Best Free Quizlet Alternatives in 2026 (Including a Free Quizlet Learn Mode)

Is Quizlet free? Partly. A free Quizlet account still lets you make and flip flashcards and play activities like Match, with ads, but Learn and Test are Quizlet Plus features: free users get a limited number of Learn rounds and one practice test per set before the upgrade prompt.

Quick answer: The best free Quizlet alternative with a free Learn mode is Knowt, whose own Learn mode page says Learn is free for unlimited rounds and that you can import your Quizlet sets. Anki is the best fully free spaced-repetition app on desktop, Android, and the web. Scholarly (our product) is the pick when you want flashcards built from your own PDFs, lecture recordings, and notes instead of typed by hand: making, importing, and flipping decks is free and ad-free, while AI creation and ongoing adaptive study sit mostly on paid plans.

What is free on Scholarly

Every item below was checked against Scholarly's own plan configuration on October 20, 2026:

• Making flashcards by hand: building a blank deck is free and does not use your AI creation.
• Importing Quizlet and Anki decks: paste a Quizlet "Copy text" export or upload an Anki .apkg file. Importing is free and uses neither the AI creation nor the file upload.
• Flipping through your cards: free, with no cap on how often you review a deck this way.
• No ads on any plan, Free included.
• 1 lifetime AI creation: turn one source into flashcards (or a podcast, video lecture, or slides). It does not reset.
• 1 lifetime file upload, up to 8 MB; AI generation from a PDF reads the first 32 pages.
• Adaptive study mode and card quizzes: 5 answered questions in total on Free, on the first 10 cards of a deck, scheduled per card with an SM-2-style algorithm. Unlimited study-mode answers are a paid-plan feature.
• Practice exams: 1 completed attempt on Free.
• Sharing: share a deck with a link.
• Not free: exporting decks (Anki .apkg, PDF, or print) is a paid-plan feature.

So the honest summary: Scholarly's free plan is generous for building, importing, and flipping cards, and it lets you try AI generation and adaptive study once. If you want unlimited free Learn-style rounds, Knowt or Anki is the better free fit; Scholarly earns its place when the cards should come from your own material.

The best free Quizlet alternatives in 2026, by what you need

1. Knowt: best free replacement for Quizlet Learn. Its Learn mode page says Learn is free on all flashcard sets for unlimited rounds, alongside free practice test, spaced repetition, and Match modes, and Quizlet sets import with its Chrome extension or a manual import.
2. Anki: best fully free spaced-repetition app. Free on desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux), Android (AnkiDroid), and the free AnkiWeb sync service, with a configurable scheduler. You build the cards yourself.
3. Scholarly: best for turning your own PDFs, lectures, and notes into flashcards. The AI writes the deck from your source, and the same source can become a quiz, a cited chat, a podcast, or a video lecture. Used by 200,000+ learners; the free plan limits are listed above.

Each pick is broken down below, followed by a short migration path for your existing Quizlet sets.

How we checked these

Every limit in this guide was checked on October 20, 2026 against each vendor's own pages: Quizlet's Help Center, Knowt's Learn mode and plans pages, Anki's download page and manual, and Scholarly's plan configuration. Plans change, so each claim is dated and links to the source where it helps. Scholarly is our product, so weigh that pick against the criteria yourself; the limits listed for all three tools, Scholarly's included, are the real ones.

The criteria:

• Free study loop: whether adaptive study (the thing Quizlet Learn does) stays free, and for how long.
• Import friction: how fast an existing Quizlet set moves over.
• Card creation: whether you type every card or can build a deck from your own material.
• Ads and interruptions: whether the free study loop gets broken up by ads or upgrade prompts.

For a side-by-side breakdown, see the Quizlet alternative comparison and Scholarly vs Knowt. If you still study on Quizlet, the PDF to Quizlet converter builds an import-ready set from a document.

Is Quizlet Learn free?

Mostly no. Quizlet's Help Center says Learn is available to Quizlet Plus and Quizlet Plus for teachers subscribers, and that non-subscribers can study with Learn for free for a limited number of rounds per flashcard set. Test works the same way: non-subscribers get one free practice test per set.

Quizlet sells two student tiers: Quizlet Plus, which its Help Center describes as including monthly usage limits, and Quizlet Plus Unlimited. Current prices are on Quizlet's upgrade page.

One exception worth knowing: when a teacher adds a set to a Quizlet class they manage, students in that class get unlimited, ad-free Learn and Test on that class's sets, according to Quizlet's Help Center. If your teacher already runs a Quizlet class, that is the cheapest way to keep Learn.

What are Quizlet's free limits?

As of October 2026, per Quizlet's Help Center, a free Quizlet account gets you:

• Flashcards: create, flip, and share sets, free
• Activities like Match: free
• Learn: a limited number of free rounds per set, then Quizlet Plus
• Test: one free practice test per set, then Quizlet Plus
• Ads: Quizlet says it runs ads to keep the free version free; Plus subscribers do not see third-party ads
• Diagram sets: paid; Quizlet also lists Study Guides and Expert Solutions among its subscription features

A free Quizlet account is still useful for flipping through a pre-made set before a quiz. It is no longer the best free option if your workflow depends on adaptive study.

Why people switch to Scholarly

Students cramming for finals and professionals studying for a licensure exam or learning a stack of training documents run into the same problem: the material is in PDFs and recordings, not in a ready-made set.

1. Flashcards from your actual material

Scholarly is source-first. Upload a lecture PDF, a recording, a YouTube video, a website, or a photo of your notes, and turn it into editable flashcards grounded in that source. The PDF to Flashcards generator handles slide decks and textbook chapters, and the AI flashcard maker takes any source type. Because the cards come from the exact document you uploaded, they cover what your class or exam actually tests, not what a stranger's public set happened to include.

2. No ads

Scholarly's flashcard study has no ads on any plan, including Free.

3. Per-card spaced repetition

Scholarly schedules each card individually with an SM-2-style algorithm: cards you answer correctly come back later and later, and cards you miss come back sooner. On Free you can try it for 5 answered questions; unlimited adaptive study is part of the paid plans.

4. A tutor grounded in the same source

Scholarly's AI chat reads your study material and answers questions about it with citations back to the source. Miss a card on aerobic vs. anaerobic respiration? Ask for an example and the answer comes from the same lecture you're studying. Free accounts get a small lifetime chat allowance.

5. The same upload becomes more than cards

On Scholarly, the PDF or lecture you uploaded is a reusable source, not just a deck: it can become a narrated video lecture from the PDF (the AI video lecture generator does the same from notes, slides, or a topic), a study podcast for a commute, or a one-page cheat sheet. On Free, these draw on the same single lifetime AI creation as flashcards.

The three options in detail

Knowt: the closest clone of old free Quizlet. Knowt's Learn mode page says Learn mode is free on all flashcard sets for an unlimited number of rounds, with free practice test, spaced repetition, and Match modes, and lets you bring over Quizlet sets with its Chrome extension or a manual import. Its plans page lists an ad-free experience and its AI summarizers for PDFs, videos, and lecture recordings, plus its AI podcast generator, under the paid Ultra plan, so expect ads and fewer AI tools on free.

Best for: getting your existing Quizlet sets back with free, unlimited Learn-style study.

Anki: the fully free power tool. Per apps.ankiweb.net, the desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux), AnkiDroid for Android, and the AnkiWeb sync service are free; AnkiMobile for iOS is a paid app. Anki's manual describes both its legacy SM-2 scheduler and the newer FSRS scheduler as options, and there is a large ecosystem of shared decks. The trade-offs: a real learning curve, a dated interface, and no built-in AI card generation, so you type every card or rely on add-ons.

Best for: studying free forever with full control over scheduling, if you are willing to build your own cards.

Scholarly: the source-grounded study workspace. Best when your study material is PDFs, lectures, recordings, or videos and you want the deck written for you, with quizzes, cited chat, podcasts, and video lectures from the same source. Free covers building, importing, flipping, and sharing decks with no ads, plus one AI creation and five study-mode answers to try the rest. See pricing for paid plans.

Best for: turning your own PDFs, lectures, notes, and videos into flashcards and other study formats automatically.

Quizlet vs Anki in one paragraph

Quizlet is the easier start: a clean interface, a large public set library, and Match and flashcards on free, but Learn and Test are mostly paid. Anki is the opposite trade: fully free on desktop, Android, and the web, with a configurable scheduler, but a steeper learning curve and no built-in AI card writing. If you want a longer breakdown, see Quizlet vs Anki.

Migrating from Quizlet to Scholarly

Quizlet lets the creator of a set export its terms and definitions as text from the website. Sets you copied from another user can't be exported, and images don't come along.

1. On quizlet.com, open your set, select the more menu, then Export, then Copy text.
2. In Scholarly, open the create menu and choose Import from apps, then Quizlet.
3. Paste the text. Scholarly reads one card per line, with the term and definition separated by a tab.
4. Import. Your deck is created without using your AI creation or your file upload.

Coming from Anki? Choose Anki in the same menu and upload your .apkg file.

If you still have the original PDF a set was built from, you can instead upload it to the PDF to Flashcards generator and let Scholarly write a fresh deck from the source. On Free, that uses your one AI creation and your one file upload.

When Quizlet still makes sense

To be fair: if you only need a small set for a single quiz tomorrow, free Quizlet is fast, and its public set library is large. If your teacher runs a Quizlet class, students in that class get unlimited, ad-free Learn and Test on the class sets, so staying is the obvious choice. For anything longer, such as multi-week courses, licensure and certification prep, or studying from PDFs and lectures, a tool that builds the deck from your own material saves the typing.

What is the best free Quizlet alternative?

It depends on what you're replacing:

• Replacing Learn mode specifically, for free: Knowt, whose own page says Learn is free for unlimited rounds, with a Quizlet importer.
• Replacing Quizlet entirely with something fully free, and you'll make your own cards: Anki, free on desktop, Android, and the web.
• Replacing the hours spent typing cards: Scholarly, which writes the deck from your own PDFs, lectures, and notes, with free manual decks, imports, and ad-free flipping, and paid plans for ongoing AI creation and adaptive study.

More questions

Is there a free Quizlet alternative?

Yes. For a free Learn mode, Knowt says its Learn mode is free for unlimited rounds and it imports Quizlet sets. For a fully free make-your-own-cards app, Anki is free on desktop, Android, and the web. Scholarly is free for building, importing, flipping, and sharing decks with no ads, with one lifetime AI creation to turn a PDF or lecture into cards.

Which free Quizlet alternatives have a Learn mode?

Knowt's Learn mode is free for unlimited rounds, according to its own Learn mode page. Anki's scheduler is free with no round limits, though it works as card review rather than mixed question types. Scholarly's adaptive study mode offers 5 answered questions on Free, then needs a paid plan.

Is Quizlet still free in 2026?

Partly. A free Quizlet account still includes flashcards and activities like Match, with ads. Learn is a Quizlet Plus feature with a limited number of free rounds per set, and Test gives non-subscribers one free practice test per set. Students in a teacher's Quizlet class get unlimited, ad-free Learn and Test on that class's sets.

Can I import my existing Quizlet sets without retyping them?

Yes, if you created the set. Export it from quizlet.com with Copy text, then in Scholarly choose Import from apps, then Quizlet, and paste. Importing is free and does not use your AI creation. Knowt also imports Quizlet sets.

Can I make flashcards directly from a PDF or lecture?

Yes. Upload a slide deck, textbook chapter, lecture recording, YouTube video, or photo of your notes, and Scholarly turns it into editable cards grounded in that material. Quizlet's AI Study Guides can also make flashcards from uploaded or pasted course materials, with limited free access, according to its Help Center. On Free you get 1 lifetime AI creation and 1 lifetime upload, files up to 8 MB, and the first 32 pages of a PDF. Start with the PDF to Flashcards generator.

Does the free version of Scholarly include spaced repetition?

You can try it. Scholarly's study mode schedules each card with an SM-2-style algorithm, and Free includes 5 answered study-mode questions in total. Flipping through your decks stays free; unlimited adaptive study is a paid-plan feature.

Will I get locked into Scholarly if I switch?

Your cards stay viewable and editable on the free plan, and importing from Quizlet or Anki is free. Exporting decks out, to Anki .apkg, PDF, or print, is a paid-plan feature. If free export matters to you, factor that in; Anki, being local-first, is the strongest option on that point.

What websites are like Quizlet but free?

Knowt is the closest match to Quizlet, with a free Learn mode and a Quizlet importer. Anki (desktop, Android, and AnkiWeb) is fully free. Scholarly is free and ad-free for building, importing, and flipping decks, with one free AI creation to turn your own material into cards.

Conclusion

As of October 2026, Quizlet's free tier still covers flashcards and Match, with ads, while Learn and Test give free users only a limited taste before Quizlet Plus. The free alternatives are real: Knowt if you want unlimited Learn-style rounds and your old sets back, Anki if you want total control at zero cost, and Scholarly if you want the deck written from your own PDFs, lectures, and notes, with no ads on any plan.

Try Scholarly free and build your first deck from your next lecture PDF.