Was testing discount codes and accidentally purchased the annual sub instead of apply discount lol. I’ve read that every year there’s a 100$ discount on the lifetime subscription at near end of the year, and am wondering if I should just upgrade to that instead once the discount starts, then have portion of the annual subscription refunded.
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at first i read “should i get a life” 
I can only speak for myself and since i spend much more time on wanikani than i thought in the beginning, it was a good investment for me. compared to all the text books i bought and cracked open maybe once 
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I agree. There’s a temptation with an annual subscription to race through, and though this works for some I think it’s more likely to become overwhelming and super un-fun. It’s instructive to see, in some older threads, how many of the people describing the intricate methods they were using to finish within a year or whatever fell by the wayside, sometimes not getting as far as level 10 even. I bought an annual sub in August or September last year, upgraded with a credit sometime around December or January and have been enjoying my steady if unexceptional progress since. I got a little overwhelmed recently and cut back my lessons to five a day, which wasn’t a difficult choice to make since I’m not under any time pressure.
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I can only speak for myself, but I think getting a lifetime WK subscription was the best investment I’ve ever made 
Anyway, best of luck with your studies! 
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Yep studying is less stressful knowing I can adjust my pace as life warrants. I see a lot of people coming back and resetting after a long break or because they didn’t retain much by speed running. I think the lifetime comes out cheaper ultimately.
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I have been using wanikani since 2020. Every December my husband and I talk about if I should purchase the lifetime subscription or not. We have done the cost analysis and even though I’m making good slow hopefully permanent progress in my learning of kanji I could have saved so much money if I would have purchased the lifetime subscription years ago. I’ve been doing monthly since 2020. I am committed to using wanikani and it has truely been so helpful, but I do regret not getting lifetime. 
it just never seems like I have enough money to get it.
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I started wanikani with lifetime when it was in sale at the end of last year.
I’’ve been using it daily ever since. There’s no better or more fun tool to learn kanji than this.
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I’m going to get lifetime. Hopefully they don’t run out. You must get it before others.
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I think it’s just a question of how committed you are to WK. I’m sure there are plenty of people who buy the lifetime subscription, and then quit early on, who perhaps regret the purchase. But among the people who stick with it, I never see anyone saying they regret the lifetime sub.
If you plan to get through level 60 (or even 40 or 50), then the lifetime subscription just makes sense. Yes, you can get to level 60 in just over a year, but is that really the best pace to learn the material? Even then, you’ll need at least 6 more months if you want to burn everything. And unless you’re studying Japanese full time, you’ll likely hit a point in your studies where you decide you want/need to slow down on WK to spend more time on grammar, reading, listening, etc., especially as you get into less common kanji at the high levels. The lifetime subscription makes it easier to feel comfortable with that decision; if you don’t have lifetime, you may feel pressure to keep pushing through fast, or to take cost-related breaks, even though that might not be the best decision for your long-term learning.
Or you might just get busy with life and need to pause WK altogether for a while. Having a lifetime subscription will make you much more likely to dive back in later on.
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I’m very glad I got lifetime, though I wish I’d known about the sale beforehand life has thrown me several curveballs and I just haven’t had to worry about not having access to wanikani anymore, so I’ve been ok just treading water when I need to. I think that’s saved my Japanese studies, tbqh, because if I’d bought an annual subscription and it lapsed then I’d have really dug myself into a rut and struggled to regain motivation again. Wanikani has been really good for me and has helped me maintain my interest in studying even through hard times, so I’m glad I got it when I did! (Well, I could have saved some money if I’d waited like 5 months, but 
it is what it is)
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is that a joke?
as far as I’m aware there was never anything about a limited “stock” of lifetime subs…not during the year and not during the sales period.
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Yeah, I never heard about limited amount of lifetime subscriptions either
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yeah I’m just joking around. I haven’t heard of a limit to lifetime subscriptions. Its a reference to pre-orders on how they were intended for a limited item in-stores but are now entirely digital and thus technically unlimited. I’m just really really excited to get the lifetime sale though technically I won’t actually save all that much since I subscribed for a year in like March so I already spent around $100 and the sale is projected to be around late december.
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I commited to lifetime subscription around level 10. I did waited for the discount in the end of the year, it is really a good price, not cheap though.
If you use wanikani every day and have the money to spare, I think it’s worth it.
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If you’re okay with the current dashboard
I got the lifetime during Christmas sale and it was $100 cheaper than the usual price
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Yes. There’s a reason that almost everything is subscription based nowadays and lifetime memberships are vanishingly rare. They make more money from us that way. It’s good value I reckon. Textbooks are expensive and they don’t get regularly updated, can’t be asked questions and don’t come with a helpful community like this.
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In the age of AI, people should only pay for convenience and faster learning speed
Textbooks are obsolete, you can just type :
“explain japanese jlpt n5 / n4 / n3/ n2 / n1 grammar"
“Generate example sentences for x grammar”
“Generate example sentences for “x word”
“Explain (x Japanese slang word)”
“List every kanji for JLPT N5”
I can get AI to list every kanji and vocabulary, but that doesn’t help me memorize like Anki or Wanikani
Another benefit to having memorized all the Japanese kanji and vocabulary is that there are enough manga and light novels to last a lifetime if people want to completely quit every other phone and PC APP, social media, streaming services, and news channels. Simply not being anywhere near any electronic device feels so liberating these days
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I have zero regrets getting it. I’ve used it in some capacity for 11 years.
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You do you. I just know that I can’t really justify such a big amount of money in one go, so I went for monthly. I’ll probably reach the total sum at some point because I’m not particularly fast, but I don’t really mind.
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