Duolingo Max vs Super: Differences, Price and Features

The difference between Duolingo Max and Super Duolingo is AI conversation practice. Super removes ads, gives unlimited energy, adds personalized practice from your mistakes and unlimited Legendary attempts. Duolingo Max includes everything in Super and adds two AI features, Video Call with Lily and Roleplay, which let you practice speaking and writing in open conversations. Max costs more and works only in the iOS and Android apps.

This guide compares both tiers feature by feature, explains what changed since Max launched in 2023, and gives a simple way to decide which plan fits how you learn.

Duolingo Max vs Super: feature comparison

Duolingo Max is a superset of Super Duolingo: every Super perk is included, and Max adds the AI speaking tools on top. The table shows what each tier gives you.

If you only want an uninterrupted, ad-free course, the two tiers are identical. The only reason to pay for Max is the conversation practice.

What Super Duolingo includes

Super Duolingo is the standard paid tier, and it removes the limits of the free plan rather than adding new ways to learn. According to Duolingo's App Store listing, Super gives you a faster, ad-free experience with Unlimited Energy and Monthly Streak Repair. The core perks are:

• No ads: lessons run without interruptions.
• Unlimited energy: mistakes no longer stop a session. Depending on your app version, the limit is shown as energy or hearts.
• Personalized practice: review sessions built from the exercises you got wrong.
• Unlimited Legendary attempts: retry the hardest level of a unit as often as you like.
• Monthly Streak Repair: restore a broken streak once a month.

Super is a good fit if you already learn every day and the free plan's ads and energy limits are what slow you down. The lesson content itself is the same as in the free app.

What Duolingo Max adds: Video Call and Roleplay

Duolingo Max adds two GPT-4 powered features that turn the app from drills into conversation practice. Duolingo's Max page describes them as follows:

• Video Call: a real-time spoken conversation with the character Lily, usually about a topic from your recent lessons. Lily remembers earlier calls, and a transcript is available after each call.
• Roleplay: written conversations with characters such as Lin or Eddy in everyday scenarios, for example ordering in a café or planning a trip. Roleplays are Side Quests that earn XP, and you get AI feedback on your answers afterward.

You can flag an inaccurate AI response by pressing and holding the message. Coverage depends on your course: for English speakers, Video Call and Roleplay are available for Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese, while Japanese, Korean and Chinese get Video Call only.

We covered the original launch in our first look at Duolingo Max and its GPT-4 features.

What happened to Explain My Answer

Explain My Answer was one of the two launch features of Duolingo Max in March 2023, but it is no longer the reason to choose Max. The feature lets you tap a button after an exercise and get an AI explanation of why your answer was right or wrong.

Duolingo's current Max page lists only Video Call and Roleplay as Max features. Duolingo made Explain My Answer free for all learners on January 1, 2026, in most courses teaching Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian and Korean. If you were considering Max mainly for grammar explanations, check whether the button already appears in your free or Super lessons first.

Duolingo Max vs Super price

Duolingo Max always costs more than Super Duolingo, but Duolingo does not publish fixed prices for either tier on its website. Prices differ by country, by platform and by billing period, and Duolingo runs tests on its subscriptions, so two people can see different offers.

The US App Store listing shows Super Duolingo purchase options of $9.99, $12.99, $83.99, $95.99 and $119.99, without labelling which is monthly, annual or family. The Max price appears inside the app once you are signed in. To compare the real cost for your account:

1. Open the Duolingo app on your iPhone or Android phone and sign in.
2. Open the subscription offer (the Super or Max banner in the app).
3. Compare the monthly and annual prices for both tiers, and note the trial length.
4. Divide the annual price by 12 to compare it with the monthly plan.

Where Duolingo Max works

Duolingo Max works only in the Duolingo apps for iOS and Android, not on duolingo.com. Duolingo says Max is available in 188 countries. On iPhone, the current app requires iOS 17.0 or later.

One practical catch: if you pay for Super through the website, you cannot simply upgrade that subscription to Max. Max is bought in the app, so a web subscriber would need to switch billing to the app store. Super, by contrast, works across the app and the web.

Which should you choose: Max or Super?

Choose Super Duolingo if you want the regular course without ads and limits, and choose Duolingo Max only if you will use the AI conversations several times a week. A simple decision framework:

• Pick Super if you mostly do lessons, learn on the web, or study a course without Video Call or Roleplay.
• Pick Max if speaking is your weak spot, you learn Spanish, French, German, Italian or Portuguese from English, and you want low-pressure practice before talking to real people.
• Stay on free if ads and energy limits do not bother you, since Explain My Answer is now in many free courses.
• Trial first: start with the Super trial, then test Max for a week of real Video Calls before committing to a year.

Max does not replace a human tutor: calls are short (about one to three minutes), and Lily does not correct your grammar during the call.

FAQ

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