WaniKani review: is it worth it?

Further review needed. Kungfucius has not finished testing WaniKani, and says so plainly. Sixty levels cannot be judged honestly from the first few, so there is no verdict on this page yet. What follows are the facts that can be checked today, and an invitation.

What can be said for certain

WaniKani is a service from Tofugu for learning to read Japanese kanji. It teaches radicals first, then the kanji built from them, then vocabulary that uses those kanji, each with a mnemonic. Reviews are scheduled by spaced repetition, and the pace is fixed: you cannot skip ahead, even as a paying member.

According to the official site, the course covers over 2,000 kanji and over 6,000 words. It does not teach grammar, and it does not teach handwriting.

Prices in November 2026, from WaniKani's help pages:

Plan	Price
Levels 1 to 3	Free, with no time limit stated
Monthly	US$9
Annual	US$89
Lifetime	US$299, paid once

Tax may be added at checkout. The three free levels are enough to find out whether the mnemonic style suits you, which is the main thing to know before paying.

Do you use WaniKani? Tell Kungfucius

This is where you come in. If you have spent real time with WaniKani, your experience is worth more than a rushed opinion. Kungfucius would particularly like to hear:

• which level you reached, and how long it took
• whether the kanji stayed with you when reading real Japanese
• how it compares with Anki if you have tried both
• what made you stop, if you did

Send it through the submit page. A few honest sentences are plenty, and the best contributions will shape the full review. Kungfucius reads everything, including the complaints about the crabigator.