Chinese vocabulary, drilled into long-term memory.
Every word of HSK 1, 2, and 3, with clear Mandarin audio, each character broken down to its roots, and a study schedule that learns when you're about to forget. Ten minutes a day.
"No more searching for the right Anki deck, looking up character etymologies on Wiktionary, or sentence-mining God knows what... this app really does it all"
Features
HSK 1, 2, and 3, complete
Every word in the 2021 reformed HSK 3.0 standard, in frequency order. Levels unlock bottom-up so you never see a word before its time.
Clear Mandarin audio, every word
Two clips per word: the term itself, plus a curated example sentence in real-world context. Bundled, not streamed.
A study schedule built around you
Each review is timed for the moment your brain is about to forget the word, before you've actually forgotten. The schedule fits itself to your own review history as you go.Powered by FSRS, the same modern algorithm used inside Anki, personalised to your memory.
Characters, decoded
Every character broken down into its component radicals, semantic radicals highlighted. Read characters the way they were built.
Sentences, earned
5,580 fill-in-the-blank sentences built only from words you already know - enough that you're reading real Chinese from your first week through HSK 3. Each one unlocks the moment its last word does: reading practice that's always comprehensible.
Learn more, on every card
Tap "learn more" on any flipped card for a hand-curated deep dive: origin notes, near-synonym comparisons, collocations, usage traps, and extra examples. Sourced, never invented.
what it looks like
more screenshots, brand assets, and press materials at /press
About
Wordbrush is built by Urban Algorithm, LLC: a small studio with a soft spot for tools that respect their users. The first sketch happened on a long train ride; the rest came together over enthusiastic late nights on vacation, then was field-tested during the day in pockets between sightseeing stops. It exists because Chinese vocabulary deserves a study tool that doesn't gamify you or guilt you into a streak. Open it, do today's session, close it. Come back tomorrow.
Wordbrush is completely free, in full, on every platform: every word, every card, every story. Being used is worth more to us at this size than anything else.
Support
If something isn't working, or just feels wrong, we want to hear about it. Visit the support page for contact info and common questions.
Common questions
Is Wordbrush free?
Yes, completely, and not as a trial. Every word, card, story, and audio recording is in the app the moment you install it, on iPhone, iPad, and Android. There is no paid tier, no locked content, no ads, and no account to create. Wordbrush is made by a two-person studio, and at this size having people actually use it is worth more than revenue from it. If that ever changes, it will be said here first, and it will not be done by taking away something you already had.
How is Wordbrush different from Anki, Skritter, HelloChinese, or Pleco?
Wordbrush does one job: it drills the HSK 1-3 vocabulary into long-term memory. Everything for that job is already loaded, so there is no deck to build the way there is in Anki, and no dictionary lookups to turn into cards yourself the way there is in Pleco. It is not a course: HelloChinese teaches grammar, speaking, and listening lessons, and Wordbrush deliberately does none of that. It is not a handwriting trainer either: Skritter is built around writing characters, while Wordbrush's writing card is off by default and covers only a few hundred words. The plain summary is that Wordbrush is a vocabulary tool that pairs well with a course, not a replacement for one. Each comparison page above lays out where the other tool is the better choice.
The app shows "enough for today" but I want to keep going.
Tap add 10 new words on the done screen, or continue studying to pull tomorrow's reviews forward.
How do I get to settings?
Tap the gear icon next to your day-streak counter on the home page, or long-press the streak itself in a session.
Can I reset everything and start over?
Yes. Settings → reset all progress. The double-confirm protects you from accidents; once confirmed it clears every card's review state but keeps the bundled vocab and audio in place.
Will my progress sync to another device?
There's no automatic sync, but Settings → manage progress exports a backup file you can move to a new phone (it works across iOS and Android) and import there. Your data never touches a server.
Why does my failed card come back so quickly?
That's the science working. New and learning cards cycle through short steps (≈1 minute, ≈10 minutes) before they graduate into days/weeks. Failing pulls them right back to the start; that's exactly how you learn them.
Will it work offline?
Yes. Everything, 2,199 words, 9,978 audio clips, 5,580 sentences, radicals, and the learn-more library, is bundled into the app. The app makes no network calls during a session. This was specifically designed to work offline during train commutes that might have sketchy internet connections.
Does Wordbrush teach writing characters?
There is a writing card, and it is off unless you turn it on. When it is on, you write the character from memory on a blank pad and the app grades each stroke as you go, with no model to copy and nothing snapped into shape. It is deliberately bounded to a few hundred words: the core characters and the ones that look alike, rather than every word in the app. That is because of what writing from memory actually buys you, which is telling similar characters apart when you meet them again in reading, not handwriting fluency.
What does Wordbrush cost?
Nothing. Wordbrush is completely free, in full: every word, every card, every story, on iPhone, iPad, and Android. There is no trial to run out and nothing is locked. No accounts, no ads. If that ever changes, it will be said here first.
Free HSK resources
Open study material, no app required: complete New HSK word lists (2026 standard) with pinyin and Mandarin audio, plus guides to how the method works.
- New HSK word lists (2026) - every word of HSK 1, 2, and 3 with pinyin and audio
- New HSK 1 word list · HSK 2 · HSK 3
- HSK 1 example sentences - characters, pinyin, audio, and English
- FSRS for Chinese - why modern spaced repetition beats SM-2
- Free HSK 1, 2, and 3 Anki decks - every word with Mandarin audio
How Wordbrush compares
Plain comparisons with the other tools people learn Chinese with. Each page says plainly where the other app is the better choice, and every fact about another product is checked against that product's own site and store listing, with the date it was checked on the page.
- The best free apps for learning Chinese - which free tool does which job
- Anki alternative for Chinese - or is a premade HSK deck worth it?
- Skritter alternatives - is there a free one?
- After finishing HelloChinese - what to study next
- Pleco flashcards or a dedicated SRS app?
- Duolingo not working for Chinese? - how to work out why
- The Wordbrush fact sheet - every fact about the app on one page