Duolingo's Pushy Paywall Play: Smart or Risky?

Key Points

• Duolingo has started promoting its top-tier Max subscription plan more aggressively in recent app updates.

• Despite some vocal complaints, Duolingo relies on constant user testing and data to guide its decisions.

• Subscriptions now make up 85% of the company's revenue, with growth driven by higher-priced plans like Duolingo Max.

• 10 stocks we like better than Duolingo ›

Language-learning specialist Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) loves its premium subscription plans. The premium-plan appreciation is honestly getting a bit too intense for some Duolingo users.

Is the company pushing its subscription plans too hard in 2025?

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What's going on?

Duolingo is always tinkering with its user interface. Co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn wants to build an effective learning platform that works for more than just language lessons that use rote repetition. Based on modern research and data-driven test runs, Duolingo has tried many new ideas in recent years.

The mobile app used to be a carbon copy of the clunky browser-based interface. These days, there are distinctly different experiences on the web, on Android devices, and on the flagship Apple iOS platform. Every new feature rolls out on iPhones and iPads first, followed by the Android app many months later; browser-based users can only hope for the best. It took Duolingo's math and music courses more than a year to reach Android users, for example. And the iOS crowd has been learning chess on Duolingo for months now, ahead of other users again.

Well, the latest Android app brought some interesting tweaks. The helpful Practice Hub, where you can revisit recent mistakes and fine-tune your listening or speaking exercises, has been moved to the three-dot menu in the corner. It takes more clicks than usual to get there, and many users just might not try to find this resource again. Who clicks on optional menus, right?

The Practice Hub used to own a bit of prime real estate on the Android screen, between the default learning path and the semi-competitive League feature. That spot now belongs to the premium-grade Video Call feature instead.

Image source: Getty Images.

What's the big deal?

This is Duolingo promoting its highest-grade subscription plan in a tricky way.

Video Calls require the top-shelf Duolingo Max plan. My Super subscription isn't enough. Max also brings personalized role-playing sessions, and lets Duolingo's artificial intelligence (AI) tools explain the mistakes you make in courses like Spanish or Dutch. It also costs twice as much as the Duolingo Super subscription, which removes ads and enables the Practice Hub.

I get it: Duolingo has 128 million monthly active users but only 11 million paid subscribers. But subscriptions still accounted for 85% of Duolingo's revenue-generating order bookings in the hot-off-the-presses second quarter of 2025. Management noted that average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 6% year over year due to broader adoption of "higher-priced tiers" -- aka Duolingo Max.

So Max is where the money is, and Duolingo is running a profitable business. Giving people more incentive and a stronger marketing push toward this money-making feature is in the company's best interest.

But there's a dark side to this effort. I find the Practice Hub quite useful, especially in the Swedish-to-Japanese course (yes, I'm a language nerd). Those Video Calls are presented as a better and more fun learning experience, and maybe they are. But I'm not ready to double my Duolingo bills to find out.

And I'm not alone. As a Duolingo investor, I worry about unpopular money grabs slowing down the platform's user growth. As a user with 19 active courses (though only 5 serious ones) and an unbroken 3,330-day daily Duolingo streak, I'm bothered by the way the app pushes an ultra-premium product in my face.

Could this Max subscription push be a bad idea?

Duolingo knows what it's doing

It's all academic, though. Duolingo is doing quite well, beating analyst expectations in quarter after quarter amid rampant user and revenue growth. If a few nerds jump ship because of an aggressive marketing campaign, Duolingo probably won't notice. The influx of incoming Max subscribers more than makes up for that point of potential weakness.

Again, Duolingo runs a data-driven business and has probably tested these app designs and marketing messages over and over. That's the right way to run a business in this age of overflowing user data.

Is it possible Duolingo could turn away a few loyal users with these changes? Absolutely. But the company's sticky app, global brand, and enormous funnel of free users give it a wide margin for error. If the data ever show that these paywall pushes are actually damaging retention or long-term revenue, you can bet Duolingo will change course quickly.

Until then, the company's aggressive push towards the Max plan looks less like a desperate money grab and more like a disciplined, data-backed growth strategy -- a classic sign of a business with a long runway ahead.

So I'll keep my daily Duo streak going and hold on to my highly profitable Duolingo shares. The company is probably on the right track, even if I don't personally love this particular move. Duolingo would make its purple-haired cynical teen Lily say that part, rolling her eyes with a sigh.

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Anders Bylund has positions in Duolingo. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Duolingo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.