Is iTalki Free? Here’s What You Need to Know

iTalki is the best way to learn languages online by having one-on-one lessons and conversations with native speakers. However, iTalki is not free. Even though it’s not free, you can easily find teachers in most languages for $4-$10 per hour. There are a few resources on iTalki that are free, though, like asking other users to correct you. Also, if you are new to iTalki, you can take trial lessons for as low as $1.

We’ll go into how exactly to use the free section of iTalki as well as how to get trial lessons in this post!

In 2020, iTalki got rid of its language partner program, so you can no longer find language exchanges on iTalki for free.

Community Tab: Free Section of iTalki

After you’ve created an account on iTalki, there are a few things that you can do for free on the app and website. Just click on the “Community” tab to find the free section.

Here, you can post questions, grammar exercises, or just post something general about the language that you’re learning.

Other users will answer your questions or help correct what you’ve posted. You can also search past posts and questions by the language that you’re learning.

The “Exercise” section of the Community Tab is meant for you to write or even post an audio in the language that you’re learning so that other iTalki users can correct your grammar.

The “Questions” tab is for asking questions about your language, like “how do I say ___ in this situation?” since the direct translation isn’t always right.

You can also download the iTalki app to upload audio recordings for users to listen to and help you with pronunciation.

Practically Free: Trial Lessons on iTalki

If you haven’t used iTalki before, then you can access “trial lessons” which are extremely cheap lessons that allow you to test out a teacher before paying full price for their lessons. Although these lessons aren’t free, they are an EXTREMELY good deal!

I am a huge cheapskate and iTalki is one of those places where I know I will never be wasting my money.

Every new account on iTalki comes with 3 trial lessons. After that, you’ll have to book classes for the full price (which is still VERY cheap if you find the right teacher!)

In order to find good deals on iTalki, choose the language that you’re learning and then set the price to the lowest possible which is $4-$9 per class.

By doing this, I was able to find a trial class for only a dollar!

Extremely Cheap iTalki classes

Like I said before, I am one of the biggest cheapskates out there and I don’t take spending money lightly. So when I say that iTalki is absolutely worth the money, I really mean it.

I’ve taken 72 Italian classes, 17 French classes, and 2 Spanish classes, and can tell you that iTalki is the BEST investment in my language learning that I’ve ever made. If you are serious about learning a language fluently, you absolutely need to be taking classes on iTalki.

It’s the cheapest and best option available for learning languages at home, or anywhere. Hands down.

In order to take classes on iTalki, you have to buy credits. Although some people may not like this part of iTalki, I like that it keeps me accountable to actually use that money towards language classes.

The lowest amount of credits that you can buy is $10. I tend to buy $100 in credits at one time since there is a small processing fee to buy the iTalki credits so buying more at one time saves me money.

In order to make my money stretch further, I only book Conversation classes instead of Formal Lessons. The best way to actually learn a language is by using it and making mistakes.

I always make sure that my teacher knows that I never want to speak in English and that I really want to be corrected when I make mistakes. If they’re willing, I ask them to type the correct answer in the chat so that I can study it later!

To save more money, I book my classes in bulk with my favorite teachers to save money. Each teacher sets their own rates, so the prices will vary.

Also, some teachers don’t offer a discount for bulk lessons, but most do. For example, when booking an Italian lesson for 60 minutes, I can pay $9 for one class or $40 for 5 classes. Buying the package brings down the price per class to $8 instead of $9.

Bulk lessons (or package lessons) must be used within 6 months of buying, so only choose this if you plan to complete all of the lessons within that time frame.

If you haven’t been able to tell by now, I’m one of iTalki’s BIGGEST fans. Trust me, if you want to actually be able to have conversations in your dream language, start taking classes on iTalki and it will change how you learn languages.