Almost everything here is free
No card, no trial timer, and no hidden limits.
- Reading with the popup dictionary
- The browser extension, including YouTube
- Explore, difficulty levels, and coverage
- Decks and SRS review
- The 87-lesson introductory course
- Grammar points with examples
- Kanji lists, word lists, and word tracking
- Lookup history with the context where you found each word
- XP, levels, streaks, and the activity heatmap
- Export to Anki, CSV and JSON
Premium adds four optional AI features – and it’s also what keeps the servers running and lets me keep working on Lingaku.
Plans
Cancel anytime. Your access stays active until the end of your billing period. Lifetime plans cannot be cancelled.
Downgrading plans isn’t supported.
What Premium adds
Premium adds a few AI tools to help when you want to save some time.
Free vs Premium
| Capability | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Popup dictionary | ||
| Browser extension for web and YouTube | ||
| Explore feed, difficulty and coverage | ||
| Vocabulary tracking | ||
| Decks and SRS review | ||
| Introductory course, grammar, kanji | ||
| Progress, levels, streak, heatmap | ||
| Export to Anki, CSV, JSON | ||
| In-context definition | ||
| Sentence breakdown | ||
| Sentence translation | ||
| AI help when building decks |
What you’re actually paying for
There are really two things you’re paying for.
The first is the AI features. They cost me money every time they run, so Premium helps cover that directly.
The second is Lingaku itself. I started it at university as my bachelor’s thesis, then continued it as my master’s thesis, and I’ve been working on it ever since – about ten years now. There’s no company or outside funding behind it. Subscriptions pay for the servers and give me more time to keep building it.
If you find the free version useful and want Lingaku to still be around a few years from now, that’s the other reason to subscribe.
- You want to spend more time actually immersing in Japanese.
- You’d rather not piece your study setup together from several different apps.
- You’re learning Japanese for the long term.
- You’re mainly preparing for a specific exam or test date.
- You want most of your study material to be simplified or written specifically for learners.
- You’re looking for quick progress with as little reading as possible.
Trial and billing
- Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, with no credit card details required.
- After your first payment, you have 14 days to ask for a refund.
- You can cancel anytime. Premium stays active until the end of the period you’ve already paid for.
- Lifetime is a single payment – there’s nothing to renew.
- Plan downgrades aren’t supported at the moment.
Try Premium free for 7 days
Or keep using Lingaku for free – most of it is available without Premium.
Lingaku