The 7 best study apps in 2026 (an honest comparison)

Search "best study apps" and you'll find 40 listicles written by people who haven't used a single app they recommend. Everything gets five stars, everything is "the best," and you end up knowing less than when you started.

This isn't that. We've used every tool on this list for weeks, not minutes. And we'll be upfront about who each one is for and who it isn't.

What you need depends on how you study, what you study, and how much time you have. There is no single perfect app.

What a study app should actually do

Before the list, the criteria. A useful study app should do at least three of these five things:

1. Cut your prep time — If the app takes as long as studying without it, it's adding overhead, not value.
2. Force you to think — Rereading notes isn't studying. The app needs to make you actively retrieve information.
3. Focus on what you don't know — No point reviewing what you've already mastered. The app should identify your weak spots.
4. Work with your material — Accept your notes, your PDFs, your textbook photos. Not just pre-made content.
5. Cost less than a textbook — Study tools at $30-50/month are hard to justify on a student budget.

1. Anki — The flashcard veteran

Best for: memorizing factual data (vocabulary, dates, legal articles, formulas).

Anki has been around since 2006 and remains the gold standard for spaced repetition. Its algorithm decides when to show you each card based on how well you remember it. Get it right, see it less. Get it wrong, see it more. Simple and effective.

Pros:

• Free on every platform except iOS ($24.99, one-time purchase).
• Extreme customization: intervals, fields, card format, tags, filters.
• Thousands of community-shared decks.
• Spaced repetition algorithm backed by 18 years of evidence.

Cons:

• The interface looks like 2006 because it is from 2006. The learning curve is real.
• You have to create your own cards or rely on community decks (which may contain errors).
• Flashcards only. Need tests, summaries, or planning? You'll need another tool.
• Configuring it properly takes time you could spend studying.

Price: Free (iOS: $24.99).

Verdict: If you're disciplined and your challenge is memorizing large volumes of factual data, Anki is still hard to beat. But if you need something that saves you prep time, Anki doesn't — it demands it.

2. Quizlet — Social flashcards made easy

Best for: high school students who want something quick and simple.

Quizlet is the user-friendly version of Anki. Clean interface, fast set creation, and a massive community with shared content. It also has game modes that make reviewing less tedious.

Pros:

• Intuitive interface, almost no learning curve.
• Millions of study sets created by other students.
• Learn mode with basic spaced repetition.
• Works seamlessly across web and mobile.

Cons:

• The free plan is increasingly limited (ads, locked features).
• Spaced repetition is basic compared to Anki.
• Shared content has no quality control — errors are common.
• For college and professional exams, you'll outgrow it quickly.

Price: Free with limits. Plus: $35.99/year.

Verdict: Great for getting started and for educational levels where the syllabus isn't too dense. For college and beyond, you'll want more.

3. Notion / Obsidian — Flexible organization

Best for: students who want a custom system for notes and planning.

These aren't study apps per se — they're note-taking tools you can turn into a study system. Notion is more visual and collaborative; Obsidian is local, Markdown-based, and gives you more control.

Pros:

• Total flexibility: calendars, databases, linked notes, templates.
• Notion has ready-made study planning templates.
• Obsidian works offline and your data stays local.
• Both have active communities with shared resources.

Cons:

• They don't generate study content — you do all the work.
• No native active recall or spaced repetition.
• Notion can slow down with large databases.
• Spending hours "designing your system" is procrastination disguised as productivity.

Price: Notion: free for personal use. Obsidian: free (Sync: $4/month).

Verdict: Excellent for organizing, dangerous if you confuse organizing with studying. They work as a complement, not as your main study tool.

4. Forest / Focus To-Do — Productivity and focus

Best for: students who get distracted by their phone and need time structure.

Forest gamifies concentration: you plant a virtual tree that grows while you study and dies if you open your phone. Focus To-Do combines a Pomodoro timer with task lists.

Pros:

• Forest is addictively simple — works as a psychological trick.
• Focus To-Do integrates Pomodoro + tasks in one app.
• Cheap and lightweight.
• Effectively reduces phone usage.

Cons:

• These aren't study tools, they're focus tools.
• They don't generate or organize content.
• The novelty effect wears off within weeks for many users.
• They measure time spent sitting, not what you've learned.

Price: Forest: $3.99 (one-time). Focus To-Do: free with pro at $2.99/month.

Verdict: Useful as a complement if distraction is your main problem. But four focused hours with the wrong method is still inefficient studying.

5. ChatGPT / Claude — AI as a conversational tutor

Best for: solving specific questions, getting alternative explanations, generating one-off practice questions.

Large language models like ChatGPT or Claude can explain concepts, generate practice questions, summarize texts, and act as an on-demand tutor.

Pros:

• Available 24/7 with instant responses.
• Explain complex concepts in different ways until you get it.
• Can generate practice questions on any topic.
• Useful for conceptual subjects (philosophy, law, history).

Cons:

• They hallucinate. They invent facts, citations, and dates with complete confidence. You need to verify.
• They don't know your syllabus or your exam — the questions they generate may not be relevant.
• No memory between sessions (or very limited).
• Pasting your syllabus every time is tedious and impractical.
• No progress tracking or weak spot identification.

Price: ChatGPT: free (Plus: $20/month). Claude: free (Pro: $20/month).

Verdict: Excellent as a supplement for resolving doubts, but they don't replace a structured study tool. The biggest risk is trusting answers that sound right but aren't.

6. NotebookLM — AI grounded in your documents

Best for: exploring and summarizing long documents interactively.

Google's NotebookLM lets you upload documents and ask questions about them. Unlike ChatGPT, responses are anchored to your sources, with citations.

Pros:

• Answers based on your documents, not general knowledge.
• Citations let you verify every claim.
• Auto-generates summaries, timelines, and FAQs.
• Free tier available.

Cons:

• Doesn't generate real practice exams (multiple choice, essays, etc.).
• No spaced repetition system or progress tracking.
• It's an exploration tool, not a complete study system.
• NotebookLM Plus pricing is steep ($249.99/year).

Price: Free. Plus: $249.99/year.

Verdict: Very useful as a first step for understanding new material. But to prepare for an exam, you need to practice, not just read and ask.

7. ExamFlow — From notes to exams with AI

Best for: college students and professional exam candidates who want to turn their material into active study tools.

ExamFlow starts from a different premise: instead of you creating study material, you upload your notes (PDF, Word, handwritten photos) and AI generates practice exams, summaries, flashcards, and mind maps tailored to your actual syllabus.

Pros:

• Accepts any format: PDF, Word, photos of handwritten notes.
• Generates multiple choice, essay, and practical case exams from your topics.
• Exams adapt to your mistakes: what you get wrong appears more often.
• Summaries in multiple styles (narrative, schematic, Q&A, legal).
• Flashcards with spaced repetition.
• Progress tracking by topic.

Cons:

• It's new — the community is smaller than Anki or Quizlet.
• Content quality depends on your notes (bad notes → mediocre output).
• Requires subscription after the free trial.
• Limited offline functionality.

Price: 2-week free trial. From €5.99/month (varies by education level).

Verdict: If your problem is having the material but not the time to turn it into study tools, ExamFlow solves exactly that. Not the best option if you want pre-made content — it works with yours.

Which one to choose based on your situation

What no app can do for you

An app won't make you sit down. It won't eliminate distractions from your environment. It won't make a boring syllabus exciting.

What a good tool can do is reduce the time between "I have the material" and "I'm actively practicing with it." That's what makes the difference: how much of your study time is truly active versus how much goes into preparing, organizing, and rereading.

Choose the tool that fits how you actually study, not the one with the most App Store stars. And if after two weeks you don't notice a difference, switch. The best study app is the one you actually use.