Best Chinese Dictionary Apps in 2026: Pleco, Hanping and More

For most learners, the best Chinese dictionary app is Pleco. It's free on iPhone and Android, works offline, has no ads, and its paid extras are one-off purchases rather than a subscription. On Android, Hanping is a cleaner, simpler alternative with the same no-subscription model, and it's now on iPhone too. Advanced learners who want Chinese-language definitions can add a Chinese-made app such as Youdao. On a computer, MDBG and YellowBridge are the best free web dictionaries. Keep Google Translate as well, but for what it's good at: whole sentences, menus and signs. It translates a phrase without breaking it into words, so it won't teach you what each word means.

A word on bias: we make Mandarin Mosaic, an app for learning vocabulary through sentences, not a dictionary. None of the apps below is ours and none of them pays us. Prices and features are from each app's own website and its UK App Store and Google Play listings, checked on 10 November 2026; Pleco's are from our full Pleco review, checked on 2 November 2026.

Chinese Dictionary Apps at a Glance

Prices are at the time of writing (November 2026), from the UK App Store unless stated.

1. Pleco: The Best Chinese Dictionary App for Most Learners

Pleco is the dictionary we'd install first, and its free version is a real dictionary, not a trial. It includes two dictionaries (the open CC-CEDICT and Pleco's own, with example sentences), search by pinyin with or without tones, by English or by characters, handwriting input, a reader that lets you paste in text and tap any word, basic audio and stroke-order animations for 500 common characters. It has no ads and works fully offline once set up.

Everything else is a one-off purchase. The add-ons most learners consider are camera lookup (OCR), flashcards and the document reader, at £9.99 each on the UK App Store; the Basic Bundle includes all three, plus stroke order, native-speaker audio and the Oxford Chinese Dictionary, for £29.99 in the app or $24.99 from Pleco's own website, at the time of writing. A purchase works on up to three devices, on iPhone and Android alike.

Is the paid version worth it? If you're a beginner working through a course, stay on the free version; it covers looking words up. Buy the Basic Bundle once you read real Chinese regularly (messages, articles, menus), because the reader and camera lookup are what you'll use. Pleco's weak points are a busy interface, flashcards with a lot of settings, and camera lookup that divides opinion. Our Pleco review has the full add-on price table, what each one does and what users say.

2. Hanping: The Simpler Alternative, on Android and iPhone

Hanping Chinese Dictionary has been on Android for over 17 years and is built by one developer. Like Pleco, it's free, has no ads and no subscription, works offline, and sells extras as one-off purchases; many people simply prefer its cleaner design. The free app has CC-CEDICT, handwriting recognition, native-speaker audio for every syllable, stroke animations for over 800 characters, character breakdowns, over 7,500 example sentences with English translations, HSK word lists and a tone soundboard. It was rated 4.9 on Google Play at the time of writing, with over 100,000 downloads, and the Android listing offers a full refund within 30 days.

The paid extras include the ABC Chinese–English dictionaries, native audio for whole words, more stroke animations and the Image Reader for photos and screenshots (three photos free to try, then £9.99 on the UK App Store). On Android you can also export words to AnkiDroid (paid) and use a Screen Reader to look words up in other apps. The iPhone and iPad version arrived in December 2025, needs iOS 18 or later, and was last updated on 1 November 2026; it lets you star words to review and works with Skritter rather than AnkiDroid.

Pleco or Hanping? Both are good, and the free versions are enough to decide between them, so install both and keep the one you open without thinking. Pleco has more licensed dictionaries and a fuller reader; Hanping is easier to find your way around, and its AnkiDroid export suits Android learners who already review in Anki.

3. KTdict: A Low-Cost iPhone Option

KTdict Chinese Dictionary has been around since 2008 and was last updated on 31 October 2026. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, works offline, and draws on CC-CEDICT, Unihan and open German and French dictionaries, so you can search in English, German or French as well as in pinyin and characters. It has audio for each entry, OCR for printed Chinese and flashcards with spaced repetition built in. For handwriting it uses the iPhone's own handwriting keyboard rather than a pad of its own.

It's free to try with ads, and a single £3.99 purchase unlocks all its features, which makes it the cheapest way to get camera lookup and flashcards in one app. Two catches: the current version needs iOS 26 or later, so it won't install on older iPhones, and there's no Android version.

4. Youdao Dictionary: For Advanced Learners

网易有道词典 (wǎngyì yǒudào cídiǎn, NetEase Youdao Dictionary) is one of the dictionary apps Chinese speakers themselves use, mostly for looking up English. That's why it suits advanced learners rather than beginners: its App Store description is written entirely in Chinese, and its strength is Chinese-language material, including the 现代汉语规范词典 (xiàndài hànyǔ guīfàn cídiǎn), a standard Chinese–Chinese dictionary, alongside bilingual example sentences, photo and live camera translation, and a word book for saving words. If you can read definitions in Chinese, they often explain a word's use more precisely than a short English gloss.

It's free with ads; a VIP subscription (from £3.99 a month on the UK App Store at the time of writing) removes the ads and adds offline dictionaries. It's on the App Store but wasn't on Google Play at the time of writing. If you'd rather keep everything in one app, Pleco's Professional Bundle includes a Chinese–Chinese Guifan dictionary too.

5. Google Translate: A Translator, Not a Dictionary

Google Translate is free on iPhone, Android and the web, and it does things dictionaries don't: it translates whole sentences, points your camera at a menu or sign and translates it in place, translates a conversation, and lets you draw characters you can't type. You can download Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) to translate without a connection, which is worth doing before a trip.

What it's bad at is exactly what a learner needs from a dictionary. It translates a phrase as a whole without breaking it into words, so you can't see which word means what, and it doesn't show a word's different senses with example sentences, so you can't tell which one fits your sentence. For a sentence you need to understand now, use it; for a word you want to learn, look it up in a dictionary as well. Point it at 牛肉面 on a menu and it will tell you it's beef noodles; Pleco or Hanping will also tell you that 牛肉 (niúròu) is beef and 面 (miàn) is noodles, which is what helps you read the next menu.

6. What Your Phone Already Has

Before installing anything, it's worth knowing what's built in. Both iPhone and Android phones have Chinese keyboards with a handwriting option, so you can draw a character you can't pronounce and copy it into any dictionary; our guide to typing Chinese shows how to add them on every device. On an iPhone, you can also select a word, tap Look Up and add a Chinese–English dictionary under Manage Dictionaries; it's handy for a quick meaning while reading in other apps, but it has no handwriting search, audio or flashcards, so it's no substitute for a dictionary app.

The Best Chinese Dictionary Online

If you study on a computer, you don't need to install anything:

• MDBG is fast and free. Search in characters, English or pinyin, with or without tone numbers (type v for ü), draw characters with handwriting input, look characters up by radical and stroke count, and paste in a whole passage to see every word in it. Its content comes from CC-CEDICT.
• YellowBridge goes deeper on single characters: etymology, animated stroke order for every headword (you can trace it too), audio, sample sentences and a search by components or handwriting. It shows ads unless you subscribe.
• Wiktionary is the place for the history of a character and how it's said across Chinese: an entry such as 學 (xué, to study) gives its pronunciations in Mandarin, Cantonese and many other varieties, and often the character's origin. It's written by volunteers, so it's thorough on common characters and patchier on rare words.

One thing to know when comparing free dictionaries: many of them share the same data. CC-CEDICT is an open, community-edited Chinese–English dictionary under a Creative Commons licence, and it's behind MDBG, one of the free dictionaries in Pleco, Hanping and KTdict, and our own online Chinese keyboard, which shows each word's pinyin and meaning as you type. So the definitions often match; what differs is the search, the extras and the design. Radical lookups, like MDBG's, are easier once you recognise the common radicals: our Chinese radicals chart lists all 214 with their meanings and finds the radical of any character you give it.

How to Choose a Chinese Dictionary App

• You're a beginner, on any phone: Pleco, free. You don't need to pay for anything yet.
• You're on Android and Pleco feels cluttered: Hanping. If you review in AnkiDroid, its export is worth buying.
• You're on a recent iPhone and want flashcards and camera lookup for very little: KTdict with the £3.99 upgrade.
• You read real Chinese most days: Pleco's Basic Bundle, for the reader and camera lookup, or Hanping's Image Reader if you prefer Hanping.
• You're advanced: add Chinese–Chinese definitions, from Pleco's Professional Bundle or from Youdao if you're happy with a Chinese-language app.
• You're travelling: keep Google Translate, with Chinese downloaded for offline use, next to your dictionary.
• You're at a computer: MDBG for speed, YellowBridge for single characters.

What to Use Alongside a Dictionary

Looking a word up tells you what it means today; it doesn't mean you'll know it next week. Words stick when you meet them again, in context, spaced out over days. That's the idea behind sentence mining: save the sentence you found the word in, not just the word, and review it with spaced repetition. You can do that by hand in Anki, and if characters are what you keep forgetting, our guide on how to learn Chinese characters covers learning them through their parts and in words.

Our app, Mandarin Mosaic, does this part for you: it teaches words in sentences that each contain one new word, with audio and spaced repetition, and you can tap any word in a sentence to see its meaning. When you look up a word in Pleco or Hanping that you want to keep, type it in as a Focus Word and the app builds lessons around it from sentences in your packs. It isn't a dictionary, though: it has no handwriting or camera lookup, so keep a dictionary app next to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Best Free Chinese Dictionary App?

Pleco, for most learners: the free version has two dictionaries, handwriting, a tap-to-look-up reader and audio, with no ads and no time limit. Hanping is the best free alternative, on Android and now on iPhone.

Is Pleco or Hanping Better?

Pleco has more dictionaries and a fuller reader, while Hanping is simpler to use and can export words to AnkiDroid on Android. Both are free to try and sell one-off add-ons, so install both and keep the one you prefer.

Is There a Chinese Dictionary App That Works Offline?

Yes: Pleco, Hanping and KTdict all work fully offline once they're set up. Google Translate can also translate offline if you download Chinese first.

Can Google Translate Replace a Chinese Dictionary?

Not for learning: it gives one translation of a whole phrase rather than a word's different meanings and uses. It's best kept for sentences, menus and signs, alongside a real dictionary.

What Is the Best Chinese–English Dictionary Online?

MDBG is the quickest free one, with pinyin, English and handwriting search, and it's built on the open CC-CEDICT dictionary. YellowBridge is better for a single character's stroke order and etymology.

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