How to Get Started with Anki: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Anki is a free, open-source flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help you memorize anything — vocabulary, medical terms, legal codes, math formulas — by showing you each card right before you’d forget it. You install it, import a deck of flashcards, and study for 10–20 minutes a day. The algorithm handles the rest. This guide walks you through every step, from installation to your first study session.

What Is Anki and How Does Spaced Repetition Work?

Anki is a flashcard program built around a scheduling algorithm called SM-2 (SuperMemo 2). Instead of showing cards in random order, SM-2 tracks your performance on every card and calculates the optimal time to show it again.

Here’s the core idea: when you learn something new, your memory of it decays over time. If you review it right before you forget, the memory strengthens and lasts longer. Each successful review pushes the next review further into the future — from one day, to three days, to a week, to a month, and eventually to intervals of several months.

The scheduling works like this:

• New card: You see it for the first time. If you get it right, it comes back in one day.
• Learning card: You got it right once or twice. Intervals are short — minutes to days.
• Review card: You’ve graduated from the learning phase. Intervals grow with each correct answer. A card you’ve consistently remembered might not appear again for 90 or 180 days.
• Lapsed card: You forgot a review card. It re-enters learning with short intervals until you relearn it.

The result is brutally efficient: you spend your time on cards you’re actually forgetting, not cards you already know. Research consistently shows that spaced repetition outperforms massed study (cramming) for long-term retention.

How Do I Install Anki?

Anki runs on every major platform. Installation is straightforward on all of them.

Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux)

1. Go to apps.ankiweb.net
2. Download the installer for your operating system
3. Run the installer and follow the prompts

The desktop app is completely free on all platforms. Windows users get an .exe installer. Mac users get a .dmg file. Linux users can download a packaged build or install via their distribution’s package manager.

Android

Download AnkiDroid from the Google Play Store. It’s free and open source, maintained by a separate team of volunteers. It syncs with the same AnkiWeb account as the desktop app.

iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Download AnkiMobile from the App Store. It costs $24.99 — this is the only paid version of Anki. The purchase directly supports the developer who builds and maintains the free desktop app and AnkiWeb sync service. If you study on iOS, it’s worth the price.

AnkiWeb (browser)

You can also study in your browser at ankiweb.net. It works in a pinch, but the desktop and mobile apps are better for daily use.

Syncing across devices: Create a free AnkiWeb account, then go to Tools → Preferences on desktop (or the sync button in mobile) to link your devices. Your cards, progress, and scheduling data stay in sync automatically.

How Do I Import a Flashcard Deck?

Once Anki is installed, importing a deck takes about ten seconds.

1. Download a .apkg file. This is Anki’s standard deck format. For example, you can download the Motamot Hungarian Starter 300 — a frequency-ranked deck of the 300 most useful Hungarian words with native audio and example sentences.
2. Double-click the file. Anki opens and imports the deck automatically. Alternatively, open Anki and go to File → Import, then select the .apkg file.
3. Start studying. The deck appears in your main collection. Click it, then click Study Now.

That’s it. You don’t need to create cards, configure settings, or understand the inner workings. A well-built deck handles the hard part — you just show up and study.

What Does an Anki Study Session Look Like?

A typical study session takes 10–20 minutes and follows a simple loop:

1. See the front of the card. This might be a word in your target language, a definition prompt, or a fill-in-the-blank sentence.
2. Think of the answer. Don’t skip this step — actively recalling the answer is what strengthens memory. Take a moment, commit to your answer.
3. Click “Show Answer” to reveal the back. Compare your answer to what’s shown.
4. Rate yourself. Anki presents rating buttons:
   • Again — You forgot it or got it wrong. The card re-enters the learning queue.
   • Hard — You remembered, but it was a struggle. The interval increases slightly.
   • Good — You knew it with moderate effort. The interval increases normally.
   • Easy — You knew it instantly with no hesitation. The interval increases significantly.

Most of the time, you’ll press Good. Use Again honestly when you blank — that’s how the algorithm learns what you actually need to review. Use Easy sparingly; pressing Good on cards you know well is fine and avoids pushing intervals so far out that you forget.

Each session is a mix of new cards (ones you haven’t seen yet), learning cards (recently introduced), and review cards (returning from previous sessions). Anki blends them together automatically.

How Many New Cards Should I Learn Per Day?

Start with 10–20 new cards per day. This range is sustainable for most people and produces steady, measurable progress without overwhelming your review queue.

Here’s the math: every new card you learn today comes back for review in the coming days and weeks. At a steady pace of 20 new cards per day with normal retention rates (~85–90%), your daily review count will settle at roughly 100–150 total reviews per day within a few weeks. That takes most people 15–25 minutes.

If you bump to 30 or 40 new cards daily, reviews can balloon to 200–300+ per day. That’s where most people burn out and quit.

The golden rule: if your review backlog feels overwhelming, pause new cards entirely and focus on clearing reviews. You can resume new cards once you’re caught up. Your review count matters more than your new-card count — reviews are where real retention happens.

To adjust the limit, click the gear icon next to your deck, go to Options, and change New cards/day under the New Cards tab.

What Are the Best Study Habits for Anki?

The difference between people who succeed with Anki and people who quit usually comes down to habits, not the app itself.

Study every single day

Spaced repetition only works with consistency. Ten minutes every day is dramatically more effective than an hour once a week. The algorithm schedules cards based on daily review — skipping days causes a backlog that compounds quickly.

Keep sessions short

You don’t need marathon study sessions. The research on memory consolidation supports short, focused sessions. If 15 minutes is all you have, that’s plenty. Your brain does the heavy lifting between sessions, not during them.

Trust the algorithm

When Anki shows you a card you think you already know, review it anyway. The algorithm is tracking your forgetting curve and has reasons for the timing. Don’t second-guess the schedule — your job is to show up and answer honestly.

Use pre-built decks from experts

Making your own cards can be valuable, but it’s slow and error-prone — especially for language learning, where you need native audio, accurate translations, and frequency-ranked vocabulary. A well-crafted deck like the Motamot Hungarian Starter 300 saves you dozens of hours of card creation and gives you content vetted by language professionals.

Don’t suspend cards just because they’re hard

It’s tempting to bury or suspend cards that keep tripping you up. Resist this. Those difficult cards are exactly the ones you need the most repetition on. Press Again, let them cycle through the learning queue, and trust that eventually they’ll stick. If a card genuinely doesn’t make sense, edit it — but don’t delete it because it’s hard.

Use dead time

Study on the bus, in a waiting room, during lunch. AnkiDroid and AnkiMobile sync with your desktop collection, so you can chip away at reviews wherever you are. Five minutes here and there throughout the day adds up to significant progress.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Anki really free?

Yes. The desktop app (Windows, Mac, Linux) is completely free and open source. AnkiDroid for Android is free. The only paid version is AnkiMobile for iOS, which costs $24.99. AnkiWeb, the browser-based study tool and sync server, is also free. There are no subscriptions, no premium tiers, and no ads.

Can I use Anki without making my own cards?

Absolutely. You can download pre-built decks and start studying immediately without creating a single card. Anki’s shared deck library has thousands of community decks, and companies like Motamot produce professionally built decks with native audio, example sentences, and frequency-ranked vocabulary. For most learners, using a high-quality pre-built deck is faster and more effective than building your own from scratch.

How long until I see results?

Most people notice a difference within two to three weeks of daily study. After one month at 15–20 new cards per day, you’ll have roughly 400–600 cards in your collection and will be recognizing vocabulary in context. After three months of consistent study, the improvement is unmistakable. The key variable is consistency — sporadic use produces sporadic results.

Does Anki work for non-Latin scripts?

Yes. Anki supports Unicode fully, so it works with Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese characters, Japanese kana and kanji, Korean hangul, Thai, Devanagari, and every other writing system. Many decks include both the native script and romanized transliterations. You can also add custom fonts to your card templates if you need a specific typeface for readability.

What’s the difference between Anki and Duolingo?

Duolingo is a gamified language-learning app that teaches grammar, vocabulary, and sentence construction through lessons and exercises. Anki is a flashcard tool focused purely on memorization through spaced repetition. They solve different problems:

• Duolingo introduces you to a language with structured lessons, stories, and grammar explanations. It’s great for absolute beginners who need guided instruction.
• Anki drills individual facts into long-term memory. It doesn’t teach grammar or sentence structure — it ensures you remember what you’ve learned.

Many serious language learners use both: Duolingo (or a textbook, tutor, or class) for comprehension and grammar, and Anki for locking vocabulary into memory. They’re complementary, not competing.

What Comes Next?

Once you’re comfortable with Anki’s daily rhythm, the single biggest factor in your progress is deck quality. A frequency-ranked deck with native audio, contextual example sentences, and clean formatting will accelerate your learning far beyond a basic word list.

Browse the Motamot Hungarian collection to see what a professionally built deck looks like — or grab the free Hungarian Starter 300 and experience the difference for yourself.