Free resources

Free Indonesian learning resources

15 free resources, checked and categorised.

Free to start

Every link is usable without paying. Some ask for a free account or keep extras behind a paid tier, and those are labelled.

Everything below is usable without paying; where a resource asks for a free account or keeps extras behind a paid tier, the row says so. The list covers the main ways people study Indonesian: structured courses to build a foundation, dictionaries to look things up, and listening and reading material to spend real time in the language. Start with one course and one dictionary, then add listening once you can follow simple sentences.

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An introduction to Indonesian linguistics

Scanned book of four essays on Indonesian linguistics, readable online or downloadable for study of roots, verbs, and related language analysis

Reading
Intermediate–Advanced
Beginning Indonesian

Introductory Indonesian course in English with a try-it unit, glossary, and 14 numbered units plus extra links to other Indonesian sites

Courses
Beginner
Download Kamus

A downloadable dictionary.

Dictionaries
All levels
Free Indonesian Lessons

Free Indonesian tutorial with a lesson index covering phrases, pronunciation, grammar, numbers, days, and topic vocabulary written by a native speaker

Courses
Beginner–Intermediate
Indonesian Basic Course: Volume I

99-page textbook for lessons 1-8 of an Indonesian audio-lingual course, with basic dialogues, cartoons, and a cumulative word list.

Textbooks
Beginner
Indonesian Basic Course: Volume III

Field-test textbook with 8 Indonesian lessons on topics like location, time, duration, nouns, and relative pronouns, plus dialogues, drills, notes, homework, and vocabulary lists

Textbooks
Beginner
Indonesian movies

Movies available on Youtube.

Video
Intermediate–Advanced
Kamus

Searchable English-Indonesian and Indonesian-English dictionary with alphabet browsing, keyword lookup, definitions, and community comments

Dictionaries
Communities
All levels
Learn Indonesian

Youtube video lessons.

Video
Courses
Beginner
Learn Indonesian

Free Indonesian lesson pages with audio, covering alphabet, grammar, phrases, vocabulary lists, numbers, and translation, arranged for step-by-step study

Courses
Grammar
Vocabulary
Reading
Video
Podcasts
Beginner–Intermediate
Learn Indonesian

"If you're trying to learn Indonesian which is also called Bahasa Indonesia, check our courses about adjectives, adverbs, articles, gender (feminine, masculine...), negation, nouns, numbers, phrases, plural, prepositions, pronouns, questions, verbs, vocabulary, excercises... to help you with your Indonesian grammar. Below are our free Indonesian lessons. Enjoy our courses!"

Grammar
Vocabulary
All levels
Learn Indonesian

Free Indonesian learning pages with vocabulary, phrases, grammar, alphabet, flashcards, and a vocabulary quiz, including about 220 flashcards and 120 common words

Grammar
Beginner
Learn Indonesian for Free

Free Indonesian lesson pages covering phrases, alphabet, numbers, adjectives, prepositions, verbs, and vocabulary for everyday conversation practice

Courses
Beginner
Indonesian Newspapers

A list of news sites.

News
Intermediate–Advanced
SBS Language - Indonesian

Indonesian-language news, radio, and podcast archive with current headlines, community stories, and audio programs you can stream and browse by topic

News
Intermediate–Advanced
Site in Indonesian

Learn it there, practise it here

Free resources are great for input: reading, listening, explanations. They are weaker at the two things that actually move you forward: speaking Indonesian out loud, and remembering what you met once. That is what OwnSlides is for.

Say it out loud

Talk to an AI tutor that answers back, or get matched with other learners and native speakers for a text chat.

Practise what you read

Turn a grammar point or article into exercises, so it moves from recognised to usable.

Keep the words

Save new words to My Words and let spaced repetition bring them back before you forget them.

This directory began from a community-built list of free language resources, a year of collecting and checking by Joanna (u/chlebka) and dozens of contributors who suggested links, shared freely. See the original list. We have since expanded, re-checked and re-categorised it, and we keep the per-resource credits where the original list recorded them.