Best Chinese Graded Reader App 2026 Compared

Last updated: November 5, 2026

We make Dot Languages, one of the apps below. We've tried to compare it fairly and say where other apps are the better choice.

For most learners, the best graded Chinese reading app in 2026 is Du Chinese for absolute beginners, The Chairman's Bao for graded news, and Dot Languages as the complete solution from beginner to advanced; HelloChinese suits beginners who want a course with stories, DuShu and Pleco turn any text into a study text; Mandarin Companion is for finishing a printed novella.

How do the graded reading apps compare?

Which app combines a beginner course with a graded-story library? (HelloChinese)

What it is. A gamified beginner course first, and a graded-reading library second. The course is HelloChinese's strongest point, with structured lessons that teach pinyin, characters and grammar step by step. The graded story library is a more recent addition, with over 1,000 stories advertised with audio; one learner who read almost the whole library counted about 900 stories in 70 series, spanning roughly HSK 1 to HSK 5 (as of November 2026).

Who it's best for. Beginners who want a single app that teaches them Chinese from scratch, then hands them stories to read at their level.

Strengths. The beginner course itself, plus human-recorded audio per story, speech-recognition and handwriting practice. Along with Dot, it is the only app in this comparison that includes guided courses rather than just reading material.

Limits. The stories work, but they still feel like an addition compared to dedicated reading apps. The course reaches about HSK 4–5 and the stories top out around HSK 5, so intermediate readers will outgrow it. The graded stories sit behind Premium+, not the cheaper Premium plan, and story levels follow the newer HSK guidelines while parts of the older course track the previous syllabus.

Price. The US App Store listing (checked November 2026) shows Premium at $11.99/month or $69.99/year and Premium+ at $19.99/month or $149.99/year; the free tier covers the first few lessons and some stories.

Which app is the complete solution for graded reading? (Dot Languages)

What it is. We deliberately built our app so you would not need anything else. Dot combines a graded library of 12,000 dialogues and articles on real-world topics (as of November 2026), full word and grammar dictionaries with extensive examples, guided courses, and the ability to upload your own articles, texts or web content and study it with the same tools. The grading runs from absolute beginner to advanced across HSK 1–9 under the revised HSK 3.0 (2025) classification, with a selectable TOCFL 2.0 (2023) system covering all levels for Traditional-character learners in Taiwan. Every text has native narration, adjustable playback speed, and tap-any-word definitions.

Who it's best for. Learners who want one app for the whole journey. Almost every rival covers one slice of the problem: Du Chinese and The Chairman's Bao supply reading material but point you elsewhere for dictionary depth; Pleco and DuShu give you a dictionary and reader but no graded library or course; HelloChinese has a course but tops out around HSK 5. Dot is the only app here that combines a graded library from beginner to genuinely advanced levels, dictionary depth, guided courses, and your own imported material, so you never need to stitch a stack together, and intermediate and advanced readers never run out of road at HSK 6.

Strengths. Breadth no rival matches: 12,000 dialogues and articles with new ones added daily, level-aligned comprehension questions, spaced repetition on saved words, character-writing practice, guided courses (HelloChinese is the only other app here that includes them), and generated exercises from your own uploaded textbook material. Dialogues matter: news and fiction rarely drill the conversational patterns the HSK speaking sections need.

Limits. Dot is not a news service: for this week's headlines rewritten at HSK 3, The Chairman's Bao is the better buy. It is not a book: for a novella you can finish on paper, use Mandarin Companion. And while its built-in dictionaries are extensive, Pleco's OCR remains the specialist tool for text in the wild.

Price. Basic is free and includes 3,000 articles, basic exercises, dictionary lookup and progress tracking. Standard is $9.99/month or $6.99/month billed annually; Premium is $19.99/month or $12.99/month billed annually, adding speaking, image-matching, sentence and character-writing exercises. Family plans cover 2–5 accounts. Prices from our membership page, November 2026.

Which app is best for absolute beginners? (Du Chinese)

What it is. A reading-and-listening app built around short lessons where you tap to see definitions, pinyin, native audio and sentence translations. Its library runs six levels, Newbie to Master, roughly mapping onto HSK 1–6, though Du Chinese uses its own grading system and does not officially follow the HSK or TOCFL frameworks.

Who it's best for. Beginners and lower-intermediate learners who want a gentle daily ladder of very short texts with audio. One long-running review counted over 3,000 readings across the levels (as of November 2026).

Strengths. The smoothest reading interface in this group, human-recorded audio, and a genuinely gentle beginner ladder.

Limits. New lessons arrive at roughly five or six per week across all levels, so one level may only see four or five new lessons a month. There is nothing above the old HSK 6 ceiling, and its own store listings point you to Pleco for deeper dictionary lookups. It is a reading app, not a complete toolkit.

Price. Free Basic tier limited to free lessons, then $14.99/month, $79.99 for six months or $119.99/year per the subscribe page (checked November 2026).

Which app is best for graded news? (The Chairman's Bao)

What it is. A news-based graded reader on web, iOS and Android, with every article graded from HSK 1 to HSK 6+.

Who it's best for. Intermediate readers (roughly HSK 3–6) who want current-affairs content refreshed daily, and teachers, making it a strong classroom option here.

Strengths. Volume and freshness: one institutional partner page describes 1,600 lessons published a year and a library of over 6,500 (as of November 2026), each with a click dictionary, downloadable audio, and vocabulary and flashcard tools.

Limits. TCB labels its filter by HSK level but does not state which syllabus version each level follows, and nothing stretches you past HSK 6 in the new nine-level system. It is a single-genre news-only library, so for dialogues, fiction, courses or your own material you will need another app alongside it.

Price. The plans page lists $11/month, $88/year, $154 for two years and a lifetime plan risen from $385 to $450 (checked November 2026; promotional discounts appear regularly).

Which app is best for reading texts you already have? (DuShu)

What it is. Not a graded library, but instead a paste-anything reading tool. DuShu takes any Chinese text via copy-and-paste or file import (.txt, .html, .epub) and turns it into a study text: tap a word for its dictionary entry, toggle pinyin and tone colors, see a difficulty rating, and hear sentences read via text-to-speech. It also ships with thousands of sample sentences sorted by HSK level (checked November 2026), plus flashcards and exercises.

Who it's best for. Self-directed intermediate and advanced learners who already know what they want to read and want a no-nonsense tool to work through it.

Strengths. Total freedom of material, a useful difficulty rating on every imported text, and HSK labels on vocabulary. Reviewers consistently praise the one-time price where nearly every rival charges a subscription.

Limits. Almost no graded beginner content of its own, machine-generated audio, clipboard translations via Google Translate, a cap of around ten sentence translations a day for free users (as of November 2026), and no cloud sync. Dot also lets you upload your own articles, texts and web content, and adds a graded library and courses on top, though at subscription pricing rather than DuShu's one-off fee.

Price. Free to download with limits; a one-off $14.99 payment unlocks everything (checked November 2026).

Which dictionary app can I also read with? (Pleco)

What it is. The dictionary almost every Chinese learner ends up with: an integrated dictionary, document reader and flashcard system with handwriting input and live OCR. The free app includes CC-CEDICT with over 110,000 entries plus Pleco's own 125,000-entry dictionary (as of November 2026).

Who it's best for. Learners who want one reference tool that also handles reading; most document-reading functions belong to the paid Document Reader add-on, while the Clipboard Reader works free.

Strengths. Unmatched dictionary depth and OCR. Point it at menus, screenshots or pasted text and tap any word. Pleco also sells 17 Mandarin Companion graded readers in-app.

Limits. No graded library, no level structure, no learning path. It is a dictionary with a reader bolted on, not a course. Most learners end up pairing it with a reading app; Dot builds dictionary lookup directly into its library so that pairing is not required.

Price. Free core app; the Basic Bundle is US $29.99 and the Professional Bundle US $59.99 for one-off purchases, not subscriptions (checked November 2026).

Which option is best for finishing a whole book? (Mandarin Companion)

What it is. Book-length graded novellas at three levels: Breakthrough (150 core characters), Level 1 (300) and Level 2 (450). The system measures characters rather than HSK words, so there is no exact HSK conversion; a Breakthrough book runs to roughly 4,500 characters (as of November 2026).

Who it's best for. Learners who want the "I finished a whole book in Chinese" moment, which no app screen reproduces.

Strengths. Careful grading at book length: you meet roughly one new word per 40–50 characters read (as of November 2026), with footnoted definitions, in print and e-book.

Limits. The series stops at Level 2, and there is no full app with synced audio for every title.

Price. Priced per book; check the Mandarin Companion catalogue for current titles and prices.

How we compared

We checked each product's own pricing or store listing in November 2026: Du Chinese's subscribe page, The Chairman's Bao's plans page, HelloChinese's US App Store listing, DuShu's pricing as reported by independent reviews, Pleco's bundle pricing page, and Mandarin Companion's catalogue. Dot's figures come from our own membership page. Prices are in USD, exclude promotional codes, and change often. The linked pages are the authority when you buy. Level claims are reported as each publisher states them; where a publisher does not name an HSK syllabus version, we say so rather than guessing.

FAQ

What is the best all-in-one Chinese reading app? Dot Languages is the only app that combines a graded library from beginner to advanced (HSK 1–9 and all TOCFL levels), full word and grammar dictionaries, guided courses, and uploads of your own texts, so no separate dictionary or course app is needed. HelloChinese comes closest for beginners, pairing a course with graded stories, but its content tops out around HSK 5.

What is the best Chinese reading app for beginners? Dot's HSK 1 dialogues, Du Chinese's Newbie level and HelloChinese's course-plus-stories path are the easiest entry points, because all three give you very short texts with audio and tap-for-pinyin. Avoid news-based readers until roughly HSK 3. Beginner-level news is a small slice of The Chairman's Bao's archive.

Is there a free way to do graded Chinese reading? Yes, though limited. Dot's Basic tier is free and includes 3,000 articles. Du Chinese offers free lessons, The Chairman's Bao has sample lessons, and HelloChinese unlocks only its first few lessons and some stories for free. DuShu's core reader is free indefinitely with limits, and Pleco's free app includes its core dictionary and Clipboard Reader.

Which app has Chinese articles sorted by HSK level? Dot Languages (HSK 1–9 on HSK 3.0), The Chairman's Bao (Levels 1–6+), Du Chinese (six named levels roughly tracking HSK 1–6) and HelloChinese (story levels on the newer guidelines, roughly HSK 1–5). DuShu analyses the difficulty of any text you import but supplies no library. Only Dot publishes material above the old HSK 6 ceiling.

Do graded readers actually work, or should I read native material? Both, in proportion. Mandarin Companion cites research that learners need to encounter a word 10–30 times before truly learning it, and argues graded readers supply that repetition at your level. Native material is where you find out which words survived.