Graded Reader Apps & Websites
Build your Chinese reading skills with graded readers designed for your level. These apps and websites offer stories, articles, and other reading material with learner-friendly features such as Pīnyīn, translations, vocabulary help and audio.
Graded Stories & Lessons
Short original stories designed for HSK 1–4 learners. Each story includes full Pīnyīn, key vocabulary, and comprehension questions. A great choice for learners who can already read basic Chinese characters.
Free
Chinese Reading Practice offers free, level-based reading practice for learners from Newbie through Advanced, with short stories, essays, dialogues, idioms, myths and fables, science and history topics and other Chinese texts. Readings include English translations plus hover-over pinyin and word definitions to help with unfamiliar vocabulary. No signup or subscription is required, and the site is ad-free.
Free
This subscription-based reading app highly recommended by many Chinese teachers. Its stories are written and recorded by native speakers, include professional translations, and are available in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Content is organized by difficulty and HSK level, ranging from simple beginner texts to longer stories for intermediate learners and classical Chinese, including Tang Dynasty poetry, for advanced readers. Available for Android and iOS.
Free Limited Access / Paid App
Learn Chinese naturally with a daily engaging story that offers a smooth learning experience. Tap on characters for instant definitions, take comprehension quizzes, and practice writing—all while learning how native speakers use words in context. Simplified and Traditional Chinese are both available. Forget rote memorization; research shows context is key to mastering characters. Available on the Web, Android and iOS.
Free / Paid App
★ Graded Chinese reading and listening practice from HSK 1 through advanced levels. Mandarin Bean offers graded Chinese readings with native-speaker audio, pinyin, instant word translations, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. All graded reading lessons are free to access, while Premium adds features such as full English translations, comprehension exercises, lesson notes, downloadable PDFs, and additional study tools.
Free / Paid
★ Practice reading Chinese with hundreds of free HSK 1–6 graded texts with audio and built-in word help. Read Mandarin offers original graded readings organized by HSK level, with pinyin, tap-to-translate definitions, audio and comprehension questions. Learners can also save vocabulary to a personal wordbook for flashcard practice. Everything needed for the readings is free, with no account required. Note: Based on HSK 2.0.
Free
★ Learn Mandarin through 400+ graded lessons with manga-style stories, audio, translations, and character support. WeHanzi is a Mandarin graded reader and study app with content for HSK and TOCFL levels. It supports Simplified and Traditional Chinese, pinyin and zhuyin, full sentence and word translations, multi-voice audio, stroke-order writing practice, flashcards, custom word lists, and a dictionary. The iOS app is free to download with optional in-app purchases and paid subscriptions. Available on the web and iOS.
Free / PaidNews, Articles & Real-World Reading
BaoBao is a Chinese graded reading and listening app built around real-world content, including audiobooks, bilingual news, short videos and graded material for different proficiency levels. Learners can use side-by-side translations, adjustable native audio, pinyin and grammar notes, a tap-to-translate dictionary, saved vocabulary and spaced-repetition flashcards. It also includes quizzes, word puzzles and other review tools, making it especially useful for learners who want reading and listening practice in one place. BaoBao is free to download, with in-app purchases and paid subscription options for additional features and content. Available on Android and iOS.
Free / Paid
This is one of the best apps available for advanced students. The Chairman’s Bao offers 9,500+ graded news lessons for Mandarin learners across all HSK levels, with new articles added regularly. Each lesson includes clickable word translations and native Chinese audio. Additional features include flashcards, character-writing practice, idiom explanations, and other tools to build reading and vocabulary skills. Available on the Web, iOS and Android.
Paid App
★ Learn Chinese through reading and listening to content that interests you. LingQ helps you build comprehension and vocabulary with audio and matching text, instant word lookups, saved vocabulary, progress tracking, and a library of lessons and real-world content. You can also import material such as videos, podcasts, articles and ebooks to create your own lessons. A free plan is available with limits on features such as saved vocabulary and imports, while paid Premium plans unlock unlimited vocabulary tracking, unlimited imports, offline access and additional features. Available on the web, Android and iOS.
Free / Paid
Mylingua is a personalized reading platform for intermediate and advanced Mandarin learners. It gathers thousands of articles from China and Taiwan and recommends content based on your Chinese level and interests. Each article receives a Mylingua Score to help you find authentic content at the right difficulty level, with recommendations adapting as your skills improve.
Paid Web-Based
Todaii (also called Easy Chinese) helps Mandarin learners build reading, listening, and vocabulary skills through real-world content, including current news. It offers materials for different proficiency levels and includes tools to support HSK preparation. Available on the Web, Andriod and iOS
Free / Paid