You record a two-hour lecture, feed it to an AI tool, and get notes, flashcards and a quiz back. That's the promise of Turbolearn (now called Turbo AI) and Mindgrasp, and when it works it's a big time saver.
The problem most people hit is the maths. A full-time uni load can mean 10 or more hours of lectures a week. Turbolearn's free plan is reported to cover about 2 hours of lecture time a month, and Mindgrasp has no free plan at all, just a short trial that needs a credit card. Both are fine for trying the idea. Neither free option gets you through a semester.
If you want a free plan you can actually study a whole subject on, The Study Mill (which I build) is the closest match. If you mainly want to ask questions of your readings, NotebookLM is free and excellent. If you just need a transcript, use your uni's lecture capture.
What these tools do
All three work the same way at the start: you give them a lecture recording, slides or a PDF, and AI turns it into study material. Where they differ is what happens next.
- Turbo AI (Turbolearn) focuses on notes, flashcards, quizzes and a chat from your recordings and documents. Reviewers like how quickly it turns a lecture into tidy notes.
- Mindgrasp leans on summaries, notes and a question-answering assistant across videos, PDFs and web pages. It's broad, and popular with students who have a lot of reading.
- The Study Mill organises everything by class and week, and puts the weight on testing you: lessons, flashcards, a quiz with written answers that get marked, daily review of what you missed, and audio that quizzes you out loud.
The difference matters because notes and summaries are the comfortable part of studying. They feel productive. What actually moves your mark is answering questions from memory and coming back to the ones you got wrong. Active recall vs rereading explains why.
Pricing, as best anyone can tell
Neither Turbo AI nor Mindgrasp makes this easy. Turbo AI doesn't publish a public pricing page, and review sites quote prices from about US$6 to US$20 a month depending on plan and billing period. Mindgrasp's plans are reported at roughly US$6 to US$11 a month billed yearly, or more month to month. Several reviews also mention people being charged after forgetting to cancel the trial, so set a reminder if you try it.
| Free option | Paid, roughly | Lecture recordings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo AI (Turbolearn) | About 2 hours of lecture a month | Varies a lot, check in app | Yes |
| Mindgrasp | Short trial, card required | About US$6 to US$11 a month yearly | Yes |
| The Study Mill | 2 classes, all their weeks | A$7.99 a month or A$49 a year | Yes |
| NotebookLM | Generous free plan | Paid tiers via Google | Audio files, yes |
The alternatives
The Study Mill
Upload a week's lecture recording, slides (.pptx), PDF, Word doc, notes or photos of handwritten notes, and The Study Mill builds that week into short lessons with analogies, flashcards, a quiz mixing multiple choice and written answers the AI marks, notes, and a tutor you can ask about it. Everything stays specific to what you uploaded, so you're studying your lecturer's version of the topic.
The part I'm proudest of is Walk & Learn: two hosts, Milli and Luke, teach the week as audio and stop to ask you questions you answer out loud. It's how I'd want to revise on a bus.
Set an exam date and it plans revision around your timetable. The free plan covers 2 classes with every week in them. Pro adds unlimited classes, exam mode and cram sheets, and it's half price with a .edu or .edu.au email.
Pick it if you want to be tested on your own lectures all semester, not just get notes from them.
NotebookLM
Google's free research notebook. Give it your PDFs, slides and recordings and ask it anything, with answers that point back to the source. Its audio overviews are good too. What it doesn't do well is make you practise: there's no marked quiz or review schedule. NotebookLM alternatives has the detail.
Pick it if most of your study is reading and you want a free assistant for it.
Your uni's lecture capture
Many unis already record lectures and auto-generate captions. If what you liked about Turbolearn was the transcript, you might already have one. You can upload that transcript to any of the tools above instead of the audio. Turning lecture recordings into notes covers the options.
Knowt
If what you want is flashcards from a video or PDF, Knowt does that with a decent free plan, with AI use capped. It's a flashcard app first, so expect less depth on lectures. Knowt alternatives.
How to choose
Try two tools on the same lecture and ask yourself one thing the next morning: which one made me answer questions, and which one did I open again? That's a better test than any feature list.
Upload one lecture recording to The Study Mill and compare. It's free and takes about a minute.
Other apps' prices and features are as published in October 2026 and change often. Check their own pricing pages.