Early pricing · locked for as long as you stay

Everything you need to actually read Japanese

Courses, 16 games, a 669,996-entry dictionary — and reading written for you from the exact characters you know.

563 learners · 669,996 dictionary entries · Cancel any time · Free plan, no card

Free

$0forever

No card. Nothing expires.

Enough to learn from properly — and to find out whether this suits you.

Create a free account

18 starter lessons; the full courses need Premium
All 16 games, XP, streaks and leaderboards
Every one of 229 books in the library, complete — tap any word
The full dictionary and all 13,071 kanji pages
Handwriting marked on stroke order, listening practice, the grammar and JLPT paths
A new lesson and a writing task every day, marked when you submit
The AI tutor, with a daily allowance
3 reading passages a day, written at your level
30 review cards a day
Saving readings, reading topics beyond the basics, and reading history past 3
Generating new audio for books (you can play what already exists)

Most people choose this

Premium

$ 9.99 /month

~~$19.98~~ — 50% off, forever while we are still early

That is about 33¢ a day.

The whole platform, no limits worth noticing, and the tools that make practice stick.

Start Premium

Cancel any time · your progress is always yours

Everything in Free — all 16 games
Every lesson in all 154 courses — 3,177 lessons — and the certificates
20 reading passages a day, every topic, not 3
Uncapped review deck — words you missed, back in the sentence you met them
Voice any sentence in any of 229 books, in a real Japanese voice
The AI pronunciation trainer
“Is this natural?” — a model reads your writing (the automatic marking is free for everyone)
Kanji Focus — practice weighted to what you keep missing
Save readings to come back to, the difficulty dial, and 60 readings of history
Pro modes in the furigana and romaji converters
No ads on grammar and vocabulary pages

Elite

$ 99.99 /month

~~$199.98~~ — 50% off, forever

For people who are not casual about this.

Everything, without a ceiling — plus the things that only make sense if you are here daily.

Go Elite

Everything in Premium, and then some

Everything in Premium
40 reading passages a day
Write your own reading topic — any subject, at your level
Priority support, answered first
New tools before anyone else

Why is it $9.99 a month?

Because we are still early, and we would rather have you here now than charge full price to fewer people later.

Nihoner ships something new most weeks — the list on the right is the last few. The list price is $19.98; the discount is applied at the checkout and keeps applying for as long as you stay subscribed.

Whatever you join at is what you keep paying, for as long as you stay subscribed. That is the whole offer: you take a chance on us early, and we never raise it on you.

Shipped recently

新Handwriting: draw any of 6,702 characters and be marked on stroke order
新229 real Japanese books, every word linked to its meaning
新Reading written from your own kanji, checked before you see it
新A review deck built from the sentences you personally read
新Kanji Duel, Conjugation Dojo, Particle Battle, Stroke Order
新1,680 Japanese towns, in Japanese
新An AI tutor that names the rule instead of guessing

Everything, side by side

All 49 features, honestly marked. Premium adds 12 things Free does not have.

Feature	Free	Premium	Elite
Reading written for you
Passages generated at your exact level Checked character by character before you see it	3 a day	20 a day	40 a day
Topics to choose from Everyday, food, trains, seasons, work, history, your city	2	All 7	All 7
Tap any word for reading and meaning Straight from the 669,996-entry dictionary	✓	✓	✓
Difficulty dial Nothing new, just right, or push me	—	✓	✓
Your reading library Everything written for you, kept and searchable	Last 3	Everything	Everything
Review deck from your own reading Words you did not know, back in the sentence you met them in	30 cards a day	Uncapped	Uncapped
Write your own topic Any subject you like, at your level	—	—	✓
The library — real Japanese books
229 books, complete and free Public-domain Japanese literature — 漱石, 芥川, 太宰, 宮沢賢治 — nothing abridged	✓	✓	✓
Every word linked to its explanation Tap it: reading, meaning, the kanji it is built from, and the dictionary entry	✓	✓	✓
Furigana as the editor printed it Authentic readings from the source edition, not machine guesses	✓	✓	✓
Places and people link to their own pages Tap 京都 or 徳川家康 and read about them without leaving the book	✓	✓	✓
Vertical Japanese (縦書き) Read it laid out the way it was printed	✓	✓	✓
Words in this book you have not met A pre-reading list built from your own vocabulary, ranked by how often each recurs	✓	✓	✓
New words marked as you read Only the ones that are new to you, from your own record	✓	✓	✓
Sorted by what you can already read The library ranks books by how much of each one you can handle today	✓	✓	✓
Hear any sentence read aloud Native Japanese narration. Anything already voiced plays for everyone, free.	Play only	Voice new ones	Voice new ones
Writing — the half you cannot practise by reading
Handwriting pad Draw the character and be scored on stroke order and direction against real stroke data	✓	✓	✓
Every character with stroke data 6,702 of them — both kana syllabaries, all 1,000 school kanji, the rest of jōyō, and beyond	✓	✓	✓
A course through all of it Kana → school years 1–6 → general use by frequency → the rest by stroke count. Each step finishable in a sitting.	✓	✓	✓
Checked in your browser Nothing you draw is uploaded, stored or sent anywhere	✓	✓	✓
A new composition task every day A brief, one grammar pattern and three words you must use — written fresh each night at your level	✓	✓	✓
Instant marking, unlimited Checked against this site's own dictionary and grammar tables — free, however many times you submit	✓	✓	✓
The model answer, and why A natural version with an explanation of why it is phrased that way	✓	✓	✓
Build a sentence from your own words Two words drawn from your personal vocabulary record — never one you have not met	✓	✓	✓
"Is this natural?" A model reads one sentence and says whether a Japanese person would phrase it that way	—	5 a day	5 a day
Your writing record Every piece kept, scored, and counted toward your progress	✓	✓	✓
Courses and lessons
154 courses, N5 → N1 3,177 lessons on a path that always tells you what is next	✓	✓	✓
Quizzes 1,012 quizzes at every level	✓	✓	✓
A new lesson written every day Part of a running series, not disconnected drills	✓	✓	✓
Certificates On completing a course	✓	✓	✓
Practice and games
16 learning games Kanji, kana, particles, conjugation, counters, stroke order, politeness, place names	✓	✓	✓
Everything feeds your progress Games record what you actually know, not just a score	✓	✓	✓
Audio Samurai Listening practice against the clock	✓	✓	✓
Listening practice Dictation, word-catching, a speed ladder and minimal pairs	✓	✓	✓
AI pronunciation trainer Say it, and hear exactly where it drifted	—	✓	✓
Leaderboards and streaks Weekly boards, daily streaks, XP and levels	✓	✓	✓
Reference
Dictionary 669,996 entries with readings and forms	✓	✓	✓
Kanji pages 13,071 characters with stroke animations, radicals and example words	✓	✓	✓
Vocabulary and grammar 7,972 words, 831 grammar points	✓	✓	✓
Save anything Your own lists of kanji, words and grammar — needs an account, not a plan	✓	✓	✓
Furigana and script converters Paste any Japanese and read it	✓	✓	✓
Japan in Japanese 1,680 cities and 3,131 figures from its history	✓	✓	✓
Help when you are stuck
AI Japanese tutor Ask anything and get a straight answer with the rule named (5 an hour without an account)	40 an hour	40 an hour	40 an hour
Member community Ask real learners and get answers	✓	✓	✓
Priority support Questions answered first	—	—	✓
Your progress
Progress dashboard XP, streaks, levels and what to do next	Basic	Full	Full
Recent results from every game See where you are actually improving	—	✓	✓
Kanji Focus Practice weighted toward the characters you keep missing	—	✓	✓
Reading rank How much Japanese you can read, against everyone else here	✓	✓	✓

Before you decide

What happens if I cancel?

You drop back to Free and keep your account, your XP, your streak and everything you have learned. Your saved readings and review deck stay in place — they simply fall back to the free daily limits. Nothing is deleted.

Will the price go up on me later?

No. The rate you join at is the rate you keep for as long as the subscription stays active. If the standard price ever rises, it rises for new members, not for you.

Is the free plan actually usable, or is it a trailer?

Usable. You get every course, every game, every book, the whole dictionary, a new lesson every day, and 3 pieces of reading written for you daily — with the same checking that paid members get. The free tier has lower daily limits, not less content.

What is the reading feature, exactly?

We track which characters you have actually met. When you ask for something to read, your list goes to the writer with one rule — anything outside it must be written in kana — and the result is checked character by character before you ever see it. If it used something you do not know, it gets rewritten. Nothing else does this, because it needs your personal history and a Japanese lexicon in the same place. See how it works →

Do I need a card to try it?

Not for Free — no card, no expiry, no reminder emails asking for one.

Do you offer licensing for universities, schools, or entire language departments?

Yes. We provide institutional licensing for higher education and language programs with unlimited teachers, bulk roster invites, domain auto-joining (@your.edu), 24 measurable assignment types, and full Premium for every learner.
Explore Nihoner for Universities & Institutions →

Start free, decide later

Make an account, read three passages written for you today, and see whether it does what we say. If it does, Premium is $9.99 and stays that way.