Best American Mahjong App
Best for learning from scratch: MAHJ: Learn American Mahjong, an 18-lesson course with a one-time purchase. Best for seeing which card hand your tiles fit: American Mahjong Practice. Best for full games against bots with the official card: Maylee. Best for a guided plan and an Apple Watch drill: Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win. Best for short drills with the reason on every answer: Mahj Trainer, the app I make.
Search "mahjong" in the App Store and most results are tile-matching solitaire. This page compares only apps for American Mah Jongg: four players, the Charleston, jokers, and the yearly card from the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL).
How we compared (October 2026): I ran the four other apps on a Mac and read the App Store listings of all five. For each I checked ratings, update dates, supported devices and purchase types from Apple's lookup data, then went through the first screens, the paywall and the main practice loop. I only reached the trial offer in Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win, so what I say about its lessons comes from its listing. Prices are left out on purpose, because they vary by region and change.
Disclosure: Jack Wallner makes Mahj Trainer, one of the apps below. I tried to start every description with what the app does well.
Side by side
Ratings and counts are the US App Store figures as of October 2026. Last updated is the date of the current version.
| App | Best for | Price model | Apple Watch | iPad | Account | Rating (count) | Last updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Mahjong Practice | Seeing which card hand fits your tiles | Free (2018 card) + subscription or one-time purchase per card year | No | Yes | None seen | 4.87 (22,837) | 2026-09-16 |
| MAHJ: Learn American Mahjong | Beginners who want a course | Free + one-time purchase | No | Yes | None (stated in listing) | 4.93 (1,259) | 2026-09-26 |
| Maylee: American Mahjong | Full games vs bots with the official card | Free (2 games a day) + subscription | No | Yes | None seen | 4.89 (1,100) | 2026-07-28 |
| Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win | A guided plan with reminders and Apple Watch | Free + subscription | Yes | Yes | None seen before the trial offer | 4.55 (146) | 2026-10-03 |
| Mahj Trainer | Short drills with the why on every answer | Free + subscription or lifetime purchase | No | Yes | None | 4.62 (21) | 2026-10-07 |
The apps, one by one
American Mahjong Practice
This is the most-rated American mahjong app in the group. You play hands to completion, with optional bots, and its Suggested Hands list ranks every card line by how many of your tiles already match, re-sorted after each pass or draw. It also filters by card section, offers several tile sets and font sizes, and tracks wins by section. The listing says it works offline. The trade-off: the free card is 2018, the current card is a paid purchase, and in my test nothing explained why a pass or discard was good. It is a practice table, not a teacher.
MAHJ: Learn American Mahjong
MAHJ teaches the game as 18 step-by-step lessons, backed by tile drills, a printable cheat sheet, a glossary, bot games and an AI tutor called Ask the Coach (which needs internet, per the listing). Lessons 1 to 3 and several tile drills were free when I tried it, and one purchase opens the rest with no subscription. It has the highest average rating in this group as of October 2026. The trade-off: the Read the Card and Spot the Hand drills sat in the paid part in my test, and the home screen packs in five sections at once.
Maylee: American Mahjong
Maylee plays like a real table, with hand-illustrated tiles, bots on easy, medium and hard, and the official 2026 card plus its own cards for new players, per the listing. Its "% to Mahj" button lays your tiles over each candidate card line and shows how far away you are, which is the clearest hand-choice screen I tested. The trade-off: everything runs through a bot game, I met two skippable tutorials (15 pages, then 9) before my first Charleston pass, and there is no drill mode apart from full games.
Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win
Cedar Theory's app is built around a plan: a long onboarding quiz, a lesson of the day, a readiness score and streak, and the only Apple Watch drill in this group. It teaches the families a card is built from rather than the card itself, and says it is not affiliated with the NMJL. The trade-offs: onboarding ran past 25 screens in my test before the free-trial offer, and the listing shows weekly, monthly and annual subscriptions with no one-time purchase.
Mahj Trainer (my app)
Mahj Trainer is a set of four free practice rooms (Tile, Card, Charleston, Table): flashcards with the reason on the back, rack reading where you name the card section 13 tiles are chasing, three-tile Charleston picks, and keep-or-throw calls. There are no bots and no timers in the free rooms. Its limits are real. The practice hands are original, not the NMJL card, so you still need the current card at the table. There is no full game in the free tier (Mahj+ adds Play a Hand, which grades each discard), no Apple Watch app, English only, and a small number of ratings so far. Endless practice, Fix My Mistakes and the timed challenge need Mahj+.
Which should you pick?
- You have never touched a set: start with MAHJ for the lesson order, or Mahj Trainer for free drills after a class.
- You know the rules and want to learn which card hand to chase: American Mahjong Practice or Maylee. Both show how close your tiles are to each line.
- You want full games with the current official card: Maylee, or American Mahjong Practice if you are fine buying the current card year.
- You want reminders, a streak and a wrist drill: Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win.
- You learned last Thursday and want quick reps on tiles, the Charleston and keep-or-throw decisions: Mahj Trainer.
- You want both skill and games: pairing a drill app with a bot-table app is a common combination, and nothing here stops you from using two.
Try the free practice rooms
Mahj Trainer has four free rooms for tiles, the card, the Charleston and keep-or-throw calls, with the reason on every answer. No account needed.
See Mahj TrainerQuestions
Are mahjong solitaire apps the same as American Mah Jongg apps?
No. Most apps that appear for "mahjong" are solitaire games where you match pairs of tiles. American Mah Jongg is a four-player game played against a yearly NMJL card, with the Charleston and jokers. Only apps built for that game are compared here.
Do I need the NMJL card to play?
Yes, at a real table. Every winning hand must be on the current year's card, which you buy from the National Mah Jongg League. Some apps include the current card, such as Maylee, and American Mahjong Practice sells the 2026 hands. Mahj Trainer uses original practice hands and teaches the card sections, so you still need the official card.
What is the best free American mahjong app?
It depends on what you want free. MAHJ has lessons 1 to 3 and several tile drills free. Mahj Trainer has four free practice rooms. American Mahjong Practice has the 2018 card free, and Maylee gives 2 games per day. Check each listing, because free tiers change.
Which app teaches the Charleston?
Mahj Trainer has a Charleston room with three-tile pass drills. Maylee has a Charleston tutorial overlay in its game. MAHJ and Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win both list the Charleston among their lessons.
Can I practice American mahjong offline?
Several can. The American Mahjong Practice and Maylee listings say no internet is needed, MAHJ lessons and drills work offline while its AI tutor needs internet, and Mahj Trainer runs offline with no account.
Sources
- American Mahjong Practice (App Store)
- MAHJ: Learn American Mahjong (App Store)
- Maylee: American Mahjong (App Store)
- Mahjong Trainer: Learn & Win (App Store)
- Mahj Trainer: Mahjong Practice (App Store)
- National Mah Jongg League
Mahj Trainer is an independent app and is not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League or with any app compared here. App details were checked in October 2026 and may change.