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Duolingo now offers paid subscriptions for ad-free and offline access

Duolingo now offers paid subscriptions for ad-free and offline access

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Language learning app Duolingo this week introduced a paid subscription program for Android users, reports TechCrunch. Duolingo Plus will cost $9.99 a month and offers users ad-free lessons and offline access. The free, ad-supported version of the app will remain available.

“Subscribers will help keep language education free for millions of people around the world,” Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn wrote in a blog post. “Being able to download lessons is particularly appealing to those learning a new language for travel purposes who want to practice while flying or without a stable Wi-Fi connection.”

The paid subscription comes after Duolingo’s dabble in various ways in monetize, from ads to certification courses to A/B testing in-app payments like charging $4.99 to repair a streak record.

von Ahn helped launched Duolingo with the goal of making language learning free and more accessible. In its early stages, the company launched a program to help crowdsource translations for the web, with plans to sell commissioned work to support the free service. According to TechCrunch, this program is still in beta.

Duolingo Plus will launch to select Android users at first; iOS support will be coming “soon.”