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WaniKani vs Anki vs immit: Pricing, Kanji Depth, and When to Use Each (2026)
You have three tabs open. One is WaniKani, which everyone says is the way to learn kanji. One is Anki, which everyone says is what serious learners use. And one is a newer tool you found while trying to figure out why the words you look up while reading never seem to stick. All three call themselves spaced repetition. All three want a slot in your daily study plan. Only one question matters: which job does each tool actually do, and which of those jobs do you need done right now?
This post compares WaniKani, Anki, and immit on the three axes Japanese learners actually search for: what they cost, how deep their kanji coverage goes, and which learning style each one fits. We build immit, so read the recommendation sections knowing that. The pricing and feature sections are just facts, date-stamped so you can check them.
WaniKani, Anki, and immit: what each tool does
How WaniKani teaches kanji and vocabulary
WaniKani is a kanji and vocabulary trainer built by Tofugu, the Japanese language and culture site. It teaches roughly 2,000 kanji across 60 levels, covering most of the 2,136 jouyou kanji, plus around 6,000 vocabulary words that directly correspond to the kanji you just learned. Its method is mnemonics: radicals build into kanji, kanji build into vocab, and every item climbs a five-stage spaced repetition ladder from Apprentice to Burned. Pacing is fixed. You cannot skip ahead, even if you already read kanji comfortably; new lessons and new reviews arrive as the SRS timers allow, not in a single day. The community forum is large and active, and vacation mode pauses reviews when life happens.
How long does WaniKani take? Just over a year, at best
At maximum pace, finishing all 60 levels takes just over a year. That assumes you clear every review window on time from the beginning, which is a demanding routine. Most people take two to three years, and that is a fine outcome, not a failure of the plan.
What Anki does for Japanese learners
Anki is a free, open-source flashcard app with the most battle-tested spaced repetition scheduler in language learning. It does not teach Japanese. It reviews whatever you put into it: kanji and vocab, grammar points, listening cards, anything. That is its strength and its tax. You build or import decks, tune the settings, and maintain the cards yourself. Since adopting the FSRS scheduler, Anki cuts review counts meaningfully at the same retention level, and its customization ceiling is unmatched. The learning curve is real, and the interface expects you to read documentation. For Japanese learners who enjoy that control, nothing else comes close.
What immit does
immit is a popup Japanese dictionary with FSRS spaced repetition built in, shipped as a Chrome extension and a desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Hover a word on any web page and the definition appears right there, with reading, part of speech, example sentences, and pronunciation audio. One click saves it to your deck, with the sentence it came from; FSRS schedules the reviews. There is no account requirement, no deck configuration, and it works offline, whether you live in Japan or study from abroad. immit is not a course. It is built for learners whose new words come from reading native material. Everything is free, including sync across devices with an optional account; you can add it to Chrome and be looking words up within a minute.
WaniKani vs Anki vs immit pricing: monthly subscription to lifetime (July 2026)
As of July 2026, WaniKani costs $9 per month, $89 per year, or $299 for a lifetime account. Anki is free on desktop and Android, with a paid iOS app. immit is free, with no paid plan at the moment.
| WaniKani | Anki | immit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | $9 | Free | Free |
| Yearly | $89 | Free | Free |
| Lifetime | $299 | Free | Free (no paid plan) |
| Free tier | First three levels free | Fully free (desktop, Android, AnkiWeb); AnkiMobile for iOS is a $24.99 one-time purchase | Everything: lookup, save, FSRS review, offline, no account needed; sync with an optional account |
| Discounts | Annual New Year's sale, including lifetime discounts | n/a | n/a |
Three notes on that table. First, WaniKani's first three levels are free with no time limit, which is enough to know within a few weeks whether mnemonics fit how you memorize. Second, Anki being free assumes your time costs nothing; the hours spent on deck setup and card maintenance are the real money in the equation, a fair trade if you enjoy them and expensive if you don't. Third, immit is free in full, not a trial: lookup, review, offline use, and sync across devices with an optional account. Verify current prices on wanikani.com and ankiweb.net before deciding; subscription prices change.
Kanji depth, spaced repetition, and workflow compared
The three tools are not three versions of the same thing. They answer different questions.
| WaniKani | Anki | immit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kanji instruction | Full curriculum: radicals, mnemonics, ~2,000 kanji in 60 levels | None built in; depends on your deck (Heisig, core decks, mining) | Word-level only: headword, reading, meaning |
| Where new words come from | The curriculum decides | You build or import decks | The web pages and YouTube captions you read |
| SRS | Five stages, Apprentice to Burned, fixed intervals | FSRS, fully tunable | FSRS with a time budget (pick 5, 15, or 30 minutes), zero configuration |
| Review modes | Type the reading and meaning | Depends on note type | Flip mode and type mode |
| Pacing control | Fixed, no skipping ahead | Total control, your own pace | Shaped by how much you save while reading |
| Dictionary lookup | No | No | Hover popup + Pocket Dictionary (pinned sidebar with active search) |
| Offline | Web app requires connection | Yes | Yes, lookup and review |
| Grammar | Not covered; needs other resources | Whatever you deck | Not covered; needs other resources |
On kanji depth, WaniKani is the deepest teacher of the three and it is not close. It is a structured path from zero to reading most jouyou kanji, and the mnemonic system is the product. immit is not designed for character-level kanji study: the popup shows you the word 食べる with its reading and meaning, but there is no per-kanji breakdown, no stroke order, no mnemonics. If your goal this year is to learn kanji systematically, that is WaniKani's job. Anki sits in between; it teaches whatever kanji deck you feed it, with quality entirely dependent on the deck.
On spaced repetition, all three run proven interval systems, and the underlying principle is the same: reviews arrive right before you would forget, which is what makes long-term retention of kanji and vocabulary possible. All three adjust to performance in their own way; get an item wrong in WaniKani and it drops back down the ladder, so review timing follows how you actually perform, and learners consistently report kanji sticking better once that ladder forces recall at expanding intervals. The difference is who tunes the system. Anki gives you every dial. WaniKani and immit give you none, by design: WaniKani because the curriculum sets the pace, immit because FSRS is meant to disappear into the reading workflow: you pick how many minutes you have and it picks the cards.
On workflow, the question is where your next hundred words come from. WaniKani hands them to you in lessons. Anki expects you to source them, from textbooks, prebuilt decks, or mining. immit assumes they come from what you read: you meet a word in the wild, hover, save, and it enters review with an example sentence already attached.
Which tool fits how you learn Japanese? Four learner profiles
Kanji-focused beginner: start with WaniKani
If you know kana and want a guided path into kanji, WaniKani is built exactly for absolute beginners who need structure. The fixed pacing that frustrates advanced learners is a feature at this stage: it stops you from bingeing 200 lessons in a single day and drowning in reviews a week later. You wait, the SRS does its work, and the routine forms. Pair it with a grammar resource, since WaniKani deliberately does not teach grammar.
Kanji-focused intermediate: WaniKani or an Anki deck
It depends on how much you already know. WaniKani's no-skipping rule means intermediate learners spend weeks reviewing kanji they already read comfortably, which can be a bit frustrating. If that is you, an Anki deck you control (or a Heisig-based deck) respects your existing knowledge better. If you would rather not build anything, WaniKani's structure still beats an unmaintained deck.
Vocab-focused learner: which vocab trainer fits?
Anki or immit, and the split is about where your vocabulary comes from. If you study from textbooks and frequency lists and want precise control over card formats, Anki is the stronger vocab trainer. If your vocabulary comes from reading and you keep losing words in the gap between "looked it up" and "made a card," immit closes that gap: the lookup is the card, one click apart. No deck maintenance session required.
Reading-focused learner: immit
This is the profile immit was built for. The traditional setup for reading-driven learners is a popup dictionary plus Anki plus a connector, three tools you configure and maintain so that lookups become flashcards. immit replaces that chain with one tool: hover, save, review, in the same extension, with the Pocket Dictionary pinned to the corner for active searches while you read. If you spend most of your Japanese learning time reading native material, try immit free and see whether the words start sticking.
If none of these profiles fit, other quality resources exist: Renshuu covers kanji, vocab, and grammar with a generous free tier, JPDB merges a dictionary database with prebuilt SRS decks, and Kanji Study on Android is strong for handwriting practice.
Using WaniKani and immit together (and where Anki fits)
WaniKani and immit solve different problems, so running both is coherent, not redundant. WaniKani teaches you to recognize kanji systematically; immit catches the vocabulary you meet while actually reading, which WaniKani's curriculum cannot predict. Kanji curriculum in one tool, reading vocabulary in the other, with no overlap in what the two review queues contain.
Anki is the complicated one. If you have years of Anki history and thousands of mature cards, keep them; that review history is valuable. The practical question is where new words from reading should go. Routing them through Anki means running the popup-plus-connector setup and maintaining it. Routing them through immit means the lookup and the flashcard are the same object. What we would not recommend is three parallel SRS queues; pick one home for reading vocabulary and let the others do their own jobs.
FAQ: WaniKani, Anki, and immit
How much does WaniKani cost in 2026?
As of July 2026, WaniKani costs $9 per month, $89 per year, or $299 for a lifetime subscription. The first three levels are free, and WaniKani runs an annual New Year's sale that discounts subscriptions, including lifetime accounts.
Is WaniKani free?
Partially. The first three levels are free with no time limit, which covers the first few dozen kanji and gives a real feel for the mnemonic method. Everything beyond level 3 requires a paid subscription.
Is WaniKani worth it for learning kanji?
For learners who want a structured kanji course and stick with daily reviews, WaniKani is one of the most reliable paths to reading roughly 2,000 kanji. It is least worth it for learners who already know several hundred kanji, since the fixed pacing makes you review them anyway.
Should I use WaniKani or Anki, or both?
Use WaniKani if you want a curriculum that makes the decisions. Use Anki if you want full control and are willing to maintain decks. Many learners start with WaniKani for foundations and add or transition to Anki as their needs get specific. Using both WaniKani and Anki is common and reasonable, because they solve different problems.
Can I use WaniKani and immit together?
Yes, and it is a natural pairing rather than a compromise. WaniKani handles systematic kanji study; immit handles the vocabulary you meet while reading web pages and YouTube captions, saving each word, with its sentence, into its built-in FSRS review. The two queues do not overlap.
Does WaniKani teach vocabulary and grammar?
WaniKani teaches around 6,000 vocabulary words, chosen to reinforce its kanji, so it works as a vocab trainer within its curriculum. It does not teach grammar at all; you need a separate grammar resource alongside it.
What should I use after finishing WaniKani level 60?
After level 60, your kanji foundation is done and the job changes to acquiring vocabulary from native material. That is a reading workflow: a lookup tool plus SRS, either the Anki route with a popup dictionary and connector, or immit as the single-tool version of the same loop.
The short version: choosing your Japanese learning stack
Getting this choice wrong costs months, so match the tool to the job. Use WaniKani if you want to be taught kanji, from radicals to roughly 2,000 characters, and you accept its pace ($9/month, $89/year, $299 lifetime as of July 2026). Use Anki if you want maximum control and free software, and deck maintenance sounds like a fair trade. Use immit if your Japanese lives in reading, and you want lookup, save, and review to be one motion instead of a toolchain (free; install the Chrome extension to start, the desktop app is optional). We wrote a fuller comparison of the Anki-alternative options for Japanese, and a spaced repetition guide is on the way; more posts in this series go deeper than one comparison can.