Every med student meets Anki eventually. And most of them meet the same wall a week later: it works, but making the cards takes longer than studying them. You sit down to review a lecture and spend forty minutes typing cloze deletions.
That's the real problem with Anki. The spaced repetition is excellent. It's everything you have to do before it can help you that's painful.
So if you want an Anki alternative with AI, you're really looking for something that builds the deck from your material. The Study Mill does that (I build it), Knowt does it for flashcard decks, and RemNote does it inside your notes. And if long-term retention is all you care about and you don't mind the setup, you should probably stay on Anki.
What Anki gets right
A lot of "Anki alternative" posts skip this, so:
- The scheduling is the best there is. It's been refined over decades and millions of users. Nothing below beats it for pure long-term retention.
- It's free on Windows, Mac, Linux, the web and Android. Only the official iPhone app costs money: US$24.99 once, which funds the whole project.
- Your decks are yours. Local files, open format, nobody can paywall them next semester.
- Add-ons do almost anything.
Where it hurts
- You build every card. There's no "upload lecture, get deck".
- The first hour is rough. Deck options, intervals, ease factors, note types.
- It never explains anything. Anki tests what you understand. If you're stuck on why something is true, it can't help.
- Nothing pulls you back on a Tuesday night. The review count is the only sign of progress.
That last one matters more than people admit. The best system is the one you open when you're tired.
Five alternatives
1. The Study Mill: the deck built from your lectures
Upload a lecture recording, slide deck or messy notes. About a minute later you have flashcards, a quiz, short lessons and a tutor, all built from what you uploaded. The questions you miss come back in a daily review, so you keep the part of Anki that matters without making a single card.
It also does two things Anki deliberately doesn't. It explains (each flashcard links back to the lesson it came from), and it has Walk & Learn, a two-host audio session that teaches the week back to you and asks you questions out loud. That's the commute, which Anki can't use.
Free for 2 classes. Pro is A$7.99 a month and adds unlimited classes, exam mode and cram sheets; students with a .edu email pay half.
Best for students who want the whole loop without the setup.
2. Knowt: if you're bringing decks with you
Imports Quizlet sets, generates cards from PDFs and notes, and has spaced repetition on the free plan. AI chat is capped on free, with unlimited on the paid Ultra plan.
Best for anyone with a big existing library.
3. RemNote: notes and cards together
You write notes and turn lines into cards as you go, with real spaced repetition underneath. The heavier AI features are paid.
Best for people who already take structured notes and hate doing the work twice.
4. NotebookLM: for understanding, not drilling
Free and excellent at answering questions about your documents. It has no spaced repetition or testing, so it won't make you remember anything in six weeks. More on that gap.
Best for dense readings, alongside something that tests you.
5. Anki plus an AI generator
Generate cards elsewhere and import them into Anki. You get the best scheduler and skip most of the typing. You also inherit a small pipeline to maintain: formatting breaks, imports need tidying, and you'll spend some evenings fixing it.
Best for people who enjoy tinkering.
Quick comparison
| Builds cards from your material | Spaced repetition | Explains concepts | Free plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Study Mill | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2 classes |
| Anki | No | Best in class | No | Full (iPhone app paid) |
| Knowt | Yes | Yes | Limited on free | Strong |
| RemNote | Paid AI | Yes | Limited | Generous |
| NotebookLM | Q&A only | No | Yes | Generous |
Which one?
- Lectures and slides, and you just want to study them: The Study Mill.
- Retention is everything and you'll do the work: Anki. It's still the best at what it does.
- A Quizlet library to bring over: Knowt.
- Notes and cards in one place: RemNote.
If you've given up on Anki twice, it probably wasn't discipline. It was the forty minutes of typing between you and your first review.
Try it on the lecture you're behind on
Upload it and see the cards, quiz and lesson it builds. About a minute, no card needed. Want to see the process first? How a lecture PDF becomes flashcards.
Other apps' prices and features are as published in 2026 and change often. Check their own pages before you decide.