Studying French on Duolingo? If so, then you may have noticed a little gold button pop up for something called Duolingo Gold.
Unfortunately, we don’t really know much about it at the moment, as Duolingo seem to be keeping it under wraps and only sharing it with a few users. All we have to go off is the Duolingo Gold promo page — details from which I’m going to share with you right now!
So buckle up: here’s everything we know so far about Duolingo Gold.
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What is Duolingo Gold?
Duolingo Gold is an upcoming subscription tier on Duolingo. Gold will be the third tier in the subscription lineup, after Basic and Plus.
From the limited details we have so far, Duolingo Gold seems to focus on one-on-one tuition. So instead of just following the pre-made lesson trees, soon you’ll have the opportunity to work with a certified tutor as well.
According to the promo, you’ll be able to ask your tutor a question at any time, so if you’re having an issue with a verb conjugation or struggling with some pronunciations, you can get in touch with your tutor and they’ll be on hand to help.
I highly doubt they’ll be available around the clock, so I imagine it will be a case of sending them a message with your question and them getting back to you as and when they can.
It looks like your tutor will also follow your progress through your lesson tree, so they can offer you advice and skills to focus on. It’s not just text messages either. It looks like they’ll also be able to send you voice recordings and videos, which will give you a more tailored, personal experience.
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Duolingo Gold vs Duolingo Plus
The main difference between Duolingo Gold and Duolingo Plus would appear to be the tuition (and the price).
With Duolingo Plus, you get access to a slew of features, such as unlimited hearts, no ads, Mistakes Inbox, Legendary Levels, and more.
With Duolingo Gold, you will get all of this, as well as the added benefits that come with having a certified tutor. You’ll also get pronunciation help and custom guidance.
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How do I get Duolingo Gold?
Duolingo Gold isn’t currently available, so, for the time being, there’s no way of getting it.
However, if you can see the Gold icon on your lesson tree, then you should be able to tap through to the pricing page. If you tap to buy, you’ll be notified that Gold isn’t currently available, but that you can join the waiting list if you’d like to be kept informed. Just tap that and Duolingo will let you know as and when Gold goes live.
How much is Duolingo Gold?
Duolingo Gold looks set to cost £29.99 a month in the UK (that’s roughly $40 in the US).
However, others have been quoted a yearly subscription fee of $149.99 in the US and €149.99 in the EU, which would work out at $12.49/€12.49 per month. So it seems Duolingo haven’t settled on a price point yet and are currently testing the waters to see how much users would be willing to pay.
So expect this to change as and when Duolingo Gold launches.
What language courses will Duolingo Gold be available for?
Duolingo haven’t confirmed which courses will offer Duolingo Gold.
I got my invite through the French course so it’s pretty much guaranteed it will be available for French learners.
However, when I went through my other courses, the Gold button disappeared and only came back when I returned to the French course. I think I managed to glitch it into appearing on the Spanish tree at one point. But, as you can see in the image below, although it says “Learn Spanish with a certified tutor” it’s still showing a French flag.
We’ll just have to wait and see. If it’s anything like Plus then it should be available in every language. But given Gold will include certified tutors, it will all depend on Duolingo being able to source tutors for each language course. And given how many learners there are, this will be no easy task.
Which devices will Duolingo Gold be available on?
Duolingo haven’t confirmed which devices Duolingo Gold will be available on.
If it’s anything like Plus then it should be available on all platforms. However, we all know that Duolingo tend to roll out their new features on IOS devices first, so they may choose to follow suit here as well.
When will Duolingo Gold be available?
There’s currently no ETA for when Duolingo Gold will launch. It just says that the feature is coming soon and that Duolingo are getting all their tutors set up.
I think it’s also worth pointing out that there’s no guarantee it actually will launch. Duolingo could just be testing the waters at the moment to see whether their users would be interested in such a subscription.
If interest is low, then it will be easy for them to pull the plug. On the contrary, if the response is positive, then they could get to work and start developing it. And if they’re only just starting to develop it, then we could be in for quite a wait.
What to do in the meantime?
If you like the idea of one-on-one tuition, then I’d recommend checking out something like italki or HelloTalk while we wait for Duolingo Gold.
italki would probably be my first port of call. They offer 1-on-1 lessons in more than 150 languages at a fraction of the cost of offline tutors or schools. It’s pretty convenient as well as you get to schedule your lessons for a time that suits you.
Plus, you’ll receive a $10 credit after your first lesson if you signup via my special referral link 🙂
HelloTalk is a similar kind of platform in that you get to converse with native speakers of your target language. However it focuses more on language exchange, so you’re not having ‘lessons’ with certified tutors, but rather ordinary conversations with other language learners. Plus the core functionality of HelloTalk is available for free, so you can get talking right away without having to spend a penny.
Would you subscribe to Duolingo Gold?
Duolingo Gold is definitely something to keep our eyes peeled for. I like the idea in principle, but whether I subscribe will depend on which language courses it’s available for and how much it’s going to cost.
But what do you think? Is Gold something you would be interested in?
Let me know in the comments!
Duolingo Max reminds me of Duolingo Gold because they were both premium tiers above Plus/Super. Perhaps Duolingo Gold is the first experiment before Duolingo Max?
Duolingo Gold has been renamed to Duolingo Max. They removed the tutor thing I think, but they replaced it with roleplay and explain my answer, where AI goes through your mistakes with you.
Duolingo Gold has been renamed to Duolingo Max. They removed the tutor thing I think, but they replaced it with roleplay and explain my answer, where AI goes through your mistakes with you. It’s very good.