Free alternatives to ChatGPT for English speaking practice, compared
ChatGPT’s voice mode is a good free conversation partner. What it lacks is a level, systematic correction and a memory of your mistakes. These are the apps that add those, what each gives you free, and what it corrects.
Every figure in the table was read on each app's own pricing page or store listing, on the date above. Prices and free tiers move; this table is re-checked and re-dated when they do.
| App | What it is | What is free | What it costs after | What it corrects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fluvia | Spoken conversation with 18 AI voices in seven accents, correcting you as you speak | Conversations free with no expiry, no account and no card; listening tests, dictation, writing correction, idioms, phrasal verbs and vocabulary unlimited | From US$5 a month, billed yearly | Grammar, vocabulary and phrasing the moment you slip; the mistakes you repeat come back |
| ChatGPT (voice mode) | General assistant with voice conversation | Voice included on the free plan, with a daily and monthly cap on minutes | Plus, around $20 a month | Whatever you ask for, if you ask each session; no memory of your mistakes |
| Gliglish | AI conversation partner | 10 minutes a day, no sign-up | Paid plans remove the cap | Feedback on the conversation; pronunciation feedback is paid |
| ELSA Speak | Pronunciation coach, with sample conversations | Limited daily lessons and sample AI conversations | Premium, around $13 a month billed yearly | Sounds and accent, sound by sound; grammar barely |
| TalkPal | AI tutor for 130+ languages, English among them | 10 minutes a day on the free plan, with an account; 14-day Premium trial | Premium, monthly or yearly; prices vary by country | Chat feedback and a pronunciation assessment tool; daily AI feedback is Premium |
| Speak | Guided speaking course with AI | 7-day trial; no permanent free tier | Premium, around $18 a month or around $84 a year | Inside its lessons, sentence by sentence |
| Praktika | AI avatar tutors | 7-day trial that asks for a card first | Around $8 a month billed yearly | Pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, at the end of each turn |
| Loora | AI English tutor by voice | Short trial, then a subscription | $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year | One coached conversation a day, corrected at the end |
| HelloTalk | Language exchange with real people | Most of the app | VIP, around $7 a month | Whatever your human partner chooses to correct |
Why people look past ChatGPT for speaking practice
Not because it is bad at conversation. Its voice mode holds an open conversation on any topic, free, and for many people that is enough. What it does not do is act like a teacher unless you tell it to, every session: it does not know your level, it corrects only if you ask and however you ask, and unless you set up its memory, tomorrow it does not remember what you got wrong today. The free plan also caps voice minutes, and the cap tightens at busy times.
So the search behind this page is usually “ChatGPT alternative for practicing English speaking”, and what people mean is: something that keeps the free conversation and adds the structure.
Free with a daily cap, or a trial that ends
The first family has a permanent free tier with a cap: ChatGPT (voice minutes per day), Gliglish (ten minutes a day), TalkPal (ten minutes a day, with an account), HelloTalk (nearly everything) and Fluvia (first conversations with no expiry, and everything that is not speaking unlimited). You can use them every day without ever paying; what you buy is the removal of the cap.
The second is “try, then pay”: Speak, Praktika and Loora. The trial lasts a few days and after that nothing is free. Praktika and Loora also ask for a card before you start and charge the full plan when the trial ends unless you cancel.
If your question is “what can I talk with every day without spending anything”, the answer is only in the first family.
What ChatGPT does better, and the prompt that gets the most out of it
Nothing in the table talks about as many subjects, and none is as free-form. If you keep using it, give it this at the start of every session: “Act as my spoken English teacher. Have a natural conversation with me. Do not interrupt me while I speak. After each of my answers, briefly correct my most important mistake and give me a more natural way to say one sentence. Raise the difficulty gradually.” That covers half of what a paid app does.
The other half, the memory of your mistakes and a calibrated level, is what the apps below are for.
Which alternative for which problem
Talking every day for free with no account: Gliglish. Ten minutes a day, open the site and speak.
Pronunciation and accent: ELSA Speak. It corrects sounds one by one, which ChatGPT does not do.
A course with an order to it: Speak. Lessons that go somewhere, in exchange for a subscription.
Real people: HelloTalk. It is not AI, and for losing the fear of talking to natives that is an advantage.
Being corrected while you talk, with your mistakes brought back next time: Fluvia. No account or card to start, and the listening tests and the spoken-English reductions are free on this same site.
How we compared
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a free alternative to ChatGPT for practising English speaking?
- Yes. Gliglish gives ten minutes a day with no sign-up, TalkPal ten minutes a day with an account, and Fluvia its first conversations free with no expiry, no account and no card, with the rest of the app unlimited.
- Why would I leave ChatGPT if it is free?
- You do not have to. The reasons people add another app are a level that adjusts, correction that happens without asking every time, and a memory of the mistakes you repeat. ChatGPT does the first two only with a prompt each session and the third only if you organise its memory.
- Which alternative is closest to ChatGPT?
- For open conversation on any topic, Gliglish and Fluvia are the closest: both are voice conversations with an AI that you can start without an account. Fluvia adds correction while you speak and brings your repeated mistakes back.
- Can I keep ChatGPT and add one of these?
- That is what most people do. ChatGPT for free-form talk with the teacher prompt above, plus one app that tracks your level and your mistakes. None of the table’s free options will ask you for a card.