Is DUOL (Duolingo Inc.) halal?

Q: Is DUOL (Duolingo Inc.) halal?

DOUBTFUL: Education is generally permissible, but cash/investment and receivables ratios fail the examined asset-based screens. Duolingo's March 31, 2026 filing reports no interest-bearing debt, but 67.63% identifiable liquidity/assets and 61.40% receivables-plus-cash/assets. Interest income is 11.811 million, or 4.05% of quarterly revenue. The language-learning business is generally permissible, while advertising and content remain qualitative.

← Back to Halal Checker

DUOL

Duolingo Inc.

DOUBTFUL — SCREEN DOES NOT PASSstock

Is DUOL Halal?

Education is generally permissible, but cash/investment and receivables ratios fail the examined asset-based screens.

What You Should Know

Duolingo's March 31, 2026 filing reports no interest-bearing debt, but 67.63% identifiable liquidity/assets and 61.40% receivables-plus-cash/assets. Interest income is 11.811 million, or 4.05% of quarterly revenue. The language-learning business is generally permissible, while advertising and content remain qualitative.

⚠️ Concerns

•Liquidity/assets is 67.63%, above the examined limits
•Receivables-plus-cash/assets is 61.40%
•Interest income is 11.811 million for the quarter
•Advertising inventory and content are not mapped to a universal Sharia taxonomy

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-14.

USD · millions

Interest-bearing debt / assets

0.00%Within limit

Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

0 / 2,057.994

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets

67.63%Above limit

Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

1,391.821 / 2,057.994

Receivables + cash / assets

61.40%Above limit

Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

1,263.647 / 2,057.994

Non-compliant income / revenue

4.05%Within limit

No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

11.811 / 291.967

Methodology	Financial	Overall	What drives it
FTSE Yasaar v4.6, February 2026	Fails	Fails	Liquidity/assets is 67.63% and receivables plus cash/assets is 61.40%, above the examined FTSE limits; debt/assets is 0.00% and interest income/revenue is 4.05%.
MSCI Islamic (total-assets series) October 2024 methodology	Fails	Fails	Liquidity/assets is 67.63% and receivables plus cash/assets is 61.40%, above the examined MSCI total-assets limits; debt/assets is 0.00%. This is not an index-membership claim.
Malaysia SAC financial ratios single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025	Fails	Fails	Identifiable liquidity/assets is 67.63%, above the examined Malaysia SAC 33% financial limit; debt/assets is 0.00%. This is a calculation against SAC ratios, not an official classification.
Market-cap denominator methods MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ	Not calculated	Not calculated	A properly licensed reproducible 24- or 36-month market-cap history is not stored; a spot estimate is not substituted.

FTSE Yasaar

v4.6, February 2026

Financial: Fails
Overall: Fails

Liquidity/assets is 67.63% and receivables plus cash/assets is 61.40%, above the examined FTSE limits; debt/assets is 0.00% and interest income/revenue is 4.05%.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)

October 2024 methodology

Financial: Fails
Overall: Fails

Liquidity/assets is 67.63% and receivables plus cash/assets is 61.40%, above the examined MSCI total-assets limits; debt/assets is 0.00%. This is not an index-membership claim.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios

single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025

Financial: Fails
Overall: Fails

Identifiable liquidity/assets is 67.63%, above the examined Malaysia SAC 33% financial limit; debt/assets is 0.00%. This is a calculation against SAC ratios, not an official classification.

Market-cap denominator methods

MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ

Financial: Not calculated
Overall: Not calculated

A properly licensed reproducible 24- or 36-month market-cap history is not stored; a spot estimate is not substituted.

Business-activity disclosure

Duolingo provides language-learning subscriptions, tests, advertising and in-app purchases. Education is generally permissible, while advertising inventory, content and app-store monetization require qualitative review.

Limitation: The filing does not classify advertising inventory or all user-generated content under a universal Sharia taxonomy.

Purification

Interest income of 11.811 million is disclosed, but ZakatInvest does not prescribe a fixed scholar-approved purification percentage.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources

Amounts are USD millions from Duolingo's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q.
No interest-bearing borrowings are reported; operating lease obligations are not treated as debt in this screen.
Cash is 1,138.561; short- and long-term investments total 253.260 and are treated conservatively as identifiable securities.
Accounts receivable is 125.086 and quarterly revenue is 291.967.
Interest income of 11.811 is disclosed; advertising and user-generated content are not allocated to a universal prohibited-revenue numerator.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Duolingo First Quarter 2026 Form 10-Q FTSE Russell: FTSE Yasaar Global Equity Shariah Index Series Ground Rules MSCI: MSCI Islamic Index Series Methodology Securities Commission Malaysia: Shariah-Compliant Securities Screening Methodology

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

🧾

Own DUOL? Purify your portfolio.

Per-holding purification amounts, zakat on your shares, and halal alternatives for flagged holdings — a personalized report prepared for you within 48 hours.

Order Your Report — $49 →

Track DUOL and 30,000+ stocks' live compliance status with Islamicly — 50% off with code ZAKAT50.Get Islamicly →