What Anki does
Anki is flashcard software that schedules reviews using spaced repetition. You add cards with a prompt on the front and an answer on the back—vocabulary, definitions, grammar patterns, anything you want to memorize. Anki shows each card again at intervals tuned to how well you remember it.
The goal is not to reread notes or cram before a test. You answer short prompts daily, and Anki stretches the interval when you remember and shortens it when you forget. Over weeks, facts move into long-term memory without you manually deciding what to review.
What Anki is not
Anki is not a course, a textbook, or an AI tutor. It does not teach you material—it helps you retain material you already have. You bring the content (or import a deck someone else built), and Anki handles the timing.
It is also not a one-time study session. Anki works best as a daily habit: small sessions, most days, for months. That is the tradeoff for durable recall.
Why learners use Anki
Anki is popular with language learners, med students, and anyone memorizing facts at scale because it is:
- Free on desktop and Android, with optional paid iOS app
- Offline-first once decks are imported
- Flexible—any front/back card shape you define
- Durable—decks you build today still work years later
Where to go next
Ready to try it? Work through these guides in order:
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Download and install Anki on the device you will study on most days.
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Import a deck—either a shared APKG or an export from Cramblr.
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Complete your first week of daily study so scheduling makes sense.
Terms you will see in Anki
Deck
A container for cards. Think of it as a folder—your course might be one deck or several subdecks by chapter.
Note
The underlying data for a card (fields like Front and Back). One note can generate one or more cards depending on the note type.
Card
What you actually review—a single prompt shown during study.
APKG
Anki's package format for sharing or moving decks between devices. Cramblr exports reviewed cards as APKG files.