Quizlet Alternatives: Free Flashcard Apps Compared, With What Each Free Plan Includes

The best Quizlet alternatives depend on which Quizlet feature you're replacing. The searches people type point to three wants: the Learn mode back for free, a scheduler that brings cards back at the right time, or an app that doesn't push AI. Quizlet's own help center says Learn is a Quizlet Plus feature, and that anyone else can start a free session to try it (Quizlet).

Below, each app's free plan is described from its own pricing or help page. Free tiers change often, so the links let you confirm before you move a semester's worth of cards. And check one thing before you switch at all: Quizlet's free Flashcards mode now has a spaced repetition option on its website, which may be the feature you were leaving for.

Quizlet alternatives at a glance

Is Quizlet still free? What you get without Plus

Yes, partly. You can still make flashcard sets and study them for free, and Flashcards on the Quizlet website now offers spaced repetition: you rate each card Repeat, Hard, Okay or Easy, and Quizlet uses your rating to decide when to show it again (Quizlet). The help article doesn't list it as a Plus feature, and it says the option is only on the website for now, not in the phone apps. If scheduled review of sets you already made is all you wanted, try it before you move anything.

What changed is the guided study. Learn, the adaptive mode that mixes question types, is available to Quizlet Plus and Plus for teachers subscribers, and non-subscribers can start a free session to try it.

Quizlet's upgrade page lists two paid tiers: Quizlet Plus, which includes 20 rounds of Learn questions a month plus three practice tests and three textbook solutions a month, and Quizlet Plus Unlimited, with unlimited Learn rounds and full practice-test access (Quizlet). The 7-day free trial comes only with the annual plan.

One exception worth knowing: when a teacher adds sets to a Quizlet class, class members get unlimited, ad-free Learn and Test on those sets. Quizlet's help center attaches three conditions: you're logged in, you've been added to the class, and you open the set from the class page rather than your home feed. The class also has to be managed by a teacher account (Quizlet). If your professor or TA already runs a class on Quizlet, you may not need to pay at all.

Free Quizlet alternatives with a Learn mode

Knowt is the closest match. Its homepage says you can create, share and study flashcards "completely free with unlimited learn mode" (Knowt), and its Chrome extension imports Quizlet sets with a single click (Chrome Web Store). If what you miss is Quizlet's Learn experience, start here.

Knowt also leans heavily on AI: lecture summaries, PDF-to-flashcard tools and exam predictions. Those can be useful, but treat anything generated as a draft to check against your notes.

Quizlet alternatives with no AI (and open source)

Anki is the long-standing choice for students who want full control and no AI. The desktop app is free on all major platforms, the Android app (AnkiDroid) is free, and syncing through AnkiWeb is free. The iPhone app, AnkiMobile, is paid, and Anki's site says those purchases fund the project's development (Anki). Its code is public on GitHub under the GNU Affero General Public License, an open-source license (GitHub).

Anki schedules each card based on how well you recalled it, so hard cards come back sooner and easy ones less often. Its manual says you can attach images, audio and video to cards, and that version 23.10 and later supports image occlusion natively, which hides part of a diagram so you have to recall the label (Anki manual). That makes it strong for anatomy, maps and lab diagrams.

The trade-off is setup: Anki has many options, and a new deck can feel overwhelming. The spaced repetition guide covers settings that fit a semester.

To start without getting lost in settings:

1. Install the free desktop app and create a free AnkiWeb account so your cards sync to your phone.
2. Make one deck per course, not one per chapter, so reviews from older chapters keep mixing in.
3. Add 10 to 20 cards after each lecture rather than 300 the week before the exam.
4. Review once a day, answer before you reveal, and grade yourself honestly. "Hard" and "Again" are there to be used.

Brainscape is the simpler option if you'd rather type your own cards and skip the setup. Its free Basic plan lets you type or import unlimited flashcards, study them with spaced repetition, and study decks a classmate shares with you. Pro adds unlimited AI card-making, unlimited access to content other people made, images and sounds, reverse cards and private content (Brainscape). Brainscape has an AI card-maker, but nothing makes you use it: if you write your own cards and only want them scheduled, Basic covers it.

Quizlet alternatives with pictures and diagrams

If you study from diagrams, image support decides it:

• Anki: images free, plus built-in image occlusion.
• RemNote: the free plan includes 5 image occlusion cards and 3 annotated PDFs, plus unlimited notes and flashcards (RemNote).
• Quizlet: free users can add pictures from Quizlet's own image gallery on the website, but uploading your own images takes Quizlet Plus (Quizlet). That rules out photos of your own lab handouts on the free plan.
• Brainscape: images and sounds are a Pro feature.

The free AP Psychology section on forgetting and memory challenges explains why labeled-diagram recall fades fast without scheduled review, and the free forgetting curve simulator shows it.

AI flashcards from your own material

Gemini Notebook, Google's renamed NotebookLM, generates flashcards and quizzes from the sources you upload. Google's Sept. 15, 2026 update puts quizzes and flashcards inside interactive learning overviews, which Google said would reach all users within weeks. The same post says US college students can get a year of Google AI Pro free, with 4 times the Notebook usage limits of an account without a Google AI plan, if they redeem by Dec. 31, 2026. A payment method is required and the plan renews at $19.99 a month unless you cancel (Google). The free AI tools for students guide covers that offer and others.

AI-made cards save the typing, but they also skip the step where you decide what matters, and they can contain errors. Read each card before you study it, and delete ones that test trivia your professor never mentioned. The guide on how to use AI to study covers checking AI output.

What to look for in a Quizlet alternative

Before you rebuild your decks somewhere new, check the app against how you actually study:

• Does it schedule reviews? An app that decides when each card comes back, based on how you did, does the hardest part of spaced practice for you. A plain card flipper doesn't.
• Does it make you answer first? Typed answers, multiple choice and "say it, then flip" all force recall. Scrolling a list of terms and definitions doesn't.
• What happens when the free plan runs out? Read the pricing page for the limits that will bite mid-semester: rounds per month, number of PDFs, AI credits.
• Can you get your cards out? Check for an export option before you invest a semester in one app. Text or CSV export means you're never locked in.
• Does it work where you study? If you review on the bus, the phone app matters more than the desktop one. Anki's iPhone app is paid while its Android app is free, and Quizlet's spaced repetition is website-only for now.
• Can you share with your class? If your study group swaps decks, shared sets and links matter.
• Who sees your cards? Some apps reserve private sets for paid plans. Brainscape lists private content as a Pro feature.

A quick test: build one deck for your next exam in the new app and use it for a week. If you're not opening it daily by day three, the app doesn't fit how you study, whatever its feature list says.

How to move your Quizlet sets to another app

1. Knowt: use its Chrome extension's Quizlet import on each set.
2. Anki and most others: export from the Quizlet website. Quizlet's help center gives the path: Your library, then Flashcard sets, open a set you created, choose Export from the set's more menu, pick how terms and definitions are separated, and select Copy text (Quizlet). The same article says you can't export a set you copied from another user. Paste the text into a plain-text file, then use the other app's import. Anki's importer guesses the separator, such as a tab or comma, and lets you choose which column goes to which field (Anki manual).
3. Add pictures back by hand. Quizlet says image exports aren't available, so only the text comes across. Re-attach images to the cards that need them.
4. Start small. Move the sets for your next exam first, not every set you've ever made.

Which Quizlet alternative should you pick?

• You want Quizlet's Learn mode back, free: Knowt.
• You mainly want spaced review of sets you already made on Quizlet: try Quizlet's own spaced repetition on the website before moving anything.
• You're studying for something cumulative (anatomy, a language, the MCAT) and want no AI: Anki.
• You want spaced repetition on cards you type, with almost no setup: Brainscape Basic.
• You take notes and want cards made from them in the same app: RemNote.
• You have long readings and want quizzes from them fast: Gemini Notebook, with every card checked.
• Your class already shares sets on Quizlet: stay on Quizlet's free plan for those sets, and ask whether your instructor uses a Quizlet class, which unlocks Learn for its sets.

The app matters less than how you use it. Say the answer before you flip the card, and let the app bring cards back over days rather than drilling a whole set the night before. The guide to active recall shows how to get the most from any flashcard session, and practice that goes beyond flashcards, like the free AP Biology practice set with model answers or the AP Human Geography practice section, tests whether you can use what the cards taught.