How to Use Anki: Complete Beginner's Guide (2026)

Anki is the most powerful flashcard app available, and it's free. It uses spaced repetition — an algorithm that shows you cards right before you'd forget them — to make studying dramatically more efficient. Medical students, language learners, law students, and engineers all use it to memorize massive amounts of information with less time and effort than traditional studying.

But Anki has a reputation for being confusing. The interface looks like it was designed in 2006 (because it was). The terminology is unfamiliar. The settings are overwhelming. Most people who try Anki either give up in the first week or use it so inefficiently that they don't see results.

This guide walks you through everything from installation to building a sustainable daily habit. By the end, you'll understand not just how to use Anki, but why it works and how to get the most out of it.

What Is Anki and Why Should You Care?

Anki is a free, open-source flashcard application built around one idea: you should study things right before you forget them. This concept is called spaced repetition, and it's one of the most well-supported findings in learning science.

Here's the problem with normal studying. You read a textbook chapter, highlight some things, maybe take notes. A week later, you've forgotten 80% of it. This isn't because you're bad at studying — it's how human memory works. Hermann Ebbinghaus documented this "forgetting curve" back in 1885, and modern research has confirmed it over and over.

Spaced repetition fights the forgetting curve by scheduling reviews at increasing intervals. You learn something today, review it tomorrow, then in 3 days, then a week, then a month. Each successful review pushes the next one further out. Over time, a fact that initially needed daily review only comes up every few months — but it stays in your memory.

Anki automates this entire process. You just open the app, answer the cards it shows you, and the algorithm handles the scheduling. The key insight: you don't decide what to study. Anki decides for you, and it's better at it than you are.

Who Uses Anki?

Medical students — The AnKing deck has become almost standard for USMLE prep. Most medical schools have Anki-specific study groups.
Language learners — Vocabulary acquisition is the perfect use case for spaced repetition. Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French — Anki handles them all.
Law students — Bar exam prep involves memorizing hundreds of rules and exceptions.
Engineers and scientists — Formulas, constants, procedures, and technical terminology.
Professional certification — CPA, CFA, NAPLEX, PANCE, NCLEX, and dozens more.
Anyone learning anything — Geography, history, music theory, programming concepts, trivia.

If you need to remember information reliably over time, Anki is probably the best tool for the job.

Step 1: Install Anki

Desktop (Required First)

Go to apps.ankiweb.net and download Anki for your operating system (Windows, Mac, or Linux). The desktop version is free and is where you'll do most of your card creation and deck management.

Install it like any other application. When you open it for the first time, you'll see a mostly empty window with a default deck. That's normal.

Important: Create a free AnkiWeb account at ankiweb.net. This is how you sync your cards between devices. Without it, your cards live only on one computer.

Mobile

AnkiDroid (Android) — Free on Google Play. Search "AnkiDroid" and install. Made by volunteers, completely free.
AnkiMobile (iOS) — $24.99 on the App Store. Yes, it costs money. This is one of the primary ways the Anki developer funds the project. It's worth it if you plan to review on your phone (which you should).

After installing the mobile app, sign in with your AnkiWeb account and sync. Your cards will appear on all your devices.

First Sync

On the desktop app, click the sync button (circular arrows in the top right) and sign into your AnkiWeb account. From now on, any changes you make on one device will sync to all others. Get in the habit of syncing before and after every study session.

Step 2: Understand the Core Concepts

Before you create any cards, you need to understand five things: decks, notes, cards, note types, and fields.

Decks

A deck is a collection of cards. Think of it like a folder. You might have a deck for "Biology 101" or "Spanish Vocabulary" or "Bar Exam."

You can nest decks using the :: separator. A deck named Medical School::Pathology::Cardiology creates a three-level hierarchy. The parent deck "Medical School" shows reviews from all subdecks.

Common mistake: Don't create too many decks. Having 50 small decks defeats the purpose of spaced repetition because you end up studying in artificial categories. Most experienced users have 1-3 main decks and use tags for organization instead.

Notes and Cards

This distinction trips up every beginner. A note is the information you enter. A card is what Anki shows you during review. One note can generate multiple cards.

For example, if you create a "Basic (and reversed card)" note with:

Front: "Mitochondria"
Back: "The powerhouse of the cell; produces ATP through oxidative phosphorylation"

Anki generates two cards: one showing the front and asking for the back, and one showing the back and asking for the front. You entered one note, but you review two cards.

Note Types

Note types are templates that define how your cards look and behave. The most common ones:

Basic — Front and back. One card per note.
Basic (and reversed card) — Same content, but generates a card in both directions.
Cloze — Fill-in-the-blank. You highlight parts of a sentence and Anki blanks them out. Each blank becomes its own card.

Cloze deletions are the most popular note type among experienced users because they force you to recall specific facts in context rather than matching a front to a back.

Fields

Fields are the containers within a note type. A Basic note has two fields: "Front" and "Back." A Cloze note has "Text" and "Extra." You can create custom note types with as many fields as you want — some medical students use note types with fields for the question, answer, extra context, a sketch, and a screenshot.

Step 3: Create Your First Cards

Basic Cards

Click "Add" in the main window (or press A)
Make sure "Basic" is selected as the note type and choose your deck
Type your question in the "Front" field
Type your answer in the "Back" field
Click "Add" to save

The card will appear in your deck, ready for review.

Tips for good basic cards:

Keep the front specific. "What is biology?" is too vague. "What organelle is responsible for ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation?" is testable.
Keep the back concise. One fact per card. If your answer is a paragraph, you're trying to learn too much at once.
Use the "Extra" field (if available) for additional context you want to see after answering but don't need to memorize.

Cloze Deletions

Cloze deletions are more powerful and faster to create once you get the hang of them.

Click "Add" and switch the note type to "Cloze"
Type a complete sentence or fact in the "Text" field
Highlight the part you want to blank out and click the [...] button (or press Ctrl+Shift+C / Cmd+Shift+C)
Anki wraps it in text syntax

Example: The mitochondria is responsible for ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation.

This generates two cards:

Card 1: "The [...] is responsible for ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation." (Answer: mitochondria)
Card 2: "The mitochondria is responsible for [...] via oxidative phosphorylation." (Answer: ATP production)

Cloze cards are great because they test recall in context. You're not just matching isolated Q&A pairs — you're filling in gaps in real sentences, which is closer to how you'll actually use the knowledge.

Image Occlusion

Image occlusion is essential for visual subjects like anatomy, diagrams, maps, and charts. It works like cloze deletion but for images — you cover parts of an image, and Anki asks you to identify what's hidden.

Click "Add" and select the "Image Occlusion" note type
Add your image
Use the rectangle tool to cover the parts you want to test
Each covered area becomes a separate card

This is built into Anki as of version 23.10. Previously you needed an add-on for this.

Step 4: Review Your Cards

This is where Anki does its work. Click on a deck to start reviewing.

The Review Process

Anki shows you the front of a card
Think of the answer (actually think — don't just wait and flip)
Click "Show Answer" (or press Space)
Compare your mental answer to what's shown
Rate how well you knew it

Rating Buttons

After revealing the answer, you'll see buttons (usually three or four):

Again — You got it wrong or had to think hard. The card resets and comes back soon.
Hard — You got it but it was a struggle. The interval increases slightly.
Good — You knew it with reasonable effort. The interval increases normally.
Easy — You knew it instantly without thinking. The interval jumps ahead significantly.

Most of the time, just press Good. The algorithm works best when you use Good for correct answers and Again for incorrect ones. Hard and Easy are edge cases.

The numbers above each button show when the card will appear next. "10m" means 10 minutes. "3d" means 3 days. "1.2mo" means about 36 days.

New Cards, Learning Cards, and Review Cards

Your daily session includes three types:

New cards (blue number) — Cards you haven't seen before. They start in the learning phase.
Learning cards (red/orange number) — Cards still in their initial learning steps (e.g., you saw them 10 minutes ago and they're due for a second look).
Review cards (green number) — Cards you've learned that are due for spaced review.

A typical session: you learn 20 new cards, review 80 previously-learned cards, and finish some learning cards from earlier in the session. As your collection grows, reviews will dominate your daily time.

Step 5: Configure Your Settings

Anki's default settings are mostly fine, but a few changes make a big difference.

Daily Limits

Go to the deck options (gear icon next to your deck name):

New cards/day: Start with 20. This is how many unseen cards Anki introduces daily. Going higher feels productive but leads to review overload within weeks. You can always increase later.
Maximum reviews/day: Set this to 9999. You want to see every due card — skipping reviews defeats the purpose of spaced repetition.

Learning Steps

Default learning steps are 1m 10m — you see a new card, then again in 1 minute, then again in 10 minutes, then it graduates to a review card. Many users add steps: 10m 1d or 15m 1h 1d to see new cards more times before they graduate.

FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler)

Anki now includes FSRS, a modern scheduling algorithm that's more accurate than the original SM-2. To enable it:

Go to deck options
Scroll to the "FSRS" section
Toggle it on
Click "Optimize" after you have at least 1,000 reviews

FSRS learns from your personal review history to predict when you'll forget each card. It's a significant improvement over the default algorithm, especially for long-term users. If you're starting fresh, you can enable it now and it'll work with default parameters until you have enough data to optimize.

Desired Retention

With FSRS enabled, you can set your desired retention rate (default: 0.9 or 90%). This means Anki aims to schedule reviews so you remember 90% of cards when they come up. Higher retention means more frequent reviews. Lower means fewer reviews but more forgotten cards. 90% is a good balance for most people. Medical students often use 85-90%.

Step 6: Use Tags for Organization

Tags are more flexible than decks for organizing content. A card can only be in one deck, but it can have unlimited tags.

To add tags, type them in the "Tags" field when creating a card. Use :: for hierarchies: Biology::CellBio::Organelles.

Why Tags Beat Decks for Organization

You can filter and study by tag across multiple decks using Custom Study or Filtered Decks
Tags don't affect scheduling (deck-based study can mess with the algorithm)
You can add multiple tags to one card: Lecture3, Exam1, Difficult
You can search for tags in the browser: tag:Biology::CellBio

Recommended approach: Put all your cards in one or two main decks. Use tags for topics, sources, difficulty, and exam relevance. Study from the main deck normally, and use filtered decks when you need to focus on a specific topic.

Step 7: Build the Daily Habit

The algorithm only works if you show up. Anki needs daily reviews to be effective. Here's how to make it stick.

The Non-Negotiable Rule

Do your reviews every day. Not most days. Every day. Weekends, holidays, vacations. If you skip a day, those reviews pile up and tomorrow is harder. Skip a week and you might face hundreds of overdue cards.

This sounds intense, but the daily time commitment is manageable. Most users spend 15-45 minutes per day once they've settled into a rhythm. The key is consistency over intensity.

Tips for Sticking With It

Review on your phone during dead time. Waiting in line, on the bus, between classes. AnkiDroid/AnkiMobile makes this easy.
Do reviews first thing in the morning. Don't let them hang over your head all day.
Don't add too many new cards. This is the #1 reason people burn out. 20 new cards/day creates 100+ daily reviews within a month. Start conservative.
Track your streak. Anki's stats page shows your review history. Seeing a long streak motivates you to keep going.
If you fall behind, don't panic. Use the "Set Due Date" feature to spread overdue cards across several days instead of facing them all at once.

What a Sustainable Routine Looks Like

Morning (5-10 min): Review due cards on your phone during breakfast or commute
After class/study session (10-15 min): Add new cards from what you just learned
Evening (5-10 min): Clear remaining reviews, sync before bed

Total: 20-35 minutes spread throughout the day. That's less time than most people spend on social media in a single sitting.

Step 8: Find and Use Shared Decks

You don't have to make every card yourself. AnkiWeb has thousands of shared decks created by other users.

How to Find Shared Decks

Go to ankiweb.net/shared/decks
Search for your subject
Download and import into Anki

Popular Shared Decks

Medical School: AnKing (Step 1 and Step 2, comprehensive, actively maintained)
Languages: Core 2K/6K for Japanese, frequency-based decks for most languages
General: Shared decks exist for almost every subject, exam, and certification

Should You Use Shared Decks or Make Your Own?

Both. Here's the nuance:

Shared decks save time and are often well-structured. They're great when the content is standardized (board exams, vocabulary lists, certifications).
Making your own cards forces you to engage with the material during creation, which aids learning. Your cards are also tailored to your understanding.
Best approach: Use a shared deck as your base, then supplement with your own cards for concepts that confuse you or aren't well-covered.

If you're studying from lecture slides or textbooks, tools like SlideToAnki can automatically generate flashcards from your materials, saving hours of manual card creation while still giving you cards tailored to your specific coursework.

Step 9: Use the Browser for Card Management

The Browser (press B in the main window) is where you manage your entire collection. It's intimidating at first but essential.

Key Browser Features

Search: Find cards by content, tag, deck, note type, or state. Examples:

- deck:Biology tag:Exam1 — Biology cards tagged for Exam 1

- is:due — All cards currently due for review

- added:7 — Cards added in the last 7 days

- rated:1:1 — Cards you got wrong today

Bulk operations: Select multiple cards to change decks, add tags, suspend, or delete
Edit cards: Click any card to modify its content
Suspend/Unsuspend: Temporarily remove cards from review without deleting them. Perfect for material you don't need yet.

Filtered Decks

Filtered decks let you pull cards from your collection based on a search query for focused study:

Tools → Create Filtered Deck
Enter a search query like tag:Chapter5 is:due
Study the filtered deck
Cards return to their original deck automatically

Use this for exam review, weak-area focus, or topic-specific cramming without disrupting your normal schedule.

Step 10: Track Your Progress

Anki includes detailed statistics. Press T or click "Stats" in the main window.

What to Look At

Reviews per day: Are you keeping up? A consistent graph means you're on track.
Card counts: How many cards are mature (interval > 21 days), young, or unseen?
Retention rate: What percentage of review cards do you get right? Aim for 85-92%. Below 80% means cards are too hard or you're not learning them well enough initially. Above 95% might mean you're reviewing too often.
Review time: How long are you spending daily? If it's creeping up, you might be adding too many new cards.

Benchmarks for New Users

Week 1: Getting comfortable with the interface, adding cards, doing reviews
Month 1: 200-600 cards in your collection, 15-30 minutes of daily reviews, retention around 80-85%
Month 3: 1,000+ cards, daily reviews feel automatic, retention stabilizing around 88-92%
Month 6: 2,000+ cards, reviewing feels effortless, retention consistently above 90%

Common Beginner Mistakes

Adding Too Many New Cards

The single biggest mistake. Twenty new cards per day creates 120+ daily reviews within six weeks. If you add 50 new cards per day, you'll be drowning in 300+ reviews by month two. Start low, increase gradually.

Making Cards Too Complex

Each card should test one thing. If your card has a paragraph-long answer, break it into multiple cards. The "minimum information principle" means atomizing knowledge into the smallest testable units.

Bad card: "Explain the Krebs cycle" (answer requires reciting 8 steps)

Good cards: Eight separate cards, each testing one step, one enzyme, or one product.

Not Doing Reviews Daily

Skipping "just one day" doubles tomorrow's load. Skipping three days might triple or quadruple it. The pile-up feels overwhelming, which leads to more skipping, which leads to quitting. Prevention is easier than recovery.

Giving Up Too Early

Anki feels clunky for the first week or two. That's normal. The interface isn't intuitive, the concepts are new, and you don't have enough cards yet to feel the magic of spaced repetition. Give it at least a month of consistent daily use before deciding it's not for you.

Using Too Many Decks

Having 20 small decks means switching contexts constantly and studying in artificial categories. Your brain doesn't organize knowledge that way. Use one or two main decks and organize with tags.

Anki Add-ons Worth Installing

Add-ons extend Anki's functionality. Go to Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons and paste the code from ankiweb.net/shared/addons.

Essential Add-ons

Review Heatmap — Visual calendar showing your daily review activity. Great for streak motivation.
Edit Field During Review — Click on a field during review to fix typos without opening the editor.
Advanced Browser — Adds useful columns and sorting options to the card browser.

Keep your add-on list short. Too many add-ons slow Anki down and create compatibility issues during updates.

Next Steps

You now know everything you need to start using Anki effectively. Here's your action plan:

Today: Install Anki, create your AnkiWeb account, and make 10-20 cards from material you're currently studying
This week: Review every day, add new cards after each study session, enable FSRS
This month: Refine your card-making technique, explore shared decks, get comfortable with the browser
Ongoing: Maintain your daily habit, periodically optimize FSRS, and adjust your daily new card limit based on your review load

Spaced repetition is one of the few study techniques with overwhelming scientific support. Anki puts that science in your hands for free. The only cost is consistency — show up every day, and the algorithm does the rest.