📊 Daily pulse · Sat, 27 Jun 2026

Duolingo · Pulse

Duolingo is the world's largest language-learning platform by daily active users, founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn (Carnegie Mellon University CS professor, also the inventor of CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA) and Severin Hacker. The platform was launched publicly in 2012 and went public on NASDAQ in July 2021 (NASDAQ: DUOL). As of 2024 Duolingo reports ~110+ million monthly active users with ~37+ million daily active users across 40+ language-learning courses.\n\nThe platform offers free language-learning content (with substantial advertising-supported model) plus paid Super Duolingo subscription (~USD 9.99/month or ~USD 80/year removing ads plus offering unlimited mistakes plus offline-mode), Duolingo Family Plan, plus Duolingo Max (the substantial post-2023 GPT-4-powered subscription tier with AI-conversation-practice and AI-explanation features at ~USD 14.99/month). The substantial post-2020 Duolingo growth has been driven by the gamified-streak-and-XP mechanics plus the substantial Duolingo character-and-mascot (Duo the Owl) cultural-marketing presence plus the substantial post-2022 Duolingo English Test (the substantial post-2020 alternative to TOEFL/IELTS for university admissions accepted by 5,000+ universities globally).\n\nFor a globally-mobile professional, Duolingo provides accessible-and-gamified language-learning infrastructure though the practical-conversation development substantially benefits from supplementary instruction. Indian-learner engagement is substantial particularly for English-language polish among Indian professionals plus the substantial post-2020 Indian regional-language and Spanish/French/German/Mandarin interest. Personal income tax up to 25%; corporate tax 27.5% (Duolingo HQ Pittsburgh).