SayMei is an AI Chinese tutor you talk to out loud. Mei Lin, your tutor, talks with you in Mandarin in real time: she answers what you said, corrects you as you go, and remembers where your last lesson stopped. It runs in a browser with nothing to install and nothing to book, and your first lesson is free without an account or a card.
What a lesson with Mei Lin is like
A lesson is 5 to 10 minutes of conversation, built on one grammar point rather than a list of them. Mei Lin opens, you answer out loud in your own words, and she builds the pattern up with you, checks it landed, then makes you use it in a new situation. Because she carries what she learned about you into your next lesson, it starts from where you got stuck instead of from zero. The library holds 1,888 of these lessons across HSK 1 to HSK 6, including roleplays where she plays the waiter or the hotel clerk and debates where she argues the opposite side so you have to answer under pressure. A course path puts them in order if you would rather be told what to do next.
What you can do besides lessons with Mei Lin
Listen: AI dialogues with characters, pinyin and English lined up, adjustable playback speed and single-line replay. Remember: spaced-repetition flashcards scheduled by smart spaced repetition. Fix your tones: the Mandarin Tone Trial records you and compares your pitch shape against the target, and the tone pair trainer drills the twenty two-syllable patterns where tones collapse in connected speech, third-tone sandhi and the shifts on 一 and 不 included. Work on paper: free Chinese learning tools and printable practice packs, neither of which asks for an account. And 175 HSK 1 lesson songs if you would rather take vocabulary in by ear.
What costs money and what does not
Speaking time with Mei Lin is metered. The first lesson costs nothing and needs no card, and creating a free account adds a second one. Around those lessons the songs, dialogues, listening practice, the tools and the printable packs stay free, and the rest has a free daily allowance: 1 speaking practice session, 30 flashcard words, the first 3 levels of each game difficulty, Music Journey units 1–4, and chapter 1 of every story plus 3 full stories. Premium is $5.99 a month for 200 minutes with Mei Lin and lifts every daily limit; the trial terms, rollover rules and top-ups are on the pricing page. What is finite is speaking time rather than availability: there is no calendar, no minimum notice and no cancellation window, so a lesson at six in the morning costs the same as one at midnight.