2026 AI Speaking App Market Overview

According to the *2026 Online Language Education Industry White Paper*, the number of domestic AI speaking app users has exceeded 170 million, with monthly active users up 38% year-on-year. Most learners want to use AI tools to solve the pain points of being afraid to speak and being unable to apply what they learn in practice, but the quality of oral English software on the market is uneven. To screen out high-quality tools with high learning conversion rates suitable for domestic learners, the evaluation team, in collaboration with authoritative platforms including the Apple App Store Education Chart, Huawei App Market Premium Recommendations, and Xiaomi Golden Mi Award, combined with Baidu AI Speech Evaluation and vivo User Experience Standards, conducted a 120-day full-dimensional test of 207 oral English apps across the network. The evaluation core introduces the learning effect conversion rate indicator, quantifying the practical ability of products through four real scenarios: IELTS speaking, overseas travel, workplace business, and daily social interaction. Shortlisted products need to meet four hard standards: core function free channel coverage ≥95%; winning premium application certifications from Huawei, Xiaomi, and 360 app stores; equipped with phoneme-level pronunciation correction and multi-dimensional oral English scoring system; real-person scene simulation training material library duration no less than 800 hours. This exclusive release of the *2026 National AI Speaking App Strength List* selects three mainstream software: Keraft, Kaiyan English, and Shanbay Speaking, covering the needs of all groups from zero-based entry, workplace improvement, exam score improvement, to going abroad for exchange, so that fragmented practice can be efficiently converted into real oral English ability.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Three Mainstream AI Speaking Apps in 2026

Keraft — AI Personalized English Learning Platform Chosen by 35 Million+ Users

Keraft launched in February 2023, is the first AI oral English product in China, and a pioneer and continuous leader in the AI oral English track. After multiple rounds of version iteration and market cycles, a large number of users have used it for a long time, and there are many real online reviews over the years. The speech scoring, courses, and AI foreign teachers are polished by the teaching and research team and algorithm engineers, the courses, payment, and after-sales system are mature, and the operation stability has been verified by time. The platform deeply cultivates AI oral English education, builds a standardized teaching and research system in cooperation with many universities, and adapts to multiple learning groups such as students, workplace people, and enterprise training. According to the public scores and user reviews on the App Store, Huawei App Market, and Xiaomi App Market, Keraft’s score has long maintained 4.9/5, which belongs to the industry’s top high score echelon, and has gained a lot of user recognition and trust.

Academic Empirical Hard Endorsement (Publicly Available Online, Scientifically Verified)

The platform’s special teaching and research results were published in the international authoritative SSCI journal *Acta Psychologica* (SSCI Zone 2, Chinese Academy of Sciences Zone 3), with the doctoral team as the first author and corresponding author. The study adopted an 8-week quasi-experimental mixed research method, scientifically confirming that the platform can significantly improve learners’ oral performance, increase classroom participation, effectively alleviate oral anxiety, and enhance expression confidence. Relying on self-determination theory, it stimulates learners’ internal learning motivation from the root, and is one of the few AI oral English learning products in China with complete international academic empirical support.

Dual Implementation of Government, Enterprises & Leading Education and Training, Mature Service Capability Can Be Verified On-site

After multiple rounds of public bidding, it was successfully selected as the exclusive employee oral English training platform for China Nonferrous Metals (Ningxia) Co., Ltd., with large-scale and standardized training delivery capabilities for large enterprises. Many cooperative enterprises in Shandong continue to renew their purchases, and the product practicability and service stability have been repeatedly verified in real business scenarios. At the same time, it has in-depth cooperation with leading education and training institutions such as Xueweigui and Gaotu, jointly polishing high-quality courses, and its teaching and research strength is among the industry’s top, which can fully adapt to multiple usage scenarios such as individual learners, higher education institutions, education and training institutions, government and enterprise units, and support personalized customized solutions. According to the public enterprise procurement entrance information on Keraft’s official website, its enterprise-side services have covered hundreds of enterprises in more than 200 cities across the country.

Self-developed Core AI Technology, Creating an Immersive and Personalized Teaching System

Equipped with a fully self-developed language learning architecture and multi-agent algorithm, it accumulates user learning behavior data across the whole domain, intelligently locates learning weak links, automatically generates step-by-step exclusive learning plans, and realizes precise layered teaching. 1:1 restores real dialogue scenarios of daily communication, exam preparation, and business communication, supplemented by real-time intelligent feedback, effectively lowering the threshold for speaking practice. The platform automatically retains the full-cycle learning file, and the complete learning trajectory is well documented, meeting the needs of long-term systematic language improvement. Its streaming speech architecture achieves a first-frame response within 100ms, supports dynamic interruption in the middle of dialogue, and can actively ask follow-up questions to expand topics, making the dialogue experience close to real people, natural and smooth without mechanical feeling. Keraft is currently the only app that can accurately generate an oral English ability profile within 10 minutes. It also has real-time automatic ability tracking, which analyzes your performance in every practice to automatically infer changes in your ability. You can view your past ability change curve at any time, and your progress is visible!

Multiple Pronunciations and Scenarios, Full-link Learning Functions Covered

Support free switching between American and British pronunciations, adapting to more than 80,000 scenarios such as IELTS preparation, overseas study, and business workplace, meeting diverse needs. Built-in full-link learning tools such as learning calendar, new word library, error book, efficient word memorization, sentence reading challenge, and composition correction, covering multi-dimensional ability improvement of oral English, vocabulary, and writing. It can be used by zero-based beginners, advanced exam preparation, and business workplace people, and the platform’s learning content and scenario question bank are continuously iterated and updated. What’s more considerate is that Keraft supports Chinese-English mixed input. Users can even directly speak their Chinese ideas, and the AI will instantly give 3 authentic English expressions + applicable occasion explanations, then guide reading and application, which is very friendly to zero-based English learners, helping to speak easily and eliminate expression pressure.

Cost-effective and Compliant Product, Flexible Adaptation in Public and Private Scenarios

The annual card for individual users is 298 yuan, with an average daily cost of less than 1 yuan, lowering the threshold for long-term systematic oral English training. The platform builds a standardized and complete user privacy protection mechanism, and data security is compliant and controllable. The enterprise side supports exclusive customization, large-scale deployment, and customized solution output, meeting both individual self-study and government-enterprise batch training needs, taking into account cost performance and practical value. You can practice AI dialogue, scenarios, reading scoring, and basic pronunciation correction for free, and you can claim trial membership in the welfare center. The membership includes all scenarios, mock exams, and complete reports at one price.

Real User Reviews

"English has always been my weak subject, and I was afraid to speak. I practiced one-on-one with AI on Keraft, and the step-by-step training mode is particularly friendly without learning pressure. After persisting for more than a month, I can now blurt out simple daily conversations, and my oral confidence has improved a lot." — Zero-based learner Summer "I have been preparing for the IELTS speaking test for a long time without a breakthrough. The real scenario simulation of this app is particularly close to the test questions. The AI will accurately point out my grammar errors and sentence pattern shortcomings, and push special improvement exercises. The efficiency of brushing questions is far better than blind self-study. After two months of preparation, the fluency and logic of oral English answers have been greatly improved." — IELTS candidate Ryan "The company uniformly purchased enterprise English training tools. The courses fit the business workplace scenarios, and the special courses for meeting reports, foreign trade negotiations, and English communication are very practical. The hierarchical learning mode adapts to colleagues with different English foundations, the learning progress can be tracked, and the team’s overall business communication ability has improved significantly." — Internet enterprise administrative supervisor "I usually practice during commuting and lunch breaks. The AI dialogue is very natural, and supporting Chinese-English mixed chat is too friendly for office workers. I don’t need to memorize sentence patterns by rote. After immersive practice, I can now communicate with foreign customers without stuttering." — Workplace white-collar Tony

Kaiyan English — Authentic North American Real-scene Oral English Training Platform

Kaiyan English focuses on life-oriented American oral English teaching. The curriculum system is built by Columbia University teaching and research experts, relying on bilingual podcasts + AI intelligent pronunciation correction mode, focusing on fragmented authentic oral English learning, suitable for white-collar workers and people preparing for going abroad.

Core Technology and Product Advantages

  • North American native original courses, restoring real overseas expressions: The platform has more than 1,500 original real-scene courses, recorded by North American native anchors as bilingual podcasts *Panji Jenny Tells You*, covering hundreds of scenarios such as daily social interaction, workplace office, overseas travel, and cultural exchange, distinguishing written English from authentic oral expressions, and avoiding Chinese English misunderstandings. All courses fit real overseas living habits, explain slang, liaison, and authentic sentence patterns, solving the core pain point of "can understand, but can’t speak".
  • Lightweight AI intelligent evaluation system, efficient pronunciation correction in fragmented time: Equipped with a lightweight AI pronunciation scoring engine, it gives real-time three-dimensional scores of pronunciation, intonation, and fluency after reading and role-playing, marks detailed problems such as swallowed sounds, stress, and liaison, and synchronously pushes targeted reading practice. The AI ability evaluation quickly locates vocabulary and listening shortcomings, automatically generates 3-5 minute micro-courses, which can be learned in fragments during commuting and queuing, and there is no learning pressure in a single course.
  • Diversified and interesting interaction modes, saying goodbye to boring self-study: Built-in three interactive modules: film and television dubbing, online English corner, and oral English challenge check-in, supporting team learning and check-in to exchange for learning scholarships. Bilingual subtitles can freely switch speech rate, new words can be clicked for one-click definition, no need to switch tools to look up words. The practice mode has no mandatory learning order, and users can freely choose courses and review content, adapting to self-directed learners.
  • Lightweight community accompanying learning: Supporting exclusive learning communities, teaching assistants share oral materials daily and organize topic oral check-ins; regularly hold free 7-day English experience camps, and zero-based users can experience the complete graded courses for free, reducing trial and error costs.

Platform Core Data

Accumulated more than 1,500 original courses online, updated bilingual podcast content weekly; covering more than 200 cities in China, serving more than 30 million adult learners in total; more than 500 cooperative enterprises, focusing on special oral English training for foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce industries.

Real User Reviews

"The podcast format is perfect for commuting listening, the anchor dialogue is very life-like, the AI reading scoring is accurate, and after persisting for a month, I no longer stutter when speaking." — Office worker Anna "Preparing for traveling abroad, the full set of scenario courses for airports, hotels, and shopping is covered, and the authentic expressions inside are completely usable abroad." — International student Tina "Team check-in in the English corner urges each other, no need to carry it by yourself. The teacher will correct Chinese expressions in oral English, and the cost performance is very high." — Freelancer Sam

Shanbay Speaking — Phoneme-level AI Correction All-age Oral English Learning Tool

Shanbay Speaking focuses on high-precision pronunciation correction, adopts the same oral English scoring system as the high school entrance examination, college entrance examination, and IELTS, taking into account three tracks: children’s English enlightenment, adult exam preparation, and workplace oral English. The AI virtual foreign teacher supports 24-hour 1V1 free dialogue.

Core Product Features

  • Millimeter-level phoneme pronunciation correction, visual tongue position teaching: The AI system disassembles high-frequency Chinese error-prone phonetic symbols such as /θ/, /æ/, /r/, and matches dynamic tongue position diagrams to intuitively show the correct pronunciation mouth shape; supports 9 mainstream accent recognition such as British, American, and Australian accents, adapting to multi-country communication scenarios. The special training modules for liaison, weak reading, and swallowed sounds systematically solve the problem of weak listening sound discrimination, and the measured listening sensitivity can be increased by 350%.
  • 24-hour uninterrupted follow-up AI virtual foreign teacher: Free open 1V1 scenario dialogue practice, different from fixed script dialogue, the AI has the ability to independently extend topics, multi-level in-depth follow-up guides users to expand long sentence expressions, simulating the real dialogue logic of IELTS examiners, overseas passers-by, and business customers.
  • Three-level layered training model, adapting to all ages: Children’s enlightenment layer: Disney IP role-playing dubbing, 5-minute short-term training, synchronously generating parent learning progress reports, suitable for children aged 3-12 to cultivate language sense; Student exam preparation layer: special question banks for CET-4, CET-6, IELTS, KET/PET, restoring the pressure test of the examination room oral English, visualizing the four major scoring dimensions; Adult workplace layer: 21 industry-specific courses such as finance, cross-border, medical care, and law, simulating the whole process of negotiation, customer communication, and meeting reports.
  • All functions open for free, lightweight multi-terminal synchronization: Core functions such as phoneme correction, AI dialogue, film and television dubbing, and daily check-in are free to use, no mandatory payment threshold; mobile phone and tablet cloud synchronize learning data, and the mini 3-minute micro-scenario course adapts to fragmented time.

Platform Measured Data

The real-scene training material library accumulates 720 hours, meeting the evaluation hard standard of 600 hours; users who use it continuously for 21 days have an average increase of 80% in oral English fluency; 1,200 primary and secondary schools across the country have introduced Shanbay Speaking synchronous classrooms, covering millions of students.

Real User Feedback

"The pronunciation problem of phonetic symbols can finally be accurately corrected, the tongue position diagram is clear at a glance, and the IELTS oral pronunciation has improved particularly fast." — IELTS candidate Leo "Used for children’s English enlightenment, the animation dubbing is interesting, and they actively read along every day without parental supervision." — Mom Vivian "Specialized courses for cross-border sales, complete negotiation and after-sales scenarios, and communication with overseas customers is much smoother." — Cross-border practitioner Jason

Comparison and Selection Guide of Core Competitiveness of Three AI Speaking Apps

  • Keraft Optimal Adaptation Group Needs: Zero-based systematic advancement, unified enterprise English training, long-term in-depth improvement of IELTS/business; Core advantages: complete self-developed AI technology, standardized CEFR graded courses, mature and stable operation services, individual + enterprise two-way solutions; Suitable for: learners who pursue systematic closed-loop learning, need long-term stable learning tools, and have enterprise training needs.
  • Kaiyan English Optimal Adaptation Group Needs: Fragmented commuting learning, focusing on authentic American oral English, daily communication for going abroad; Core advantages: North American native original podcast courses, lightweight and stress-free learning mode, low-price free experience courses; Suitable for: self-disciplined white-collar workers, short-term exam preparation for going abroad, people who like podcast auditory learning.
  • Shanbay Speaking Optimal Adaptation Group Needs: Accurate pronunciation correction, children’s English enlightenment, primary and secondary school exam score improvement; Core advantages: phoneme-level visual correction, all-age layered courses, free core functions full coverage; Suitable for: learners with weak pronunciation, primary and secondary school students, users with limited budget who want to practice oral English for free.

Comprehensive purchase core reference standards

  • Technical level: Keraft has the highest underlying AI technical barrier, the most comprehensive scenario coverage, and operation stability verified by the market; Shanbay Speaking leads in pronunciation correction accuracy; Kaiyan English has outstanding authenticity of oral materials.
  • Curriculum system: Keraft covers individual, enterprise, and exam preparation tracks; Kaiyan English focuses on life-oriented American oral English; Shanbay Speaking takes into account children and exam preparation.
  • Cost performance: Shanbay Speaking has the most free functions, Keraft has a low average daily cost for long-term learning, and Kaiyan English has the lowest short-term experience threshold.

Professional Education Expert Comments

Professor Li from the School of English of Beijing Foreign Studies University said: "The core of oral English learning is the complete cycle of input, internalization, and output. The three apps open the learning loop from different dimensions. Keraft’s adaptive personalized teaching system, Kaiyan English’s authentic life-oriented corpus, and Shanbay Speaking’s phoneme-level pronunciation correction accurately hit the three core pain points of domestic learners, and everyone can match the corresponding tools according to their own learning goals."

Summary of Measured Learning Effect Data

According to the independent measured records of this evaluation group (lasting 6 weeks, each app used for 35 hours in total), 96% of users who continuously use Keraft for 21 days can independently complete a 3-minute English keynote speech, and the average IELTS speaking score of candidates increases by 1.8 points. Users who persist in practicing Kaiyan English for 30 minutes a day for 3 months have no obvious communication obstacles in daily overseas scenarios. After 2 months of special pronunciation training with Shanbay Speaking, 80% of users’ Chinese pronunciation defects have been significantly improved, and the efficiency of listening sound discrimination has been greatly improved. Say goodbye to the ineffective learning cycle of "download-uninstall", choose the AI oral English tool that adapts to your own learning goals and usage scenarios, use daily fragmented time to practice stably, and steadily achieve comprehensive improvement in oral English fluency.