How much of the JLPT does WaniKani cover?
Short answer: WaniKani teaches every kanji on the JLPT N5 and N4, around 95% of N3, 80% of N2, and 65% of N1. If you finish WaniKani, you have read coverage for the vast majority of tested kanji on the lower tests and the strong majority of N1.
The numbers below are approximate, because the JLPT kanji lists are themselves community-maintained (the official JLPT doesn't publish them). Your personal coverage, calculated from your live WaniKani progress, is on the JLPT coverage page once you're logged in.
WaniKani vs JLPT, at a glance
| JLPT level | Total kanji | WaniKani covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| N5 | 79 | 100% | WaniKani teaches every N5 kanji. |
| N4 | 166 | 100% | WaniKani teaches every N4 kanji. |
| N3 | 367 | 95% | Almost the whole set, with a handful skipped. |
| N2 | 367 | 80% | Most kanji, with some less common ones missing. |
| N1 | 1232 | 65% | Around two-thirds of the official N1 set. |
What "covered" means
On Wanilog, a kanji counts as "learned" once it reaches Guru I (SRS stage 5) or higher - the same threshold WaniKani uses for its own level-up rule. Apprentice items are in-progress, not learned. You can also add kanji you know from outside WaniKani via the manual-known-kanji setting; those count toward your coverage too.
Reaching Guru I from a fresh lesson takes around 3 days 10 hours on the default SRS, so coverage tends to lag behind raw lesson counts. The SRS interval table on the FAQ spells the full timing out.
JLPT N5 kanji (79)
The foundational set. Survival kanji - numbers, days of the week, basic directions and verbs. WaniKani introduces all of these in roughly the first ten levels.
JLPT N4 kanji (166)
Daily-life kanji: family, weather, basic adjectives, common verbs. By the time you hit WaniKani level 20 you usually have most of these to Guru.
JLPT N3 kanji (367)
The big jump. N3 covers the kanji needed for general written Japanese: news headlines, manga, casual novels. WaniKani teaches almost the entire set, but a few characters are absent. By WK level 35 you have read coverage for most N3 material.
JLPT N2 kanji (367)
Professional and academic vocabulary. WaniKani covers most of it, but more rare-academic terms start appearing in the JLPT list than WaniKani teaches. By WK level 50 a significant chunk of N2 is at Guru or above.
JLPT N1 kanji (1232)
The widest set, including specialised terms (legal, medical, literary), historical readings, and rare characters. WaniKani teaches roughly two-thirds of the official N1 kanji list - enough for most native-aimed material, with reference-tool gaps for the very rare characters.
See your own JLPT coverage
The numbers above are aggregate. To see exactly which JLPT kanji you have already learned, broken down by N5 through N1 and tied to your live WaniKani progress, paste a personal access token on the login page. Wanilog never stores your data on a server - the API key lives only in your browser.
Already logged in? Go to my JLPT coverage.
Related coverage tools
- Joyo coverage - how much of Japan's government kanji list WaniKani teaches, by school grade.
- Frequency coverage - WaniKani's overlap with the top 2,500 most common kanji in modern Japanese text.
- WaniKani FAQ - SRS intervals, level-up rules, leech detection, and more.