The best flashcard app for how you study
Seven flashcard apps compared on spaced repetition, AI cards from your notes and price, with the right pick for each kind of student.
Last updated
No flashcard app is best for everyone. Anki is free and lets you tune everything. Quizlet is where you find sets other people made. Brainscape and Knowt put spaced repetition on their free plans. StudyVisually makes cards from your own notes and plans your reviews, with studying free and paid plans from $4 a month.
What makes a flashcard app good
Spaced repetition
The app should bring each card back right before you'd forget it, and less often as you learn it. Without a schedule you keep reviewing cards you already know.
Fast card making
Typing 200 cards by hand takes an evening. Most apps can now draft cards from your notes or a PDF. Check whether that is on the free plan.
A free plan you can study on
Some apps show ads or move study modes to the paid plan. Look at what stays free, not only at what the paid plan adds.
Cards you can take with you
Check that you can export a deck, to Anki or a CSV file, so switching apps later doesn't mean starting again.
Side by side
| Tool | Spaced repetition | AI study material from your own notes or PDFs | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| StudyVisually | Spaced repetitionYes. FSRS with a 90% target, and each rating button shows the gap it will set. | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsYes. PDFs, text files or pasted notes become concept cards, flashcards, practice questions, explain-it questions and diagrams (uploads up to about 20 pages on Free). | PriceStudying is free. Basic is $4 a month or $40 a year; Premium is $8 a month or $80 a year. |
| Anki | Spaced repetitionYes. FSRS or the legacy SM-2 scheduler, with a desired retention you set (90% by default). | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsNot built in (Anki's site doesn't list it). Add-ons extend Anki with extra features. | PriceFree on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android (AnkiDroid). The iPhone app, AnkiMobile, costs $24.99 once. |
| Brainscape | Spaced repetitionYes. A spaced retrieval algorithm that uses your own 1 to 5 confidence rating for each card. | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsYes. Give it instructions or a PPT, PDF or document and it makes flashcards: hundreds on the free plan, unlimited on Pro. | PricePro is $7.99 a month on its yearly option. |
| Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) | Spaced repetitionYou mark flashcards "Got it" or "Missed it" and progress is remembered; Google's help page doesn't describe a review schedule. | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsYes. Chat with your sources, and generate flashcards and quizzes from them with the difficulty and number you choose. | PriceFree with a Google account. Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra plans raise the limits. |
| Knowt | Spaced repetitionYes, as one of its study modes (spaced repetition mode). | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsYes. AI flashcards from lecture videos and notes, study guides and quizzes from notes; PDF, video, slide and lecture summaries on Ultra. | PriceUltra is $24.99 a month, or $149.99 a year ($12.99 a month), with a 3-day free trial. |
| Quizlet | Spaced repetitionQuizlet describes Learn as personalised study rounds; its home and pricing pages don't describe a spaced-repetition schedule. | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsYes. Turns notes (recorded, written or typed) into study guides, flashcards, practice tests and games. | PriceQuizlet Plus is $7.99 a month or $35.99 a year. Plus Unlimited is $9.99 a month or $44.99 a year. Yearly plans start with a 7-day trial. |
| RemNote | Spaced repetitionYes. Flashcards are scheduled with spaced repetition, with a daily practice plan tailored to your exam date. | AI study material from your own notes or PDFsYes. AI flashcards from text, PDFs and slides; quizzes, summaries and AI grading on Pro with AI. | PricePro is $8 a month or $96 a year. Pro with AI is $18 a month or $216 a year. |
Every app compared
StudyVisually
Study app that turns a topic or your own notes into concept cards, flashcards on a spaced-repetition schedule, practice questions, timed explain-it answers and step-by-step diagrams.
Best for: Learning a topic visually, with spaced repetition and a short daily plan, from free subjects or your own notes.
Anki
Free, open-source flashcard app with a spaced-repetition scheduler you can tune, and add-ons for almost anything.
Best for: Free flashcards you fully control, on your own computer, with every setting open to change.
Brainscape
Flashcard app built on spaced repetition, with AI card making from your documents and expert-certified decks for exams.
Best for: Spaced-repetition flashcards with AI card making included on the free plan.
Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)
Google's research notebook (renamed from NotebookLM in July 2026): ask questions across your sources, and make flashcards and quizzes from them.
Best for: Asking questions across a pile of your own sources at once.
Knowt
Free study platform with flashcards, Learn mode and practice tests, plus AI summaries of PDFs, videos and lectures on its paid plan.
Best for: Free flashcard study modes, bringing Quizlet sets over, and AI summaries of lectures and videos.
Quizlet
Flashcard and study platform with sets made by other users, games, practice tests and AI study materials from your notes.
Best for: Finding flashcard sets other people made, and quick games for a class.
RemNote
Note-taking app with flashcards built into your notes, spaced repetition, PDF annotation and AI study tools.
Best for: Taking notes and making flashcards in the same place.
Questions people ask
Which flashcard app is best for school students?
Pick one that makes cards for you and tells you what to review each day. StudyVisually turns class notes into flashcards, concept cards and practice questions, and a 20-minute daily mission says what to study. Quizlet suits a class that already shares sets. Anki suits students happy to type their own cards.
Do I have to make my own flashcards?
No. Quizlet, Knowt, Brainscape, RemNote, Gemini Notebook and StudyVisually all make flashcards from your notes or files with AI. Anki doesn't have it built in, though add-ons can add it. Read the cards once before you study them, because AI can get a detail wrong.
Is Anki or Quizlet better for flashcards?
Anki suits you if you want full control and a scheduler you can tune, and you don't mind setting it up. Quizlet suits you if you want sets other people made and games for class. Our Anki vs Quizlet page compares their prices, spaced repetition and study modes side by side.
Can I move my flashcards from one app to another?
Usually, as plain text. StudyVisually's free flashcard maker reads Anki and Quizlet exports, up to 200 cards a deck. Going the other way, it exports any deck you made to Anki with its review dates, to a CSV file, or as cards to print, on every plan.
Sources
Prices and features change. We read each fact on the company's own pages; tell us through the contact page if one is out of date.
Last updated
- https://docs.ankiweb.net/deck-options.html
- https://apps.ankiweb.net/
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387
- https://quizlet.com/upgrade
- https://quizlet.com/
- https://www.remnote.com/
- https://www.remnote.com/pricing
- https://support.google.com/notebooklm/answer/16958963
- https://support.google.com/notebooklm/answer/16213268
- https://www.brainscape.com/
- https://www.brainscape.com/pricing
- https://knowt.com/
- https://knowt.com/plans
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