Duolingo Energy System – The Complete Guide
Few things in Duolingo have sparked as much debate as its heart system. Make too many mistakes, and you’d be locked out of lessons unless you waited, practiced old material, or paid up. Learners argued this discouraged experimentation and punished the very thing language learning requires: making mistakes.
Now, Duolingo has rolled out a new mechanic — the Energy system. Branded as a way to create healthier learning habits, it replaces hearts with something that looks and feels quite different. But does it actually improve the experience?
This guide breaks down how Energy works, how it compares to hearts, what it means for free and paid users, and what the community thinks so far.
Article Summary
Duolingo has replaced its controversial heart system with a new Energy system.
Energy works like a battery: you start with 25 units, and each question costs 1 unit.
Unlike hearts, mistakes aren’t punished specifically — you spend energy whether you’re right or wrong.
You can regain some energy through correct answer streaks, ads, gems, or practice (depending on test group).
Free users face a daily cap, while Super/Max subscribers enjoy unlimited energy.
Community feedback is mixed: some appreciate the shift away from punishing mistakes, others find the limits harsher.
The rollout began in spring 2025 but is still in A/B testing, so some users still have hearts.
Ultimately, Energy raises a simple question: is Duolingo focusing more on learning, or on making money?
Background: The Heart System
The heart system was introduced as a way to “discourage binging,” according to Duolingo. In reality, many learners felt it was simply a way to funnel users into Super Duolingo subscriptions.
- You started with five hearts.
- Every mistake cost a heart.
- Running out meant you couldn’t continue lessons.
- Refill options included waiting, spending gems, or upgrading to Super for unlimited hearts.
The backlash was strong because mistakes are a natural, even essential, part of learning. Being punished for them felt wrong.
What is the Energy System?
Energy works more like a stamina bar or battery. Instead of punishing mistakes, it puts a cap on total activity.
- You begin with 25 units of energy.
- Every question you answer — correct or incorrect — costs 1 unit.
- If you string together a run of correct answers, you may earn back a few energy units through a mini reward game.
Unlike hearts, this means even perfect runs eventually run down your energy. The focus has shifted from punishing errors to limiting overall daily activity.
How Energy Works in Practice
Here’s how you can spend and regain energy:
Spending Energy
- Every exercise consumes 1 energy.
- Longer lessons or challenges may consume more.
Regaining Energy
- Correct answer streaks: Get a run of correct answers to win back some energy at random.
- Ads: In some test groups, you can watch a rewarded video ad for extra energy.
- Practice: Some users are allowed to earn energy by revisiting older material.
- Gems: 750 gems can buy a full refill (25 energy).
- Time: Energy naturally recharges over the course of a day.
Paid Members
- Super and Max subscribers get unlimited energy, removing the system entirely.
Impact on Learning Experience
The Upsides
- No direct punishment for mistakes.
- Encourages shorter, more focused sessions.
- Makes the app feel more like a stamina‑based game than a punishment system.
The Downsides
- Even perfect learners eventually run out of energy.
- For free users, daily practice time is capped at a fraction of what it used to be.
- Options to earn more energy vary depending on A/B testing.
For many, this means energy feels more restrictive than hearts: with hearts, perfect play allowed unlimited progress; with energy, even perfect play runs into a hard cap.
Free vs. Super/Max Users
The divide is simple but stark:
- Free Users: Limited to the energy cap. Every session depletes their battery until they must stop, wait, watch ads, or spend gems.
- Super/Max Users: Unlimited energy. They can play as long as they want — 5 minutes or 5 hours — without restriction.
This has created the perception that energy isn’t just a new learning mechanic; it’s a hard paywall for serious learners.
Community Reaction
The rollout has provoked a strong reaction across forums and social media:
Negative Feedback
- Some users are frustrated that even perfect answers drain energy
- Free users report running out of energy after just a few lessons.
- Feels like a shift from punishing mistakes to punishing those who don’t pay.
Positive or Neutral Takes
- Some like that mistakes are no longer punished.
- A few argue it encourages pacing rather than cramming.
Overall, though, sentiment is largely negative. Longtime learners with multi‑year streaks say energy is “worse than the heart system” and that it may drive them to quit.
Why Did Duolingo Make the Switch?
Duolingo frames Energy as a way to create healthier learning habits: shorter sessions, fewer dropouts from mistakes, more consistency. Internally, it also aligns with monetization: free users hit a wall, and paid users don’t.
From a business perspective, this makes sense. But from a learning perspective, it’s more complicated. Does limiting daily time encourage better retention, or simply frustrate motivated learners?
Rollout and Testing
The Energy system started appearing in April/May 2025. Rollout is still inconsistent:
- Some accounts use Energy, others still use Hearts.
- Testing varies by platform (iOS, Android, web).
- Features like “watch an ad to refill” appear in some groups but not others.
As with many Duolingo experiments, A/B testing means user experiences can differ dramatically.
Bottom Line
The Energy system is Duolingo’s bold attempt to move beyond the much‑hated hearts. It avoids punishing mistakes but instead limits total time. For free users, that can feel like hitting a wall. For paid users, the change is largely invisible — unlimited energy means unlimited learning.
Whether this is an improvement depends on your perspective:
- If you hated being punished for errors, Energy feels kinder.
- If you value long daily study sessions without paying, Energy feels worse.
Like most of Duolingo’s design choices, it’s a mix of learning and business goals. Energy changes the balance but doesn’t remove the trade‑off.
What do you think? Has the new Energy system improved your Duolingo experience, or made it worse? Share your thoughts in the comments.
I have a 686 day streak and I am only allotted 3 energy charges. It is impossible to finish each round to gain enough energy bars to complete the round even if you are perfect. I am going to lose my streak. It seems so unfair to the people that use the free app. Está unjust! I am sad. I thought I would make it for at least 5 years.
Sincerely Free App user.
Noone wants energy. The energy “upsides ” mentioned above are bullshit. You just stare at this battery sign getting lower and lower so you can’t focus on you session. I used to feel like I was making progress, learning new words and had a lot of perfect lessons, watching an ad or two to replenish hearts if I felt like practicing some more on certain days with harder lessons. Now I run out of energy too fast, I can’t even unlock the daily challenges unless I pay. Duolingo just doens’t want any free users anymore.
I 100% agree with this. Energy has been introduced to force users on to paid subscriptions.
Hate the new system, 2018 day streak and I’m going to quit if they don’t change it back. My 3 kids hate the new system also
You’re absolutely right. I started using Duolingo because it was free. If I wanted to pay for a language-learning app, there are way better options than Duolingo. The energy system makes me feel rushed. It’s really pushing people to pay, which I won’t do, despite having a streak of over 2000 days.
Under the hearts system I could adapt my learning to the time available. I rarely ran out of hearts in 30 to 40 minutes of learning. Now because I take time to study my answers and mistakes I can run out of energy in a 7 min lesson. That never happened with hearts. Sometimes Duolingo acts up, and there is no feedback system to report errors or glitches. I believe this energy system is particularly aimed at free users to pressure them into paid services. Between every exercise in a lesson there are now constant ads for paid services. No coincidence there. I have lost interest in Duolingo after 5 years as a free user. It has its limitations, is more Canadian french than French french and so ridiculously woke. Energy has drained me. Time to move on.
Totally agree!!
I agree. Energy is a total pain. It’s stopping me finishing my daily units and limiting my progress
I find it very frustrating running out of energy and not being able to complete more than 2 lessons. It.is depressing and I feel.loke giving up learning a language.
I agree. It’s to force me to pay
Agreed. Also (maybe a glitch) my energy “battery” just says “full in 13 hours” and six hours later “full in 13 hours”. The system isn’t accruing at all. $$$
I totally agree with you. I feel frustated since the Change of Rules of Hearts vs Energy. I think they are moved only by economic reasons.
Agreed!
I have a 3455 day streak. Energy just came in as I was about 10 minutes into a 25 minute power up. It won’t even let me complete 1 lesson without watching an add, spending gems, doing a free trial or, the option the REALLY want everyone to choose, signing up for the paid service!
Money grabbing so and sos are not into free learning.
I totally agree with you. I feel frustated since the Change of Rules of Hearts vs Energy. I think they are moved only by economic reasons.
I am a Duolingo beginner with a 100-day streak, and I am super disappointed with the new battery system. The entire app now feels like one of those P2W games on Roblox, like Bladeball
This basically makes learning a language so much harder. Before Energy, I could do legendary as a breeze. Now I never do legendary lessons. The refunding energy does not even make up so much of my energy. One legendary lesson costs 25 full energy. Now I need to watch ads just to learn my lessons. Learning one lesson has become torture. You can “practice for more energy”, but it does not give enough and you can only practice 2x in a row (10 energy). And for my device, I can only watch ads when I am less than 10 energy. I 100% hate this!
Interesting, but I want Energy on Android
You can have mine, then ;) I’ve freshened and honed – for free, I admit – my (old) language skills for quite some time and “played around” with many more but now with the likes of 3 lessons, I think it is, I don’t get any flow. I guess I could do about 10-15 lessons with the old heart system in the languages I once studied, or 5-10 in a new one.
Key point tho – flow. I understand, they need subscribers, but heck, I’m one of these that just can’t really subscribe to keep old knowledge that mostly will go utterly unused so I’m out.
Sayonara!
I do approximately 1 hour in the morning and 1/2 hour in the evening. This usually costs me nothing, apart from watching adverts to regain hearts. With the ‘energy’, I can do a maximum of 4 lessons before running out and having to spend 450 gems to get 25 energy units. This is going to make me stop using Duolingo unless there is a way to regenerate energy units without paying through the nose for it. 4 lessons is less than a quarter of an hour, and I can set aside lengthier slots on a daily basis, but not plan to do 15 minutes whenever the energy levels have been replenished. This is appalling!!
I have a four year streak and 150 weeks diamond league. Just got off Super and I’m thinking why bother keeping up. I keep thinking about by learning something I’m loosing a game. Would rather just focus on learning. Yearly streaks mean nothing.
Same here streak and diamond league wise. Duo constantly changes, each iteration was worse than the last. I finally stopped my “super” subscription and couple of months ago but this energy system was the final straw. Ive deleted my account.
I have a 3 year streak going and enjoy doing as many perfect lessons as I can. Losing energy for correct or incorrect answers seems counterinuitive. I run out of energy after less than 3 lessons. This might make me quit my daily practice though I love it.
I have a 3455 day streak. Energy just came in as I was about 10 minutes into a 25 minute power up. It won’t even let me complete 1 lesson without watching an add, spending gems, doing a free trial or, the option the REALLY want everyone to choose, signing up for the paid service!
Money grabbing so and sos are not into free learning.
Hi! I returned from a trip to Peru and wanted to continue practicing Spanish nightly for up to 20 min. I didn’t want the have to pay for Super Max so I continued to watch ads, but the energy depletes in 5 min. Very frustrating so I’m no longer using the app.
The energy system is definitely going to make me quit my 1100 day streak! I’m trying to learn Italian, and so far, I really enjoyed using Duolingo for that. But with the new system, there are better ways to learn the language than with Duolingo. For some other apps you have to pay, but only once for a lifetime membership of learning. And I’m actually willing to pay a fee, but not every month or year.
I have a 3455 day streak. Energy just came in as I was about 10 minutes into a 25 minute power up. It won’t even let me complete 1 lesson without watching an add, spending gems, doing a free trial or, the option the REALLY want everyone to choose, signing up for the paid service!
Money grabbing so and sos are not into free learning.
I have a multi-year streak going and before that I had another one on another language. I’ve known for years that Duolingo isn’t the best system for learning and this change to Energy will give me the push that I need away from Duolingo to better learning methods.
Which genius thought limiting the amount of lessons a user can do per day was a great idea, this system benefits no one except Duolingo’s pockets, it is a system designed to reward paying and completely screws over all the free users. The argument of “being punished for mistakes” is a ridiculous excuse and only a cover up for the greedy tactics in play. The energy system works IF correct answers aren’t punished. I seriously hope this change is reverted as there is no situation where this benefits the users and is a total let down for us.
This new energy system is most unmotivating feature I have ever seen!
I had been thinking of switching to a paid account as i have been enjoying the app. I was willing to watch a few ads go refill hearts after mistakes. The energy just vanishes, there is no time for real learning or to even complete the lesson you are on. Will probably now stop using the app, will not be paying for sure, wouldnt trust what changes they might make to the subscription.
the energy thing appeared on my account this morning – 17 October 2025 and I ran out quite quickly even though I didn’t make more than a couple of mistakes. Also, you have no idea when it’s going to happen. At least with hearts you can see where you are and can earn a couple more by watching an ad. With the energy system it all just suddenly disappears for no reason. In my opinion it is designed for people who make lots of mistakes. I’m probably going to delete my app.
I think penalising correct answers is very demotivating. It’s totaly opposite to what happens in a classrom. Limiting lessons seems strange as some people will want to improve faster than being blocked after only one or two lessons. Instead of focussing on the lesson, you are drawn to the energy bar which is distracting. Perhaps a move away from hearts was required but, as it stands, this is not yet the best way. Perhaps a couple of teaks on the new system?
Sorry about my keyboard missing some letters.
I went to use my friend quest bonus, and ran out of energy during my double points time. What is the point of bonuses if you don’t even get enough daily energy to be able to use them? Ridiculous! This is only to penalize the free users of duolingo and force us to quit the app. So disappointed! I have a 4 year streak. Bye Duolingo
I hate the new energy system. It’s making me not want to continue learning. I have been using duolingo for over a year now and making good progress but now…..
This feels like they are trying to force the free users to quit the app. Not all users can afford to pay to use this app.
As a free app user, I’m very sad and angry about the new System. I used to have my perfect way of completing the daily quests using and adding up my xp boosts in a way that totally motivated me and made me learn my languages for 30 minutes and more almost every day. Now that highly distracting energy bar ist empty after 3 or 4 lessons which makes it impossible to complete all of the daily quests and earn the boosts that motivate me for the next day. So the idea is to do like 2 lessons every day just to save my streak? Or else to pay? That’s not what “education for free” looks like to me…
This energy bar sadly demotivates me to learn and practice with Duolingo. I feel like this way of learning is less rewarding and effective. They put a time limit on learning instead of rewarding users with good results. When you were in school you needed to put time and effort to get good grades. If you would get ten minutes to learn for an exam, there’s no way you’ll pass. It’s just like anything you learn in school or later in life: practice makes perfect. That requires time and dedication. The new system with the energy bar actually punishes/holds off time and dedication put into learning. Thus demotivating users to learning a new language. I truly hope Duolingo revisits this system and goes back to hearts where time and effort spent in the app are rewarded.
“A few argue it encourages pacing rather than cramming.”
“Duolingo frames Energy as a way to create healthier learning habits: shorter sessions, fewer dropouts from mistakes, more consistency.”
This might make sense, were it not for timed boosts encouraging people to continue their current session to earn more XP.
The boost is encouraging me to keep going for at least 10 minutes, often more, especially when they stack or get extended as “rewards”, yet the energy system is (supposedly) encouraging more frequent but shorter sessions .
These systems just don’t jive together, except of course for trying to get more people to pay up to either avoid energy (by subscription) or use up gems to buy more energy (eventually leading to spending money to buy gems); you might be able to get energy from ads, but ultimately that’s just another way to make people pay and it takes up boost time so is still somewhat discouraged; although it may instead lead to people just quitting, as it just takes the fun out of it.
If they insist on energy use sessions and truly care about learners, then they need to rethink boosts. Perhaps a boost can be a period of not spending energy, or be grating extra energy, if the goal remains to encourage a more intensive sessions, or they should remain XP boosts but be tied to a certain amount of energy for how long they last, if they want to stick to the shorter sessions mantra.
I also think that allowing people to first earn some extra energy up front (even if auto generation of energy is capped at a lower amount than the maximum you can earn) can allow people who do prefer to have more intensive sessions to still go that route.
The new energy system is terrible… I am no longer motivated to use duolingo as the use of energy for each question means I can only complete two lessons… what makes it worse is that you still have to watch advertising in between lessons, and that does not refill your energy? So you watch advertising on top of advertising just to complete a 3rd lesson?
Absolutely hate them for doing this. Whoever came up with this in the Duolingo offices should be ashamed to turn away people that have been supporting the app by watching ads for years now… I guess they got greedy
Also, if they wanted to help new learners they should have incorporated a system for beginners to help them… instead they penalize advanced learners
Just got energy yesterday. I can watch ads to gain energy like for replenishing hearts. I still need to get used to it.
Hai everybody
651 streak and today I had this surprise of the new energy system. Duolingo has a wonderfull concept offering something valuable to many people. Duolingo earns on you whether you pay or watch an add for a refill. It’s not a crime to earn money, however, changing this daily learning experience of so many people has a lot of impact I suppose. As a company you can ask yourself: ” When do I make enough profit? “
Long-time free user here (Joined April 2014). This new system is ridiculous. I’m disappointed and frustrated. I can do a maximum of 2 lessons. Even if they are perfect, the 3rd lesson forces me to quit or subscribe with 1 question left to finish. For me, as a long-term free user, this is more than frustrating, as I’m forced to watch ads for almost as much time as I spend learning in the app, and that’s just not worth it.
With the heart system, I could easily spend an hour in the app, still watching ads every few lessons. Now I rage-quit and want to switch the app. For me, this is proof that Duolingo no longer values free learning accessible to everyone, and it doesn’t want to sustain that for its long-time free users. They want to get money to grow their company even more, which is understandable but disappointing.
In the blog article about the energy system (https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-energy/), they emphasise that the heart system is frustrating for new users, and their data shows this and that. Well, I was a new user too once, and the heart system was frustrating a few times, but I just sat and learned the words I made mistakes on, forcing me to be better not to quit.
I spent quite a while exploring the system when I got it today, 23rd of October 2025 – the positive side is that it forced me to be perfect so I could have more lessons (as it rewarded me immedieatly with 2 energy afrer 5 in a row and 10 energy after 10 in a row)- but with the energy tapped at 25 it just made me rage quit the app as I was about to do a 3rd perfect lesson in a row, but had 1 energy less for that. If I make a perfect lesson, I gain 5 more energy after the lesson is finished. I calculated that a lesson with a star symbol costs 17 energy, which is 1 lesson if you make mistakes and 12 energy if you do 10 correct answers in a row, but with 1 to go before the perfect finish of lesson 3, it simply sucks. The games and the stories cost less energy, so you may get 3 lessons if you’re in that part of the learning path.
Hope they make adjustments to satisfy their long-term free users, or they’ll lose many of us.
My suggestion is to make the energy 100 or more if they feel generous – This gives us 5 lessons for frequent mistake-makers and bare minimum people, 8 lessons for people who can do 10 correct answers in every lesson and 13 lessons for those who can be perfect. Assuming the energy reward at 5 and 10 correct in a row is the same. If you tweak that a little bit and give an energy reward every 5 in a row, the people who do perfect lessons can maybe go to 15 lessons? An ad can still fill 20% of the full bar. Maybe have a way to earn more gems, different from ads and payment. I think I will be okay with something like that.
My wife and I started using Duolingo for Italian in 2019, mainly because it was free and now my streak is 6+ years. We’ve both been in our respective diamond leagues for quite some time now, and try daily to score enough points to stay there. I didn’t really have any complaint with the heart system or watching ads to replenish, as someone has to pay the bills. My wife’s app changed to battery/energy a few days ago, and all I hear now is complaints in that she can’t finish enough lessons without spending gems to recharge the battery. She agrees that all Duolingo wants is to eliminate the free users and have every one purchase the upgrade. She’s thinking about quitting and finding some other app to continue learning Italian.
After reading a bunch of reviews, I tend to agree and will probably quit if my Duolingo app changes from hearts to battery. I may quit anyway if my wife quits.
So far my searches say you cannot switch back to hearts from battery, anyone find a way yet?
I agree. If the only way forward is to buy a subscription I might be better off with Jumspeak. I only chose Duo because it was free and easy to use, I didn’t mind the adverts as I realise they pay for me to learn for free.
Agree with your wife. The app has too many users so they need to reduce users to save processor usage. So as we all quit it will accomplish there goal. What are some better options to switch too?
I HATE the new Energy part of Duolingo! During double time you waste it watching commercials. You get put up against someone with free energy and you might as well quit! Sad move Duolingo!!
Adios Duolingo!
The energy system is discouraging. It would be great if at least one company in the world was driven by doing good rather than being driven simply by profit.
I only just got startet (228 days streak).
I know very well, that the service I use doen’t come without costs. So I was not happy but still accepting to watch ads when I lost too many hearts.
I would still be accepting watching ads to regain energy but not to this amount. I would spend more time watching ads then learning. If that’s the deal, it’s just not good enough for me. I will just quit without being angry and looking for other options and deals which feel better for me.
The difference ist not between hearts und energy. The difference ist between the respective ratios of time spent with watching ads and learning.
I understand the idea of not punishing mistakes. But that could have easily corrected by inventin (ore emphasizing) possibilities to regain hearts (or energy) by any way of correcting mistakes (not just by watching ads).
I prefer being treated as equal not as an imbecile.
If you tell me: We can afford maintaining our service if you watch an ad every 5 minutes, I might be ok with it. If you tell me later: Because of whatever plausible reasin it is now necessary to whatch an ad every 4 minutes, I might still be ok with it – or not. Either way I would think you treat me correctly.
If you think, I am that stupid that you can tell me that the new system is for learning purposes, than I stop being willing to have any deal with you. And, sorry, your story is an obvious lie because you could easily have given out an higher amount of daily energy or given back an higher amount of energy between lessond etc. and still have avoided the “being punished for mistakes”-effekt.
As it is, I understand: you want me to whatch more ads. You don’t want to risk to tell me because you are afraid, I would quit the “contract”. So you tell me a sweet story thinking I am stupid enough to believe.
I am not sorry because I am free to choose my way of learning und you are free to choose your methods to earn money.
I am sorry because I just started to use your app myself and motivated others to join.
I think I will do one lesson a day to maintain my streak for a few days to see if you improve the system. If not I am confident I will find methods more suitable for me.
Take heart, Hearts, the heat is off. There’s a new villain in town.
“Energy” is completely miscalibrated. On a good day, 5 Hearts would get me through a half-hour with five or six lessons, sometimes needing a few ads to reach my daily goal. Now Energy runs out in about fifteen minutes and it many more ads to recharge it. The mid-lesson Energy bonuses are unpredictable, paltry and unhelpful.
NO to being a paid subscriber. I’ll recalibrate my time: half my prior pace in duolingo; more time with Routledge grammar reference, Quizlet flash cards, and foreign-language broadcasts.
I haven’t used the energy system long enough to agree or disagree with it. I do think more than 25 would be beneficial. When it comes to the ads, I just turn down the volume and go make a cup of tea while I wait. Human nature, with its beloved comfort zones, struggles with changes. It takes time to adjust.
The energy system is a scam to force users into paid subscriptions. With hearts I had a 450 day streak and had built up to a regular habit of 4 lessons a day. Today was my first day with energy and it was gone mid-way through the second lesson. Also, I barely concentrated on the lesson because I was more focused on watching the energy deplete like a ticking time bomb.
I’m a paid subscriber with a 1000+ day streak and I hate the energy system. It’s not as bad for me as free users (as it’s pretty evident that it’s designed to drive people to subscribing), but I hate that I can’t turn off unlimited energy. I used to turn off unlimited hearts because if I ran out of hearts it was a pretty good indicator that I had to do some practice on that particular area before moving on. Now I can just try as often as I need to get through a level – great for feeling like I am progressing but not great for actually learning. And every other subscribed user I know also turned off unlimited hearts for that reason.
It’s a minor complaint to what free users are being put through, but it’s worth sharing. Seems like the battery update is good for no one except those invested in Duolingo’s profit margins.
I do feel like I am punished for taking time to repeat all the sentences so I can use the language myself (sort of) – just what they recommended previously and for taking time to look up words….and all the other things that take time. Hey, I wish I had tons of money to pay for this and other things, but right now I am limiting how many meals I eat a day to save money, so this is not going to make the cut when push comes to shove. It gives me a bit of dignity to still be someone who was trying to learn and grow even though my financial situation is robbing me of that dignity.
Grr Duolingo!
I frequently would say to people that you can learn alot from Duolingo – Duolingo got free word of mouth advertising from me. I am not really to enthused if this is the way things are going – especially if maybe I might one day not be able to get through even one lesson – like somebody mentioned above. I am very unlikely to continue with any recommendations. Grr….I guess all the daily ads I watched didn’t bring in enough profit.
Hate the new energy system, will probably cause me to stop using Duolingo altogether.
You are telling everyone on adds that you can learn a language for free ,but I barely make one lesson with the amount of energy you gave me, and if I practise to earn hearts I can’t get through one lesson. I am thinking about quiting becouse I do not want to give money to someone that does not want to give me free education,and let me learn for a longer time and do lessons I enjoyed.
The new energy based learning system is upsetting to say the least. The hearts system worked well. If you’re making that many mistakes, it makes sense to go back and review! It’s distracting to watch your energy go down with each question, and wonder whether you’ll even have enough to get through your third lesson. Watching an ad gets you less than 1/5 of your energy back, while it used to get back one heart. I wish I had the practice to regain energy feature, as I have to stop lessons far sooner than before. I’m really trying to learn Spanish before I visit Mexico, but the update is making it difficult. Also, I would have already subscribed to Super if it was priced reasonably.
Downhill trajectory of a once great language learning app sacrificing principle of free learning for Corporate greed .It punishes free app users whilst still claiming it wants to bring free learning to global users.Feel like quitting this advertising app
I HATE the new energy system. This is punishment for those who are too poor to pay. I will quit before I ever pay for a membership, even if I ever am able to afford it. Very unfair!
I have been doing a lesson everyday for 3+ years and enjoying it, and slowly learning. I find the new energy thing extremely annoying, answering correctly then getting thrown out of the lesson. This is making me seriously consider giving up on Duolingo and try another app. I hope you change it back.
Very disappointed with the energy idea. I will switch to the books. Thanks for all the fish.
Not a super long-time user here, but I’ve really been having fun on the app. I really liked how it made learning language feel less like rote memorization and more just discovering the mechanics (like ‘Ah! So THAT’S how it works!’)
That said though, I did break my <100 day streak a couple months ago (was a bit tired out, personal reasons), and the inertia just built. I only decided to give this another spin yesterday, Oct 26, to be met with Energy.
At first glance, I did find the idea intriguing, that you were given more time to digest what you learnt before moving on. However, this quickly got annoying as I realized just how much more time was 'digesting,' and how much less time was 'progressing.'
A lot of people have already talked about how few lessons full energy accounts for, and how they need to spend so much time on ads regardless of performance. I seem to be one of the few blessed with the 'Practice for more energy' option, but I don't think it's much better over here; it doesn't let you replenish once you hit 10 energy (for me at least). So sometimes, when you're faced with the longer lessons (in my case, letter-learning lessons), you really have no choice but to wait multiple hours to continue, and *still* not be sure if you can complete it because the energy rewards for perfect streaks are completely random (which on its own is already unfair). Like, I could understand the cap on replenishing if it were still Hearts (because chances are, you probably do need to slow down), but why Energy? This new system *already* requires you to review every couple of lessons, so in addition to that speed bump, you decide to put up a wall too?
Still, I do think there's some potential in this new system if it's balanced right. Like I said, the occasional required review serves as a speed bump, but I can see how that may help build a more solid foundation (perhaps more solid than needed, but at least it's trying to be helpful). But right now, this system is a great big traffic jam, which emotionally drains the user too much for that 'Ah-hah!' moment to really hit.
2 simple things to remedy this: more energy per day (maybe 50 would be enough, depends on how many lessons you believe users should be able to take without reviewing) and/or unlimited replenishment (or at least, enough replenishment for *a single lesson*). You still have the speed checks in place, but now they aren't completely obstuctive to productive progress
Obviously nothing more than a marketing ploy to force paid subscriptions, Just like no explanations available to unpaid users.
The new energy system is awful and is making me reconsider using Duolingo. While the marketing would suggest it somehow helps learners, that certainly isn’t my experience. It feels like both a bait and switch and a punishment for non paying users. I can only complete 2 or 3 lessons with all correct answers before running out of energy. If the answers are correct, why am I losing??? The bonus of double or triple XP points doesn’t even matter anymore because you lose energy way before your bonus time is up. This change is really disappointing and just a bad decision.
YOU CAN DO THREE?
But in all seriousness, if they’re making this a new, permanent thing, either add the heart system back and scrap this one entirely, or just edit the system to where you only lose energy if you ACTUALLY get a question wrong. Not right. It’s completely defeating the purpose of what they said it would fix.
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I have a 8 years+ streak and get treated that way…..
I am a free user but had to watch LOTS of commercials that brings good money to Duolingo.
I also reminder how they dealt with the contributors….
I listened to the DuoCon last month and no word about this change of policy, nothing, nada. Since this is a big difference I would have thought they could have mentioned it. The conference was a show, not a real conference, I think. They said they have 130 million subscribers, 10% is paying. Isn’t this enough?
On my laptop I still have hearts instead of energy, but very few points per lesson. Unfortunately the features that give me double or triple XP are not used when I learn in the website, so it is very hard to stay in the league I’m currently in.
I’m going to search for a different learning platform, hope I can find one that helps me learning Bahasa Indonesia.
I uninstalled the app today, not wasting my time on watching more ads than time actually completing the lessons. New system SUCKS y Duo puede ir al carajo!
I understand that Duolingo is a business and needs to make money. But this new Energy system feels less like monetization and more like pure greed.
With the amount of energy you get, and the tiny amount you earn back, you can barely finish two and a half lessons before you’re forced to stop. And what’s the “solution”? Watching endless, lengthy ads for ridiculous games.
It used to take me about 20 minutes to complete five lessons a day. It was fun – I used my bonus points of receiving double or triple XPs, kept my mistakes under controle and if I really ran out of hearts I would watch adverts to continue.
Now it takes almost 45, and not because I’m learning more, but because I’m stuck watching repetitive ads that drag on forever. The flow is gone. The motivation is gone. Every session feels like punishment. Last night I fell asleep during one of those adverts.
Duolingo once promised free language learning for everyone. But this? This isn’t learning anymore. It’s torture disguised as “gamification.”
If I decide to pay for language learning, I’d rather give my money to a real human tutor, someone who actually listens when I point out a mistake instead of an AI that shrugs and keeps misgrading the same sentence.
Your new system is unfair and stupid, because you are forsing people to pay the pro version. Duolingo was my favorite app for more than 2 years now and now I’m thinking of not even using it anymore. I literally can’t make progress on a daily level because of this stupid energy system. Shame on you.
I’ve had the energy system for about a week. I only do a couple lessons a day, and up until today, the energy didn’t prevent me. But today, I did one lesson, and my energy was gone. There are daily challenges I could complete with one or two more lessons, but I’m not allowed without subscribing. You can’t say the energy limit is to “prevent binging” and “encourage healthy study habits” while posting daily goals that are unattainable within those limits.
The energy system is useless for non-paying users, and reduces my practice to a maximum of 2 lessons a day; that’s if I make no mistakes. The Greek course is very limited, with a lot of inaccurate content, and apart from no ads Super Duolingo adds nothing to the learning experience. No point in paying.
Thankyou for following me Mattt!
I am a Duolingo beginner with a 100-day streak, and I am super disappointed with the new battery system. The entire app now feels like one of those P2W games on Roblox, like Bladeball
For chess and french learner on the app using it for 10 min a day it’s perfect. Don’t need to stress over mistakes. For heavy users I can see the frustrations but then you can just use other app. Duolingo is business not a charity. They need to pay their developers. Kids get bored with the app after few months so not worth paying anyway. For true heavy users that enjoy Duolingo contents then it’s just worth paying. Expecting all the good services for free isn’t capitalism.
Energy system is crap!
The energy system has put a damper on my learning. You say this new system doesn’t penalize for errors but it does…because whether or not my response right or wrong I lose energy. Like so many others, I chose Duolingo BECAUSE I had the option to sign up or not. I will not sign up, especially when “strongly” encouraged to do so by the company. If I wanted to pay, I would have done so at the beginning.
Energy system is okay. But if game is the aim, please study the gaming apps for energy limits strategy. For a half an hour commitment, energy has to atleast fit 5 lessons, or the gem cost should be lower. Else I just stop. And no limit super plan does not promote actual learning if one just plays it like a game for a long time.
Today – January 10, 2026 – observed something new. Two perfect lessons but the little in-lesson bonuses (random? +1 to +5 energy) were stingy. Only 7 energy left; trying to do three lessons a day. Okay, we’ll watch an ad. Tapped the energy thing and one of the choices was new: +5 energy for free. We’ll take it. 7 + 5 = 12, enough to get through the third lesson.
I am a paid member and I also hate the new system. I unintentionally turned the unlimited energy on and now I can’t turn it back off. I consider unsubscribing cuz this messes with my learning system. I might enjoy the app more with all the apps tbh
In my opinion there are two simple but valid fixes
1_increase the energy cap from 25 to 35
2_regenerate a certain amount of energy per hour
This helps both casual and more hardcore learners
I finished an entire course a couple of years ago. I’ve just come back to try a different language, and boy this new system sucks! I used to practise anywhere between 10 minutes and 2 hours a day, but now I can only get about 5 minutes.
Also I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that I *always* run out of energy just 1-2 questions before completing the daily quest.
If they can’t or don’t want to offer free learning, they should be honest and stop offering it, instead of trying to torture everyone into upgrading with the daily frustration of being blocked just when getting into a learning session.
Energy has rendered the app unusable. I was already pissed because they did not continue Finnish as a language, so there is nothing new for me to learn, but now I can not even do the daily refresh because, even though I do not make mistakes, I have about 5 minutes available before energy runs out.
Duolingo is just not feasible with this system. I used to watch an ad for a heart, but when my energy runs out in the middle of a unit I do not bother anymore. Unjustifiable.