What HSK level does HelloChinese go up to?

HelloChinese's course covers roughly HSK 1 through HSK 4, with the free tier concentrated on HSK 1 and 2. It is built for beginners through lower intermediate and does not extend into HSK 5 or HSK 6, and independent reviews note that even its HSK 4 coverage is incomplete relative to the official word list. GraphChinese, by contrast, covers HSK 0 foundations through HSK 6.

Is GraphChinese or HelloChinese better for learning Chinese?

HelloChinese is one of the best apps for absolute beginners: game-based, fun, with good speech recognition and stroke animations. GraphChinese is the better choice if you want to go the whole way, because it covers HSK 0 to HSK 6 on a mastery-gated dependency graph of 743 topics, teaches character writing in stroke order, and trains speaking from lesson one. HelloChinese is a subscription; GraphChinese is $49 once.

Can HelloChinese take me to advanced Chinese (HSK 5 or 6)?

No. HelloChinese's course content stops around the intermediate range and does not include HSK 5 or HSK 6 material, so intermediate and advanced learners run out of course. GraphChinese continues through HSK 5 and HSK 6 in the same system.

GraphChinese vs HelloChinese for learning Chinese

By Carson 木林森 · Middlebury College, ICLP at National Taiwan University, Yenching Academy of Peking University

HelloChinese is one of the best beginner apps for Mandarin, and I recommend it to people starting cold. This comparison is honest about that, and honest about the one thing that matters most if you are serious: HelloChinese is built to get you started, not to get you all the way. Its course tops out around the intermediate range. GraphChinese is built to take you from your first tone to HSK 6.

What HelloChinese does well

It is genuinely great for beginners. The game-based lessons are fun and the onboarding is smooth.
Strong speech recognition and tone practice, plus stroke animations for early characters.
Native-speaker video and a chatbot give useful spoken exposure at the beginner level.
For your first months, from zero into early intermediate, it is a solid, polished choice.

Where it runs out: the HSK ceiling

The course covers roughly HSK 1 to HSK 4. The free tier is concentrated on HSK 1 and 2, and the paid course extends through the intermediate range. It follows its own curriculum that overlaps HSK 1 to 4 rather than tracking the official word lists exactly.
There is no HSK 5 or HSK 6 content. Once you reach intermediate, you run out of course. Independent reviews also note that even the HSK 4 coverage is incomplete against the official list, so you can finish the app and still be short of a clean HSK 4.
It is level-based, not dependency-based. Lessons advance by level, so nothing points at the specific prerequisite underneath a stall, and nothing gates you from moving on before a foundation is proven.
It is a subscription. You pay every month or year for as long as you use it, and you still cap out at intermediate.

The core difference: started versus finished

The hard part of Chinese is not the first HSK level, it is not stalling at the third or fourth. GraphChinese is built for the whole climb. All 829 topics, from the four tones and the first stroke of 你 through HSK 6 grammar, live in one dependency graph, and a topic stays locked until every prerequisite is proven mastered. Every lesson is active recall, spaced reviews arrive just before you would forget, character writing is drilled in stroke order, and speaking is trained from lesson one with a memorized comment and question kit you use on real people. It is Math Academy's mastery learning, engineered for all of Mandarin, and it does not stop at intermediate.

	HelloChinese	GraphChinese
Level range	Roughly HSK 1 to HSK 4	HSK 0 foundations through HSK 6
Advanced content (HSK 5 to 6)	None	Yes, all the way through HSK 6
Structure	Level-based lessons	Dependency graph of 829 topics with mastery gating
Best for	Beginners getting started	Zero to full proficiency, no ceiling
Character writing	Stroke animations	Active stroke-order writing plus animations
Speaking	Speech recognition and chatbot	Comment and question method from lesson one
Price	Subscription	$49 once, lifetime

Which one should you use

Use HelloChinese if you are an absolute beginner who wants the most fun, polished on-ramp into the language, and you are not yet thinking past the intermediate level. It is very good at that job.

Use GraphChinese if you intend to actually finish, if you are already past the beginner stage, or if you have used a beginner app and hit the wall where the course simply ends. GraphChinese covers the same beginner ground and then keeps going, all the way to HSK 6, for a one-time price instead of a subscription that caps out at intermediate.

See the whole path instead of reading about it. Your first lesson, the four tones and tracing 你 and 好 in correct stroke order, is free on the landing page, no signup. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is a one-time $49 for lifetime access.

Start the free first lesson