Laoshi is a complete app for learning Mandarin Chinese: smart flashcards built for characters, tones and grammar, with real handwriting practice, pronunciation scored for sound and tone separately, and ready-made decks for every major Chinese textbook.
Join 300,000+ learners who use Laoshi to build vocabulary, master grammar, prepare for the HSK exam and make progress every day.
Laoshi is a Red Dot Design Award 2021 winner and a HICOOL 2025 winner.
Chinese works differently. Understanding a character isn't enough — you have to memorise it and write it by hand, and it fades fast. That's why spaced repetition sits at the core of Laoshi: it brings a word back exactly when it starts slipping, and locks it in through writing. Tones need pronunciation training, grammar needs clear explanations. Laoshi brings all of it together in one focused app.
Why learners choose Laoshi:
• Real handwriting practice — Don't just read Chinese. Write it. Write characters with correct stroke order on your phone and strengthen recognition through active recall.
• Pronunciation and tone scoring, character by character — Say a whole sentence and every character comes back with two scores: one for pronunciation, one for the tone. The slip is named in words — a syllable you dropped, a tone that shifts before the next word. Listen to the reference, then play back your own take.
• Textbook decks, chapter by chapter — 4,300+ ready-made word lists covering 66 Chinese textbook series, including Standard Course HSK, Integrated Chinese, Developing Chinese, Boya Chinese, New Practical Chinese Textbook and Road to Success. Open your book, pick your chapter, start learning.
• HSK 2.0 and HSK 3.0 coverage — Vocabulary and grammar aligned with both official exam standards, including the advanced 7–9 band.
• Flashcards built for Chinese — Tones, pinyin, meanings, example sentences and character writing in one learning flow.
• Complete Chinese grammar section — 756 grammar points with clear explanations and practical examples, from beginner to advanced.
• Spaced repetition system (SRS) — Scientifically optimised review intervals help you retain vocabulary up to 3x longer.
• 30,000+ word lists and thematic decks — HSK lists, textbook decks and topic-based vocabulary, including preparation for the CSCA, China's standardised admission exam for international students.
• Import and create decks — Bring lists from Anki, Quizlet or Pleco, or create and share your own.
• Stroke order worksheets — Print any deck as a handwriting worksheet in one click.
• Progress tracking — Monitor your HSK level, daily goals and long-term growth.
Whether you are preparing for the HSK exam, applying to study in China, or simply learning Chinese for yourself, Laoshi gives you structure, clarity and tools that make vocabulary, characters and grammar stick.
What learners say in the App Store:
"I find Chinese challenging and fascinating at the same time... The structure of presenting knowledge and the method applied are just great. If you're serious about learning, look no further than Laoshi." - Playfull Orca
"Well designed and structured, helping students to build a solid foundation for later on write and speak Mandarin correctly... You can also practice pronunciation, which is a plus!" - estafada por rtve
"I always struggled with learning how to write Chinese characters, this app helps so good, and u learn pronunciation and tones as well. I love the word lists by topic." - lisu-ka
Start learning Chinese today — try your first 10 words now.
To access all features of Laoshi, you will need to start a subscription after the free trial period.
Questions or ideas? Email us at app@laoshi.io
I’m a languages app junkie and have recently discovered an AWESOME app to learn and study Mandarin and purchased the Lifetime subscription 😍What I enjoy of this app is that is well designed and structured, helping students to build a solid foundation for later on write and speak Mandarin correctly.This app also allows to practice strokes in order to memorize and learn Chinese characters.There’s as well a section for studying grammar in an easy way by grasping what I would like to called “grammar chunks.”You can also practice pronunciation, which is a plus!Please, give a try! You won’t regret 🙌🏻BTW, they have one of the BEST customer service EVER! Thank you Laoshi team!🙏🏻🙌🏻❤️🫶🏻🤗Leah
Developer Response
Thank you so much for your kind words and support, Leah! We’re thrilled to hear that Laoshi is helping you build a strong foundation for Mandarin, and that you’re enjoying the design, grammar, stroke practice, and pronunciation features. Your feedback means a lot to our team, and we’re so happy to have you with us on this journey. 🙏💛
Need additional features to be great!
Smelly Diapers
After using the app for several hours, here are the good. Nice flash cards. Has a library of premade vocabulary bank of words from various Chinese textbooks and APPs that can be downloaded. Has audio in flash card. This app would be 5 stars if the following changes are made: Night mode to make it easy on the eyes. Ability to expand text size in grammar section as some user have bad eyes. Last but most important to some users like me, the ability to review and go through the entire deck of flash cards without having to press whether I know it or not! That’s so annoying that it can’t be turned off. I want a feature that gives me the option for continuous learning (cram) without having to be interrupted with rescheduling words over and over again. Just let me review all the words in sequential order in a HSK chapter/lesson/deck from beginning to end for quick review. I understand there is a memorization method they are using to help me memorize it, but I want the option to turn that off. In addition, I would like them to minimize touch or swipe when advancing a card to avoid carpel tunnel injury to thumb and fingers. Just let me tap on the right side of the screen to advance forward or tap on the left side of the screen to go backwards. Of course, this feature should be available under cram mode. Please fix because I’m ready to purchase your app.
Developer Response
Thank you for sharing such deep and valuable thoughts. We will discuss them with our team and get back to you.If you have any other ideas or questions, please let us know at app@laoshi.io.Thank you very much! 🤗
Looks interesting but impossible to test
Xiao-Min-Min
The app looks interesting and convenient, but there’s no way to taste it without committing to a payment plan. I’ve never used an app that asks you right away to choose a subscription with ZERO option to explore the app first. Most apps like this I’ve used give the HSK 1 (2.0 version) deck for free with everything else behind a paywall which I think is a nice way to let people test the app first. I’m not committing to a subscription just to be able to even look at the app let alone test the basics. They just hope you’ll forget to cancel the trial and get charged, not to mention the trial is only 3 days which for an app like this is way too short. At least a week would be better.
Developer Response
Thank you for the thoughtful feedback.We understand this isn’t for everyone, but we’ve intentionally built Laoshi as a subscription product with a short trial rather than a freemium model. This allows us to focus on depth and quality of content without limiting core features.That said, we hear your point about wanting more time to explore before committing — it’s fair feedback and something we’re actively thinking about.If you’d like, feel free to reach out to us at app@laoshi.io — we can help you get a better look at the app.
Almost okay
JustAnotherCommentator
Potential to be great, except it took multiple attempts to complete some of the smaller strokes, as though it doesn’t recognize the input, and then marks it wrong, placing the character(s) in a near endless cycle of repeat (I can work around this with the checkmark to skip, but this shouldn’t happen in the first place).
Developer Response
We have released a new version.In the Settings (top right corner on flashcards) you can select "Stroke Matcher Mode". Sounds like the "strict" mode is what you want.We look forward to your feedback on app@laoshi.io.Thank you very much!
Small fixes, smoother practice.
• Flash cards: the pronunciation sound plays on the first tap.
• Stories: Pause picks up where you stopped, Restart plays from the beginning, and the pinyin is easier to read.
• Stories and tone cards move on as soon as the audio ends.
• Your HSK progress now counts every word you've learned.
• Copying a word into a list no longer adds it twice, and "Learn all" no longer repeats cards.
Thank you for every report you send. 学习进步!
Version 5.9.3
The developer, Laoshi Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
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