Last updated: August 29, 2026
The short answer
Yes, Duolingo has an Indonesian course, and it is genuinely free. You will read the opposite in places — it is wrong. It is also a good place to start: gamified, daily, and better than almost anything else at getting a habit off the ground. What it does not do is take you far. The Indonesian course runs roughly a quarter the length of Duolingo's flagship languages, has neither Stories nor a podcast, and teaches the formal register only. Expect to reach about A2 — enough to read a sign, not enough to follow a conversation.
Yes. The course is available in the app and on the web, and it costs nothing to use. The confusion usually comes from two places: Duolingo has retired courses in the past, and its Indonesian course is offered from English — so if your interface language is not English, you may simply not see it in your course list. Switch your interface to English and it appears.
This is the single most searched question about the course, and the honest answer is uncomfortable: any number you read is probably already wrong. Duolingo has restructured its courses more than once — skills became units, units became sections, and the counts moved with each redesign. A review quoting a section count is quoting the day it was written.
That is why this page does not give you a number. What does not move is the ceiling: how far the material goes. And you can check that yourself in about a minute — open the course and look at the last unit. If the final content is still introductions, shopping, directions and simple present-tense sentences, you are looking at an A2 course, whatever the section count says.
| What people look for | What actually answers it |
|---|---|
| How many sections / units are there? | A number that changes with every Duolingo redesign. It tells you the shape of the app, not the depth of the course. |
| How long is the course? | Roughly a quarter the length of Duolingo's flagship languages such as Spanish or French. That ratio has held across redesigns. |
| What level does it reach? | About A2 on the CEFR scale — the level where you can travel, but not follow two people talking at normal speed. |
| Is there a Stories section or a podcast? | No. Both exist for the flagship languages and are a large part of why those courses go further. Indonesian has neither. |
A review that only criticises is not a review. Three things Duolingo does better than anything we could put in front of you:
The CEFR scale runs A1 to C2. What most people mean by « speaking Indonesian » is B1: following a conversation at natural speed and holding your own side of it. Duolingo's Indonesian course lands around A2, one level short — and the gap between A2 and B1 is not a small step, it is roughly the same number of study hours again. Two specific limits explain it: no conversation practice at all, and the formal register only, which is the Indonesian of airport announcements rather than of two friends talking. Mezzoguild, which reviews Indonesian resources specifically, lists it as not recommended for that reason.
See how far each Indonesian app takes youFor a first month, yes — and we would rather you started there than not at all. For actually speaking, no. The pattern we hear from learners is consistent: after several months of a solid streak, they can read shop signs and menus, and still cannot follow two Indonesians talking. That is exactly what an A2 ceiling feels like from the inside. Duolingo is a good first step; the mistake is treating it as the whole staircase.
Keep the habit, change the material. Three routes that actually continue past A2:
This is the single gap Duolingo cannot fill. You need to produce wrong sentences and be corrected — a tutor, a language exchange partner, or an AI teacher that corrects grammar as you write.
Before subscribing to anything, check its published syllabus for B1 and B2 content. For Indonesian, most apps simply do not have it — that check takes two minutes and saves a year.
Start listening to how Indonesians actually speak — podcasts, YouTube, films. The gap between the formal Indonesian Duolingo teaches and everyday speech is the thing that surprises learners most.
Yes, and it is free. The course is offered from English, so if your app interface is set to another language you may not see it listed — switching the interface to English makes it appear. Claims that Duolingo dropped Indonesian are wrong.
Any specific number is unreliable: Duolingo has restructured its courses several times, turning skills into units and units into sections, and the counts moved each time. What has stayed stable is the proportion — the Indonesian course is roughly a quarter the length of flagship courses like Spanish — and the ceiling, which is around A2.
It is good at what it is designed for: starting from zero, free, and building a daily habit. It is not good at taking you to a conversation. No speaking practice, formal register only, no Stories and no podcast. Use it for your first month, and plan what comes after it before you get there.
About A2 — introductions, numbers, food, directions, simple present-tense sentences. B1, the level where you follow a conversation at natural speed, needs roughly the same number of hours again beyond that point, and the Indonesian course does not cover them.
Not on its own. Learners who stop at Duolingo commonly report understanding written signs but not spoken conversation, which is precisely what an A2 ceiling produces. Treat it as the first month of a longer plan rather than as the plan itself.
Anything that adds two things Duolingo lacks: conversation practice with correction, and a syllabus that continues past B1. Check the published syllabus before you subscribe — for Indonesian, most apps stop at A2 or B1, and only IndoLingua publishes lessons through to C2.
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