About p8nda

What p8nda is

p8nda is a Chinese to English dictionary, available on the web and as a mobile app. The focus is on Mandarin as used in mainland China. It covers the full HSK 1 to 7 vocabulary plus tens of thousands of high frequency everyday words. Each entry leads with the simplified form; the traditional form is shown next to it when the two differ.

We are a small team based in Kraków, Poland, and we are learning Chinese ourselves. We use p8nda every day.

Why p8nda

Pleco is the benchmark Chinese dictionary on mobile, with years of work behind it and a massive feature set. Its core is fast and offline. We've used Pleco for years ourselves, paid for its add-ons, and still rely on it. It's great at what it does.

Where p8nda goes differently:

• A cleaner, more modern interface focused on day to day study
• HSK badges using the 2021 standard on every entry
• Frequency rankings visible alongside every word
• Short learner tips covering usage, grammar, history, culture, register, and common mistakes
• AI translation built in for full sentences with word by word breakdowns
• AI and OCR features free with daily quotas, not paid add-ons

General AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude can answer Chinese questions, but they are built for everything, not for Chinese. Looking up a word in a dictionary is faster than waiting for a chat response. The mobile app works offline. Audio is pre-generated and ready to play, not generated on the fly. The UI is focused on the tasks a learner actually repeats: search, read an entry, hear it, save it, review it.

Development status

p8nda is under active development. Content is being reviewed and improved continuously. Expect the following:

• Audio is AI generated and reviewed in batches. Some words do not have audio yet, and some pronunciations may sound off until reviewed.
• Pinyin and translations are reviewed regularly but errors may exist, especially in less common words. Definitions are cross checked against an established reference dictionary during generation.
• Example sentences are AI generated and reviewed over time. They aim for realistic everyday usage.
• New entries, corrections, and fixes ship every week.

If you spot an issue, please let us know.

What's planned

• Expand the dictionary toward 50,000 entries with continued hand review
• Add HSK 8 and 9 vocabulary ahead of the HSK 3.0 exam rollout in July 2026
• Translation, flashcards, and sign-in on the web, so you can use p8nda on your computer with the same flashcards, history, and settings as on the mobile app
• Public Android release on Google Play (currently in internal testing)
• iOS version of the mobile app
• Tablet-optimized layouts for the mobile app
• Ongoing review of existing entries for pinyin, audio, and example quality

How it stays free

The dictionary and all offline features are free and will stay free. AI features that cost real money per request, like translations and image OCR, have daily free quotas. Paid plans will expand those quotas for anyone who wants more over time. The dictionary itself will not be paywalled.