“This game is for kids — This game like teaches you stuff and you need to do stuff to get energy like if you get the infinite one like you need to pay when the month ends, but you don’t need to pay for when the month when you start the…”
Independent automated assessment · 3 signal sources · 5,248 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-06.
4.7 ★5,490,834 ratings
—Downloads
4+Age rating
515 MBApp size
FreeIn-app purchases
About this app
Learn a new language, chess & more with the world's most downloaded education app! Duolingo is the fun, free app for learning 40+ languages through quick, bite-sized lessons. Practice speaking, reading, listening & writing to build your vocabulary & grammar skills.
Designed by learning experts & loved by hundreds of millions worldwide, our lessons make learning effective & fun and help you prepare for real conversations in Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian, German, English and more.
And now, you can learn CHESS on Duolingo! Whether you're a total beginner or looking to level up your game, you'll love learning chess the Duolingo way. Play matches and fun chess lessons for all levels, no matter the language - chess, ajedrez, xadrez, schach, Шахматы, الشطرنج.
• Chess: Learn the moves, level up your game & play matches in our Chess course.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 7.142.0 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 7.142.0, updated 2026-09-28.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
3 or more themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 9
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Users describe the free version as usable
Reviewers repeatedly say the free version is worth using on its own. Nothing we can measure corroborates that — a free listing with in-app purchases looks identical whether the free tier is generous or a demo — so this is published as what reviewers say, not as a measured credit.
What we saw: Reviewers describe the free version as usable: raised by 11 distinct reviewers (0.2% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Reports that the ads misrepresent the app
Reviewers repeatedly report that the app is not what its advertising showed. We never see the ad creative itself, so nothing we collect can corroborate or refute this — it is published as an attributed user report: what reviewers say, and how many of them said it.
What we saw: Misleading advertising: raised by 6 distinct reviewers (0.1% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Pay to progress
Advancement or competition is gated behind spending money rather than playing.
What we saw: Pay to progress: raised by 10 distinct reviewers (0.2% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Upgrade prompts use guilt-trip wording
Declining an upgrade is written as a loss ('No thanks, I don't want to improve'), or users report being repeatedly pushed to subscribe during normal use.
What we saw: Constant upsell pressure: raised by 9 distinct reviewers (0.2% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Reports of unexpected charges
A large number of reviewers report being charged when they did not expect it — including being charged after cancelling during a free trial, or when a trial turned into a paid plan without warning. We cannot see anyone's billing, so this is published as an attributed user report: what reviewers say, and how many of them said it.
What we saw: Surprise charges: raised by 28 distinct reviewers (0.5% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Aggressive ad load: raised by 106 distinct reviewers (2.0% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Paywall blocks the basics
The core of the app — not extras — sits behind payment, or previously-free function moved behind a paywall.
What we saw: Paywall blocks the basics: raised by 13 distinct reviewers (0.2% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Trial converts to a charge
The free trial demands a payment method up front and/or rolls into a paid subscription with no usable warning.
What we saw: Trial converts to a charge: raised by 16 distinct reviewers (0.3% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Progress pauses until you wait or pay
Use is rationed by an energy/hearts/lives meter that runs out and forces a wait or a purchase.
What we saw: Energy / timer gating: raised by 94 distinct reviewers (1.8% of 5248 reviews scanned)
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“Dou is fun — Do is fun but too pay to win but it teaches languages the best”
“They Stole My Money — The app kept pestering me to try their free trial for 7 days. Throughout the week they said they will let me know two days before the trial ends. They never let me know then went into my Apple Account and took out…”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 7.142.0.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Business modelFree
Prices and terms as disclosed by the store listing.