Duolingo, Inc.

Overview

Duolingo, Inc. is a digital education company whose core business is a mobile and web-based learning platform, supported by paid subscriptions and advertising, alongside its Duolingo English Test proficiency assessment. Its offerings include language courses as well as Math, Music and Chess, with additional products such as Duolingo for Schools and Duolingo ABC.[1]+3

The company’s stated mission is “to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.” Its learning products serve a global audience; Duolingo reported more than 130 million monthly active users at the end of 2025, and offices in the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Germany. The company reported more than 850 employees in April 2025.[5]+3 [1]+7

Products & services

Duolingo’s app provides more than 250 language courses, alongside Math, Music, and Chess courses. Its free learning content is available without a subscription; Super Duolingo adds features including an ad-free experience, while Duolingo Max includes Super features plus AI-powered learning tools such as Roleplay, Explain My Answer, and Video Call, which lets learners practice conversations with a character. Duolingo also offers Duolingo for Schools, a web-based classroom tool, and Duolingo ABC, an early-literacy app for young children.

The Duolingo English Test is an online, on-demand, computer-adaptive English proficiency assessment that can be taken remotely in under an hour; it is used for purposes including university admissions and requires a computer with a webcam, a smartphone, and reliable internet. More than 6,100 education programs accepted the test for international student admissions as of year-end 2025. The test accounted for approximately 4% of Duolingo’s 2025 revenue. [8]+9

Geographic presence

Duolingo, Inc. is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lists offices in New York City, Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, Detroit, London, Tokyo, and Seattle. Its China office employees primarily perform research and development and marketing-related work. The company’s operating expenses are denominated primarily in currencies associated with the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany.[16]+2

In fiscal 2025, revenue was $392.2 million from the United States (about 37.8% of total revenue) and $645.4 million from the rest of the world (about 62.2%). Revenue geography is based on users’ locations, except for Duolingo English Test revenue, which is based on where tests are taken; no other individual country accounted for more than 10% of revenue in 2023–2025. The company does not disclose employee counts by geography in the cited filing.[19]+2 [16]+5

Business segments

Duolingo reports one operating and one reportable segment, managed as a single reporting unit; it does not disclose separate segment-level revenue contributions.[22][23] Its Duolingo App includes language learning and courses in Math, Music, and Chess, while the Duolingo English Test is an online English-proficiency assessment.[2][13]

As an indication of the business mix—not a segment breakdown—in the six months ended June 30, 2026, subscriptions contributed about 86.2% of revenue, advertising 7.1%, the English Test 3.6%, in-app purchases 2.8%, and other revenue 0.3%. These approximate shares are calculated from the reported revenue-source amounts and total.[24] [22]+9

Company history

Duolingo, Inc. was formed on August 18, 2011, by Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Luis von Ahn and his doctoral student Severin Hacker. Its language-learning app launched to the public on June 19, 2012.[25][26] In 2016, the company introduced the Duolingo English Test, expanding into online English proficiency assessment; in 2020, it launched Duolingo ABC, an early-literacy app for children.[27][28]

Duolingo’s shares began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker DUOL on July 28, 2021, and its IPO closed two days later.[29][30] In 2022, the company acquired animation and design studio Gunner, and it began expanding its learning offerings beyond languages, adding Math in 2022, Music in 2023, and Chess in 2025.[31][3] [25]+7

Sources

• Duolingo, Inc. — Full financial report (2025 Y)
  21 citations

  [1][2][3][4][5][6][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][27]
• blog.duolingo.com[7]
• Duolingo, Inc. — Full financial report (2026 Q 2)
  3 citations

  [8][23][24]
• Duolingo, Inc. — Full financial report (2021 Y)
  5 citations

  [25][26][28][29][30]
• techcrunch.com[31]