OtherConsumer FacingVerified
Reviewed and published by trentmaziarz, March 21, 2026. Discovered and drafted by our automated research pipeline.
After getting a question wrong — or right — learners can tap a button called "Explain My Answer" to receive an AI-generated explanation of the grammar or vocabulary involved. They can ask follow-up questions as if chatting with a tutor. This feature launched in 2023 as a paid-only feature and became free for all users on January 1, 2026.
Details
Launched March 14, 2023 exclusively for Duolingo Max subscribers, the feature uses a large language model to deliver a personalized explanation of why an answer was correct or incorrect, including relevant grammar rules and examples. Users can send follow-up questions and receive dynamic AI responses within the same session. Duolingo opened access to all users — free and paid — on January 1, 2026, citing high popularity and confidence in the AI's accuracy.
Products affected
Duolingo
Sources & Evidence
Other practices by Duolingo
Customer SvcDuolingo uses an AI chatbot (powered by a company called Decagon) to handle the majority of customer support requests for the Duolingo English Test. The AI fully resolves about 80% of chat inquiries without any human involvement, answering questions about test registration, scores, and institutional acceptance.Data AnalysisDuolingo uses a machine learning model to decide, in real time, whether to show each individual user an advertisement, a subscription offer, or neither — predicting which choice is most likely to generate revenue from that specific person at that moment. The system was credited with generating tens of millions of dollars in additional annual revenue.Data AnalysisDuolingo uses a machine learning algorithm to decide which push notification to send each user, at what time, and how often — optimizing for the messages most likely to get a lapsed learner back into the app. The system was published as research in 2020 and was shown to increase the number of daily active users by 0.5% and improve retention of new users by 2%.
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