VerbamorDuolingo Portuguese review: check the variety before the streak
Duolingo is a fair free start for Portuguese, and its content now runs to CEFR B2. One catch: its course page never says Brazilian or European, so check before you build a habit around it. The Portuguese flashcards guide covers picking a variety first.
Verbamor records your lesson and turns what your tutor taught into cards that come back on schedule.
Duolingo Portuguese is a fair free start. Its content runs through CEFR B2 since 22 April 2026, and the core course costs nothing. But its course page never says whether it teaches Brazilian or European Portuguese, and with 4.63 million learners it's a far smaller course than Spanish, at 41.9 million.
I make a paid app that competes for some of the same people, so read my take with that in mind. For most beginners, I'd still start them on Duolingo.
Which Portuguese does Duolingo teach? Its course page doesn't say
I read Duolingo's Portuguese course page on 13 October 2026. It says "Learn Portuguese in just 5 minutes a day. For free." It doesn't say Brazilian, and it doesn't say European.
That matters more for Portuguese than for most languages. The two varieties differ in sound and in a fair number of everyday words. If you're moving to Porto, a year of the wrong one is a year of habits to undo.
So check it yourself, and it takes ten minutes. Do the first few lessons with the sound on. Then play a short clip of a speaker from São Paulo and one from Lisbon, and decide which one Duolingo sounds like.
Pick the variety before you pick the app
If you need one variety for a move, a partner or a job, check every app's audio against it before you start a streak. My Portuguese app guide lists which apps say what they teach.
Portuguese is the smallest of Duolingo's big Romance courses
Duolingo publishes a learner count on each course. Here's what its list for English speakers showed on 13 October 2026.
| Course, for English speakers | Learners, Duolingo's count |
|---|---|
| Spanish | 41.9M |
| French | 22.7M |
| Italian | 10.2M |
| Russian | 7.89M |
| Portuguese | 4.63M |
Spanish has roughly 9 times the learners Portuguese has. These counts are people who started a course, so they overstate how many are active. The ratio is still telling.
What does a smaller course cost you? I can't measure it, so here's my guess, labelled as one. Fewer learners means fewer error reports and fewer people answering questions about it online. You'll lean on your own checking a bit more.
The content reaches B2 now, and the finish line has no hour count
Portuguese is one of the nine courses Duolingo expanded on 22 April 2026. Its post says learners of those courses "can now learn through B2 on the CEFR scale, or a Duolingo Score of 129." Before that, most could only complete A2 content.
That's the ceiling of the course content. Duolingo hasn't published how many Portuguese learners get there, or how long it takes.
People search "how many hours to complete Duolingo Portuguese" a lot. I couldn't find a number from Duolingo, and the counts I found elsewhere come from fan sites that tally units. Time your own first week instead. It's the only figure that applies to you.
Spanish speakers get their own Portuguese course, and it's bigger
Duolingo runs course lists by the language you already speak. Its list for Spanish speakers shows Portuguese with 7.76 million learners, ahead of French and Italian on that list.
So if you speak Spanish well, that course is worth a look. You'd learn Portuguese through a language that shares a lot of its words. Duolingo says the April 2026 content reached most learners "regardless of the language they're learning from."
For a first try at Portuguese, free Duolingo beats paying anyone
Duolingo wins on four things that matter to a beginner, and my app loses on all four.
- It's free to start. Ads and an Energy limit, and no bill.
- It has a path. My app has no course and no grammar lessons.
- It runs on Android and the web. Mine is iPhone and iPad only.
- It shows you if you'll stick with it. Find that out free before you pay for anything.
Super Duolingo, the paid tier, takes away the ads and the Energy limit. Apple lists six Super prices from $9.99 to $119.99 with no term attached, and I've laid them out in How much is Super Duolingo.
Add a tutor once it feels easy, and keep their words
A tutor is the next step when the lessons stop being hard. A tutor also settles the variety question in one sentence: you pick a teacher from where you want to sound like. On 21 September 2026, the first 20 one-hour Portuguese rates on italki had a median of $21.
After a few lessons you'll have a different problem. Last week's words are fading before next week's arrive. That's what a review schedule fixes, free in Anki if you'll build cards, and it's the job I built Verbamor for.
Verbamor makes cards from a recorded Portuguese lesson, or from a phrase you type into Translate. Each card has an example sentence, generated audio and an image, and FSRS, an open scheduling algorithm, picks the day it comes back. A starter deck of about 650 common Portuguese words is included.
It's $19.99 a month or $129.99 a year, US prices, and only the yearly plan has the 7-day trial. If you haven't booked a lesson yet, you don't need it. Stay on free Duolingo until you do.
Duolingo Portuguese questions, answered short
Is Duolingo Portuguese Brazilian or European?
Duolingo doesn't say on its Portuguese course page, which I read on 13 October 2026. The page says "Learn Portuguese in just 5 minutes a day" and names no variety. The quickest check is your own ear: do the first few lessons and compare the audio with a Brazilian and a European speaker on YouTube. If you're moving to Lisbon or Rio, settle this before you build a habit.
How many hours does it take to complete Duolingo Portuguese?
Duolingo doesn't publish an hour count for finishing its Portuguese course, so any figure you see is a third party's estimate. The content now runs through CEFR B2, which makes the course longer than it was before April 2026. For scale, the US Foreign Service Institute puts Portuguese's group at 552 to 690 class hours to reach professional working level.
Is Duolingo good for learning Portuguese?
It's a good free start. The core course costs nothing, it runs on the web, iPhone and Android, and its content reaches CEFR B2. It's a smaller course than Spanish or French, with 4.63 million learners against Spanish's 41.9 million in October 2026. Add a person to talk to once the lessons feel easy.
I speak Spanish. Should I learn Portuguese from Spanish on Duolingo?
Try it. Duolingo lists a Portuguese course for Spanish speakers, with 7.76 million learners in October 2026, more than the 4.63 million on its Portuguese course for English speakers. Duolingo says its April 2026 B2 content reached most learners "regardless of the language they're learning from".
Sources
What Duolingo publishes
- Duolingo, Learn Portuguese course page. Read 13 October 2026. No variety named.
- Duolingo, Courses for English speakers and Courses for Spanish speakers. Read 13 October 2026. Source for every learner count on this page.
- Duolingo Blog, 22 April 2026. Our top courses now teach advanced content. Read 13 October 2026. Source for the nine courses, B2 and Score 129, and "regardless of the language they're learning from".
- Apple App Store, Duolingo US listing, read 24 September 2026, for the six Super prices.
Hours
- US Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, Foreign Language Training. Category I at 552 to 690 class hours, on 23 class hours a week.
Prices
- italki Portuguese directory, the first 20 listed one-hour rates, read 21 September 2026. Median $21.
- Verbamor's prices are read off the app's own plan definitions on 21 September 2026. US prices; other App Store regions differ.
Keep the Portuguese from your last lesson.
Verbamor turns the words from a recorded lesson, or a phrase you translate, into scheduled cards. Paid, on iPhone and iPad.
Start 7 days freeThe 7-day free trial is on the yearly plan.