Kadoo questions and answers: ages, price, privacy and how it works

Kadoo is an English learning game for children aged 4 to 8, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Children explore a town of 11 places and 43 rooms, find things, hear their English names and collect them. An Explorer says each word, a puppy shows where the thing is and a little hand shows what to do, so children who can't read yet can play on their own. Kadoo is made by Inovia.

Children aged 4 to 8 who are learning English as a new language, including children who can't read yet and families who don't speak English at home. On the App Store it is in the Kids category, for ages 6 to 8.

No. Kadoo starts from first words, and help is given without words: the Explorer says the word again, the puppy's paw prints lead to the thing, and a hand shows the tap. A child who has never heard English can play. If you don't speak English yourself, our guide on helping your child learn English when you don't speak it well shows how you can still help.

No. Every word is spoken aloud and every action is shown. Written words appear for grown-ups and for children who are starting to read, but nothing depends on reading them.

American English. Every word is spoken with an American accent and spelled the American way: color, soccer ball, cookie.

Nearly 1,000 everyday English words for the things around them, from "bed" and "toothbrush" to "lighthouse" and "spacesuit", in 11 places: home, the countryside, a restaurant, a hospital, a sports center, a park, a school, a hotel, the coast, space and a trip to four cities. Kadoo also has an ABC book with each letter's sound, numbers to 100, words split into syllables, and 48 sing-along songs about the alphabet, phonics, counting, words and the seasons.

You can see every word, room by room, on Kadoo's word pages.

The places open one at a time, from the words children usually learn earliest to the ones they learn later. The order comes from the age-of-acquisition ratings of Kuperman, Stadthagen-Gonzalez and Brysbaert (2012), in which adults estimated the age at which they learned 30,000 English words. Home comes first, then the countryside and the restaurant; space and travel come last.

Every word a child finds goes into their Backpack, where they can hear it again and play quick games with it. Kadoo brings words back on later days, mixed with new ones, and asks the child to find them again rather than only hear them. Research with young children found that new words stick better when they come back on several different days than when they're all heard in one go (Childers and Tomasello, 2002).

Kadoo builds the listening vocabulary that speaking grows from: children hear each word, connect it to the thing, and show they understand by finding, feeding or coloring it. Kadoo doesn't use the microphone, so it can't hear or correct your child's pronunciation. The songs invite children to sing along, and the parents' area suggests words to say together at home.

The parents' area shows, for each child, the words they've met and recognized, the minutes played over the last 7 days, the month or the year, and what to practice next, with ideas to try together at home. It opens with a times-table question that grown-ups answer at once.

You choose. Each session lasts 10 to 30 minutes, and you can add a daily limit. When time is up, the puppy says it's time to rest and the game says a gentle goodbye.

There's no single number for learning apps, so keep sessions short and regular, and join in when you can. For children aged 2 to 4, the World Health Organization advises no more than an hour of sitting screen time a day, and says less is better (WHO, 2019). The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer sets a fixed limit; it says what's on the screen, and a grown-up joining in, matter as much as the minutes (AAP, 2026). Kadoo's play-time limit lets you keep each session to the length you choose. Our guide on screen time for learning English goes further.

Kadoo is free to download, and part of it is free to play for as long as you like: the house, the song "Sounds A to M", the alphabet and the photo album, for one child. Kadoo Full Access or Kadoo Family Plus opens the whole town.

In the United States, Kadoo Full Access is $12.00 a month or $100.99 a year, and Kadoo Family Plus is $15.00 a month or $125.99 a year (October 2026). Prices differ by country; the App Store shows yours before you buy. Both include every new place, room and song as it arrives.

Both open every place, room, song and game. Kadoo Full Access is for one child; Kadoo Family Plus is for two to four children on the same device, each with their own Explorer and progress.

No. Instead, the house and its four rooms, a song, the alphabet and the photo album stay free with no time limit, so your child can try Kadoo before you decide.

In your Apple ID's subscription settings on your iPhone or iPad. A subscription renews automatically unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.

Yes. In the parents' area, "Restore purchases" finds the subscriptions bought with your Apple ID.

No. Kadoo has no ads of any kind, and no links that take a child out of the game.

None. Kadoo's App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected". There are no accounts, no analytics and no tracking, and nothing about your child leaves the device. Progress is kept on the device and in your own device backups. "Start fresh" or deleting the app removes it.

No. Kadoo never asks for them.

No. Purchases are only in the parents' area, behind a times-table question a young child can't answer.

Yes. Every picture, film, word and song is inside the app, which is why it's a large download (about 1.3 GB). You need a connection only to buy or restore a subscription.

iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 17 or later, and Macs with Apple silicon. Kadoo is on the App Store only.

Yes. Up to four children can play on one device, each with their own Explorer, progress and play time. Two or more children need Kadoo Family Plus.

Kadoo's help and parents' area are in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Portuguese (Brazil). Inside the places, the game is in English: that's where children learn.

Kadoo is made by Inovia. Write to kadoo@inoviatech.io, or see Kadoo support.

No. Kadoo is the English learning game for children made by Inovia, on the App Store as Kadoo. It isn't related to other apps or businesses with similar names, such as KudoKids, Kadho or Kaadoo.