It only counts if you say it
The main path is to say it out loud, not typing and not picking from four choices. However well you drill, not speaking isn't speaking.
Offline · practise out loud on your own material
That Japanese document in front of you —
you can read it, but you can't say it.
Just drop it in — PDF, video, audio. Sentences split, readings marked, shadowed line by line; then the words you save get drilled until you can say something of your own. None of it leaves this computer.
For people who can read but can't speak yet (roughly N4 and up) · free version stays free · Pro ¥1,980 a year (Japanese yen, tax included) · your stuff stays on your computer
Try it · the same screens as the real app
This isn't a video. It's the desktop app's own interface, running in this page. The readings, the pitch, the meanings and the audio are all real.
manabiu
Demo
About 300 KB · audio loads when you need it
The demo is a scaled-down desktop window, so it's small on a phone. Turn your phone sideways, or use a computer.
- Look up — press "例句 1": every word gets its reading, its pitch, and a colour for its part of speech. Tap a word to see what it means.
- Today — the words that are due, ready for you to say out loud.
- Practise — press the mic and say it. The first try passes; the second says "didn't catch that — not judging you on it". Both are what the real app does.
- Chat — get something wrong and it won't stop you. It just says it back the right way in its reply.
- Watch — a real vlog, with the machine transcript just as it came out (mistakes and all). Press → to walk through it line by line, with the breakdown always on screen.
⚠️ The only thing faked in this page is the scoring — actually listening to you needs the model on your computer, which a web page can't do. So the two outcomes here (passed / didn't catch that) are set up in advance to match what the real app does. Nothing is made up.
Six things others don't do, or don't dare to
The heavy work runs on your computer, so nothing is capped
Parsing, audio, scoring and transcription all run on your own CPU — there's no cloud bill ticking by the hour, so you can use it as much as you like, and your sentences and recordings stay on this computer by default.
You practise your own sentences
Double-tap Ctrl to grab a word and the sentence it came from too — so you practise what you actually read, not a random line from an example bank.
Any sentence you pick, beat by beat
Any sentence you pick can be makes a model reading on your machine, as often as you like. Because it knows which line you're saying, it can line it up beat by beat — long sounds, small tsu, high and low. You can see which beat was off.
A bridge that reaches real conversation
Being good at drills isn't being able to talk. manabiu pushes every pattern all the way to using it naturally in a real conversation — skip that and you get someone great at drills and lost in conversation.
Works even when there are no subtitles
Drag in a video or audio file and it's your material. No subtitles? Let it listen through once and it writes a draft on your machine — nothing counts until you've checked it. None of it leaves your computer, and there's no limit on length.
What gets installed on your computer
All of it works offline. There's no server behind it, and your sentences go to nobody.
- A Japanese dictionary with 210,000 entries
- Tap any word and it's there — and it knows 490,000 word forms too
- Pitch marked for 100,000 words
- The high and low of each word (Tokyo standard), right there while you shadow
- 739 grammar points
- N5 through N1, each with example sentences you can drill straight away
- A parser that splits and reads
- It splits a sentence, adds readings, and spots conjugated forms — you don't look anything up by hand
- Speech scoring and audio, on your machine
- It listens to how you said it and reads it back properly — on your own hardware, no queue, no limit
- Your data is yours
- Your words, your sentences and your progress live on this machine. Export them or wipe them whenever you like
The ladder lines up exactly with what your computer can and can't judge
Anything your computer can judge reliably never goes online. Only the last step — real conversation — goes to a cloud AI, and even then it shows you, never scores you.
①
Listen + shadow
Hear a pattern used for real, then say it after
On your computer · reliable②
Drills
Swap and change, until you don't have to think
On your computer · right or wrong is clear③
Say your own thing
Use the pattern to say something true about you
Mostly on your computer④
Real conversation
using it naturally in a real conversation
Cloud · shows you, doesn't judge youKeep going on your phone
Words you save on your computer show up on the phone version. No app to install — just open it in a browser, and it works with no signal. The words that are due, their sentences and the model audio are all there.
Open the phone version →
app.manabiu.com · scan it or just type it into your phone's browser
The phone version is for review only, not speaking practice — scoring needs the local model, which a phone can't run, so that part stays on your computer.
What's new
Generated straight from the git history.
What it isn't (please read this before you buy)
- Not for absolute beginners. manabiu takes words you already know and pushes them until you can say them — which assumes you're already reading Japanese and have words to save. If you haven't got through kana yet, start somewhere else and come back.
- Not an Anki replacement. Card templates, add-ons, tuning the algorithm — Anki is better at all of it. manabiu's word list does one thing: feed what you've learned back into speaking practice.
- Not for plain vocabulary cramming. If you want to grind ten thousand words, Anki + Yomitan is free and better at it.
- Japanese only, for now. English is planned, but it isn't in the app yet.
- About 460 MB of models and dictionaries on first run. It downloads when you first open the app, and after that everything runs offline.
- AI chat needs your own DeepSeek key (a few cents a turn, and I don't take a cut). Skip it and nothing else changes.
- Pitch isn't marked right or wrong. You get the high-low of each beat to compare against. If we can't do it accurately, we don't do it.
- Small team, early version numbers. See what's new below — that's the git history, not a press release.
Pricing
Use it first. Pay if it's worth it. One payment, no auto-renewal.
Free
¥0forever
Use it to look things up, and collect words while you're at it.
- Double-tap Ctrl to grab a word — the sentence it came from is saved too
- Sentence breakdown (words · readings · pitch) + tap for meanings, 210,000 entries offline
- Word list + review reminders · import and export in bulk (works with Anki)
- Tap any word or line to hear it read properly (made on your machine, no limit)
- Watch and shadow: play · breakdown always on screen · save lines
- AI chat (bring your own DeepSeek key)
- Email support, replies within two working days
- Speaking practice 5 times a day — a taste. The real thing is on the right
Pro
The half where you actually speak.
Monthly¥480
Try it for a month
Yearly¥1,980
≈ ¥165 a month
Covers a whole term
Forever · early bird
¥7,800¥4,980
Every future version included
Prices are in Japanese yen, tax included. Card (Apple Pay works), Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Tools like this are usually a monthly subscription, and they cap transcription by the hour. manabiu runs on your own computer with no cloud costs, so it can be a one-time purchase, with no limit on length.
- Everything in the free version, plus speaking as your daily main course:
- Unlimited speaking practice — scored on your machine, and it would rather say nothing than call you wrong
- Shadowing scored beat by beat · swap-and-change drills · use what you learned to say your own thing
- Files with no subtitles get machine transcript into lines, with no limit on length
- Phone version sync (review on the way to work)
- One-to-one support — write any time, same-day reply
- Buy it once and get every future version
When a monthly or yearly plan ends you go back to the free version, and not one word or day of progress is touched.
The forever price is an early-bird one; it goes back to ¥7,800 once pitch is scored right/wrong. 7-day refund, no questions asked.
Get it
Download for Windows
macOS · coming soon
Windows 10/11 · 64-bit · about 460 MB of models and dictionaries download the first time you open it. macOS is in progress, Linux after that.
The installer isn't ready yet. Want it as soon as it is? Email [email protected] and I'll tell you when it's out.
Want to pay in RMB, or just talk first?
Xiaohongshu / Xianyu search for manabiu日语工具 to find a reseller — pay in RMB and they'll send you the key straight away.
Email [email protected] — ask anything before you buy. Didn't get your key, or changed machines more than three times? Same address.
You don't have to buy anything to write. Tell me where you're stuck — chances are I've been stuck there too.
What's coming
If you bought the forever version, all of this comes free.
- Japanese verb form practice — masu, te, ta, potential, passive, causative… one at a time, until you don't have to think.
- Connectives, on their own — kara, node, noni, tara, ba… how sentences join up. This is the hardest part to teach yourself.
- Meanings in your language — right now word meanings come out in English (there's no open Japanese-Chinese dictionary we're allowed to ship in a paid product). Next step: have it explain in your own language, starting with Chinese.
- English / Vietnamese interface — the people in Japanese language schools here aren't only Chinese. The interface and the word meanings will both follow your own language.
- English parsing — the plumbing is already there. Turn on the interface and it's a second language.
Common questions
Does it need the internet? Do my sentences get uploaded?
Looking words up, speaking practice, your word list and your stats are all offline — by default not one byte leaves this computer. Only AI chat goes online, and it needs your own key: leave it empty and that one feature is off, nothing else changes. Phone sync is off by default. Turn it on and it syncs only the words you saved, their sentences and your progress — and one button wipes it all, cloud copy included.
Which systems does it run on?
Windows now; macOS in progress, Linux after that. On Linux, double-tap Ctrl to grab a word works under X11 but not under Wayland.
How much does it download the first time?
About 460 MB: speech scoring, the voice, and two dictionaries. It downloads when you first open the app, and after that everything is offline. If one piece is missing, only that piece is unavailable and the app still opens. The transcription model is another 130 MB or so, downloaded only when you use it.
How is this different from Yomitan + Anki?
That pair is free and about as good as it gets at looking up and remembering, and I'm not rebuilding it. manabiu is the half after that: pushing what you remember until you can say it. If looking up and remembering is all you want, use them instead.
Can I use it on my phone?
There's a web version for review (works offline) — go through what's due on your way to work. Speaking practice stays on the desktop — scoring needs the local model, and a phone can't run it.
Why doesn't it mark pitch right or wrong?
Because we can't do it accurately, and a judgement you can't trust is worse than none — the same rule as everywhere else here. For now you get the high-low of each beat to compare against.