Short answer first: RemNote and StudyFetch do the most with a PDF or a slide deck. Both draft cards you can edit and then schedule them for review. RemNote's free plan allows 5 AI card runs and files up to 8 MB; StudyFetch lets you pick the card mix and costs 19.99 US dollars a month in the US App Store. Gemini Notebook is the free option for a long chapter, reading up to 500,000 words per source, but it sets no review schedule. Anki generates nothing on its own.
The numbers in this comparison come from each vendor's pricing page, help articles, privacy policy or US App Store listing, all read on 25 September 2026. Where a company gives no figure for a limit, such as cards per document, the table marks it as not published. Nothing is taken from review sites, which often quote prices that have since changed.
What should a PDF to flashcards app do?
You have 40 slides from Tuesday or a 30-page chapter, and you want questions and answers without typing them. The generator is only half of the job. The other half is what happens to the cards next: whether you can fix a bad one, and whether they come back at the right time. For the method behind that, see spaced repetition.
Which files does it read?
Lecturers hand out PDF, PowerPoint and sometimes Word. An app that takes only PDF makes you export the deck first, and slide exports often lose the speaker notes. RemNote, Knowt, StudyFetch and Notibo take slides directly. Gemini Notebook takes Google Slides. Anki takes none of them.
How big a file, and how many cards?
A textbook chapter can pass 20 MB once images are in it. RemNote's free plan stops at 8 MB per file, Notibo's free plan at 50 pages and 20 MB. Card count matters too: an app that makes 10 cards from a 60-slide deck skips most of it, while one that makes 200 buries you.
Can you edit cards before you study them?
Generated cards are drafts. Some ask about a slide's title instead of its content, and some copy a sentence word for word. Quizlet's Smart Assist, RemNote and StudyFetch all say generated cards can be edited: Quizlet and StudyFetch add that you can add or delete them, RemNote that you can split or merge them. Gemini Notebook's help page mentions deleting a card, not rewriting one.
Does it schedule the cards afterwards?
A deck with no schedule turns into rereading. Anki and Notibo name SM-2, and RemNote's help centre names Anki SM-2 as its default with FSRS as a beta you switch on; StudyFetch describes spaced repetition without naming an algorithm, and Quizlet's runs on its website only. For turning your own notes into cards instead of a PDF, flashcards from notes covers the manual route.
Where does the file go?
Slides often carry a lecturer's unpublished material, and a thesis chapter may carry your own. Each privacy policy says where uploads are processed and whether they train models, and the answers differ more than the feature lists do. StudyFetch passes uploads to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and AWS models; Google says Gemini Notebook does not train on your sources unless you send feedback.
How do the apps compare?
The table sets each app against the criteria above. Prices are in the currency the vendor or its App Store listing showed. "Not published" means the vendor's own pages give no number.
| App | File types | Size or page cap | Cards per document | Edit before study | Scheduling | Free tier | Price | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RemNote | Text, PDF, PowerPoint | 8 MB free, 300 MB paid | Not published; 5 AI card runs on Free | Yes | SM-2 by default, FSRS in beta; exam dates | 250 AI credits a month, 3 annotated PDFs | US$96 a year (Pro), US$216 a year (Pro with AI) | MongoDB Atlas on AWS; country not named |
| StudyFetch | PDF, slides, notes | Not published | You choose per card type | Yes | Again, Hard, Good, Easy ratings | First set free, limits not published | US$19.99 a month or US$96.00 a year (US App Store) | May train its own models on uploads |
| Quizlet | Uploaded file; types not listed in the help centre | Not published | Not published | Yes, with Smart Assist | Yes, website only; algorithm not named | Limited access to Study Guides | US$9.99 or US$44.99 (US App Store) | Transferred to the US under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework |
| Knowt | PDF, images, video, PowerPoint, audio | Up to 5 files per upload | Not published | Not published | Spaced repetition mode; algorithm not named | Hand-made cards free; 1 AI summary a month | US$24.99 a month or US$149.99 a year (Ultra) | Mainly US data centres |
| Gemini Notebook | PDF, Google Docs and Slides, audio, web | 500,000 words or 200 MB per source | Fewer, standard or more | Delete only | None mentioned | Free to start | Paid plans not covered here | Not used for training unless you send feedback |
| Anki | Plain text import only | Not applicable | You write every card | Yes | SM-2 by default, FSRS optional | Free on computers and Android | US$24.99 once for AnkiMobile | Local, with optional AnkiWeb sync |
| Notibo | PDF, PPTX, DOCX | Free: 50 pages, 20 MB; Pro: 500 pages, 50 MB | Up to 10 on Free | No; the notes are editable | SM-2, Pro only | 14-day Pro trial, no card; then five documents a month | €9.99 a month or €88.99 a year | Stored in Frankfurt; US processors |
Two things stand out. Only StudyFetch and Gemini Notebook let you set the size of the deck before it is made. And Knowt, whose flashcards are free, allows one AI summary a month before Ultra, so "free" there mostly means cards you type.
What does Quizlet do with an uploaded PDF?
Quizlet has two routes. Its main site blocks most automated requests, so the product facts here come from the help centre and the App Store. The Study Guides article describes uploading or pasting course material and getting an outline plus a flashcard set. The Smart Assist article covers drafting cards from a file inside a new set.
- Free access is limited, with no number given. Study Guides are open to free users "with limited access", and unlimited for Quizlet Plus and Unlimited subscribers.
- Age and language rules apply. Study Guides work for people using Quizlet in English, French or German, and require you to be 18 in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and several other countries.
- Drafts can be fixed first. Smart Assist shows cards in a preview where you edit, delete or add before publishing.
- Spaced repetition runs on the website only. The spaced repetition article has you rate each card Repeat, Hard, Okay or Easy and sets the next return from that, and says the mode is currently available only on the Quizlet website, not in the apps.
- The price sits in the app store. The Quizlet App Store listing shows Quizlet Plus at US$9.99 and US$44.99 without naming the billing periods.
Quizlet's privacy policy, updated 15 May 2026, says that because Quizlet operates in the United States, personal data from the EEA, UK and Switzerland may be transferred there, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss counterparts. For a student in Denmark under 18, the age rule decides it before the price does.
Is Knowt free for PDF flashcards?
For typed cards, yes; for cards generated from a PDF, one AI summary a month, then Ultra. Knowt's AI PDF summarizer takes up to five files per upload, PDFs, images, videos, PowerPoints and audio, and returns notes, flashcards and practice tests. On the plans page, the PDF, video, image and PowerPoint summarizer is listed as an Ultra feature, and Knowt's free plan article sets the AI summarizers at one a month on Free, counting a PDF, image, video, PowerPoint or live recording as that one, with the study modes on your own sets free.
Ultra costs 24.99 US dollars a month, or 149.99 a year after a three-day trial. The free Basic plan keeps unlimited hand-made sets, live collaboration and the shared library. Knowt publishes no cap on pages per PDF and no number of cards per upload, so test a real chapter during the trial.
How does StudyFetch turn a PDF into cards?
StudyFetch gives you the most control over the deck itself. Its PDF to flashcards page describes three steps: upload a PDF, slides or notes, choose how many cards of each type, then rate cards as you study so the next review is set for you. One study set can hold several files.
The card types are the widest in this list: term and definition, multiple choice, fill in the blank, cloze deletion, image occlusion and audio. Cards can be edited after generation. The costs are the ones to weigh: Premium runs 19.99 US dollars a month in the US App Store, and the StudyFetch privacy policy says it may use uploads to train its own AI models.
Can RemNote make cards from a PDF on the free plan?
Yes, a few. RemNote is a notes app with flashcards built into the notes, and its PDF to cards page says every generated card stays editable: you can rewrite, split or merge cards and add exam dates so reviews are timed to the test. Its FSRS help article names Anki SM-2 as the default scheduler and FSRS v6 as a beta you switch on in Settings.
- The free plan allows 5 AI card runs. The RemNote pricing page lists "AI Cards from Text, PDF & PPTs" at 5 on Free, 50 on Pro and 1,000 on Pro with AI, alongside 250, 1,000 and 20,000 AI credits a month.
- Files are capped at 8 MB on Free. Paid plans take files up to 300 MB and 600 uploads a day, against 20 a day on Free.
- Pro is 96 US dollars a year; Pro with AI is 216. Only Pro with AI lists the Learn PDF tool, with AI flashcards, quizzes and summaries.
The free plan also limits annotated PDFs to three, and the AI cards row notes about 250 words per text-to-cards run. RemNote's help page on the privacy of your notes, updated 7 July 2026, says data is hosted in MongoDB Atlas on AWS, names no country, and says RemNote does not train AI models on the text of your notes.
Does Gemini Notebook make flashcards from a PDF?
It does, and it is the only free tool here that handles a whole textbook in one source. Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on 16 July 2026. Its FAQ sets the limit at 500,000 words per source or 200 MB for a local upload.
The flashcards help page explains the rest: open the Studio panel, choose Flashcards, and set the number to fewer, standard or more and the difficulty to easy, medium or hard. You can delete a card, shuffle the deck and download it as a CSV file. The page says nothing about a review schedule, so the cards come back when you open them, not when you are about to forget them.
Can Anki turn a PDF into flashcards?
No. Anki schedules cards well and makes none. The Anki download page offers the computer version free and AnkiDroid free on Android, and the AnkiMobile App Store listing prices the iPhone app at 24.99 US dollars.
- Imports are plain text. The importing manual lists text files with fields split by commas, semicolons or tabs, mapped to the note fields you choose. PDF is not an import format.
- Two schedulers, both named. The deck options manual calls FSRS an alternative to the legacy SM-2 algorithm, which remains the default until you switch.
A workable pairing is Gemini Notebook for the drafting, since it exports CSV, and Anki for the reviews.
Which app should you use for PDF flashcards?
Decide by what you will do with the deck in week six, not by how the first set looks.
If you want to shape the deck before it is made, StudyFetch lets you set the count per card type, and Gemini Notebook lets you pick fewer or more.
If your cards should live inside your notes, RemNote does that, but its free plan covers only a handful of PDFs.
If you already use Anki, keep it for review and draft the cards elsewhere, then import them as text.
If you are under 18 in Denmark or Germany, Quizlet's Study Guides are closed to you, so start with another tool.
If you want free generation and can live without a schedule, Gemini Notebook is the one.
For a recording rather than a document, the lecture flashcard comparison covers that side. Whichever tool you choose, run one real slide deck through its free tier or trial and check ten cards against the slides before paying for a year.
Where Notibo fits
Notibo reads PDF, PPTX and DOCX files and turns each into notes and flashcards. It is not a flashcard editor like Anki or RemNote; it writes the cards for you from the document, and from recorded lectures on Pro. The workflow from a document is covered step by step in PDF to notes and flashcards.
- Pro is free for 14 days, no card. The trial has Pro's limits: documents up to 500 pages and 50 MB, and cards that come back on an SM-2 schedule.
- Free after the trial: five documents a month, up to 10 cards each. A document can run to 50 pages and 20 MB. The free plan also includes 30 minutes of audio a month.
- Pro: 9.99 euro a month or 88.99 euro a year. Paying keeps the larger documents and the review schedule after the trial.
- Files are stored in Frankfurt. The AI notes run on US processors under standard contractual clauses, and Notibo does not train on your content.
Ten cards from a 40-slide deck is a sample, not a full deck, and the free plan has no review schedule. If you want to see what the cards look like before deciding, the flashcards page shows an example deck and how review works.