The Best Websites to Learn Japanese in 2026: Free and Paid (An Honest Guide)

The best website to learn Japanese depends on the job

The best websites to learn Japanese are Tofugu for kana, Jisho for words, WaniKani or Anki for kanji, Bunpro or the Japan Foundation's free Marugoto course for grammar, and NHK News Web Easy for reading. No single site does every job, so most learners combine a few, one per job.

For most beginners, that looks like this:

• Kana: Tofugu's guides, or our free Kana program.
• Dictionary: Jisho.
• Words and kanji: Anki, jpdb, WaniKani or Renshuu.
• Grammar: Bunpro's free pages, Tae Kim's guide, or the Japan Foundation's Marugoto and Irodori.
• Reading and listening: NHK News Web Easy, Tadoku, JapanesePod101.

All of them have something useful for free.

How we checked. Every price below comes from the site's own pricing page or its US App Store listing, checked in October 2026. US prices are in dollars, and some sites add tax or VAT at checkout (WaniKani says so on its pricing page). Our own prices are in euros. Prices change, so check before you buy.

Why one site isn't enough. A grammar guide explains the rules but doesn't drill you. A flashcard tool drills you but doesn't explain grammar. A dictionary answers questions but doesn't plan your week. So most study plans combine a few tools, one per job.

Quick picks: the best Japanese learning websites by job

"Free" here means free to use for good, not a trial.

Many of these sites have Japanese names. Here is what the words mean in the dictionary: Jisho, Renshuu, Tadoku, Satori Reader, Minato, Marugoto and Irodori, in that order.

The Irodori course writes its name in hiragana, いろどり. Minato's own site says its name means "port", written with the kanji 港.

Best websites to learn hiragana and katakana

Start here. Japanese is written with two kana scripts (仮名 (かな, kana)) plus kanji. ひらがな (hiragana) is used mostly for native Japanese words and grammar endings, and カタカナ (katakana) mostly for loanwords. The two scripts share the same sounds: か and カ are both ka. Until you can read both, every other tool on this page is harder to use. Our hiragana chart and katakana chart show all of them, and our guide How to Memorize Hiragana and Katakana covers the methods.

Tofugu's Learn Hiragana and Learn Katakana

Free guides that teach each kana with a picture mnemonic: a small story that links the shape to the sound. They come with printable worksheets and a free online Kana Quiz. Tofugu advises learning to read first and leaving writing for later, because writing "doubles or triples how long it takes to learn hiragana".

Best at: making the shapes stick fast. Weak spot: the guide teaches, and the drilling happens in a separate quiz.

KanaDojo

A free, open-source site (AGPL-3.0) for kana, kanji and vocabulary. It has four practice modes and over 100 colour themes. It describes itself as inspired by Duolingo and Monkeytype.

Best at: quick, good-looking drills you can customise. Weak spot: it's built for drilling. For the story behind each shape, pair it with a guide.

KanaMastery's Kana program

All 208 kana are free for good, and so is the whole Kana program. Every kana has a recording. You answer by typing romaji (it turns into kana as you type) or by choosing from four answers, so you don't need a Japanese keyboard. Smart Review brings back the kana you're about to forget, up to 20 a day on a free account.

Best at: steady practice with sound, and a path that carries on past kana. Weak spot: there are no mnemonic pictures, and the audio is text-to-speech, not a native speaker.

Verdict: any of these will get you reading kana. Tofugu itself says reading hiragana takes "a couple days. A week, tops" with its method. Pick the one you'll open every day, and use another for a second opinion if a kana won't stick.

Best websites for kanji and vocabulary (spaced repetition)

After kana come 漢字 (かんじ, kanji) and 単語 (たんご, tango, “word”): thousands of them. Many learners use a spaced-repetition system (SRS) for this. It shows you a word again just before you'd forget it, so reviews get further apart as you learn. Our guide How Many New Japanese Words Should You Learn a Day? explains how to pace it.

WaniKani

From the makers of Tofugu. It teaches about 2,000 kanji and 6,000 words in a fixed order: radicals (the parts of kanji) first, then kanji, then words that use them. Each one comes with a hand-made mnemonic. Levels 1 to 3 are free (about 100 kanji and 200 words), and we found no time limit on them. After that it's $9 a month, $89 a year or $299 once.

Best at: kanji that stick, thanks to the mnemonics. Weak spots: it teaches in its own order, not by JLPT level (by its own count, level 10 covers nearly all the N5 kanji, and the free levels about 55%). It asks you to do your reviews "every day, without fail". And it teaches kanji and words only, no grammar.

Anki

The classic free flashcard program. It's free on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android (AnkiDroid). The official iPhone app, AnkiMobile, costs $24.99 once, and that money funds Anki's development.

Best at: total control, for free. Weak spot: Anki is an empty box. You choose or build your own decks, and setting it up takes effort.

jpdb

A free site with a dictionary, its own SRS, a text reader, word lists for over 1,300 anime and more than 21,000 ready-made decks. It can import from Anki. Its Patreon page says the website "is, and will continue to be, free to use", with a few minor extras for patrons from €4.50 a month. There's no app, but its FAQ says you can add the site to your phone's home screen.

Best at: learning the words of a show before you watch it. Weak spot: it's built for vocabulary, not for explaining grammar.

Renshuu

A big all-in-one site and app for vocabulary, kanji, grammar and games. Its App Store page says: "The free version is unlimited: there's no timer before you are forced to pay!" Pro is optional. On the App Store it costs $3.99 to $6.99 a month, $49.99 to $59.99 a year, or $109.99 to $129.99 for life, depending on the plan.

Best at: the most generous free plan of any all-in-one site. Weak spot: it does a lot, so some learners find it busy at first.

Kanshudo

A kanji-focused site with lessons, readings, flashcards and games. Free accounts and guests get limited searches and lessons. Pro is $9 a month or $90 a year, with paid add-ons on top.

KanaMastery for JLPT words and kanji

We have 7,579 words from the common (unofficial) JLPT lists and 2,217 kanji from N5 to N1, each with a recording, and each kanji with its stroke order on our kanji pages. Free accounts get the first 7 chapters of JLPT N5 (100 words and 20 kanji), plus the first chapter and placement test of every program. Smart Review gives you 20 reviews a day for free, and up to 100 for members.

Best at: words and kanji in JLPT order, with sound, in short scored sessions. Weak spot: no mnemonics. If you want a story for every kanji, WaniKani does that better.

Verdict: pick one SRS and stay with it. Running two at once can mean two piles of reviews for the same words.

Best websites for Japanese grammar

Grammar in Japanese is 文法 (ぶんぽう, bunpō), written 文法. It's where a guide that explains things matters most.

Bunpro

Grammar sorted by JLPT level, from N5 to N1. Every grammar, vocabulary and reading page is free to read for good. The SRS reviews and decks need Premium: $5 a month or $150 once on the website. On the iPhone app it's $6.49 a month, $64.99 a year or $194.99 for life. Every new account gets a 30-day Premium trial with no card.

Best at: grammar in JLPT order, explained in plain pages you can read for free. Weak spot: the reviews are paid, and the iPhone app costs more than the website.

IMABI

A free online textbook with over 450 lessons, from absolute beginner to advanced, plus classical Japanese and Okinawan. It's very thorough. Its author says he is not a native speaker but has spoken Japanese for 20 years, and native speakers help to proofread the lessons.

Best at: depth. Weak spot: it can feel dense for a complete beginner, and it's being rewritten, so some lessons are newer than others.

Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar

A classic free grammar guide for beginners. It's written like a textbook, so each lesson builds on the one before. Tofugu's review calls it "fairly complete" and says it explains grammar "in a way anyone can understand". We couldn't open Tae Kim's own site when we checked, so this entry relies on that review.

Best at: a quick, free first pass through beginner grammar. Weak spot: Tofugu notes its explanations are often simple one-to-one translations, so you may want a second source for depth.

Marugoto, Irodori and Minato (the Japan Foundation)

The Japan Foundation gives away two full courses:

• Marugoto teaches Japanese language and culture from Starter (A1) to Intermediate (B1). Since April 2020, every page of its coursebooks is free to read online, and the site has audio to download.
• Irodori: Japanese for Life in Japan runs from Starter to Pre-Intermediate, with free PDFs and MP3 audio. It's built around everyday life in Japan.

Both also have online courses on Minato, the Japan Foundation's learning site. Most Minato courses are free; a few are charged.

Best at: a complete, free, structured course. Weak spot: these are textbooks and courses. You still need something to drill words.

MaruMori

A paid course that mixes grammar (N5 to N1, with N2 "nearly complete" on its homepage), 2,000 kanji and 8,000 words in one "adventure". It's $8.99 a month, $83.88 a year or $349.99 once, with a 14-day trial, on the web and in apps for iPhone and Android.

Best at: one structured path for grammar, kanji and words. Weak spot: we found no free plan on its homepage, and its lifetime price is the highest on this page.

Where KanaMastery fits for grammar

We drill grammar but we don't explain it. Members get drills for particles, verb and adjective forms, keigo and N5 sentences. Learn the rule at Bunpro, IMABI or Marugoto, then practise it with us. Our guide to the Japanese te-form shows how one rule turns into practice.

Best websites for reading Japanese

Reading lots of easy text is called 多読 (たどく, tadoku). Most beginner reading sites lean on ふりがな (furigana, “furigana”): small kana above or beside kanji that show how to read them.

NHK News Web Easy (NHKやさしいことばニュース)

NHK writes news in "Japanese that is as easy as possible", for foreign residents of Japan and for children. In Japan this style is called やさしい日本語 (やさしいにほんご, yasashii nihongo, “easy Japanese (that is easily understood by non-native speakers, children, etc.)”). The site's Japanese name is NHKやさしいことばニュース, but its page title also says NEWS WEB EASY, the name many learners still search for. It's free and now lives at news.web.nhk. You may be asked to accept its terms before you can read.

Best at: short, real news at a beginner's level. Weak spot: the topics are news, so the words are news words.

Tadoku

Free graded readers: short books written for learners, sorted from Level Start up to Level 5. Many have furigana and a recording. You can read them as PDFs, print them, or watch them on YouTube. They're supervised by a non-profit, NPO Tadoku Supporters.

Best at: your first whole stories in Japanese. Weak spot: the free books stop at Level 5, so in time you'll move on to other reading.

Satori Reader

Over 1,650 story episodes with voice-actor audio, grammar notes inside the text, and a switch to show kanji, kana or furigana. It's aimed at intermediate learners. The free plan gives selected episodes and never expires. Pro is $9 a month or $89 a year, and includes the course Human Japanese.

Best at: the bridge from textbooks to real Japanese. Weak spot: not for your first week.

Yomitan

A free, open-source (GPL-3.0) browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. It's a pop-up dictionary: it shows the meaning of Japanese words on any web page, and it can send words to Anki. It took over from Yomichan, which stopped in February 2023.

Best at: turning any Japanese web page into reading practice.

KanaMastery for reading

We're not a reading site. Members get N5 sentences and dictation, not stories or news. Read with the sites above.

Best websites for Japanese listening and speaking

On the JLPT, the listening section is called 聴解 (ちょうかい, chōkai, “listening comprehension”). You can't pass it, or follow a conversation, without hearing a lot of Japanese.

JapanesePod101

Audio and video lessons. A free account gives you the first 3 lessons of every pathway, a 50+ lesson survival phrases course, more than 100 word lists and a 7-day Premium trial. Paid plans are Basic $4, Premium $10 and Premium PLUS $23 a month, but those prices are for a 24-month subscription. There's a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Best at: lots of listening. Weak spot: the low monthly prices need a two-year commitment.

NHK WORLD-JAPAN's Easy Japanese

A free beginner course from NHK's international service: 48 short lessons that tell one story, in 18 languages, at level A1 to A2. The audio comes as MP3s and the textbook as a PDF, all free.

Free textbook audio

Irodori comes with free MP3s, and Marugoto has audio on its site. If you use either course, you already have plenty of listening practice.

italki for speaking

No website replaces talking to a person. italki lists over 1,200 Japanese tutors. Its page says most lessons cost $15 to $60 an hour, and you can book up to three cheaper trial lessons, one per tutor.

KanaMastery for listening

Every kana and word has a recording. Members also get listening drills, minimal pairs (words that differ by one sound) and dictation. All our audio is text-to-speech, not a native speaker; the minimal pairs were checked with speech-to-text and reviewed. We have no speaking practice and no tutors.

Best Japanese dictionary website: Jisho

Jisho's name is simply the Japanese word for dictionary, 辞書 (じしょ, jisho), written 辞書. It's free and works in any browser.

It's built on open data: JMdict (over 200,000 entries in the copy we use, with new releases every day), KANJIDIC2 for kanji, KanjiVG for stroke order and Tatoeba for example sentences, among others. You can search in English, romaji or Japanese, find a kanji by its parts (radicals), or draw it with your mouse or finger.

Our glossary is built from some of the same open data. It has every word we teach: the words on the common (unofficial) JLPT lists from N5 to N1, plus food, signs, loanwords, places and anime titles, each with its reading, meaning and a recording, free to read. Jisho is still the better general dictionary. It has nearly every word; ours has the words we teach, with sound.

Best websites for JLPT prep

The JLPT's Japanese name is 日本語能力試験 (にほんごのうりょくしけん, nihongo nōryoku shiken). About 1.9 million people applied worldwide in 2025, the most ever, according to the test's official site.

The official JLPT site

The JLPT publishes free sample questions for every level, N1 to N5, one for each type of question. It also gives away its Official Practice Workbooks online: test questions as PDFs, with MP3 listening audio, answers and scripts. The printed workbooks are sold by the publisher Bonjinsha.

Best at: knowing exactly what the test looks like. Do these before your exam, whatever else you use.

JLPT Sensei

Free grammar, kanji and vocabulary lists for N5 to N1, and free practice tests. Non-members see ads. Paid membership adds downloads (e-books, flashcards, study guides) and removes the ads.

Bunpro

Its grammar is sorted by JLPT level, so you can see what N5 or N4 asks for.

KanaMastery for the JLPT

Our programs follow the JLPT levels from N5 to N1, and a placement test lets you skip what you already know. N5 also has programs for numbers and time, verb forms, particles, sentences, listening and dictation. Weak spot: we drill the words, kanji and forms, but we don't sell mock exams. Do the official samples too.

To plan your N5 study, see How Long to Study for JLPT N5, the N5 passing score and how many kanji and words N5 needs.

All-in-one sites: Duolingo, Renshuu, MaruMori and others

Duolingo

Its App Store page says "Every course is free", and that includes Japanese. Since April 2026, Duolingo says its Japanese course teaches up to B2 on the CEFR scale of language levels. Since July 2025, free lessons use Energy: each lesson uses a little, it fully recharges in about a day, and you can refill it by watching ads or spending gems. Super Duolingo is optional, with several options on the App Store from $9.99.

Best at: a daily habit, for free. Weak spot: it's built around the CEFR, not the JLPT. Pair it with a dictionary and a grammar guide. We look at this in Is Duolingo Enough for JLPT N5?

Renshuu, MaruMori and JapanesePod101

• Renshuu has the most generous free plan of any all-in-one here (see above).
• MaruMori has the most structured paid path (see above).
• JapanesePod101 is strongest on listening (see above).

No all-in-one is the best at every job, so it still pays to add a dictionary and something to read.

Where KanaMastery fits (and where it doesn't)

KanaMastery is a website for practising Japanese. Think of it as a gym, not a course: short, scored sessions from kana to N1, with Smart Review bringing things back before you forget them. It works alongside a course or textbook. It's a website only: there is no phone app yet, though the site works in a phone's browser.

What's free for good

• All 208 kana, the kana words and 83 loanwords, and the whole Kana program.
• Every Japan quiz: the 47 prefectures in kanji, countries, food and menus, signs and loanwords. No account needed.
• Every quiz made by the community, and up to 3 quizzes of your own.
• The first chapter and placement test of every program, and the first 7 chapters of JLPT N5 (100 words and 20 kanji).
• Smart Review, up to 20 reviews a day.
• The daily challenge (ten items, the same for everyone; kana and N5 are free) and the leagues.

Trial and price

Every new account gets 14 days of everything, with no card. After that, KanaMember is €5.99 a month, €44.99 a year or €149 once, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Students get 25% off the monthly or yearly plan for a year, after a quick check (see our student discount). Members get all 14 programs from N5 to N1, every drill (verb forms, particles, keigo, listening, dictation) and up to 100 reviews a day.

Where we're different

• Sound on everything. Every kana, word and kanji we teach has a recording.
• One plan, kana to N1. If you'd otherwise pay for WaniKani for kanji and Bunpro for grammar reviews, our one membership covers words, kanji and drills from kana to N1 (though it doesn't explain grammar).
• No energy meter. We don't ration practice with energy or hearts; the only daily cap is on Smart Review.
• A game. A daily challenge, weekly leagues, and quizzes anyone can build and share.
• Cited data. Words, readings and kanji come from open dictionaries (JMdict, KANJIDIC2, KanjiVG), credited on our attributions page.

Where we're not the best choice

How to learn Japanese online for free: a step-by-step setup

You can learn Japanese online for free with these steps. Every tool here has a free version.

1. Week one to a month: kana. Learn hiragana and katakana with Tofugu's guide or our free Kana program. Bookmark Jisho. See How Long Does It Take to Learn Hiragana and Katakana?
2. The N5 stage: three tools. One grammar source (Bunpro's free pages, Marugoto or Irodori), one SRS for words and kanji (Anki, jpdb, WaniKani's free levels, or our free N5 chapters and Smart Review), and a little listening each day (JapanesePod101's free lessons, or the Irodori audio).
3. After N5: read and listen. Add easy reading (NHK News Web Easy, Tadoku), Yomitan for quick lookups, Satori Reader once stories feel comfortable, and a tutor when you want to speak.

A few rules of thumb:

• One tool per job.
• Don't pay for two SRS tools at once.
• Try the free version or the trial before you subscribe.

That setup can cost nothing. For the bigger picture, see How to Learn Japanese: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. Whatever tools you pick, keeping at it matters most. A Japanese proverb says it well: 継続は力なり (けいぞくはちからなり, keizokuhachikaranari, “perseverance makes one stronger”).

Questions about the best websites to learn Japanese

What is the best free website to learn Japanese?

For a complete free course, the best picks are the Japan Foundation's Marugoto and Irodori; for words, Jisho and Anki; for kana, Tofugu. No single free site covers every job, so combine a few.

Where can I learn Japanese online for free?

Jisho, Tofugu's kana guides, the Japan Foundation's Marugoto, Irodori and Minato courses, Bunpro's grammar pages, Tae Kim's guide, Anki, jpdb, Renshuu's free version, NHK's Easy Japanese course, NHK News Web Easy and Tadoku are all free. KanaMastery's kana, Japan quizzes and first N5 chapters are free too.

What is the best way to learn Japanese online?

Learn kana first, then combine a grammar guide, an SRS for words and kanji, and a little reading and listening every day. One tool per job works better than one tool for everything.

What's better than Duolingo for Japanese?

For the JLPT, a tool organised by JLPT level (Bunpro, Renshuu, MaruMori or KanaMastery) plus a grammar guide is a better fit. Duolingo is still fine as a free daily habit.

Is Duolingo actually good for Japanese?

It's free and now teaches up to B2 on the CEFR scale, but it's built around the CEFR, not the JLPT. Free lessons use Energy, so pair it with Jisho and a grammar guide.

Is WaniKani worth it?

WaniKani is worth it if you want a memory story for every kanji and will review every day. Try its free levels 1 to 3 first: by WaniKani's own count they cover about 55% of the N5 kanji, and we found no time limit on them.

Is JapanesePod101 really free?

Partly. A free account gives you the first 3 lessons of every pathway, a survival phrases course and word lists; the rest needs a paid plan from $4 a month on a 24-month term.

Is KanaMastery free?

Partly, and the free part has no time limit. All kana, every Japan quiz, the first N5 chapters, 20 reviews a day, the daily challenge and the leagues are free, and every new account gets 14 days of everything with no card.

Is there a KanaMastery app?

Not yet. KanaMastery is a website, and it works in your phone's browser.

Sources

Prices checked in October 2026 on each site's own page or US App Store listing. They change, so check before you buy.

• Japanese words: JMdict (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0).
• Tofugu: Learn Hiragana, Learn Katakana.
• KanaDojo: GitHub, kanadojo.com.
• WaniKani: pricing, the free levels, how WaniKani works, homepage.
• Anki: apps.ankiweb.net, AnkiMobile on the App Store.
• jpdb: jpdb.io, FAQ, Patreon.
• Renshuu: renshuu.org, App Store.
• Kanshudo: Pro.
• Bunpro: pricing, grammar library, App Store.
• IMABI: imabi.org.
• Tae Kim's guide: Tofugu's review (the guide's own site, guidetojapanese.org, couldn't be reached when we checked).
• NHK WORLD-JAPAN's Easy Japanese: Zoom Japan.
• The Japan Foundation: Marugoto, Marugoto news (free to view, April 2020), Irodori, Minato.
• MaruMori: marumori.io.
• NHK: NHKやさしいことばニュース, about.
• Tadoku: free books.
• Satori Reader: homepage, pricing.
• Yomitan: GitHub.
• JapanesePod101: pricing.
• italki: Japanese tutors.
• Jisho: about, jisho.org.
• JLPT: sample questions, Official Practice Workbooks, statistics.
• JLPT Sensei: jlptsensei.com.
• Duolingo: App Store, Energy (3 July 2025), advanced courses (22 April 2026).
• KanaMastery: our own pricing, student discount and attributions.
• Reviewed by two independent reviews; a few points are waiting for a check by our team before publishing.