Pleco

Pleco Pleco is a free Chinese learning app with best-in-class handwriting and live OCR lookup, rich dictionaries (including Cantonese), and flashcards with SRS study modes.

Pleco

Pleco is a free, highly capable app for learning Chinese. It includes a strong Chinese character recognition engine and bundles tools like a Chinese–English dictionary, a document reader, and flashcards—so you can study more efficiently and quickly. You can even draw characters directly on your screen; the app will recognize what you drew and show matching entries and meanings. With wide vocabulary coverage and plenty of example sentences (including pinyin), it’s designed to help you build real reading and listening skills.

Beyond the main dictionary, you can expand your study with additional downloadable resources, including dialect packs such as a large set of Cantonese–English dictionaries.

Features

Excellent dictionaries

• Included free dictionaries: CC-CEDICT and the in-house PLC dictionary.
• Coverage: about 130,000 Chinese words.
• Examples: around 20,000 example sentences with Pinyin.
• More free options: you can add 8 more free dictionaries as downloads, including a 22,000-entry Cantonese–English dictionary.
• Paid upgrades: 19 additional dictionaries are available as purchases ($).

Handwriting lookup

• Find unknown characters by drawing them on the screen.
• Uses a high-quality recognition engine to match your strokes.
• Pricing: basic version is free; the enhanced version is $.

Live OCR (camera recognition)

• Look up Chinese words by pointing your camera at them.
• You can also scan by moving around a still image.
• Pricing: $.

Screen Reader / OCR overlay

• Quickly tap-lookup Chinese words inside other apps using a floating interface.
• Works on: Android 4.1+.
• Pricing: reader is free; OCR is $.

Flashcards

• Create a card from any dictionary entry with a single tap.
• Import pre-made word lists.
• Study with advanced spaced repetition using SRS.
• Practice in multiple formats such as fill-in-the-blanks and tone drills.
• Pricing: simple version free; full-featured is $.

Audio pronunciation

• Instantly hear native male + female pronunciation for dictionary headwords.
• Audio available for over 34,000 words.
• Pricing: stitched-syllable pronunciation is free; multi-syllable is $.



• Also supports listening to example sentences using text-to-speech (system TTS free, enhanced $).

Powerful search

• Search by Chinese characters, Pinyin (spaces/tones optional), or a mix of both.
• Includes wildcard support and full-text search.

Cross-referencing

• Tap any character or word inside a dictionary entry to jump to its definition.

Stroke order diagrams

• Animated stroke-order guidance for each character.
• Free app: 500 characters.
• Paid add-on: 28,000 characters.

Voice recognition

• Look up words by speaking them into your device’s microphone.

Document reader

• Open a Chinese text or PDF file.
• Tap unknown words to look them up in the dictionary.
• Pricing: $ (as listed).
• You can also look up characters via “Share” from web pages and through the clipboard in other documents (free).

PRC- and Taiwan-friendly

• Supports both traditional and simplified characters across dictionary definitions, stroke order, search, OCR, and handwriting.
• Supports Zhuyin (with ruby support) and Pinyin for pronunciation display.

Cantonese support

• Headwords and searches support Jyutping/Yale romanization.
• Optional Cantonese dictionary and Cantonese audio add-ons are available (some $).

No ads

• Pleco does not run ad interruptions or pressure you to buy add-ons.

Benefits

• Includes very strong free dictionaries (up to 10 more via additional downloads).
• Recognizes characters you draw that you don’t know.



• Uses an OCR system to identify words you need to understand.
• Provides audio pronunciation for more than 34,000 words.



• Supports traditional + simplified characters, Zhuyin, and Pinyin.
• Includes learning videos with stroke animations to help you trace each character.

Changelog

• Updated to a new, neural-network paid TTS.
• On Android 14+, Screen OCR now uses Accessibility instead of Media Projection.
• Fixed the speech recognizer choosing English instead of Chinese.



• Fixed a bug where paused New OCR images could appear upside-down.
• Fixed Screen OCR bar positioning issues.
• Fixed bugs related to foldable screens.
• Fixed an issue where ebooks could lose their reading position when rotating the screen.
• Adjusted the “Pleco” system selection menu command so it uses the reader when the selected text length is appropriate.

Conclusion

One of Pleco’s standout strengths is its ability to read characters aloud. Choose a male or female voice and get pronunciation for 30,000+ words. It’s not limited to single entries—you can select text and have the app read full sentences. Overall, Pleco is a powerful learning companion for anyone studying Chinese and can be a lifesaver while traveling in China.