{"slug": "anki", "name": "Anki", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "Open-source spaced-repetition flashcard app for desktop and mobile, synced via AnkiWeb.", "recommenders": 26, "commenters": 49, "warners": 1, "score": 27.236, "rising": -5.85, "first": "2025-11-02", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "Loved for memorizing language vocabulary and as a daily study habit that commenters say noticeably improves long-term retention.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 29, "neutral": 24, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [4, 4, 3, 4, 1, 1, 2, 0, 8, 0, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Language learning", "Retention"], "caveat": "Clunky UX", "short_quote": "I have tried many different flashcard solutions, including hacky text-based ones, and I always return to Anki.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/ankitects/anki", "official_url": "https://apps.ankiweb.net/", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Anki"], "verdict": [{"text": "Loved for memorizing language vocabulary", "cites": [{"id": 796378992, "item_id": 49773687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49773687", "by": "cuvert", "date": "2026-09-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All the sentences are saved in Anki, where I have now around 7000 german sentences", "excerpt": "You probably need to pair it with something you like. For example, I'm interested in food history and also home food in general, so I made a python script and made a frequency list using a few cooking ebooks in that language. After that I made sentences with most interesting/useful words. Now, before reading any book in a foreign language, I use that script, and make sentences with 10-20 words that I never used in se", "context": "learning German and Spanish", "use_case": "language learning flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Learning another language may be one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy"}, {"id": 781842800, "item_id": 48865175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865175", "by": "pferde", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day.", "excerpt": "I have the exact opposite experience with Anki. I use it to memorize vocabulary of a language I'm learning, a language completely different to other languages I know, and my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day. Frankly, I was floored once I realized how much faster I was learning, and how easily I can recall even words I last practiced or used months ago. I make and maintain my own cards/", "context": "", "use_case": "language vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 753768992, "item_id": 47110562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47110562", "by": "ipnon", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "cramming these with Anki. You can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful than 100 hours of Duolingo.", "excerpt": "It\u2019s true that 70% of a language is about ~100-300 words. In linguistics this is called the \u201ccore sight set\u201d. If you\u2019re in a pinch traveling I recommend asking an AI for the 300 most frequent word core sight set and cramming these with Anki. You can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful than 100 hours of Duolingo. With the core sight set and a generous amount of loan words and gesticulation yo", "context": "", "use_case": "memorizing core vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "What's the best way to learn a new language?"}, {"id": 733912257, "item_id": 45869516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869516", "by": "ChadNauseam", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anki is great for memorizing words", "excerpt": "I'm working on https://yap.town - an SRS based language learning app. I would say it combines the best parts of Duolingo and Anki. Anki is great for memorizing words, but you don't see the words in the context of novel sentences. Duolingo is great for exposure to new sentences, but it's oriented around \"lessons\" and SRS is an afterthought. (Duolingo is also not designed for people serious about learning a language IM", "context": "", "use_case": "memorizing vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)"}]}, {"text": " and as a daily study habit that commenters say noticeably improves long-term retention.", "cites": [{"id": 781900592, "item_id": 48868787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48868787", "by": "mimo84", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My morning ritual is now coffee and anki.", "excerpt": "I find using flashcards very stimulating, however to reach this status it took me quite some time and some trial and error. So if you're new at using flashcards don't quit just yet! Keep using them. My morning ritual is now coffee and anki. Like the author said, understanding the card you're writing in your deck is fundamental. In my case, I would add, this is even true of when you add language cards. For example, I ", "context": "", "use_case": "language, Emacs commands, shell commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781907968, "item_id": 48869248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48869248", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits", "excerpt": "Most people commenting here seem to be focusing on memorization, which seems to miss the main point of the article. The big insight here is the chunking part, not the memorization bit. I use anki in a similar way to the author and it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits. And, like the author, anki has become part of my daily workflow even for things that it's not really specifically designed ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning, LaTeX notetaking, reminders", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781800464, "item_id": 48862529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862529", "by": "deviation", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a godsend for me.", "excerpt": "I use Anki to learn French, Chess openings/tactics/techniques, to unscramble letters for scrabble, for Pub Trivia... The options are kind of limitless. As a mid-30s guy who has well passed the neuroplasticity of his teen years, it's a godsend for me. To echo the author's thoughts though, I can't prove empirically that I learn more effectively using Anki (or spaced repetition) than other methods... Only anecdotally. I", "context": "mid-30s learner", "use_case": "French, chess, trivia", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781842800, "item_id": 48865175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865175", "by": "pferde", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day.", "excerpt": "I have the exact opposite experience with Anki. I use it to memorize vocabulary of a language I'm learning, a language completely different to other languages I know, and my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day. Frankly, I was floored once I realized how much faster I was learning, and how easily I can recall even words I last practiced or used months ago. I make and maintain my own cards/", "context": "", "use_case": "language vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaints are clunky reviewing and card-editing UX", "cites": [{"id": 763507665, "item_id": 47719229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47719229", "by": "lobati", "date": "2026-04-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "unnecessary extra steps to move onto the next card in tools like Anki", "excerpt": "I'm building a flash card learning tool. I was frustrated with the slowness and complexity of other solutions. Animations and loaders with tools like Duolingo, and unnecessary extra steps to move onto the next card in tools like Anki. If you give it a try I'd love to hear your feedback. https://flash.boon.gl", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?"}, {"id": 732704080, "item_id": 45794005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794005", "by": "thomascountz", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself", "excerpt": "I'm curious about the effect of \"hand writing\" a card for spaced repetition. It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself, but n=1 in this case. Even when I use an LLM to help, I have never find the cards to be useful by default\u2014same goes for trying to use other's decks. That said, what I'd really love is a better card writing UI. If I could simply edit the table when i", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Anki-LLM \u2013 Bulk process and generate Anki flashcards with LLMs"}, {"id": 769399201, "item_id": 48087450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48087450", "by": "tootyskooty", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Anki for 10+ years and love it", "excerpt": "I'm working on Repple (https://repple.sh)! It's a modern spaced repetition x incremental reading/PDF library app with a few (tasteful!) QOL AI features. I've been using Anki for 10+ years and love it but always wanted something with a cleaner UX and a reader view. The recent Anki ownership change pushed me to finally make something, and it's seeing some traction :) Right now I'm focusing on getting the reading and no", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}]}, {"text": " and daily reviews that can turn into a chore.", "cites": [{"id": 781828160, "item_id": 48864260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864260", "by": "etrvic", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used anki for learning japanese", "excerpt": "I used anki for learning japanese, and what I noticed while is that, at least for me the act of reviewing flashcards became a burden itself. It was not fun nor pleasant. I\u2019d go back to using Anki if i\u2019d know how to solve this.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Japanese", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781824560, "item_id": 48864035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864035", "by": "wisemanwillhear", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "first with the Mnemosyne Project and later switching to Anki", "excerpt": "I'm glad the article acknowledges that flashcards are just one small part of learning. When I first got into spaced repetition, first with the Mnemosyne Project and later switching to Anki, I discovered that the efficiency I imagined was partially illusory. * Memorizing things often takes much more time than learning things naturally as you use them because it takes extra time out of your day. * I often lacked the as", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "Mnemosyne Project", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Language learning", "summary": "Widely used to drill vocabulary and sentences for languages like German, Spanish, French and Russian.", "quotes": [{"id": 796378992, "item_id": 49773687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49773687", "by": "cuvert", "date": "2026-09-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All the sentences are saved in Anki, where I have now around 7000 german sentences", "excerpt": "You probably need to pair it with something you like. For example, I'm interested in food history and also home food in general, so I made a python script and made a frequency list using a few cooking ebooks in that language. After that I made sentences with most interesting/useful words. Now, before reading any book in a foreign language, I use that script, and make sentences with 10-20 words that I never used in se", "context": "learning German and Spanish", "use_case": "language learning flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Learning another language may be one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy"}, {"id": 781842800, "item_id": 48865175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865175", "by": "pferde", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day.", "excerpt": "I have the exact opposite experience with Anki. I use it to memorize vocabulary of a language I'm learning, a language completely different to other languages I know, and my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day. Frankly, I was floored once I realized how much faster I was learning, and how easily I can recall even words I last practiced or used months ago. I make and maintain my own cards/", "context": "", "use_case": "language vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 753768992, "item_id": 47110562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47110562", "by": "ipnon", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "cramming these with Anki. You can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful than 100 hours of Duolingo.", "excerpt": "It\u2019s true that 70% of a language is about ~100-300 words. In linguistics this is called the \u201ccore sight set\u201d. If you\u2019re in a pinch traveling I recommend asking an AI for the 300 most frequent word core sight set and cramming these with Anki. You can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful than 100 hours of Duolingo. With the core sight set and a generous amount of loan words and gesticulation yo", "context": "", "use_case": "memorizing core vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "What's the best way to learn a new language?"}]}, {"label": "Retention", "summary": "Users report much better recall, even of words last practiced months ago.", "quotes": [{"id": 781842800, "item_id": 48865175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865175", "by": "pferde", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day.", "excerpt": "I have the exact opposite experience with Anki. I use it to memorize vocabulary of a language I'm learning, a language completely different to other languages I know, and my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day. Frankly, I was floored once I realized how much faster I was learning, and how easily I can recall even words I last practiced or used months ago. I make and maintain my own cards/", "context": "", "use_case": "language vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781800464, "item_id": 48862529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862529", "by": "deviation", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a godsend for me.", "excerpt": "I use Anki to learn French, Chess openings/tactics/techniques, to unscramble letters for scrabble, for Pub Trivia... The options are kind of limitless. As a mid-30s guy who has well passed the neuroplasticity of his teen years, it's a godsend for me. To echo the author's thoughts though, I can't prove empirically that I learn more effectively using Anki (or spaced repetition) than other methods... Only anecdotally. I", "context": "mid-30s learner", "use_case": "French, chess, trivia", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781854864, "item_id": 48865929, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865929", "by": "blovescoffee", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used a lot of Anki for spanish on top of classes. I'd say (anecdotally) it can bump you up a half to full letter in the A-C system", "excerpt": "I used a lot of Anki for spanish on top of classes. I'd say (anecdotally) it can bump you up a half to full letter in the A-C system depending on where you start. I learned far more living in Mexico though. You really need to talk to real humans to learn another language. If you don't, you can have a decent rating in A-C system but not actually converse that well.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Spanish", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}]}, {"label": "Integrations", "summary": "AnkiConnect and add-ons let other tools and LLM workflows create and edit cards directly.", "quotes": [{"id": 781824688, "item_id": 48864043, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864043", "by": "rsanek", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I let the AI add it directly to Anki via AnkiConnect.", "excerpt": "> Some people also use LLMs to generate flashcards. And of course, the result will be those impersonal, mediocre cards. > I won\u2019t say LLMs are useless for this. But from my trials, I get about 1 card that\u2019s useful to me out of 10, and even that 1 card still needs rewriting. I don't know the specifics of how the author tried to do so, but from what I've seen the majority of attempts are, let me drop a chapter of a tex", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 740950674, "item_id": 46309417, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46309417", "by": "wahnfrieden", "date": "2025-12-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it's also excellent for mining Anki cards. This works with AnkiMobile on iOS and AnkiConnect on desktop.", "excerpt": "Manabi Reader - learn Japanese by reading More than $500/month. It currently sustains my full-time focus https://reader.manabi.io I quit my job a couple years back to work on this app full-time, as well as its companion flashcard app, Manabi Flashcards. The goal is to help you learn through immersion and eventually replace some of your flashcard reviews time with reading (once I finish auto-reviews for flashcards) Wh", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcard mining", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025 \u2013 Show and tell"}, {"id": 778450929, "item_id": 48653183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653183", "by": "amm_real", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "there are plenty of Anki extensions that make use of the tech for card creation", "excerpt": "I'm not aware of anything that outright replaces the Anki-style DB/SRS with an LLM or agentic workflow, and I'm not sure that would be a good idea, either. Even study/knowledge apps built from the ground up during the LLM era (like RemNote (https://www.remnote.com/) use an Anki-style SRS AFAIK. But maybe RemNote is what you're after. Since you're asking about LLMs, there are plenty of Anki extensions that make use of", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Any AI native Anki alternatives?"}]}, {"label": "Daily habit", "summary": "Many make it a fixed part of their daily routine and workflow.", "quotes": [{"id": 781900592, "item_id": 48868787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48868787", "by": "mimo84", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My morning ritual is now coffee and anki.", "excerpt": "I find using flashcards very stimulating, however to reach this status it took me quite some time and some trial and error. So if you're new at using flashcards don't quit just yet! Keep using them. My morning ritual is now coffee and anki. Like the author said, understanding the card you're writing in your deck is fundamental. In my case, I would add, this is even true of when you add language cards. For example, I ", "context": "", "use_case": "language, Emacs commands, shell commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781907968, "item_id": 48869248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48869248", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits", "excerpt": "Most people commenting here seem to be focusing on memorization, which seems to miss the main point of the article. The big insight here is the chunking part, not the memorization bit. I use anki in a similar way to the author and it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits. And, like the author, anki has become part of my daily workflow even for things that it's not really specifically designed ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning, LaTeX notetaking, reminders", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 785503776, "item_id": 49093986, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49093986", "by": "zuzuleinen", "date": "2026-07-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As a daily user of Anki and Math Academy", "excerpt": "As a daily user of Anki and Math Academy, I'm very excited about how software can help us learn. Now, with AI, we can really build tools that were not possible before. I built for myself AlgoTutor[1], a CLI tool that teaches Go developers algorithmic skills and concurrency. The recent Understanding floating point[2] from Oz Nova is also a type of tutorial I want to see more often. [1] https://github.com/zuzuleinen/al", "context": "", "use_case": "learning", "switched_from": "", "story": "LearnVector \u2013 Andrew Ng's AI company building one\u2011to\u2011one learning experiences"}]}, {"label": "Versatility", "summary": "Used beyond languages, for chess, trivia, job knowledge, books and note-taking.", "quotes": [{"id": 781800464, "item_id": 48862529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862529", "by": "deviation", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a godsend for me.", "excerpt": "I use Anki to learn French, Chess openings/tactics/techniques, to unscramble letters for scrabble, for Pub Trivia... The options are kind of limitless. As a mid-30s guy who has well passed the neuroplasticity of his teen years, it's a godsend for me. To echo the author's thoughts though, I can't prove empirically that I learn more effectively using Anki (or spaced repetition) than other methods... Only anecdotally. I", "context": "mid-30s learner", "use_case": "French, chess, trivia", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 766422112, "item_id": 47901382, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47901382", "by": "msteffen", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve maintained an Anki deck about facts relevant to my job", "excerpt": "A lot of this is about knowledge debt if I\u2019m reading it correctly (people not knowing things that they should know, or knowing the wrong things). In my last few jobs, I\u2019ve maintained an Anki deck about facts relevant to my job (who certain people are, how certain systems work, details of the programming languages we use, etc.) I\u2019ve started kind of a funny rule, which is that when I make a change now, I can use Claude", "context": "", "use_case": "retaining job knowledge", "switched_from": "", "story": "Do I belong in tech anymore?"}, {"id": 781907968, "item_id": 48869248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48869248", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits", "excerpt": "Most people commenting here seem to be focusing on memorization, which seems to miss the main point of the article. The big insight here is the chunking part, not the memorization bit. I use anki in a similar way to the author and it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits. And, like the author, anki has become part of my daily workflow even for things that it's not really specifically designed ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning, LaTeX notetaking, reminders", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}]}, {"label": "Low cost", "summary": "Free on PC and Android, with a one-time fee on iOS.", "quotes": [{"id": 746505216, "item_id": 46656576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656576", "by": "rsanek", "date": "2026-01-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anki: $25 on iOS, free for Android", "excerpt": "Anki: $25 on iOS, free for Android https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387 140W Anker charger: like an Apple laptop charger, but with 4 ports instead of one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFCH3C4W Nu-Salt: for those of us trying to avoid sodium, but still wanting to add salt to food https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MVJTL81 Mineral sunscreen stick: very portable, no mess https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}, {"id": 746453424, "item_id": 46653339, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46653339", "by": "sambapa", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anki, free for pc and android, cheap for iphones", "excerpt": "Sleep: - wax earplugs - buckwheat pillow - a pillow that goes between my knees (I'm a side sleeper) Above combo has made 6 hour sleep feel like 8 hours and 8 hours feel like I can go the rest of my life without sleep in the morning Fitness: - gymnastic rings: ultraportable and ultrascalable (from arthretic grandma level to olympic athlete level) workout. I have two pairs and I'm thinking about buying another one. Fun", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Clunky UX", "summary": "Some find extra steps between cards and an awkward card-editing interface.", "quotes": [{"id": 763507665, "item_id": 47719229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47719229", "by": "lobati", "date": "2026-04-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "unnecessary extra steps to move onto the next card in tools like Anki", "excerpt": "I'm building a flash card learning tool. I was frustrated with the slowness and complexity of other solutions. Animations and loaders with tools like Duolingo, and unnecessary extra steps to move onto the next card in tools like Anki. If you give it a try I'd love to hear your feedback. https://flash.boon.gl", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?"}, {"id": 732704080, "item_id": 45794005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794005", "by": "thomascountz", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself", "excerpt": "I'm curious about the effect of \"hand writing\" a card for spaced repetition. It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself, but n=1 in this case. Even when I use an LLM to help, I have never find the cards to be useful by default\u2014same goes for trying to use other's decks. That said, what I'd really love is a better card writing UI. If I could simply edit the table when i", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Anki-LLM \u2013 Bulk process and generate Anki flashcards with LLMs"}, {"id": 769399201, "item_id": 48087450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48087450", "by": "tootyskooty", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Anki for 10+ years and love it", "excerpt": "I'm working on Repple (https://repple.sh)! It's a modern spaced repetition x incremental reading/PDF library app with a few (tasteful!) QOL AI features. I've been using Anki for 10+ years and love it but always wanted something with a cleaner UX and a reader view. The recent Anki ownership change pushed me to finally make something, and it's seeing some traction :) Right now I'm focusing on getting the reading and no", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}]}, {"label": "Review burden", "summary": "Daily reviews can feel like a burden and take time out of the day.", "quotes": [{"id": 781828160, "item_id": 48864260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864260", "by": "etrvic", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used anki for learning japanese", "excerpt": "I used anki for learning japanese, and what I noticed while is that, at least for me the act of reviewing flashcards became a burden itself. It was not fun nor pleasant. I\u2019d go back to using Anki if i\u2019d know how to solve this.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Japanese", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781824560, "item_id": 48864035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864035", "by": "wisemanwillhear", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "first with the Mnemosyne Project and later switching to Anki", "excerpt": "I'm glad the article acknowledges that flashcards are just one small part of learning. When I first got into spaced repetition, first with the Mnemosyne Project and later switching to Anki, I discovered that the efficiency I imagined was partially illusory. * Memorizing things often takes much more time than learning things naturally as you use them because it takes extra time out of your day. * I often lacked the as", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "Mnemosyne Project", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}]}, {"label": "Card quality", "summary": "Commenters say AI-generated cards and other people's decks are rarely useful; self-written cards work better.", "quotes": [{"id": 732704080, "item_id": 45794005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794005", "by": "thomascountz", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself", "excerpt": "I'm curious about the effect of \"hand writing\" a card for spaced repetition. It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself, but n=1 in this case. Even when I use an LLM to help, I have never find the cards to be useful by default\u2014same goes for trying to use other's decks. That said, what I'd really love is a better card writing UI. If I could simply edit the table when i", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Anki-LLM \u2013 Bulk process and generate Anki flashcards with LLMs"}, {"id": 782108353, "item_id": 48881772, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881772", "by": "mortsnort", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the option to make an Anki flashcard", "excerpt": "I vibed this app a few weeks ago that lets you share highlighted text with it and it will provide you with an AI explanation of the text and the option to make an Anki flashcard. I find the instant AI explanation less disruptive to flow than pasting a question into Claude/ChatGPT. I'm currently using it to help me read philosophy books and it's been really helpful. I did a while back try to make an auto flash card cr", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781842800, "item_id": 48865175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865175", "by": "pferde", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day.", "excerpt": "I have the exact opposite experience with Anki. I use it to memorize vocabulary of a language I'm learning, a language completely different to other languages I know, and my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day. Frankly, I was floored once I realized how much faster I was learning, and how easily I can recall even words I last practiced or used months ago. I make and maintain my own cards/", "context": "", "use_case": "language vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}]}, {"label": "Data portability", "summary": "The data format is complicated, and some users want to export their notes as a precaution.", "quotes": [{"id": 740254272, "item_id": 46265892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46265892", "by": "yellow_lead", "date": "2025-12-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "because we use Anki and have thousands of cards there already", "excerpt": "I'm happy to see others in the space, but I wish Anki competitors would implement a decent 'import from Anki' feature. Otherwise, I think most existing users of SRS are unlikely to switch (because we use Anki and have thousands of cards there already). The data format of Anki is a bit complicated but at least it's SQLite. I've seen a ton of shared decks and resources on ankiweb, but it's true you can't easily put the", "context": "long-time SRS user with thousands of cards", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system"}, {"id": 749844512, "item_id": 46865282, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46865282", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love anki.", "excerpt": "I love anki. But upon reading this I think it's high time I exported all my notes in simple text format, just in case. Maybe also try Fernando Borretti's flashcard app I saw (and dismissed) recently here", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub"}]}, {"label": "Leech flagging", "summary": "Repeatedly failed cards get flagged as leeches, which one user found frustrating.", "quotes": [{"id": 789085296, "item_id": 49317831, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49317831", "by": "andai", "date": "2026-08-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I noticed this in Anki. Some cards are effortless, some take a bit of practice", "excerpt": "Yeah this matches my experience too. I noticed this in Anki. Some cards are effortless, some take a bit of practice, and some I fail over and over again no matter how many times I practice them. Anki kept flagging my relatives birthdays as \"leeches!\" I found it kind of hilarious and infuriating that the software I used to remember things tells me \"this thing is hard for you to remember so you should just give up.\"", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition memorization", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Isn't Outthinking Mathematicians. It's Out-Remembering Them"}]}, {"label": "Locked networks", "summary": "It can be hard to deploy on locked-down school networks.", "quotes": [{"id": 749981328, "item_id": 46873833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873833", "by": "jsLavaGoat", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it extensively in my teaching.", "excerpt": "I have peer-reviewed research on the efficacy of SRS in second-language acquisition and this should be everywhere for everyone and the fact that it isn't is both a scandal and an opportunity for learners who do use it to leverage that advantage. I use it extensively in my teaching. The problem is deploying Anki on locked down networks can be difficult so I've built alternatives and hacks to let you deploy decks and s", "context": "language teacher with research on SRS", "use_case": "spaced repetition for language teaching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub"}]}], "who": [{"by": "cuvert", "context": "learning German and Spanish", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49773687", "date": "2026-09-20"}, {"by": "deviation", "context": "mid-30s learner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862529", "date": "2026-07-10"}, {"by": "3stacks", "context": "building a self-hosted language app", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48673491", "date": "2026-06-25"}, {"by": "meristohm", "context": "Long-time de-Googled Pixel user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48663044", "date": "2026-06-24"}, {"by": "leephillips", "context": "physicist", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038824", "date": "2026-05-06"}, {"by": "talolard", "context": "parent", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46878448", "date": "2026-02-03"}, {"by": "jsLavaGoat", "context": "language teacher with research on SRS", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873833", "date": "2026-02-03"}, {"by": "pityJuke", "context": "Anki user for a decade", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46863758", "date": "2026-02-02"}, {"by": "vunderba", "context": "learned Russian", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46371996", "date": "2025-12-23"}, {"by": "codyb", "context": "minimizing tech use", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46290700", "date": "2025-12-16"}, {"by": "yellow_lead", "context": "long-time SRS user with thousands of cards", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46265892", "date": "2025-12-14"}, {"by": "istillcantcode", "context": "new to array languages", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46260758", "date": "2025-12-13"}], "tags": ["for language learners", "for teachers", "scriptable via AnkiConnect", "for lifelong learners", "for Android users"], "use_cases": ["flashcards", "spaced repetition flashcards", "spaced repetition", "language learning flashcards", "flash card decks", "spaced repetition memorization"], "compared": [{"slug": "duolingo", "name": "Duolingo", "co": 5, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "fsrs", "name": "FSRS", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "chatgpt", "name": "ChatGPT", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "emacs", "name": "Emacs", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 773512032, "item_id": 48344502, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48344502", "by": "david_allison", "date": "2026-05-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We define our API into the Rust via protobufs[0] and some codegen.", "excerpt": "We define our API into the Rust via protobufs[0] and some codegen. The wrapper around these is very lean, FFI-based[1], it's abstracted to a library so Android devs never need to know there's rust/codegen involved. We then define a light Kotlin-based wrapper around the protobuf-generated API[2]. This is a candidate to move to Kotlin multiplatform in the near future (mostly for test speed improvements). [0] https://gi", "context": "works on AnkiDroid", "use_case": "cross-platform app with shared Rust core", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861319", "title": "A Love Letter to Flashcards", "mentions": 12}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46861313", "title": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48671886", "title": "Show HN: Turn native language audio into flashcards and shadowing practice", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638331", "title": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46264492", "title": "Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869146", "title": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 4}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 2}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-04": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 4}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 5}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803909683, "item_id": 50244355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50244355", "by": "mathewjacob", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've used those to also build Anki decks for flash cards.", "excerpt": "I've built what I believe is currently the best free, online resource for learning Malayalam from scratch. It is based on a textbook and related materials made available by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) which are available under the Creative Commons License. It is a full University course with grammar lessons, vocabulary, and audio clips. I've used those to also build Anki decks for flash cards. A significan", "context": "", "use_case": "flash card decks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Malayalam: A University Course"}, {"id": 798965538, "item_id": 49935346, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49935346", "by": "mindcrime", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "don't worry, I still use actual Anki as well", "excerpt": "I love AI. OK, OK... maybe that's a overly broad statement. I do have concerns about the long-term implications of advancing AI, and I do mostly prefer not to engage with 100% AI generated content (Youtube videos that are fully AI generated, AI-written blog posts, etc). BUT. As far as using AI goes, I think it's great. And I'm not just talking about coding. In fact, coding is a small part of it for me. I mainly value", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Makes Me Sad"}, {"id": 796378992, "item_id": 49773687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49773687", "by": "cuvert", "date": "2026-09-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "All the sentences are saved in Anki, where I have now around 7000 german sentences", "excerpt": "You probably need to pair it with something you like. For example, I'm interested in food history and also home food in general, so I made a python script and made a frequency list using a few cooking ebooks in that language. After that I made sentences with most interesting/useful words. Now, before reading any book in a foreign language, I use that script, and make sentences with 10-20 words that I never used in se", "context": "learning German and Spanish", "use_case": "language learning flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Learning another language may be one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy"}, {"id": 793026674, "item_id": 49564167, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49564167", "by": "erikus", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my Anki setup", "excerpt": "I use MCP for a voice assistant as well. I got a Pebble Index 01 ring and it has support for custom MCP servers. I run one on Tailscale and it can interact with Home Assistant, my home issue tracker, my Anki setup, etc. I've come full circle on MCP. With agents with a shell tool they quickly became unnecessary but these days I've been coming up with more agentic use cases where I don't want to give the agent a shell,", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production?"}, {"id": 789085296, "item_id": 49317831, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49317831", "by": "andai", "date": "2026-08-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I noticed this in Anki. Some cards are effortless, some take a bit of practice", "excerpt": "Yeah this matches my experience too. I noticed this in Anki. Some cards are effortless, some take a bit of practice, and some I fail over and over again no matter how many times I practice them. Anki kept flagging my relatives birthdays as \"leeches!\" I found it kind of hilarious and infuriating that the software I used to remember things tells me \"this thing is hard for you to remember so you should just give up.\"", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition memorization", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Isn't Outthinking Mathematicians. It's Out-Remembering Them"}, {"id": 785503776, "item_id": 49093986, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49093986", "by": "zuzuleinen", "date": "2026-07-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As a daily user of Anki and Math Academy", "excerpt": "As a daily user of Anki and Math Academy, I'm very excited about how software can help us learn. Now, with AI, we can really build tools that were not possible before. I built for myself AlgoTutor[1], a CLI tool that teaches Go developers algorithmic skills and concurrency. The recent Understanding floating point[2] from Oz Nova is also a type of tutorial I want to see more often. [1] https://github.com/zuzuleinen/al", "context": "", "use_case": "learning", "switched_from": "", "story": "LearnVector \u2013 Andrew Ng's AI company building one\u2011to\u2011one learning experiences"}, {"id": 782108353, "item_id": 48881772, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48881772", "by": "mortsnort", "date": "2026-07-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the option to make an Anki flashcard", "excerpt": "I vibed this app a few weeks ago that lets you share highlighted text with it and it will provide you with an AI explanation of the text and the option to make an Anki flashcard. I find the instant AI explanation less disruptive to flow than pasting a question into Claude/ChatGPT. I'm currently using it to help me read philosophy books and it's been really helpful. I did a while back try to make an auto flash card cr", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781917489, "item_id": 48869843, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48869843", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-07-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Anki is indeed popular", "excerpt": "He makes some good points. Anki is indeed popular, so this is true too. I am using my own set of flashcards via self-written computer programs, mostly small scripts. The core is simple: one \"side\" has the question, the other \"side\" has the answer. I enhanced this on the commandline though, e. g. I can refer to local images (we can show this on the terminal, e. g. I use KDE konsole and then some different commandline ", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781907968, "item_id": 48869248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48869248", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits", "excerpt": "Most people commenting here seem to be focusing on memorization, which seems to miss the main point of the article. The big insight here is the chunking part, not the memorization bit. I use anki in a similar way to the author and it has been truly transformative to my learning and daily habits. And, like the author, anki has become part of my daily workflow even for things that it's not really specifically designed ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning, LaTeX notetaking, reminders", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781900592, "item_id": 48868787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48868787", "by": "mimo84", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My morning ritual is now coffee and anki.", "excerpt": "I find using flashcards very stimulating, however to reach this status it took me quite some time and some trial and error. So if you're new at using flashcards don't quit just yet! Keep using them. My morning ritual is now coffee and anki. Like the author said, understanding the card you're writing in your deck is fundamental. In my case, I would add, this is even true of when you add language cards. For example, I ", "context": "", "use_case": "language, Emacs commands, shell commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781854864, "item_id": 48865929, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865929", "by": "blovescoffee", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used a lot of Anki for spanish on top of classes. I'd say (anecdotally) it can bump you up a half to full letter in the A-C system", "excerpt": "I used a lot of Anki for spanish on top of classes. I'd say (anecdotally) it can bump you up a half to full letter in the A-C system depending on where you start. I learned far more living in Mexico though. You really need to talk to real humans to learn another language. If you don't, you can have a decent rating in A-C system but not actually converse that well.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Spanish", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781842800, "item_id": 48865175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48865175", "by": "pferde", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day.", "excerpt": "I have the exact opposite experience with Anki. I use it to memorize vocabulary of a language I'm learning, a language completely different to other languages I know, and my retention before and after I started using Anki is night and day. Frankly, I was floored once I realized how much faster I was learning, and how easily I can recall even words I last practiced or used months ago. I make and maintain my own cards/", "context": "", "use_case": "language vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781836000, "item_id": 48864750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864750", "by": "merryocha", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I got an idea to make an Anki flashcard collection consisting of all the words I've needed to look up while reading.", "excerpt": "When I was a kid I used flashcards to memorize the multiplication tables up to 12 and it allowed me to do very rapid mental math from that point on, and I still can to this day. It was useful for math quizzes and tests in school but it's also useful for life in general. Going up to 16 might be even better. I use the Livio English Dictionary to look up words when I read on my tablet and I noticed one day that it keeps", "context": "", "use_case": "vocabulary flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781834608, "item_id": 48864663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864663", "by": "potro", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "That was fun and quite effective as far as I can tell.", "excerpt": "It doesn't but it also will not create a different sentence to you to practice a word. I tried this (use sentences instead of words), it sucks: you spend more time per card, but you learn less efficient, as you learn not just a word but all the hints coming from the same sentence. I wrote my own program 2 years ago, that generates new sentence on each review using AI (at that time I used Anki as scheduler). That was ", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcard scheduling", "switched_from": "Anki", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781828160, "item_id": 48864260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864260", "by": "etrvic", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used anki for learning japanese", "excerpt": "I used anki for learning japanese, and what I noticed while is that, at least for me the act of reviewing flashcards became a burden itself. It was not fun nor pleasant. I\u2019d go back to using Anki if i\u2019d know how to solve this.", "context": "", "use_case": "learning Japanese", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781824688, "item_id": 48864043, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864043", "by": "rsanek", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I let the AI add it directly to Anki via AnkiConnect.", "excerpt": "> Some people also use LLMs to generate flashcards. And of course, the result will be those impersonal, mediocre cards. > I won\u2019t say LLMs are useless for this. But from my trials, I get about 1 card that\u2019s useful to me out of 10, and even that 1 card still needs rewriting. I don't know the specifics of how the author tried to do so, but from what I've seen the majority of attempts are, let me drop a chapter of a tex", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781824560, "item_id": 48864035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864035", "by": "wisemanwillhear", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "first with the Mnemosyne Project and later switching to Anki", "excerpt": "I'm glad the article acknowledges that flashcards are just one small part of learning. When I first got into spaced repetition, first with the Mnemosyne Project and later switching to Anki, I discovered that the efficiency I imagined was partially illusory. * Memorizing things often takes much more time than learning things naturally as you use them because it takes extra time out of your day. * I often lacked the as", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "Mnemosyne Project", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 781800464, "item_id": 48862529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862529", "by": "deviation", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a godsend for me.", "excerpt": "I use Anki to learn French, Chess openings/tactics/techniques, to unscramble letters for scrabble, for Pub Trivia... The options are kind of limitless. As a mid-30s guy who has well passed the neuroplasticity of his teen years, it's a godsend for me. To echo the author's thoughts though, I can't prove empirically that I learn more effectively using Anki (or spaced repetition) than other methods... Only anecdotally. I", "context": "mid-30s learner", "use_case": "French, chess, trivia", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to Flashcards"}, {"id": 778779905, "item_id": 48673744, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48673744", "by": "hiAndrewQuinn", "date": "2026-06-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "turn a YouTube URL I want to learn into a stack of Anki flashcards", "excerpt": "Very nice work. I'm going for a different thing, but my audio2anki tool [1] is about as streamlined as I could make it to turn a YouTube URL I want to learn into a stack of Anki flashcards, purely locally. [1]: https://github.com/hiAndrewQuinn/audio2anki", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Turn native language audio into flashcards and shadowing practice"}, {"id": 778775856, "item_id": 48673491, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48673491", "by": "3stacks", "date": "2026-06-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "sentence mining into Anki", "excerpt": "This is awesome! I\u2019ll be lurking for new data sources. I\u2019m working on a self-hosted language app more focused around cloze and sentence mining into Anki. I love seeing more stuff happening in this space", "context": "building a self-hosted language app", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Turn native language audio into flashcards and shadowing practice"}, {"id": 778608705, "item_id": 48663044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48663044", "by": "meristohm", "date": "2026-06-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "learn stuff with Anki", "excerpt": "Long-time de-Googled Pixel user here: while it's not for most of the people I know, for whom the barrier to install LineageOS / GrapheneOS / etc on their Android pocket computer is as yet too high, advertisement-company Google's nonsense can be uninstalled. It helps that I use my less-smart phone much less than back when these things were a novelty. Nice to be able to call and text, snap photos, take notes, visit som", "context": "Long-time de-Googled Pixel user", "use_case": "learning with flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "White House app auto-downloads to government phones, can't be uninstalled"}, {"id": 778450929, "item_id": 48653183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653183", "by": "amm_real", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "there are plenty of Anki extensions that make use of the tech for card creation", "excerpt": "I'm not aware of anything that outright replaces the Anki-style DB/SRS with an LLM or agentic workflow, and I'm not sure that would be a good idea, either. Even study/knowledge apps built from the ground up during the LLM era (like RemNote (https://www.remnote.com/) use an Anki-style SRS AFAIK. But maybe RemNote is what you're after. Since you're asking about LLMs, there are plenty of Anki extensions that make use of", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Any AI native Anki alternatives?"}, {"id": 776278097, "item_id": 48517381, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48517381", "by": "3stacks", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I also wanted something that tightly integrated with Anki", "excerpt": "To blow off steam I'm working on a self-hosted language learning app, primarily for Afrikaans, but soon expanding into German and Spanish down the line. I was sick of paying for Lingq and Clozemaster and resources for learning Afrikaans online are very sparse. I also wanted something that tightly integrated with Anki: https://github.com/heuwels/lector/ It's a lot of fun", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On?"}, {"id": 772061107, "item_id": 48253819, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48253819", "by": "komali2", "date": "2026-05-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "for writing practice I just grabbed a \"top 5k most common characters\" deck online", "excerpt": "Yeah np, I go into the writing and journaling here https://blog.calebjay.com/posts/in-defense-of-pen-and-paper/ And more detail about the daily reflection activity here: https://blog.calebjay.com/posts/my-new-life-stack/#journal However I'm back on emacs lol, but basically I still do the same flow in emacs that I was doing in trilium. Dotfile: https://github.com/komali2/Configs/blob/master/emacs/.spacemacs Anki I hav", "context": "", "use_case": "character writing practice", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's time to talk about my writerdeck"}, {"id": 769399201, "item_id": 48087450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48087450", "by": "tootyskooty", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using Anki for 10+ years and love it", "excerpt": "I'm working on Repple (https://repple.sh)! It's a modern spaced repetition x incremental reading/PDF library app with a few (tasteful!) QOL AI features. I've been using Anki for 10+ years and love it but always wanted something with a cleaner UX and a reader view. The recent Anki ownership change pushed me to finally make something, and it's seeing some traction :) Right now I'm focusing on getting the reading and no", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 768621184, "item_id": 48038824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038824", "by": "leephillips", "date": "2026-05-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Make flashcards (I use Anki) with facts that you want to keep in active memory.", "excerpt": "You are more fortunate than you can possibly understand right now, because you\u2019re asking yourself these critical questions at the perfect time. Almost no one worries about these things until it\u2019s too late; but because you are worrying about them now, you will have a richer life. I got my B.A. in 1980. Life is full of regrets for everyone, but some of the things I regret the most are skills and knowledge that I allowe", "context": "physicist", "use_case": "flashcards for knowledge retention", "switched_from": "", "story": "Do I just forget everything I've learned?"}, {"id": 766422112, "item_id": 47901382, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47901382", "by": "msteffen", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve maintained an Anki deck about facts relevant to my job", "excerpt": "A lot of this is about knowledge debt if I\u2019m reading it correctly (people not knowing things that they should know, or knowing the wrong things). In my last few jobs, I\u2019ve maintained an Anki deck about facts relevant to my job (who certain people are, how certain systems work, details of the programming languages we use, etc.) I\u2019ve started kind of a funny rule, which is that when I make a change now, I can use Claude", "context": "", "use_case": "retaining job knowledge", "switched_from": "", "story": "Do I belong in tech anymore?"}, {"id": 763507665, "item_id": 47719229, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47719229", "by": "lobati", "date": "2026-04-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "unnecessary extra steps to move onto the next card in tools like Anki", "excerpt": "I'm building a flash card learning tool. I was frustrated with the slowness and complexity of other solutions. Animations and loaders with tools like Duolingo, and unnecessary extra steps to move onto the next card in tools like Anki. If you give it a try I'd love to hear your feedback. https://flash.boon.gl", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?"}, {"id": 758081297, "item_id": 47380081, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47380081", "by": "keiferski", "date": "2026-03-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "to add to Anki", "excerpt": "Fortunately these days I have a very patient interlocutor named ChatGPT blessed with an infinite tolerance for half-baked questions and a soothing lack of judgmentality. I know it\u2019s popular to say AI is overhyped or not actually useful, but I think one area where it\u2019s unquestionably a massive improvement is in asking stupid questions. I ask ChatGPT so many questions that I\u2019ve started looking for ways to automatically", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition of Q&A", "switched_from": "", "story": "In Praise of Stupid Questions"}, {"id": 757947104, "item_id": 47371694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47371694", "by": "vunderba", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "These days the new hotness is FSRS [1] which Anki uses.", "excerpt": "Nice article but small note: >You might be thinking \"If spaced repetition is so effective, why isn't it more popular?\" I might have thought that 30 years ago - but I can't remember the last time I used a flashcard app (phone, Desktop, etc) that didn't include SRS as the default algorithm. These days the new hotness is FSRS [1] which Anki uses. [1] - https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/srs-benchmark?tab=readme-o", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spaced Repetition Algorithm: A Three\u2010Day Journey from Novice to Expert"}, {"id": 757096481, "item_id": 47318530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47318530", "by": "habitmaxer", "date": "2026-03-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I make quick Anki cards from the Opus reading sessions so I don't forget plot bits.", "excerpt": "I use Claude Opus to rip thru books. It points out the fluff paragraphs so I skip them. Finished stuff I prob never would've touched: Slaughterhouse Five, The Three-Body Problem. I make quick Anki cards from the Opus reading sessions so I don't forget plot bits. I try to get Opus to quiz me on the sections it told me to focus on reading.", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards for book recall", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?"}, {"id": 753768992, "item_id": 47110562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47110562", "by": "ipnon", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "cramming these with Anki. You can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful than 100 hours of Duolingo.", "excerpt": "It\u2019s true that 70% of a language is about ~100-300 words. In linguistics this is called the \u201ccore sight set\u201d. If you\u2019re in a pinch traveling I recommend asking an AI for the 300 most frequent word core sight set and cramming these with Anki. You can get gist with about 10 hours of study and be much more useful than 100 hours of Duolingo. With the core sight set and a generous amount of loan words and gesticulation yo", "context": "", "use_case": "memorizing core vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "What's the best way to learn a new language?"}, {"id": 750055169, "item_id": 46878448, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46878448", "by": "talolard", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used DallE and Anki to teach my son to read.", "excerpt": "I used DallE and Anki to teach my son to read. I'm not sure the HN crowd will be wowed by old tech, but this post leaves techs to the agents, and deals with the emotional aspects of learning I learned. Yes, I wrote the clickbaity title with AI, but the rest of the post by hand.", "context": "parent", "use_case": "teaching a child to read", "switched_from": "", "story": "The AI-Powered 10-Minute Habit That Taught My Kid to Read"}, {"id": 749981328, "item_id": 46873833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873833", "by": "jsLavaGoat", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it extensively in my teaching.", "excerpt": "I have peer-reviewed research on the efficacy of SRS in second-language acquisition and this should be everywhere for everyone and the fact that it isn't is both a scandal and an opportunity for learners who do use it to leverage that advantage. I use it extensively in my teaching. The problem is deploying Anki on locked down networks can be difficult so I've built alternatives and hacks to let you deploy decks and s", "context": "language teacher with research on SRS", "use_case": "spaced repetition for language teaching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub"}, {"id": 749853200, "item_id": 46865825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46865825", "by": "krick", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "All what I care about when using Anki is what's on the 2 sides of a Card", "excerpt": "I feel like there's a lot of confusion, so not sure if anyone can clear up mine, but I'm really struggling to see a significance of this. Obviously, like all ignorant people do, I am going to oversimplify things here. But still, to me, the \"platonic idea\" of Anki seems a dead simple thing. All what I care about when using Anki is what's on the 2 sides of a Card, a question + answer, which can only be some visual imag", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub"}, {"id": 749844512, "item_id": 46865282, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46865282", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love anki.", "excerpt": "I love anki. But upon reading this I think it's high time I exported all my notes in simple text format, just in case. Maybe also try Fernando Borretti's flashcard app I saw (and dismissed) recently here", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub"}, {"id": 749820128, "item_id": 46863758, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46863758", "by": "pityJuke", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As someone who has used Anki for a decade, a thank you to dae for everything.", "excerpt": "As someone who has used Anki for a decade, a thank you to dae for everything. Best of luck in your future endeavours. With that out of the way, some thoughts: - Anki is in a really good position to work around enshitification. The app, at least to me, is \"complete\" - the only additional features that might pique my curiosity is a different scheduler (at the moment, they're integrating a newer one, although I don't fo", "context": "Anki user for a decade", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub"}, {"id": 747135376, "item_id": 46695961, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46695961", "by": "asukachikaru", "date": "2026-01-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "did spanish vocabulary anki sessions", "excerpt": "I tried many tricks (pomodoro, meditation, atom habit, you name it) to fight lack of discipline. TLDR: non really worked, to the point that I\u2019ve accepted that it\u2019s part of my character. The one that kind of worked, at least for a while, was external reward. I set point for each task or habit I want to achieve, and the longer the streak goes the more point I earn. Point can be used as currency for rewards. I monitored", "context": "", "use_case": "Spanish vocabulary flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Treating anxiety as a bug in legacy code (engineering approach)"}, {"id": 746505216, "item_id": 46656576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656576", "by": "rsanek", "date": "2026-01-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anki: $25 on iOS, free for Android", "excerpt": "Anki: $25 on iOS, free for Android https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387 140W Anker charger: like an Apple laptop charger, but with 4 ports instead of one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFCH3C4W Nu-Salt: for those of us trying to avoid sodium, but still wanting to add salt to food https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MVJTL81 Mineral sunscreen stick: very portable, no mess https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}, {"id": 746453424, "item_id": 46653339, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46653339", "by": "sambapa", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anki, free for pc and android, cheap for iphones", "excerpt": "Sleep: - wax earplugs - buckwheat pillow - a pillow that goes between my knees (I'm a side sleeper) Above combo has made 6 hour sleep feel like 8 hours and 8 hours feel like I can go the rest of my life without sleep in the morning Fitness: - gymnastic rings: ultraportable and ultrascalable (from arthretic grandma level to olympic athlete level) workout. I have two pairs and I'm thinking about buying another one. Fun", "context": "", "use_case": "flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?"}, {"id": 733912257, "item_id": 45869516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869516", "by": "ChadNauseam", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anki is great for memorizing words", "excerpt": "I'm working on https://yap.town - an SRS based language learning app. I would say it combines the best parts of Duolingo and Anki. Anki is great for memorizing words, but you don't see the words in the context of novel sentences. Duolingo is great for exposure to new sentences, but it's oriented around \"lessons\" and SRS is an afterthought. (Duolingo is also not designed for people serious about learning a language IM", "context": "", "use_case": "memorizing vocabulary", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)"}, {"id": 732704080, "item_id": 45794005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794005", "by": "thomascountz", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself", "excerpt": "I'm curious about the effect of \"hand writing\" a card for spaced repetition. It sure feels like it helps me learn more effectively when I write high-quality cards myself, but n=1 in this case. Even when I use an LLM to help, I have never find the cards to be useful by default\u2014same goes for trying to use other's decks. That said, what I'd really love is a better card writing UI. If I could simply edit the table when i", "context": "", "use_case": "spaced repetition flashcards", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Anki-LLM \u2013 Bulk process and generate Anki flashcards with LLMs"}]}