LingQ

LingQ is a language-learning web and mobile app made by LingQ Languages Ltd of West Vancouver, Canada, and co-founded by the polyglot Steve Kaufmann. It works on the idea of comprehensible input: you read and listen to material you like, tap words you do not know, and the app turns them into saved vocabulary to review later.

The vendor offers a library of lessons and a way to import your own content from books, podcasts, YouTube, Netflix, articles and other sources, including through browser extensions. It says it supports 53 languages and more than five million learners. Free, Premium and Premium Plus levels exist. The app suits learners who want to pick their own material rather than follow a fixed course, and it has separate pages for schools, businesses and libraries.

• Lesson library. The site lists thousands of ready-made lessons by topic, such as entertainment, culture, news, lifestyle, science, food and sports, each with audio and a transcript. Learners can follow a library lesson or ignore it and bring their own text.
• Importing your own content. Any digital text can become a lesson, and a LingQ Importer extension exists for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge. The vendor says material from Netflix, YouTube, Spotify and similar services can be turned into transcripts, translations and audio.
• Saving words in context. While reading, you highlight unknown words and phrases and save them. The app tracks them as vocabulary and brings them back through flashcard quizzes and spaced repetition, so each word is reviewed in the sentence where you met it.
• Statistics and challenges. A statistics page shows how many words you know and how much you studied. The vendor offers language challenges to keep a streak, and quotes an hour a day as enough to move up a proficiency level in about 90 days.
• Lynx AI chat. Lynx is the vendor's conversational assistant, and Premium Plus lists an advanced version of it. The privacy policy says Lynx conversations may be kept to personalise later sessions, so it matters if you type sensitive content.
• AI voices and simplified lessons. Premium Plus adds AI voices, six-times audio transcription and AI Simplified Lessons, which rewrite harder texts at an easier level. The comparison table also lists automatically generated audio for imported lessons as a Premium feature.
• Teacher portal. The schools page describes a portal where teachers track student progress, upload lessons and open forum discussions. Students get the same reading, listening and spaced-repetition tools, and writing corrections are said to be free.

• A self-taught learner of Spanish. Imports a favourite podcast and its transcript, reads while listening, and saves unknown words. Reviews them in flashcards on the phone while commuting, using the statistics page to see growth in known words.
• A secondary-school teacher. Sets a directed programme for a class, assigns lessons from the library and uploads extra texts. Reads progress in the teacher portal and runs a private classroom forum for questions.
• A traveller learning several languages at once. Uses one Premium account across many languages, as the vendor says the membership covers all of them, and imports a news article in each. Switches between languages without paying per course.

Sign up free through the website or the iOS and Android apps, choose a language and your level, and start with a library lesson. You can import a web page, YouTube video or text file, then click words you do not understand to save them. Installing the browser extension makes importing a one-click step.

The vendor says LingQ adapts to your skill level from day one, and that even 10 minutes a day is useful. One user quoted on the home page suggests spending an hour learning playlists and imports first. A membership can be upgraded, downgraded or cancelled at any time according to the signup page.

LingQ is run by a small Vancouver-area company and built on reading and listening to material you choose, which suits self-directed learners who already know why they study.

The vendor states no set-up fees, no long-term contracts and no cancellation fees. Upfront billing for the chosen term is the cost to watch, and AI voices and simplified lessons sit in the dearer Premium Plus tier.

The language learning apps list places LingQ 2 of 17: Rocket Languages sits directly above it and Lingoda directly below. Top-three spots are set aside for challengers, and LingQ holds one of them; read it as a position, not a grade.

By headquarters, 6 of the 17 are established in North America, as LingQ is in Canada.

Charging model: Free plan with limits; Premium and Premium Plus published for 1, 12 and 24 months.

The signup page lists prices in euros. Premium costs €14.99 for one month, €10.00 per month when billed as €119.99 for 12 months, and €8.99 per month when billed as €215.76 for 24 months. Premium Plus costs €26.99 for one month, or €20.00 per month billed as €239.99 for 12 months. Plus adds six-times audio transcription, AI voices, advanced Lynx chat and AI simplified lessons. The vendor says fees are charged upfront for the chosen term and recur until cancelled, with no set-up fees, long-term contracts or cancellation fees. A free plan limits saved words and imports. The pricing link in the menu leads to the signup page.

Where this comes from: the vendor pages at lingq.com, checked for Best Language Learning Apps in 2026 on 7 November 2026.

LingQ turns content you import, such as articles, podcasts, YouTube videos or books, into lessons where you save words as you meet them.

Premium lifts the limits on saved words and imported lessons, and Premium Plus adds transcription and AI features.

The privacy policy, effective 25 May 2018, says the services are operated from the United States and that data from other countries is transferred and stored there. For EU residents it names The Linguist Institute as controller. Card details are handled by PCI-compliant payment providers and are not stored by LingQ. Account deletion is available on request and cannot be undone. No certifications are stated.

Integrations the vendor names (10):

• Chrome extension
• Firefox extension
• Safari extension
• Edge extension
• iOS app
• Android app
• Netflix import
• YouTube import
• Spotify import
• Apple TV import

5 products in this guide come closest to LingQ on tags, pricing and region.

• Rocket Languages (#1 of 17): Buy a course once and keep it, with a long refund window. Suits: Self-paced learners who want to buy one language outright and keep it. (New Zealand)
• Busuu (#4 of 17): Course app with community corrections and CEFR-based certificates. Best for: Beginners who want a structured course plus corrections from native speakers.
• Memrise (#5 of 17): Vocabulary-first app with native-speaker video clips.
• Duolingo (#12 of 17): Gamified free courses funded by ads and paid tiers. Suits: Casual beginners who want a free daily habit across many subjects.
• Drops (#13 of 17): Language app whose paid tier adds offline learning and unlimited learning time. Suits: Learners who want to try a free version, then pay once for lifetime access.

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 5 November 2026.

• lingq.com/en/signup: membership prices, plan differences, billing terms
• lingq.com/en: method, language count, importer extension, FAQ
• lingq.com/en/schools: teacher portal and classroom features
• lingq.com/en/privacy: data location, controller, retention, deletion, Lynx
• lingq.com/en/about: company and founders

We test for four things rather than for features: setup time, price in practice, exit and audience. On those tests LingQ lands at place 2 of 17. The editorial process sets out how facts are gathered and how commercial links are handled.