Best App to Learn Portuguese in 2026 (Brazilian or European, and Celpe-Bras)

The short answer: first decide which Portuguese you want, because apps pick a side. For Brazilian Portuguese with structured lessons, Babbel or Busuu. For European Portuguese, Practice Portuguese. For audio lessons in either variety, Pimsleur, and for videos of native speakers in either, Memrise. For a free daily habit, Duolingo. For listening to Portuguese in songs, stories and YouTube, with every word explained in your own language, Soma, which teaches Brazilian Portuguese. For flashcards you control, Anki. Most learners combine two: one for structure and one for listening.

Portuguese is spoken on four continents, and the two standards you will meet in apps, Brazilian and European, sound clearly different. This guide sorts nine apps, plus the official exams, by what you actually need.

How we compared them

We looked at each app's own pages and store listings in October 2026 and asked six questions:

1. What do you actually do in it? Lessons, audio, videos, songs, flashcards.
2. Which Portuguese does it teach? Brazilian, European or both.
3. Do you hear real Portuguese? Natural speech at natural speed, not single words.
4. Which language explains the Portuguese? Spanish speakers, for one, need a very different course from English speakers.
5. Does it bring words back before you forget them (spaced repetition)?
6. What does it cost? Free, a free tier, or a subscription after a trial.

We don't quote prices, because they change by country and month. Each app's own page has the current price.

Portuguese learning apps compared

Brazilian or European Portuguese?

Both are the same language, and their speakers understand each other, but a learner notices the difference in the first week.

• Sound. European Portuguese swallows its unstressed vowels, so words seem to lose syllables; Brazilian Portuguese keeps its vowels open, which many learners find easier to follow at first.
• "You". Brazilians mostly say você; in Portugal you will hear tu among friends.
• Grammar. "I am doing" is estou fazendo in Brazil and estou a fazer in Portugal. Brazilians also put pronouns before the verb, eu me entrego ("I surrender", from one of Soma's songs), where Portugal says eu entrego-me.
• Words. A bus is an ônibus in Brazil and an autocarro in Portugal; breakfast is café da manhã or pequeno-almoço.

Choose by where you will use it: Brazil, or Portugal and the countries that follow its standard. If you have no reason to prefer one, Brazilian has far more speakers, which is why Babbel recommends it to learners who aren't sure, and more of the apps here teach it.

• Brazilian: Babbel, Busuu, LingoDeer and Soma.
• European: Practice Portuguese, which teaches "strictly European Portuguese".
• Either: Pimsleur and Memrise offer both, so choose the right course when you start.

Best free app to learn Portuguese

Duolingo is free with ads and is good at one thing: making you open it every day. Its weakness is depth. Learners often finish a unit able to read sentences but not to follow a native speaker at full speed.

Busuu's Brazilian course is free to start, Babbel and Pimsleur each let you try a lesson free, and Memrise has a free plan with fewer lessons and ads. Practice Portuguese has no free trial, but it refunds you if you cancel within 30 days.

Soma is free for one language, with every song, story and picture in it. If Portuguese is your one language, you get all of the Portuguese. It runs in any browser on your phone or computer; native iOS and Android apps are coming soon.

Best app for listening to real Portuguese

Portuguese in real life is faster and more slurred than in a course, and its nasal vowels (mão, bem, som) take time to hear clearly. Listening needs its own daily practice.

• Soma builds listening in three ways. Original Portuguese songs are sung word by word in karaoke, with the translation under every line; you can slow them down or switch the vocals off and sing. Spoken stories and dialogues come at four levels, voiced in Brazilian Portuguese, and in a dialogue you can take a part and answer aloud. And a Portuguese YouTube video you paste becomes a lesson, which also works for European Portuguese channels. Tap any word for its meaning and its dictionary form: sou shows ser, "to be". The songs are made with AI for learners, and every lyric is checked by people.
• Practice Portuguese has more than 950 audio and video episodes, all in European Portuguese.
• Memrise builds its lessons around videos of native speakers.
• Lingopie does this with TV shows: tap a word in the subtitles to translate it and save it. It suits intermediate learners who can already follow a scene.

Try one before you decide: Última Onda ("The last wave") opens with Mar desbotando no fim do dia ("Sea fading at the end of day"); in the next line, tap fico and you get its dictionary form, ficar, "to stay". The full karaoke is on the page, no sign-in needed.

Best app for speaking Portuguese

• Babbel has you speaking from the first lesson, and Babbel Speak helps you practise pronunciation in real conversations.
• Pimsleur's 30-minute audio lessons focus on speaking and pronunciation, and its hands-free mode lets you study in the car.
• Busuu prepares you for everyday conversations with feedback from Portuguese speakers.
• Soma trains speaking through shadowing: you hear a sentence, say it back, and it scores your pronunciation word by word against Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR). Scoring is on the Pro and Max plans. In a dialogue you can also take one part and answer aloud.

Best app if English isn't your first language

Most Portuguese apps explain Portuguese in English. If your strongest language is Spanish, French, Hindi or Arabic, you are learning Portuguese through a second language, and every explanation costs you twice.

Spanish speakers have a special case: you will understand a lot of written Portuguese on day one, and the work is in the sounds and in the words that look alike but mean something else (esquisito means "strange" in Portuguese, not "exquisite" or "delicious"). An explanation in Spanish puts your effort where it is needed. For the opposite direction, see our Spanish guide.

• Soma explains Portuguese in the language you choose. It offers 22, including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. The app's menus switch to that language too.
• Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu: which language explains the Portuguese depends on the course, so check what each offers from your language.

Best app for Portuguese vocabulary

• Anki, if you like control. Free on desktop and Android, with the modern FSRS scheduler built in.
• Practice Portuguese brings words back with Smart Review, which adjusts to your progress.
• Soma keeps every word or line you save in one spaced-repetition review, and each word comes from a song or story you heard, so it arrives with a melody and a sentence attached.

Portuguese verbs change their endings for every person and tense, so learn each new verb in its dictionary form together with the form you heard: fico, ficou and ficamos all hide ficar. And keep your reviews short and daily: see how to learn a language with spaced repetition.

Best app for the Celpe-Bras and CAPLE exams

Be careful here: a general app is not an exam course.

• Celpe-Bras is Brazil's official certificate of Portuguese as a foreign language. Inep, Brazil's national institute for educational research, runs it twice a year in Brazil and abroad, with the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs, at universities, embassies, consulates and cultural centres. It is a single exam: the level on your certificate depends on how well you do. It has a written part, which tests listening, reading and writing, and an oral part, a face-to-face conversation with examiners. Start with Inep's own Celpe-Bras pages for the format.
• CAPLE, at the University of Lisbon, is the place to look for European Portuguese certificates; check its own site for the exams and levels.
• Babbel, Busuu and Practice Portuguese follow CEFR levels, which helps you see where you stand.
• Soma doesn't do mock tests. What it adds is the listening and speaking Celpe-Bras is built on: its written part tests listening as well as reading and writing, and its oral part is a face-to-face conversation.

Is Duolingo enough to learn Portuguese?

For a start, yes; for a real conversation, almost never on its own. Duolingo is excellent at habit and early vocabulary. It gives you little long, natural listening and little speaking under pressure, and those are exactly what you need to follow a Brazilian or a Portuguese speaker at full speed. Keep the streak if it motivates you, and add one listening tool and one way to speak. More options in Duolingo alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Which app is best to learn Portuguese for free? Duolingo is free with ads, Busuu's Brazilian course is free to start, and Memrise has a free plan. Soma is free for one language, including all its Portuguese songs and stories.

Should I learn Brazilian or European Portuguese? Learn the one you will use. If you have no preference, Brazilian has more speakers, and more apps teach it. You can switch later: the grammar is mostly shared, and the biggest jump is in the sounds.

Does Soma teach Brazilian or European Portuguese? Brazilian: the stories and dialogues are voiced in Brazilian Portuguese, the songs use Brazilian grammar, and shadowing scores you against Brazilian pronunciation. For European Portuguese, Practice Portuguese is the specialist, and you can turn European Portuguese YouTube videos into lessons in Soma.

Which app teaches Portuguese in Spanish? Soma explains every word and song line in Spanish, French, Hindi or 19 other languages, whichever you choose. For Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu, it depends on which courses exist from your language.

What is the best app for the Celpe-Bras? There isn't one app for it. Use Inep's official pages for the format, a course that follows CEFR levels for structure, and daily listening and speaking in Brazilian Portuguese, because the written part tests listening too and the oral part is a conversation.

Can I learn Portuguese with songs? Yes, as part of a routine. Songs make words and pronunciation stick because the melody carries them, but you also need to read, speak and review. See best apps to learn a language through music.

How long does it take to learn Portuguese with an app? It depends on your hours, and on what you already speak: Spanish, Italian and French speakers start well ahead. Be wary of any app that promises fluency in a few weeks.

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Sources: vendor pages and store listings checked October 2026: babbel.com/learn-portuguese, busuu.com, practiceportuguese.com, lingopie.com, apps.ankiweb.net, gov.br/inep (Celpe-Bras), and the App Store listings of Pimsleur, Memrise, LingoDeer, Lingopie and Duolingo.

Comparing apps for another language? The same guide for Spanish, French, English and Italian.

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Try Soma free. Hear Portuguese in songs, stories and real YouTube videos, with every word explained in your own language and kept with spaced repetition. Play Última Onda first, no sign-in needed, then start at app.soma.ninja; plans are on the pricing page.

Drafted with AI, edited and fact-checked by a human.