Pleco Chinese Dictionary
Handwriting, OCR, flashcards
How much does Pleco Chinese Dictionary cost?
Prices are current as of 4 Oct 2026.
10 one-time purchases from $0.00
In the United States, Pleco Chinese Dictionary has 10 one-time purchases priced $4.99 – 59.99.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| Integrate Purchases | $0.00 |
| Mandarin Audio (male) | $4.99 |
| Stroke Order Diagrams | $4.99 |
| Document Reader | $9.99 |
| Enhanced Handwriting | $9.99 |
| Flashcard System | $9.99 |
| Optical Character Recognizer | $9.99 |
| Basic Bundle | $29.99 |
| A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese | $39.99 |
| Professional Bundle | $59.99 |
See what Pleco Chinese Dictionary costs in all 175 countries →
10+ alternatives to Pleco Chinese Dictionary
| Pleco Chinese Dictionary |   HelloChinese - Learn Chinese |   SuperChinese - Learn Chinese |   ChineseSkill - Learn Chinese |   HSK Study and Exam - SuperTest |   Chineasy: Learn Chinese easily |   trainchinese |   Du Chinese: Read&Learn Chinese |   Chinese - Mandarin Language |   Chinese Hanzi Dictionary |   Chinese Stroke Order Character | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 4.5 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| Reviews | 8.3K | 180K | 75K | 64K | 26K | 25K | 23K | 15K | 13K | 7.3K | 7K |
| Released | 2009 | 2015 | 2019 | 2014 | 2018 | 2018 | 2009 | 2015 | 2018 | 2020 | 2014 |
| Monthly price | — | $11.99 | $11.99 | $12.99 | $15.99 | $12.99 | — | $14.99 | — | — | $4.99 |
| Annual price | — | $69.99 | $57.99 | $79.99 | — | $49.99 | — | $119.99 | — | — | $14.99 |
| One-time price | $9.99 | $4.99 | $139.99 | $159.99 | $59.99 | $149.99 | $23.99 | — | — | $3.99 | $4.99 |
The going rate for each plan in United States, in its own currency, shaded from the cheapest price on the row to the dearest. Plans fewer than four in ten of the priced apps sell are left out.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary reviews
4.5 out of 5, based on 8,349 reviews.
What people like
- Best dictionary tool for learners.
- Free version has no annoying ads.
- Great stroke order and pronunciation guides.
What they complain about
- Many features require extra payment.
- Handwriting and camera recognition fail often.
- No automatic cloud backup for data.
- App feels complicated and cluttered.
Indispensable app for learning Chinese
This app is packed with features that I now find indispensable for learning Chinese. The dictionary alone has so many features, including the ability to search from a handwritten character to showing you the stole order to write it. The flash card system is really well written as well, allowing you to organize in great detail and manage additions and moves. It’s really smartly designed. The biggest weakness seems to be the optical character recognition; I’ve never managed to get this to work reliably from live images; you have to hold the phone really still and even then its touch and go. Apart from that, I can’t live without it 😅
Hi
This app does not want to give me money to buy my dream bike
Pleco
Pleco
???
You should change the font type it confuses children
Problem updating to 3.8.2
Unable to update to 3.8.2. Device keeps updating to this version but version number never changes.
Best Dictionary App!!
This app has been amazingly helpful! As a native English speaker trying to learn Mandarin this is so good and powerful. It gives so many more details and information compared to translate apps. I use it as my primary form of review for flashcards, and the other tools like the built in pronunciation and stroke order are so helpful. For sure best purchase I’ve made. Amazing app.
What happened to the free ocr?!
The OCR now cost $30!!! Now I have to use google translate instead! Please bring the free OCR back😭🙏
The Gold Standard
Absolutely the best dictionary available. BUT I’m so annoyed it doesn’t sync between devices. I’ve tried several times to get the flashcards from my phone onto my ipad, but it doesn’t work. And you can’t sync lookup history. If it had this connectivity, it would be 5 stars.
Artwork
When i type artwork it comes out with Yun yu which is pregnant when you click on it
The Mandarin Pronunciation is broken
Other than the fact the Mandarin pronunciation is broken the base app is fine. Wished the developers picked up on how it doesn’t pronounce words anymore.
Amazing for learning
Im learning Chinese and this app has been such a help!
Keyboard impossible
This app used to be usable until the developers tried to make it all things for all people, and it became complatly unmanageable. Once Chinese handwriting input is selected, it seems there is no way - short of uninstalling and reinstalling - to get back to a keyboard style input. What the app calls "keyboard input," is just some sort of handwriting or radical-selection input, and english character input seems not possible. VOICE is selectable, but once selected, it seems to always interpret the English words as Chinese, and fals apart from there. What a shame - this used to be a nice app. Now I'm left with only Google Translate or Apple Translate, both of which thankfully work reliably and understand what a keyboard really is.
Is it simplified or traditional?
So, I was on the app and I was looking at words. I searched up “because”, and it gives me the answer. But when I try to draw it in my notes app (I use traditional), it shows me the same box, but its the character for “woman” inside the box. So I want an answer, is it simplified or traditional?
Bad
Bad
Basic
This app is helpful but has limitations. It’s best for single words and has trouble with some phrases. Also the sample sentences lack alot. I use this for single words but for sentences/grammar issues I use other apps
Thank you so much this is very helpful and helpful to my family and daughter who has homework
When I write a Chinese character I usually don’t do it neatly but the phone always gets it right. It is funny that when I write the character a lot of times it always shows up with the word a lot of times !
Jd
Trash
good overall, but just one feature I want
can you add a feature that lets you disable things like the dictation or stuff.
Handwriting
I can not use handwriting. Pls fix!!!
Booooo stupid
Not very good
In praise of Pleco
I’m using John DeFrancis text books. Pleco enables me to learn simplified Chinese simultaneously. I admit to using Google Translate as well. Wonderful source of learning. Thanks.
1 star review
I have no idea how to change it to Chinese
Wish it has the learn pinyin and keystrokes lesson
Good
No handwriting support
I use ip7 why don’t I have hand writing?
Pleco
Pleco is ok because it has hanyupinyin. But it does not have the meaning of setences(other than those it generated) so you can only search for words.
Very helpful
Awesome tool for Chinese learners. I love that the free version doesn't have ads. I ended up getting the add-on bundle to get more dictionaries and the stroke order feature. I have tried the flashcards feature, and while it's very quick to create cards, it's not very straightforward to configure. There are so many settings, and it's not clear what some of them do, so you would need to read the manual. I'm going to stick to Anki for flashcards because it's just more straightforward. Also, I wish the app was available on Macs because I don't do a lot of studying just on my phone.
The
So annoying ☺️😕
Good app, but needs more words
I’ve used Pleco for quite some time now and I find it to be a practical pocket dictionary for those curious about Chinese culture, history, etc. However, I’m wondering who’s behind the creation of new entries into the dictionary? I feel like new words can be inputted; I’m not sure when was the last time that the app added new words? Just my two cents. a satisfied customer
Không thể vẽ chữ
Mình không tìm thấy nút vẽ chữ, vui lòng giúp mình
Too complicated
Good app but very complicated
Love this app
I was born in America, though Chinese. I use this app sometimes when translating fancy English terms to Chinese for my parents, and for studying the Dao De Jing. Purchased the Outlier Essentials to support this app's efforts.
Lag
It is very laggy no matter where I go
5 stars from a Chinese
Recommended by my boyfriend who’s a british and uses Pleco for chinese study. Genuinely amazing app as the explanations are very authentic in a cultural way, it also helps my english as i use it reversely to find the most accurate expressions in English even if it’s not designed for english learning.
Problem on iOS
Could you please check the reason why I can not scan to look up the vocabulary on IP6sPlus?
什么时候有中文版
能不能有中文版的 看不懂英文版
Learning Cantonese
My Thai professor showed me this app when I was abroad and I’m just now coming back to it porque yo quiero enseñar Cantonese :)
R
The writing AI detector is not good enough
i rated this but its not here. :(weird)
However, it’s the best Chinese dictionary ever! Provides you with essential information about the words you are looking for. Try it NOW. You can also type in English and the Chinese words will appear. ( Not in other languages: Google translate also good. ) THIS IS FOR FREE! HOPE THIS HELPS. しかし、これは史上最高の中国語辞書です。探している単語に関する重要な情報を提供します。やってみよう。 英語を入力すると中国語の単語が表示されます。 然而，它是有史以来最好的中文词典！为您提供有关您要查找的单词的基本信息。现在就试试。 你也可以输入英文，然后就会出现中文单词。 vietnamise Tuy nhiên, đây là từ điển tiếng Trung tốt nhất từ trước đến nay! Cung cấp cho bạn thông tin cần thiết về những từ bạn đang tìm kiếm. Thử ngay bây giờ. Bạn cũng có thể gõ tiếng Anh và các từ tiếng Trung sẽ xuất hiện.
Không viết tay trên ip được
Làm kiểu gì cũng không set handwriting được
No automatic or cloud backup
First off, I absolutely adore this app. But right now, I am very angry at a critical feature that is missing - automatic cloud backup. I just switched phones and it was a hurried affair because I had to trade in my old one. Apparently, iCloud does not backup and restore Pleco's database. I was shocked to learn that Pleco only has manual backup options. It's 2024 - this is unacceptable. I just lost 3 years worth of history and can never get it back.
中国
我很好👍🏼
Scary
I was searching how to write a word when suddenly theres was a scary monster behind me saying "ambatokam or something" I suspected it was from this app so I turned on animan studios to ward off the devil. I suspected it came from this app so I'm deleting it. DO NOT INSTALL!!!! ❗️SCARY ALERT❗️
Awesome job the app is doing
Love it but doesn’t really recognise some of the writing 👍
D
Sao bây giờ không tra được từ bằng camera trên ứng dụng ios nhỉ
Good app but…
wish the search could be changed to focus less on random historical figures (which clutter up results) instead of useful words
Best app for Chinese dictionary
Best app for learning Chinese
its good
Nice
Pieco
I like this app because if we do not know how to read, we can write the word(Chinese) and search. After that , we can learn how to read the word. We can also learn the meaning of the words.some words will show you the strokes on how to write the word, and they also show the old time word. If the word is too complicated and we can see how to write it clearly, we can magnify the word by pressing on the word. When we press on the word, they will also show the meaning of the word. However, if you do not know how to read the word, we can write the English meaning of the word. You can show the strokes of all the Chinese word so that we can learn how to write the word properly. Other than that, everything is great!👍😊🤣😅😁😘Bye!
软件总是崩坏
无反应
It’s great, but why is it even expensive?
Pleco has been my sidekick throughout my Chinese learning journey, but one of the things that bother me is the fact that so many feature are either not there or you have to buy it. For example, only few characters have stroke order animations. What’s the point of that if I could just use an online website like YellowDictionary.com to look it up? It would also be nice if there was a feature were you copy pasted a Chinese text and it added pinyin or Zhuyin Fuhao above it. Other than that, I don’t see why the app’s features should be so expensive.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary price by country
A one-time purchase costs $9.15 in Canada and $39.36 in Bosnia & Herzegovina — 4× more for the same thing. Below is the going rate for each plan in every country that sells it — the middle price of what the app charges there, in the country's own currency with the dollar equivalent beneath it.
| Country | One-time |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | $19.99 |
| Albania | $22.99 |
| Algeria | $19.99 |
| Angola | $19.99 |
| Anguilla | $19.99 |
| Antigua And Barbuda | $19.99 |
| Argentina | $9.99 |
| Armenia | $34.99 |
| Australia | A$14.99$10.78 |
| Austria | €9.99$11.24 |
| Azerbaijan | $34.99 |
| Bahamas | $29.99 |
| Bahrain | $19.99 |
| Barbados | $34.99 |
| Belarus | $22.99 |
| Belgium | €9.99$11.24 |
| Belize | $19.99 |
| Benin | $22.99 |
| Bermuda | $19.99 |
| Bhutan | $19.99 |
| Bolivia | $29.99 |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | €34.99$39.36 |
| Botswana | $29.99 |
| Brazil | R$59.90$11.48 |
| British Virgin Islands | $19.99 |
| Brunei Darussalam | $29.99 |
| Bulgaria | €9.99$11.24 |
| Burkina Faso | $19.99 |
| Cambodia | $9.99 |
| Cameroon | $22.99 |
| Canada | CA$12.99$9.15 |
| Cape Verde | $19.99 |
| Cayman Islands | $19.99 |
| Chad | $19.99 |
| Chile | CLP 9,990$10.17 |
| China | CN¥68.00$10.12 |
| Colombia | COP 49,900$15.07 |
| Congo | $22.99 |
| Congo, Democratic Republic | $19.99 |
| Costa Rica | $9.99 |
| Cote Divoire | $22.99 |
| Croatia | €9.99$11.24 |
| Cyprus | €22.99$25.86 |
| Czech Republic | CZK 249.00$11.46 |
| Denmark | DKK 89.00$13.38 |
| Dominica | $19.99 |
| Dominican Republic | $29.99 |
| Ecuador | $9.99 |
| Egypt | EGP 499.99$9.57 |
| El Salvador | $9.99 |
| Estonia | €22.99$25.86 |
| Fiji | $29.99 |
| Finland | €9.99$11.24 |
| France | €9.99$11.62 |
| Gabon | $19.99 |
| Gambia | $19.99 |
| Georgia | $22.99 |
| Germany | €9.99$11.24 |
| Ghana | $34.99 |
| Greece | €9.99$11.24 |
| Grenada | $19.99 |
| Guatemala | $29.99 |
| Guinea-bissau | $19.99 |
| Guyana | $19.99 |
| Honduras | $19.99 |
| Hong Kong | HK$88.00$11.21 |
| Hungary | HUF 4,490$13.71 |
| Iceland | $11.99 |
| India | ₹999.00$10.57 |
| Indonesia | IDR 199,000$11.12 |
| Iraq | $19.99 |
| Ireland | €9.99$11.24 |
| Israel | ₪29.90$9.80 |
| Italy | €9.99$11.24 |
| Jamaica | $29.99 |
| Japan | ¥1,500$9.50 |
| Jordan | $19.99 |
| Kazakhstan | KZT 5,990.00$13.48 |
| Kenya | $11.99 |
| Kosovo | €22.99$25.86 |
| Kuwait | $19.99 |
| Kyrgyzstan | $29.99 |
| Lao Peoples Democratic Republic | $29.99 |
| Latvia | €22.99$25.86 |
| Lebanon | $19.99 |
| Liberia | $19.99 |
| Libya | $19.99 |
| Lithuania | €9.99$11.24 |
| Luxembourg | €9.99$11.24 |
| Macao | $9.99 |
| Macedonia | $19.99 |
| Madagascar | $9.99 |
| Malawi | $19.99 |
| Malaysia | MYR 49.90$12.23 |
| Maldives | $19.99 |
| Mali | $19.99 |
| Malta | €22.99$25.86 |
| Mauritania | $19.99 |
| Mauritius | $22.99 |
| Mexico | MX$199.00$10.93 |
| Micronesia | $19.99 |
| Moldova | $34.99 |
| Mongolia | $9.99 |
| Montenegro | €19.99$22.49 |
| Montserrat | $9.99 |
| Morocco | $11.99 |
| Mozambique | $19.99 |
| Myanmar | $19.99 |
| Namibia | $19.99 |
| Nauru | $19.99 |
| Nepal | $22.99 |
| Netherlands | €9.99$11.24 |
| New Zealand | NZ$19.99$11.23 |
| Nicaragua | $19.99 |
| Niger | $19.99 |
| Nigeria | NGN 29,900.00$22.48 |
| Norway | NOK 249.00$25.88 |
| Oman | $29.99 |
| Pakistan | PKR 2,900$10.48 |
| Palau | $9.99 |
| Panama | $9.99 |
| Papua New Guinea | $29.99 |
| Paraguay | $29.99 |
| Peru | PEN 44.90$13.05 |
| Philippines | ₱599.00$9.57 |
| Poland | PLN 49.99$12.85 |
| Portugal | €9.99$11.24 |
| Qatar | QAR 99.99$27.47 |
| Romania | RON 49.99$10.55 |
| Russia | RUB 899.00$10.77 |
| Rwanda | $9.99 |
| Sao Tome & Principe | $19.99 |
| Saudi Arabia | SAR 39.99$10.66 |
| Senegal | $22.99 |
| Serbia | €34.99$39.36 |
| Seychelles | $19.99 |
| Sierra Leone | $19.99 |
| Singapore | SGD 14.98$11.70 |
| Slovakia | €9.99$11.24 |
| Slovenia | €9.99$11.24 |
| Solomon Islands | $19.99 |
| South Africa | ZAR 199.99$12.00 |
| South Korea | ₩17,000$12.61 |
| Spain | €9.99$11.24 |
| Sri Lanka | $29.99 |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | $19.99 |
| St. Lucia | $19.99 |
| St. Vincent & The Grenadines | $19.99 |
| Suriname | $19.99 |
| Swaziland | $19.99 |
| Sweden | SEK 129.00$12.85 |
| Switzerland | CHF 9.00$10.86 |
| Taiwan | NT$320.00$10.05 |
| Tajikistan | $29.99 |
| Tanzania | TZS 59,900.00$22.61 |
| Thailand | THB 399.00$11.89 |
| Tonga | $19.99 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | $29.99 |
| Tunisia | $19.99 |
| Turkey | TRY 499.99$10.17 |
| Turkmenistan | $19.99 |
| Turks and Caicos | $19.99 |
| Uganda | $22.99 |
| Ukraine | $11.99 |
| United Arab Emirates | AED 39.99$10.90 |
| United Kingdom | £9.99$13.21 |
| United States | $9.99 |
| Uruguay | $9.99 |
| Uzbekistan | $29.99 |
| Vanuatu | $19.99 |
| Venezuela | $29.99 |
| Vietnam | ₫299,000$11.53 |
| Yemen | $19.99 |
| Zambia | $22.99 |
| Zimbabwe | $11.99 |
Pleco Chinese Dictionary FAQ
- Is Pleco Chinese Dictionary free?
- Yes. The app and its basic features are free, in all 175 countries it sells in. Premium features are paid: they start from $4.99 (US), across 10 one-time purchases.
- Does Pleco Chinese Dictionary have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- Where is Pleco Chinese Dictionary cheapest?
- A one-time purchase costs CA$12.99 (≈$9.15) in Canada and €34.99 (≈$39.36) in Bosnia & Herzegovina, its cheapest and dearest countries.
- What are the best alternatives to Pleco Chinese Dictionary?
- HelloChinese - Learn Chinese (4.8 from 180,025 reviews, premium from $4.99), SuperChinese - Learn Chinese (4.9 from 75,467 reviews, premium from $11.99) and ChineseSkill - Learn Chinese (4.8 from 63,694 reviews, premium from $11.99).
Pleco Chinese Dictionary download
Last updated 1 month ago.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary sells in 175 countries. It was released 16 years and 9 months ago, on 17 Dec 2009. It holds a 4.5 rating from 8,349 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does Pleco Chinese Dictionary make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.
Revenue by plan
- One-time 100%
Revenue by country
- United States 33%
- Singapore 20%
- Australia 4%
- Germany 4%