Duolingo crowns (or crown levels) were added to Duolingo to make the learning exercises a bit more difficult. Instead of just completing the lessons in a skill once, you complete them multiple times while also leveling up in difficulty as you earn more crowns. This Guide to Duolingo Crowns will walk you through how to earn crowns, what they’re for, hacks to earn more, and even how to find out who has earned the most!
UPDATE: Duolingo no longer uses crowns. Instead, you finish all the lessons once and then you have the choice to review or do a “Legendary” lesson.
What are Crowns in Duolingo?
Crowns are rewarded when you have finished a level in a skill. The amount of lessons that you have to complete to earn a crown varies.
Each skill usually has 5 crowns to earn and with each crown you earn, the lessons start to increase in difficulty.
The amount of crowns that you have earned in a course is displayed at the top next to a crown symbol. The more skills you have leveled up in, the more crowns you will have.
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What Are Crowns For?
Crowns are simply a way for you to mark your progress on Duolingo. You can use them to set a goal for yourself in the course or you don’t have to worry about them at all.
How Do You Get/ Earn Crowns in Duolingo?
You earn crowns by completing a certain amount of lessons in a skill and moving up a level in difficulty. When you click on a skill, it will show you how many levels there are.
This tells you how many crowns you can earn in that skill. Underneath the amount of levels, you can see how many lessons you have to complete in order to earn a crown.
For example, with this skill below it shows Level 1/2. This means that there are 2 crowns to earn. Underneath it says Lessons 1/4 which means that I will have to complete 4 lessons in order to earn 1 crown.
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But if I click on a different skill, it shows that there are 5 Levels, which means there are 5 crowns to earn. Then it says that I will need to complete 6 lessons to earn 1 crown.
How Can You Use Duolingo Crowns?
Duolingo crowns are a way to measure how far you’ve come in your Duolingo course. However, you can use them to set goals and even earn a coveted Duolingo Golden Owl!
We’ll go over how to do that in a later section.
You can’t buy anything with crowns, but you can use gems and lingots which you earn as you go throughout the course.
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How Many Crowns Does Your Language Course Have?
Each Duolingo course has a different amount of lessons and skills, therefore they all have a different number of crowns. I’ve put together (and counted) the crowns in each of these language courses from English.
However, if you are learning a different language, you can click on one of the blog posts below and skip to the part that teaches you how to find out the number of crowns for yourself (it’s super easy!)
- The Amount of Crowns in Duolingo Spanish
- The Amount of Crowns in Duolingo French
- The Amount of Crowns in Duolingo Italian
- The Amount of Crowns in Duolingo German
- The Amount of Crowns in Duolingo Japanese
Does “Practice” Increase Your Amount of Crowns in Duolingo?
No, practicing a skill does not earn you more crowns, unfortunately. Once you’ve earned all 5 crowns (or possibly less in some skills) your skill will turn gold.
After a few days, that gold skill will break and you will need to restore it by practicing.
This doesn’t earn you more crowns, but it does earn you 10 XP.
Can You Lose Crowns?
No, once you earn a crown you won’t lose it!
Earn 1 Crown in Every Skill in a Duolingo Course
The main way to use crowns in your strategy on Duolingo is by working towards earning at least 1 crown in every skill in your Duolingo tree.
Once you have 1 crown in every skill, you will earn a Golden Owl! This is a small trophy that shows up at the bottom of your Duolingo course and is a very big accomplishment!
Earning your Golden Owl should be one of the first goals you should have when working on your Duolingo tree (I go over the best way to use Duolingo in this post which includes a step-by-step plan!).
Earning 5 Crowns in One Skill
With each topic, you have the ability to earn 5 “crowns” and that will turn the topic gold.
Some of the newer topics that Duolingo added in the last update have only 1 crown to earn before it turns gold. In that case, you would only need to earn 1 crown.
If you earn all 5 crowns in every skill in a course, this is known as a “Golden Tree” (you can read more about that here).
You don’t receive another trophy, but it’s a huge accomplishment! I have never done this, but I hope to someday!
Hacks to Earn More Crowns
If you want to earn crowns quickly, you can click on the skills and find the ones that require the least amount of lessons to earn a crown. Some of them only require 4 lessons while others require 6 or more.
If you focus on the ones that require less, you’ll earn a ton of crowns very quickly!
Unlike hacks to earn XP, crowns take a lot longer to earn and there aren’t as many ways to earn them faster. However, you can hop on the desktop version of Duolingo, which allows you to finish lessons without watching ads or losing hearts.
That way, you can complete a lot of lessons and therefore, earn crowns much faster!
Who Has the Most Crowns On Duolingo?
The best way to see the Duolingo users who have the most crowns is by using the Duome Unofficial Crowns Hall of Fame.
This is a website for fans of Duolingo (crazy ones like me!) who want to see more stats than Duolingo itself shows. The first list is of users who have earned more than 20,000 crowns total.
The next tier of users is much longer and includes anyone who has earned 10,000 or more crowns.
How Can I See the Total Amount of Crowns I Have Earned?
You can check the total amount of crowns you have earned between ALL of your courses on Duolingo by using the Duome website.
You will need to add your username to the end of the URL, like duome.eu/YOURUSERNAME. For example, this is mine: https://duome.eu/dayna255732.
It will show you the stats of the course that you are currently on in Duolingo, but under your profile you can see the total amount of XP, crowns and gems that you have earned.
I have earned 740 crowns between all of my language courses on Duolingo and I am in 36,965th place! Obviously, I’ve got some work to do!
Language Learning Must-Haves
- iTalki Language Classes: The #1 reason why I’ve been able to learn languages from home. Take conversation classes from a native speaker for only $5-$10 an hour.
- How to Be Fluent Books: Two of my favorite books about language learning have definitely got me super excited about learning a language and I highly recommend reading both!
- Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It
- Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World
- A Language Planner: Keep track of your scheduled language classes, set language goals, and organize your study schedule with my favorite planner ever.
- Harry Potter in Your Target Language: Reading a beginner book that you’re familiar with is an incredible way to learn vocabulary quickly!
- The Perfect Language Notebook
Read More About Duolingo:
- Everything You Should Know About Duolingo Stories
- What Are Gems and Lingots in Duolingo?
- How to Find Out How Many XP You Have in Duolingo
- What is the Shortest Course on Duolingo?
- How Many Crowns Are in the German Course on Duolingo?
Dayna Brockbank
Dayna Brockbank is a travel and language-learning blogger who has lived around the world but has now settled in Nice, France. She speaks 3 languages at varying levels of fluency: Spanish, Italian, and French, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Spanish Education. She and her husband focus on making travel part of life by living cheaply and traveling on a budget.
