Which apps help you read books in a foreign language?

The in-app purchase lists in the App Store show several prices for the same plan, including trial and promotional offers. The table gives the regular monthly, yearly and lifetime prices where the store names them. Prices change and differ by country; check the store before you pay. In the Runs on column, “Mac (Apple silicon)” means the App Store lists the app for Macs with an Apple M1 chip or later; “Mac” means it lists Macs without that condition.

• Kindle. Press and hold a word for a dictionary in the book’s language; the lookup window also offers a translation. Kindle includes dictionaries for each language it supports, and words you look up go to Vocabulary Builder, which has flashcards. Word Wise, the hints above hard words, is available on many English-language Kindle books. Suits you if your books are already on Kindle.
• Apple Books. Touch and hold a word, then choose Translate; languages can be downloaded for offline use. It opens your own EPUB and PDF files as well as books from Apple’s store. Suits you if you read on an iPhone or iPad and do not need a word list.
• Google Play Books. Google’s help page describes Define and Translate for selected text on Android: highlight a word, then tap Define or Translate and pick the languages. We did not confirm the same steps in the iPhone app. Suits you if your books are on Google Play and you read on Android.

A reader for lessons: texts with audio from its library, and anything you import, such as articles, YouTube videos, podcasts and books. Tap a word to see a translation and save it as a “LingQ”; the app counts the words you know. On the free account you can save only 20 words or phrases in total and import 5 lessons, so it works as a trial, not as a free tool. Premium is $14.99 a month, or $10 a month on a yearly plan. Suits learners who read and listen every day and want one place for all their material.

Stories, news and children’s books shown in two languages side by side, with audiobooks read by native speakers; the text is highlighted as the audio plays, and each story ends with a quiz. You read the app’s own texts, not your books. The App Store page says stories can be read and listened to for free but does not say which; the membership is $7.99 a month or $49.90 a year. Suits learners who want to read and listen at the same time.

Formerly called Langster. Over 2,000 real news stories and articles turned into short lessons, at CEFR A1–B2 (JLPT N5–N2 for Japanese, HSK 1–4 for Chinese), for learners of French, Spanish, German, English, Japanese and Chinese. Tap a word for its translation, conjugation and meaning in context; there are audio, quizzes and flashcards. These are short daily pieces, not whole books. The full library needs a subscription: $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Suits learners who want a short graded text a day.

A library of over 1,000 books in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian and English, and your own files in EPUB, PDF, MOBI, FB2 and TXT. Tap a word or phrase for a translation and dictionary details, and save it for flashcard review. The store page lists prices ($5.49 a month, $54.99 a year, $109.99 for life) but not what is free. Its last update in the App Store was on 17 December 2025. Suits learners who want to read their own e-books with a word list in one of those six languages.

Shows every sentence with its translation, splits sentences into parts with each word explained in context, and reads sentences and words aloud. It opens your own EPUB and FB2 files. The store description speaks of 3,000+ books and short stories, while its release notes mention over 17,000 titles. Paid plans are $8.99 (Full Plan), $24.99 for six months and $39.99 a year; the store page does not say what is free. Suits readers who want a translation of every sentence, which is closer to a bilingual book than to a dictionary.

A dual-language reader with a library of over 75,000 books and your own EPUB, FB2 and TXT files. Tap a word or phrase for a translation and definition. Paragraph translation, a choice of translation engines, AI translation and vocabulary export need a subscription ($1.99 a month or $19.99 a year) or a one-time Premium PRO purchase ($24.99). With 27 ratings, its average says little. Suits readers who want many free classics and a low price.

Our app, listed in the App Store as Readlang Language Readers. Graded readers and books from A1 to C1 in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian, news articles, any web page, and your own EPUB files with Premium. Tap a word and the translation appears in the line; tap the first and last word of a phrase to translate it; translation runs on the device once the language pack is downloaded. Free: 30 translations a day. Premium: $8.99 a month, $59.99 a year or $99.00 for life. iPhone, iPad and Apple-silicon Macs; no Android. It has 5 ratings, the fewest in the table.

Research on glosses, short translations next to the text, supports the first approach: across 42 studies, readers with glosses picked up 45% of the target words on an immediate test, against 27% without. The risk of the second is reading the translation instead of the original. When to use each, with the studies, is on Do bilingual books help adult learners? and Does looking words up help you learn them?

They have no app in the US App Store to count ratings for. Readlang (readlang.com) runs in a web browser and, on a phone, as a web page saved to the home screen. Language Reactor is a Chrome extension for Netflix, YouTube and web pages. Toucan is a browser extension that swaps some words on the web pages you visit for words in the language you are learning; a search of the US App Store on 23 October 2026 found no Toucan language app. All three are useful on a computer; prices for Readlang and Language Reactor are compared on Reading with a dictionary.