil’s Celpe-Bras costs a suggested US$190 abroad, with tests abroad from 24 to 27 November 2026. Beyond that, book a tutor who has taught the exam.
Reading grows your vocabulary, and Spanish speakers start ahead, but reading alone will not teach you to follow speech: European Portuguese in particular drops vowels the spelling still shows. Read with audio. Lingo7, our app, puts a translation under each sentence of a Portuguese book, reads it aloud in a Portugal or a Brazil accent, as you choose, and drills the words you save in 12 kinds of exercise, for US$5 a month or US$30 a year. Its Portuguese shelf starts at C1 in practice, by our estimate (97 of its 100 books), so begin with its Stories or a graded reader such as Lidel’s Ler Português, and move to Machado de Assis’ Dom Casmurro at C1 by our estimate.
For Brazilian Portuguese, Busuu: its free plan gives you the whole Complete Portuguese course, A1 to B2, with ads, and Portuguese speakers correct your answers. Duolingo is free too, with Energy capping study on a phone, and Mango is free with many US library cards. For European Portuguese we found no free full course we could confirm: use Practice Portuguese’s free podcast and Shorties, the Portuguese Lab and Portuguese With Leo podcasts and Memrise’s free lessons. Add Speaking Brazilian for listening. For a tutor you pay: Preply from US$3 a lesson on a subscription, or italki pay as you go.
Easier to read than to follow by ear. In a 1989 study in the journal Hispania, college students understood the other language at 50% to 60%, and Portuguese speakers understood Spanish better than Spanish speakers understood Portuguese; the gap is mostly pronunciation, from nasal vowels such as ão to the vowels that nearly disappear in Portugal. Duolingo has a full Portuguese course for Spanish speakers, B2 with 1,031 units by an unofficial tracker, and the University of Texas’ free Tá Falado, 46 podcast lessons from 2007, was made for Spanish speakers learning Brazilian Portuguese. Train your ear from the first week.
Read your first page free, in Portuguese.