Lexo vs LingQ: two ways to learn by reading

LingQ and Lexo start from the same belief: you learn a language by reading and listening to things you understand and care about. They put it into practice in very different ways. LingQ is an open reading platform. You read lessons from its library or import almost anything, from articles and ebooks to YouTube videos, and it keeps track of every word you look up and learn. Lexo is a curated library: classic novels rewritten at your level in the language you’re learning, narrated, with each word explained in the sentence you found it in.

We make Lexo, so read this with that in mind. We’ve tried to describe LingQ the way its own users would and to be plain about what Lexo doesn’t do. It was checked in October 2026 against LingQ’s site, help center and App Store listing. LingQ’s plans and features change, so check its site for the current details.

The short answer

Choose LingQ if you want to read whatever interests you, on any device, with flashcards and statistics to track your vocabulary as it grows. It’s at its best for independent learners who like to pick their own material and don’t mind working through text that’s a little hard. Choose Lexo if you want whole books that already fit your level, read aloud with different voices for different characters, with every word explained in context, on iPhone or iPad. LingQ gives you breadth and tools. Lexo gives you books that fit.

At a glance

	LingQ	Lexo
What you read	Its library of lessons (podcasts, stories, articles, courses) plus anything you import: web pages, ebooks, YouTube, Netflix and more	About 100 classics, from Pride and Prejudice to The Count of Monte Cristo
Levels	Lessons labeled from Beginner up; imported material is whatever level it is	CEFR A2 to C2, chosen per book
Help with words	Click a word for suggested meanings and dictionaries; save it as a “LingQ”; an AI assistant answers questions	Tap any word: its meaning in this sentence, base form, part of speech, idiom, and a translation of the sentence
Audio	Recorded audio for many library lessons; generated speech for imported text; transcripts for your own audio	The whole book narrated, with character voices and word-by-word highlighting; every word playable
Review	Spaced-repetition flashcards for saved words and phrases	A saved Words list you can go back over; no spaced repetition
Progress tracking	Known-word counts, statistics, daily goals and streaks	None
Languages	More than 50	About 80
Offline	In the mobile apps	Yes; books download to your device
Platforms	Web, iPhone, iPad and Android	iPhone and iPad (iOS 18 or later)
Account	Required	None; purchases go through your Apple ID
How you pay	A limited free plan, plus Premium and Premium Plus subscriptions	$4.99 a book, or Lexo Plus at $4.99 a month for two book credits (planned US launch prices)
Can you use it today?	Yes	Not yet; in beta, launching on the App Store soon

What LingQ does well

LingQ was launched in 2007 by the polyglot Steve Kaufmann and his son Mark, and it has spent nearly two decades refining one idea: turn anything you want to read into a lesson.

You choose the material. Browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge import web articles, and LingQ can also bring in YouTube videos, Netflix subtitles, podcasts and ebook files such as EPUB and PDF. If you love football, cooking or Korean dramas, you can learn from them. The built-in library adds thousands of lessons, many with audio, including its Mini Stories for early learners.

You see your vocabulary grow. Words you haven’t met are highlighted in blue. Click one for suggested meanings and dictionary links, and save it as a LingQ, which turns it yellow and adds it to your review. By default, words you page past without saving count as known, so your known-word total climbs as you read, and it’s satisfying to watch it go up.

Audio comes with almost everything. Imported text can be read aloud with generated speech, and LingQ can transcribe your own audio files, so a podcast becomes something you can read along with.

The tools keep improving. Recent additions include translations chosen from the context of the sentence, an AI assistant called Lynx, and a feature that makes a simpler version of a lesson. Check LingQ’s plans page to see which features come with which plan.

It goes where you go. LingQ runs on the web, iOS and Android, its mobile apps can work offline, and it covers more than 50 languages, including less common ones such as Irish and Urdu.

What Lexo does differently

Lexo starts with the book rather than the tool. You choose a classic, say The Count of Monte Cristo, and a level: A2, B1, B2, C1 (close to the original, lightly condensed) or C2 (the complete novel). The book has been rewritten at that level in the language you’re learning, so most of each page is within reach and your taps go to the words that really stop you. Our levels guide describes what each level reads like.

The tap card is built for reading, not for building a deck. It shows the word’s meaning in this sentence rather than a list of every sense, its base form and part of speech, the meaning of any phrase or idiom it’s part of, and a translation of the whole sentence into your own language. The book is narrated from beginning to end, with different voices for different characters and each word highlighted as it’s read, and a sentence-by-sentence mode shows one sentence at a time with its audio and translation.

There are no known-word counts, streaks or flashcards. You can save words to a Words list, and that’s it. Lexo covers about 80 languages, with explanations in your own language, and books download for offline reading. There’s no account. The adaptations, glosses and narration are produced with AI models, guided by the CEFR level descriptors and checked automatically. Most editions are written on request: if you’re the first reader of Journey to the Center of the Earth in your language and level, chapter 1 is ready in a few minutes and the rest follows while you read.

Choosing your own text, or reading at a set level

The biggest practical difference is who decides how hard the text is. In LingQ, you do. Much of its library is uploaded by users, and LingQ’s own help center notes that difficulty labels aren’t perfectly consistent, so it encourages you to look at how many new words a lesson contains before you start. Imported material is as hard as it is. That freedom is LingQ’s great strength: reading native material with fast lookups and steady review is exactly what it’s designed for.

Lexo makes the opposite trade. Hu and Nation (2000, “Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension”) found that most readers needed to know about 98% of the words in a story to understand it adequately without help. Lexo rewrites each book at your level so that you can read for the story, the way Day and Bamford (1998, Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom) describe extensive reading: a lot of material, comfortably within your ability. You give up choice of material. You gain books you can read without stopping every line. See the 98% rule and extensive reading for more.

Who should choose LingQ

• You want to read what you like: news, blogs, YouTube, Netflix, podcasts or ebooks you already own.
• You like to measure progress. Known-word counts, statistics and streaks give you something to aim for.
• You want flashcards built from the words you save, with spaced repetition.
• You’re comfortable with harder texts and happy to look up a lot of words, or you want to start with LingQ’s beginner Mini Stories.
• You use Android or a computer, or switch between devices.
• You want to try before you pay. The free plan is limited, but it lets you see how LingQ works.

Who should choose Lexo

• You want whole books at your level, chosen and prepared for you, rather than hunting for material.
• You want to listen as you read. Books are narrated in full, with character voices and word-by-word highlighting.
• You want each word explained in context, with idioms and a translation of the sentence in your own language.
• You’d rather not manage statistics or a review deck. Lexo is simply a book and the help you need to read it.
• You’d rather buy books than subscribe. Buy one at a time, or use Lexo Plus if you read a lot.
• You read on iPhone or iPad.

Lexo is in beta and launching on the App Store soon. Get notified at launch. If you’re weighing other reading apps, see Lexo vs Readlang and the best apps to learn a language by reading.