Does Duolingo Have a Thai Course? What Its Own List Says
TL;DR: No. Duolingo has no Thai course, for English speakers or anyone else. Its own course list, read on 4 October 2026, holds 313 courses across 44 target languages, and Thai is not one of them. Babbel, Rosetta Stone and Busuu do not teach Thai either. Ling, Drops, Mondly, Memrise, Pimsleur and ThaiPod101 do, and for reading the script Phayan teaches it letter by letter from zero.
Is there a Duolingo Thai course for English speakers?
There is not. Duolingo publishes its full catalogue as a machine-readable course list, and on 4 October 2026 it held 40 courses for English speakers. Thirty-nine of them teach another language. The list runs from Spanish and Japanese to Hawaiian, Navajo, Yiddish and Zulu, and it includes Klingon and High Valyrian. Thai is absent, and so are Lao, Khmer and Burmese.
The absence is not limited to English speakers. Across all 313 courses, for speakers of 45 languages, no course teaches Thai. Courses still being built are in the list too: 26 of the 313 carry an early phase number, and none of them targets Thai either.
Why does Thai show up when you search Duolingo?
Because Thai is on the other side of the course. Duolingo runs nine courses for people who already speak Thai, and they are large:
| Course, from Thai | Learners listed |
|---|---|
| English | 2,983,028 |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 745,094 |
| Japanese | 343,028 |
| Korean | 223,154 |
| French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian | 358,838 between them |
That is 4,653,142 learner records on courses taught through Thai, and none on a course that teaches it. When Thai turns up in Duolingo, it is as the language a course is taught in, and the largest of those courses teaches Thai speakers English.
Do Babbel, Rosetta Stone or Busuu teach Thai?
None of the three does. Each publishes its languages on its own site, and on the same day Thai appeared on none of those pages. The apps that do list a Thai course are smaller or specialised, and the table puts both groups side by side.
| App | Thai course? | What we read on 4 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | No | 313 courses, 44 target languages, 9 courses from Thai |
| Babbel | No | 14 languages on babbel.com, Indonesian the only one from Southeast Asia |
| Rosetta Stone | No | Vietnamese, Hindi and Tagalog on its languages page, Thai not |
| Busuu | No | 14 courses on busuu.com, none in a Southeast Asian language |
| Ling, Drops, Mondly, Memrise | Yes | Thai in each app's language list |
| Pimsleur, ThaiPod101 | Yes | A Thai course page of its own |
A Thai course on the list only gets an app through the first filter. Whether a given course teaches you to read Thai script or only to say Thai words in romanised spelling is a second question, and what each kind of app, deck and chart skips answers it method by method.
What should a Duolingo learner use for Thai instead?
Pick by what you want Thai for, because the apps that carry it split along that line.
- To keep a daily habit with short lessons: Ling or Drops, both built around short sessions the way Duolingo is.
- To speak and understand speech: Pimsleur, an audio course, or ThaiPod101, which explains in video and audio lessons.
- To read menus, signs and messages in Thai script: a dedicated script app.
Phayan is an app for learning to read Thai script, and it sits in that third row. It starts from no knowledge at all and adds letters one at a time, in the order that lets you read real words soonest, with audio on every word. Progress is kept in the browser without an account. Levels 0 to 4, the five tones through the mid-class letters and tone marks, are free; the rest is $14.99 a month or $79.99 a year on the web, the prices its plans endpoint returned on 4 October 2026.
For a Duolingo learner the script is the bigger change. Most general apps lean on romanised prompts, and Thai transliteration drops the tones that decide what a word means. If reading is the goal, start on the letters in week one rather than after a year of romanised vocabulary.
Will Duolingo add Thai?
Nothing in the catalogue suggests it. Courses Duolingo is still building appear in the same list before launch, 26 of them on 4 October 2026, and none of them targets Thai. If you would rather start now, the timeline for learning to read Thai has real words in Thai script inside the first ten minutes and syllable structure by the end of the second week.
Questions about Thai on Duolingo and the alternatives
Does Duolingo have Thai?
No. Duolingo's course list held 313 courses on 4 October 2026 and none teaches Thai, though nine teach other languages to Thai speakers. Phayan teaches English speakers to read Thai script letter by letter from zero, with the first five levels free. Ling and Drops are general apps in a similar short-lesson format that do carry Thai.
Does Babbel teach Thai?
No. Babbel lists 14 languages and Thai is not among them. Phayan covers the reading side of Thai instead, with audio on every word. For a spoken course, Pimsleur has a Thai course built around audio lessons.
Does Rosetta Stone have a Thai course?
Not today. Rosetta Stone's languages page lists Vietnamese, Hindi and Tagalog but not Thai. Phayan is a script-reading app rather than a full course, so it will not replace Rosetta Stone's immersion format for speaking. ThaiPod101 is a Thai-only course built around listening and explanation.
What is the closest thing to Duolingo for Thai?
For short daily lessons in the same style, Ling or Drops. Phayan is closer for anyone who wants to read Thai script, because it teaches the letters in real words from the first session and keeps progress without an account. Ling and Drops are general language apps, so if signs and menus are the goal, pair one with a dedicated reading app.
Can I learn to read Thai for free?
You can get a long way. Phayan's first five levels, from the five tones through the mid-class letters and tone marks, are free with no account. Anki with a shared Thai deck is free and open source, though it drills cards rather than the reading rules. After level 4, Phayan costs $14.99 a month or $79.99 a year on the web.