Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Memrise is a language learning app that uses techniques like spaced repetition to help you better memorize vocabulary and phrases, as its name suggests.
But is Memrise the best app for learning French? I’ve tested Memrise’s French offering.
Here’s what I think of it.
As of October 2026, Memrise offers AI Buddies for grammar, conjugation, conversation, and other practice. Its older Community Courses remain on a separate site, while user-created wordlists have started returning to the main app.
What is Memrise?
Like Copycat Cafe, Memrise is available as a web app that you can use on your computer or mobile device. Memrise is also available as a mobile app that can be used on tablets and phones.
Memrise combines vocabulary and phrase learning with native-speaker videos and AI practice. This is especially fitting since it was co-founded by Grandmaster of Memory Ed Cooke, Ben Whately, and neuroscientist Greg Detre. Memrise uses techniques like spaced repetition to help users acquire vocabulary. This may sound impressive, but a number of other language learning apps also use techniques like these (including Copycat Cafe). Still, Memrise does stand out in a few notable ways.
What’s good about Memrise
Memrise’s vocabulary practice uses audio and video clips that you match with their written version or English translation. There are also tapping, typing, multiple-choice, and listening exercises. But the best thing about Memrise for me was its videos, hands down.
In the version I tested, Memrise’s videos appeared as I completed lessons and learned new vocabulary. The videos I saw were short clips of a few seconds that featured real native French speaking actors in informal settings, often just their apartments (or an apartment that could be theirs). The actors would say a word or phrase just as a real French person would say it, which, in many cases, might mean using several different intonations. But instead of just repeating it, they tried to make it interesting.
For instance, a short clip showing how Salut is used has an actor playing two roles, one of whom says Salut and walks into his own door. It’s not played like broad comedy, but rather with the subtle tone of ridicule that flavors most French humor, making this video, like so many others in the series, a bit of an incidental cultural lesson as well.
Another thing I appreciated about Memrise was that I could choose how many vocabulary words I wanted to learn per lesson, which makes learning more flexible and better adapted to your rhythm in terms of time and content.
MemBot, Memrise’s AI chatbot
A strong point of Memrise is its MemBot feature. MemBot is an AI-powered chatbot that lets you communicate in short French dialogues. Because it’s a chatbot, it’s limited, but no matter what I threw at it, its responses stayed reasonable and in correct French and even felt fairly realistic. In my test, I could read the ‘bot’s dialogue and respond in writing, or click the speaker button to listen and then record my responses.
AI Buddies
Memrise has introduced a range of AI Buddies, chatbots designed for different aspects of language learning. Its help page lists these examples:
- Grammar Buddy: Helps you learn to put sentences together correctly
- Role Play Buddy: Provides real-life conversation practice in scenarios
- Translator Buddy: Offers quick translations for any situation
- Culture Buddy: Shares cultural insights to help you feel like a local
- Conjugation Buddy: Walks you through verb conjugations
- Assistant Buddy: Helps you find your way around Memrise itself
Memrise’s help page lists these chat Buddies as a Pro feature. French is included for English speakers, although availability varies by language and account.
A redesigned app
Memrise has redesigned its app in recent years. Its 2026 update describes the earlier vocabulary-and-conversation experience as “self-study courses”, alongside newer learning tools. MemBot still supports spoken and written conversations. In the Lessons experience, activities can include learning, review, videos, conversations, Sentence Builder Buddy, and Pronunciation Buddy; Memrise’s help page notes that this layout has been rolling out to users.
So, there are some really great things about Memrise. The only problem is, they may not be easy to find or use….
What’s not good about Memrise
Although I have strong opinions about my experience trying out Memrise, it’s weirdly hard to write a review of it. That’s because what I was able to do - and wasn’t able to do - hardly seems like it’s universal. Some of these inconsistencies may come from the fact that Memrise has undergone significant updates in recent years, including a complete redesign. So, keep in mind that there may be some things I complain about here that won’t be the same for everyone who uses the app.
One issue stood out to me, though: the limitations of what I could learn in the version I tested. I’ll get to that a little further on….
In my research of Memrise, I came upon reviews and informative posts at the time that talked about features like personalized flashcards, but I never found any way to create these, let alone any kind of hint from the app that they were an option at all. At one point, I saw some sort of grammar review option that was inaccessible to me, and then disappeared entirely, like some sort of mirage.
Memrise now describes custom wordlists in its main product. Its Wordlists help page also describes a Pro-only “Words Added by Me” list for vocabulary found in Videos, with a rollout notice for that layout.
My at times fever dream-like experience of Memrise included a user interface I found tricky to figure out and enormous differences between the web and mobile versions I tried.
But for me, both versions of the app were difficult to navigate. I couldn’t, for instance, get a clear picture of all of the lessons being offered, or even access them. And those videos that are my favorite part of Memrise seemed accessible only after finishing a lesson, and I couldn’t find a way to revisit them. On the other hand, when I selected “videos”, I was taken to a selection of YouTube offerings in French. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it felt strange that the app had native content that could help me practice and review, but it just…disappeared, or rather, got hidden, once I’d watched it.
The current Word Information screen lets you return to a word’s audio and video clips where available. You can open it from My Words or a Scenario; video availability varies by language and item.
Another way the user interface felt needlessly complicated in my test was that the tab for the MemBot chatbot was called “Conversations”, rather than just “MemBot”. This is a minor detail, but still made it a bit tricky at first to locate this MemBot I’d heard so much about.
But the user interface issues aren’t the only things I wasn’t a fan of. Another big issue for me was that while Memrise had lots of ways to help me learn vocabulary, I couldn’t find comprehensive grammar lessons, explanations, or exercises. For instance, I came across phrases in French that used particular verb tenses, but found their English translations rather than the broader explanations of usage and conjugation I wanted. And yet, using MemBot meant I needed to conjugate verbs to some degree to make sentences.
The current AI Buddies include grammar explanations and conjugation practice. That is different from the lack of grammar support I encountered in my test.
You could say that you can get by in French with the phrases you’ll learn from the app, but from what I saw, there were so few phrases as opposed to individual words, that it’s hard to imagine anyone could use Memrise for more than vocabulary-based learning.
Note on Community Courses: Memrise moved its older user-created courses out of the main app and website on March 31, 2024. Its current Community Courses guide says the archive is still available at community-courses.memrise.com using your existing account. In its November 2025 update, Memrise said it was not shutting Community Courses down. It has since started bringing user-created content back into the main product as wordlists; this does not mean every old course has migrated. The separate community forum closed on December 8, 2023.
The best and worst things about Memrise
To sum it up…
Here’s what I liked most about Memrise French
- Memrise features short, fun videos that show vocabulary used in context by real French speakers, often in funny and memorable ways.
- In my test, I could choose how many vocabulary words I wanted to learn per lesson, making lesson times and learning flexible.
- The AI-powered MemBot chatbot feature lets you have reasonably realistic dialogues in French.
- The MemBot feature can be used to practice both reading/writing French and listening to/speaking French.
- AI Buddies offer specialized practice for grammar, role-play, translation, culture, and more.
- A redesigned app experience with an improved Conversations tab in the version I used.
Here’s what I didn’t like about Memrise French
- I found Memrise’s user interface extremely confusing and difficult to navigate.
- The user interface and accessible content varied a great deal between the web and mobile versions I tested.
- I couldn’t access or easily locate all the lessons.
- Features seemed to disappear or become inaccessible in my test, including the app’s awesome videos after I’d watched them.
- I couldn’t find the comprehensive grammar explanations or exercises I wanted.
- The version I tested felt limited beyond vocabulary learning.
- The six chat Buddies listed above are described as a Pro feature.
Will Memrise make me fluent in French?
If you’ve read some of my other French learning app reviews, you’re probably expecting my answer: No single language learning app will make you fluent in French - not even Copycat Cafe. Even the most thorough language learning app won’t cover everything. This is especially notable with an app like Memrise.
Memrise can teach you French words and phrases, including ones you can use in conversations. In my test, I wanted more help with other aspects of French, notably grammar. I came across helpful phrases like Ça va? Or C’est génial or J’ai aidé, but wanted more explanation of how to use or conjugate those verbs in other contexts, or how to build on these phrases to make longer sentences or statements.
Although many things surprised me when I was researching Memrise, I considered it a good resource for learning vocabulary, but found it limited beyond that in my test. For instance, Copycat Cafe focuses on contemporary French, Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Italian, and German conversation skills, with vocabulary learned through everyday dialogues. Memrise now goes beyond vocabulary too, with AI grammar and conversation practice.
So, if you’re planning to use Memrise, my recommendation is to use other French learning resources and apps alongside it. For instance, you could use Memrise to build some basic vocabulary and train your ear a bit with its fun videos. But along with it, use an app that covers more ground, like Rocket French, to learn other things like grammar. As you get a handle on the basics of French, you can then incorporate conversation practice with an app like Copycat Cafe, and then, as you get more confident, by finding a French conversation partner on a free language exchange website. Along the way, continue to build your vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills, as well as your cultural knowledge of French, by reading, listening to, and watching things in French.
How much does Memrise cost?
Like many things about Memrise, information regarding the types of courses offered felt inconsistent or vague when I tested it. Memrise offers a free plan with limited vocabulary lessons, videos, and conversations; Pro unlocks the full set and removes ads. An official page describes this as “early learning courses and content”, but when I tried Memrise’s free version, it was hard to see what exactly I had access to or not, until I was barred from something.
The current website plan page lists one speaking-practice session per day on the free plan. Pro includes unlimited speaking practice, all wordlists, and an ad-free experience.
Memrise’s paid version is called Memrise Pro. On October 25, 2026, its US App Store listing included $24.99/month, $24.99 for three months, $61.99/year, and a $329.99 lifetime plan. It also listed separate lifetime offers at $131.99 and $98.99. These are listed iOS purchases, rather than a guarantee that every account can buy each offer. Prices vary by region and platform, so check the Memrise website or your app store for the rate you’ll actually pay.
Pro also includes the chat Buddies listed above, according to Memrise’s AI Buddies help page. Limited free speaking practice does not mean full access to every Buddy.
The verdict
If you don’t mind dealing with its often confusing interface, Memrise could be a great resource for building your French vocabulary. Recent updates, including the AI Buddies and the redesigned app experience, show the platform is actively improving. But the lack of comprehensive grammar lessons I found in my test ultimately made it more of a niche app for vocabulary building. Memrise now offers AI grammar, conjugation, and conversation tools, so it covers more than vocabulary alone. My recommendation here is to use it alongside other French learning resources if you want to become proficient or fluent.