HSK characters per level, and the radicals that unlock them

For the full component reference, open the 214-radical explorer. To see characters alongside words and everyday-speech coverage at each level, see how much you need.

Quick answer

How many Chinese characters do you need for each HSK level?

Under HSK 3.0 (2021), each of levels 1 to 6 adds about 300 new characters, reaching roughly 1,799 distinct characters by Level 6 and 2,970 through the advanced 7 to 9 band. The older HSK 2.0 front-loads fewer characters early and adds more later, ending near 2,632. Across both schemes this site serves 3,034 distinct characters, and just eight radicals account for over a thousand of them.

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Computed, not asserted. Every count is derived from the shipped HSK word lists, so no figure can drift from the words the site actually serves.
Sourced. Radical and stroke data come from the Unicode Han Database. Last verified 2026-07-24.

Diagram of a small set of stroke components combining into one composite character, illustrating how radicals build up into the characters counted below.

Characters per HSK 3.0 level

2021 nine-level standard · cumulative counts add every level below

Level	New characters	Cumulative characters	Cumulative words
Level 1	300	300	506
Level 2	298	598	1,256
Level 3	301	899	2,209
Level 4	300	1,199	3,181
Level 5	300	1,499	4,240
Level 6	300	1,799	5,363
Levels 7 to 9	1,171	2,970	10,969

Characters per HSK 2.0 level

Older six-level standard, still used at many test centers

Level	New characters	Cumulative characters	Cumulative words
Level 1	178	178	150
Level 2	168	346	297
Level 3	272	618	595
Level 4	453	1,071	1,193
Level 5	639	1,710	2,491
Level 6	922	2,632	4,991

Characters, not words: one word can reuse characters you already know, so the character count climbs more slowly than the word count. The HSK 3.0 figures track the official 2021 character syllabus (about 300 per level through Level 6, 3,000 through band 7 to 9) to within a handful, the small gap being characters on the official list that do not appear in any word of the shipped list. See the words-per-level guide for the word side, or take the placement test to find your level.

The radicals that unlock the most HSK characters

Top 30 of the 214 Kangxi radicals, ranked by distinct HSK characters that use them

#	Radical	Pinyin	Meaning	Strokes	HSK characters
64	手	shǒu	hand	4	185
85	水	shuǐ	water	4	160
30	口	kǒu	mouth	3	151
9	人	rén	person	2	128
75	木	mù	tree	4	120
61	心	xīn	heart	4	98
140	艸	cǎo	grass	6	85
120	糸纟	mì	silk	6	76
149	言讠	yán	speech	7	75
130	肉	ròu	meat	6	67
162	辵	chuò	walk	7	66
86	火	huǒ	fire	4	59
32	土	tǔ	earth	3	54
38	女	nǚ	woman	3	53
72	日	rì	sun	4	51
154	貝贝	bèi	shell	7	45
167	金钅	jīn	metal	8	45
40	宀	mián	roof	3	43
18	刀	dāo	knife	2	39
109	目	mù	eye	5	34
170	阜	fù	mound	8	34
118	竹	zhú	bamboo	6	32
112	石	shí	stone	5	30
115	禾	hé	grain	5	30
157	足	zú	foot	7	28
1	一	yī	one	1	26
104	疒	nè	sickness	5	25
181	頁页	yè	page	9	25
46	山	shān	mountain	3	24
94	犬	quǎn	dog	4	24

A radical is the meaning or sound component a dictionary files a character under. Learning the common radicals first means each new character is a small combination of parts you already recognize instead of a fresh shape. All 214 Kangxi radicals cover the 2,970 characters in HSK 3.0, and 26 of them have a distinct simplified form. Radical, stroke, and reading data come from the Unicode Han Database (Unicode 17.0.0); the HSK-character counts are computed from the shipped word lists. Last verified 2026-07-24.