Memrise
Vocabulary and speaking practice built around clips of native speakers.
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- learners, according to Memrise
- 80M+
- official courses in 29 languages
- 32
- languages with community content
- 149
- turnover in 2024
- £7.1M
About Memrise
Memrise is a London language app founded in 2010 by Ed Cooke, Ben Whately and Greg Detre. Every word and phrase in its official courses comes with a video of a native speaker, and MemBot, an AI language partner, runs practice conversations. Memrise builds 32 official courses in 29 languages and lists 149 languages in all, counting user-made word lists. The free plan limits lessons, videos and conversations and shows ads. Memrise Pro costs €21.99 a month, €69.99 a year or €254.99 once for Lifetime in the EU.
Memrise teaches vocabulary and speaking in an app and on the web. Native speakers say every word and phrase on video, and the learner hears it, practises remembering it and repeats it into the microphone. Spaced repetition brings each word back after 4 hours, then after longer gaps up to 6 months. MemBot, built on OpenAI models, holds written and spoken conversations in the target language.
Ed Cooke, Ben Whately and Greg Detre met at Oxford. Cooke became a Grand Master of Memory, Detre earned a neuroscience PhD at Princeton, and Whately went to Qiqihar in China to teach himself Chinese. In 2010 they started Memrise in London. Early users wrote their own courses and shared memory aids called mems.
From 2022 Memrise moved its focus to official courses with videos and AI practice. Mems left the app in September 2022, and on 31 March 2024 community courses moved to a separate site. In 2026 user-made word lists returned to the main app. Memrise Limited is owned by Memrise Inc. of Delaware and reported a turnover of £7.1 million for 2024.
History
- 2009 The project wins the TigerLaunch competition of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club and opens a private beta.
- 2010 Memrise Limited is registered in London on 8 December. The site launches in September and wins London Mini-Seedcamp in July.
- 2011 Joins the Techstars Boston programme in March.
- 2012 Raises a $1.1 million seed round from Avalon Ventures, Balderton Capital, Lerer Ventures, Audrey Capital and angels.
- 2013 Releases the iPhone app on 20 May and the Android app.
- 2017 Wins Best App at the Google Play Awards.
- 2018 Raises a $15.5 million Series B led by Octopus Ventures and Korelya Capital. Memrise counts 35 million users.
- 2022 Removes mems in September and presents MemBot, an AI language partner on GPT-3, in December.
- 2023 Launches the Memrise Discord App with MemBot in June. Steve Toy leads the company as CEO.
- 2024 Moves community courses to community-courses.memrise.com on 31 March. Headcount falls from 40 to 31.
- 2025 Co-founder Ed Cooke steps down as a director on 23 December.
- 2026 Brings user-made word lists back into the app, starting with about 800 community courses.
Memrise funding and investors
- February 2012 Seed $1.1 million
Avalon VenturesBalderton CapitalLerer VenturesAudrey CapitalNabeel HyattJeff Hammerbacher
Source: TechCrunch - June 2018 Series B $15.5 million
Lead: Octopus Ventures and Korelya Capital Avalon VenturesBalderton Capital
Source: TechCrunch
TechCrunch put the total at $22 million after the 2018 Series B. Wikipedia gives $21.8 million by January 2020. Later rounds are not disclosed.
Leadership
- ST Steve Toy CEO
- BW Ben Whately Co-founder, director
- EC Ed Cooke Co-founder, director until December 2025
- GD Greg Detre Co-founder, director until 2012
Ben Whately is the only active director of Memrise Limited at Companies House. Ed Cooke led Memrise as CEO in 2018 and left the board on 23 December 2025. Memrise names Steve Toy as CEO on its press page.
How Memrise teaches
- native-speaker videos
- 72,000+
- review intervals of spaced repetition
- 4 h → 6 mo
- lessons in the Spanish course
- 1,400+
- Videos of native speakers for words and phrases
- Spaced repetition review
- Pronunciation Buddy
- Sentence Builder Buddy
- MemBot conversations
- Immerse videos of natural conversation
- Exam practice with AI marking
- Wordlists by topic
- Personal word list (Pro)
- Difficult Words review
- Romanisation toggle
- My Activities progress tracking without streaks
Memrise languages: 29 to learn
Video, blogs and resources
Products
- Memrise app Official courses with videos of native speakers, spaced review and pronunciation practice, on iPhone, Android and the web. Open memrise.com
- MemBot and AI Buddies AI language partners for written and spoken role-play, with hints, translations and suggested replies. The free plan allows one speaking session a day. Read about MemBot
- Exam preparation Practice tests for IELTS, GCSE, A-Level, IB and CEFR-aligned exams in reading, writing, listening and speaking, with a score and feedback from an AI examiner. Read on the about page
- Word lists and community courses Learners build their own word lists in the app and share them. Older user-made courses stay on community-courses.memrise.com, outside the main app. How community courses work
How much is Memrise?
- Pro, 1 month €21.99/mo €21.99, charged every month Base monthly price
- Most popular Pro, 12 months €5.83/mo €69.99, charged every 12 months Save 73% vs Pro, 1 month
- Lifetime €254.99 one payment, no renewals Pay once, no renewals
Is Memrise free?
Free plan: limited vocabulary lessons, videos and conversations, one speaking session a day, with ads.
Prices on app.memrise.com/payment/plans for a visitor in Germany on 6 October 2026. Same plans in other stores: United States $24.99 a month, $61.99 a year, $329.99 Lifetime. United Kingdom £18.99, £61.99, £249.99. Brazil R$61.90, R$259.90, R$1,099.90.
How to cancel Memrise Pro
Memrise terms of use- memrise.com ↗
- Log in and open the settings page of your profile
- Select the Account tab
- Choose Cancel Plan
- App Store ↗
- Open Settings on the iPhone or iPad and tap your name
- Tap Subscriptions
- Select Memrise and confirm the cancellation
- Google Play ↗
- Open Google Play and tap the profile icon
- Choose Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions
- Select Memrise and tap Cancel subscription
- Turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Memrise charges the renewal within the last 24 hours.
- Cancel a free trial before it ends and Memrise charges nothing. For a 7-day trial the first charge comes on day 8.
- Deleting the account does not cancel the subscription.
- Lifetime is a one-off payment with no renewals. The terms define it as 100 years or until Memrise stops offering the service.
- A plan bought at a discount may renew at the full price.
Refund rules
- Annual and quarterly plans
- 30-day money-back guarantee. Contact Memrise within 30 days of activation.
- Monthly plan
- Not covered by the 30-day guarantee.
- UK consumer law
- The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give 14 days to cancel any plan for a refund, through the Contact Us page.
- Renewals
- No refunds for renewals and no partial refunds outside these options.
- App Store
- Memrise does not refund App Store payments. Apple handles them.
From the Memrise terms of use and FAQ, checked on 6 October 2026.
Apps and ratings
- iPhone and iPad4.8 on the App Store, US, iOS 15.0 or later
- Android4.4 on Google Play, 50M+ downloads
- WebOfficial courses and Pro checkout at app.memrise.com
- Community coursesOlder user-made courses in a mobile or desktop browser
App details, App Store US
- Current version
- 2026.9.4 on iOS, released 7 September 2026
- Android update
- 28 September 2026
- First release on iOS
- 20 May 2013
- Size
- 250 MB on iOS
- Age rating
- 4+ on the App Store, Everyone on Google Play
- App Store categories
- Education, Travel
- Downloads
- 50M+ on Google Play
- Awards
- Editors’ Choice on the App Store and Google Play
- Seller
- Memrise Limited
- Price
- Free to download, with ads and in-app purchases
Is Memrise worth it?
What learners like
- Native speakers on video, which reviewers single out for vocabulary.Viktorious, Trustpilot, June 2026
- Spaced repetition helps words stick.Efe Keskin, Trustpilot, June 2026
- 4.8 from 217,182 ratings on the US App Store.App Store, October 2026
- A Lifetime plan with one payment and no renewals.Memrise FAQ
What learners criticise
- Support tickets go unanswered for months.Ryan Clarke, Trustpilot, May 2026
- A charge after the subscription showed as cancelled.John, Trustpilot, July 2026
- The app assigns the course path, and learners can no longer skip levels they know.Rachel Villatoro, Trustpilot, August 2026
- The Monthly plan has no 30-day money-back guarantee.Memrise terms of use
What learners write in reviews, not our rating. App stores give Memrise 4.4 to 4.8. On Trustpilot 65% of 139 reviews give 1 or 2 stars, and most of them are about support and billing.
Memrise reviews
- I love this app
“Spaced repetition in a gamified manner is a great way to learn words.”
Efe Keskin · 21 June 2026 · App Store - Great for (korean) vocab
“This feels like a better duolingo vocab wise, and having natives sometimes speaking is wonderful.”
Viktorious · 4 June 2026 · App Store - I cancelled my subscription
“I cancelled my subscription, yet Memrise still charged my credit card even though my account clearly showed the subscription as cancelled.”
John · 26 July 2026 · App Store - Customer service non existent
“Customer service is impossible to get hold of.”
Ryan Clarke · 3 May 2026 · App Store
Latest news
- 2017Google Play Awards, Best App
- 2011Techstars Boston
- 2010TechCrunch Europas, finalist for Start-up of the Year
- 2010London Mini-Seedcamp, winner
- Community courses: where they went and how word lists return to the app
- Memrise Limited files 2024 accounts: turnover £7.1 million, headcount 31
- Ed Cooke leaves the board of Memrise Limited
- Memrise launches a Discord app with MemBot
- Introducing MemBot, an AI language partner
- Memrise raises $15.5 million as the app passes 35 million users
Contacts and company data
- SupportContact form
- Presspress@memrise.com
- Community courses helpmemrise.zendesk.com
- FAQexplore.memrise.com/help
- Jobsapply.workable.com/memrise
- Legal entity
- Memrise Limited, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX, United Kingdom
- Company number
- 07463911, Companies House
- Incorporated
- 8 December 2010
- Activity (SIC)
- 62012 Business and domestic software development, 85590 Other education
- Parent company
- Memrise Inc., Delaware, registration 4867107
- Turnover 2024
- £7,120,230, down 7% from £7,663,769 in 2023
- Result 2024
- Operating loss £259,651, profit £585,448 after a tax credit
- Auditor
- Saffery LLP
Memrise vs Babbel, Busuu and others
| Memrise |  Babbel |  Busuu |  Duolingo |  Rosetta Stone |  Lingoda | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 | 2007 | 2008 | 2011 | 1992 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | London | Berlin | London | Pittsburgh | Arlington, Virginia | Berlin |
| Languages | 32 official courses | 14 | 14 | 42 | 25 | 5 + Business English |
| Live classes with teachers | — | Yes, Babbel Live | Business accounts only | No | — | Yes, every class is live |
| Free access | Yes | First lesson of each course | All courses, Premium paid | Yes, most features with ads | — | — |
| Plan for companies | — | Babbel for Business | Busuu for Business | Schools only, closing in 2027 | — | Yes, B2B programmes |
| App Store rating, US | 4.8 (217K) | 4.7 (755K) | 4.7 (101K) | 4.7 (5.5M) | 4.8 (238K) | 4.8 (177) |
“—” means the public sources we checked do not say. Facts from Wikipedia and the companies’ websites, App Store ratings on 5 October 2026. Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are US companies outside the European catalogue.
Alternatives to Memrise
- Busuu🇬🇧 United Kingdom Also from London. 14 languages with CEFR levels and corrections from native speakers in the community. →
- Babbel🇩🇪 Germany Paid courses with grammar explanations and live classes with tutors, from Berlin. →
- DuolingoUnited States Most features free with ads, courses in 42 languages. ↗
-
Lingvist🇪🇪 Estonia A vocabulary app from Tallinn that picks words by frequency. → - Lingoda🇩🇪 Germany Live classes with teachers in small groups or one to one, from Berlin. →
How we built this profile
- Sources. Facts come from the company’s own website, press room, imprint and careers page, from Wikipedia, the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot. Every source is listed on the page.
- Checks. Kinescope checked every number on 6 October 2026. Prices, ratings and job counts change, and we refresh them with each update.
- Our words. Descriptions are written by the Kinescope team. Quotes from reviews are marked with the author and source, and we do not rate the company ourselves.
- Corrections. The company can send new facts or corrections, and we update the profile.
Other language learning companies
- Babbel🇩🇪 Germany
- Lingoda🇩🇪 Germany
- Busuu🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Lingvist🇪🇪 Estonia
- L Lingumi🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- e eTutor🇵🇱 Poland
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