Best apps to learn Czech:
who each one is for

Short answer. There is no single best app for Czech, so you combine two or three tools. Duolingo teaches Czech from English, and Babbel does not offer it. For the A2 exam for permanent residence, the main free resource is the official NPI material: model tests, the interactive Test nanečisto and a handbook. For an audio start use Pimsleur; for lessons and words, Duolingo, Ling, Mondly, Česky or Clozemaster; for speaking with an AI partner, Talkpal or Talkfirst; for a live teacher, Preply or a course at an integration centre.

We make Talkfirst, one of the apps on this list, so we say plainly where other tools are better. Every price and feature below was checked in October 2026 on the developer's site or in the App Store. Prices are in the currency the source showed and may differ in your country.

Comparison table

Official materials for the A2 exam

Before paying for an app, open the exam website cestina-pro-cizince.cz. It is run by the National Pedagogical Institute (NPI ČR), and everything there is free: the interactive Test nanečisto of about two hours (reading and listening are marked automatically, writing and speaking come with samples and videos), two model tests with answer keys and audio, the Příručka pro uchazeče handbook with exercises for every task type, and learning videos about everyday situations. What it does not have is someone who answers what you say. The exam format is explained in our guide to the Czech A2 exam for permanent residence.

Apps for the first weeks

Pimsleur: audio lessons

Pimsleur teaches by ear: you listen, answer out loud and repeat. The Czech programme is one level of 30 half-hour lessons, with the Voice Coach tool for pronunciation feedback, and the first lesson is free. It is a good first month if you commute, but the course is short, and you answer a recording, not a person who reacts to what you say.

Duolingo, Ling and Mondly: game-style lessons

Duolingo has Czech, taught from English only, according to its course list on 13 October 2026. Babbel does not teach Czech at all. Ling has a Czech course with dialogues and flashcards; the free plan is limited and has ads, the paid plan is $16.99 a month, $64.99 for six months or $89.99 a year. Mondly by Pearson lists Czech among its 41 languages and has a chatbot and speech recognition. All three build a daily habit; none of them has a partner who answers whatever you say.

Česky: a newer course app

Česky (Learn Czech from Zero) is an iPhone app with an A1 → B2 path of more than 700 lessons, AI scoring of pronunciation and writing, and an interface in English, Ukrainian, Russian, German and Spanish. The first A1 sections are free, as is each AI tool twice a week; Premium is 199 Kč and a year is 999 Kč. It came out in August 2026 and has about ten ratings so far.

Words and grammar

Clozemaster has Czech sentences from English, Polish, French and Hungarian: you fill the missing word into real sentences, which suits you after the first few hundred words. Anki is a free app for your own flashcards on desktop and Android; the iOS app is paid. The publisher of the Czech Step by Step and Čeština expres textbooks gives away the audio recordings for free. Memrise has only user-made word lists for Czech, not an official course.

Speaking practice

This is the main gap in most apps: you learn words, but nobody asks you a question you have to answer. In the A2 exam, speaking is worth 40 of 110 points and comes with no preparation time.

Talkpal is a general AI tutor; Czech is one of many languages. Its free plan gives 10 minutes a day, more free time than Talkfirst, and paid plans have a 14-day free trial.

Talkfirst is a voice trainer for spoken Czech. You talk out loud with an AI partner from A1, and after each conversation you see your pauses, mistakes and better ways to say it, explained in English, Russian or Ukrainian. It also has word-by-word pronunciation practice, A1–A2 flashcards, everyday scenes and a mock speaking part of the A2 exam scored by AI from the transcript. Free: 35 voice minutes a week. Pro: 140 minutes a week for 500 Telegram Stars per 30 days. It works in the browser, as a Telegram Mini App and inside ChatGPT and Claude.

Where Talkfirst is weaker: Czech is in beta, so decks and scenes may still contain mistakes; the mock exam covers only the speaking part, and its score is an AI forecast without pronunciation; there is no grammar course; there is no app in the App Store or Google Play; Pro is paid in Telegram Stars.

One caution: SpeakShark, which shows up in some "apps to learn Czech" lists, teaches English, not Czech.

Live teachers and courses

An app does not replace a teacher who hears you and adapts the lesson. In October 2026 Preply listed more than a hundred Czech tutors. The Integration centres (Centra na podporu integrace cizinců) run group Czech courses from zero to B1 in 40-hour blocks, with free textbooks.

Which combination to choose

• You are starting from zero: Pimsleur, Duolingo or Česky for the first phrases plus 15–20 minutes of speaking a day. See how to learn Czech from zero to A2.
• You need A2 for permanent residence: the official NPI materials for the format, speaking practice with an AI partner or a tutor, and flashcards for words.
• You want everything free: the NPI materials, Anki, the free parts of Ling and Česky, the free plans of Talkpal and Talkfirst, and a course at an integration centre.

Frequently asked questions

More Czech guides: all guides.