The agency was founded in 1947 as the Language and Culture Research Institute (Instituut voor Taal en Cultuur Onderzoek, ITCO), part of the University of Indonesia.

Parallel to this, the newly formed Indonesian government, having just declared independence in 1945, created the Balai Bahasa ("Language Bureau") in March 1948.

[1] On 1 April 1975, the LBN was once again renamed to The Centre of Language Learning and Research (Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, PPPB).

[1][2] Due to a presidential order in 2000, the PPPB was officially renamed as the "Language Center", and placed under the Secretariat General of the Department of National Education.

[1] In 2009, the Indonesian government and People's Representative Council passed Law 24/2009 on the Flag, Language, State Symbol and National Anthem.