Getting Started with Anki

calendar Jun 22, 2026 · 11 min read

This is part two of my Using AI and Anki to Make Better Revision Flashcards series. In part one, I looked at why flashcards are useful. This article is about Anki: what it is, how the main pieces fit together, and how to use it without getting lost in all the options.

Anki is powerful, but it can feel a bit odd at first. Some of the terminology is not immediately obvious, and the relationship between the desktop app, AnkiWeb, and the mobile apps can be confusing.

The good news is that you do not need to understand everything on day one. You only need enough to create a deck, add some cards, review them, and sync them to your phone if you want to use Anki away from your computer.

What is Anki?

Anki is a flashcard app.

Like physical flashcards, it shows you a prompt, asks you to remember the answer, and then lets you check whether you were right.

The extra thing Anki adds is scheduling. It tries to show you each card again at the right time. Cards you find difficult come back sooner. Cards you know well come back later.

This is called spaced repetition.

The idea is that you do not review every card every day. Instead, Anki keeps track of what you need to review and when. That makes it useful when you are revising over weeks or months, especially if you are building up a lot of cards.

Anki, AnkiWeb, and the mobile apps

One of the first confusing things about Anki is that there are a few different parts with similar names.

The main pieces are:

  • Anki Desktop: the main app for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • AnkiWeb: the online service used for syncing.
  • AnkiDroid: the Android app.
  • AnkiMobile: the official iPhone and iPad app.

For most people, the easiest way to work is:

  1. Create and organise cards in the desktop app.
  2. Sync them using AnkiWeb.
  3. Review them on your phone or tablet.

You can create cards on a phone, but I would not start there. It is much easier to type, edit, copy and paste, and organise things on a computer.

I think of Anki Desktop as the place where I do the main work, and the mobile app as the place where I review cards when I have a few spare minutes.

AnkiWeb is important, but I would not think of it as the main app. It is mainly the service that keeps everything in sync between your devices.

Installing Anki

There are three parts to the setup:

  1. Install the Anki desktop application.
  2. Create an AnkiWeb account.
  3. Install the mobile app and sync your cards.

You do not have to do all of this at once. You can start with just the desktop application and add syncing later.

However, if you know you want to use Anki on more than one device, it is worth setting up AnkiWeb early. That way your cards and review progress can stay in sync from the start.

1. Installing the Anki desktop application

The safest place to get Anki is from the official Anki website.

I would install the desktop application first. That gives you the best place to create, edit, import, and organise your cards.

Anki Desktop is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Download the version for your operating system, install it, and open it.

Once it is installed, you can create your first deck and start adding cards straight away. You do not need a mobile app or an AnkiWeb account just to try Anki on one computer.

2. Creating an AnkiWeb account

AnkiWeb is the free online service that Anki uses to sync your cards between devices.

You can create an account at AnkiWeb.

Once you have created an account, sign in from the desktop application and sync your collection.

AnkiWeb can be used in a browser, but I would not think of it as the main way to use Anki. It is mainly there to keep your cards and review progress synchronised between the desktop app and your mobile devices.

The official AnkiWeb page describes it as a companion to the computer version of Anki, and recommends starting with the computer version if you have not used Anki before.

3. Installing and syncing to the mobile app

Once you have Anki working on your computer and have created an AnkiWeb account, you can install the mobile app.

There are two main mobile apps:

  • AnkiDroid for Android.
  • AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad.

The Anki manual describes Anki, AnkiWeb, AnkiMobile, and AnkiDroid as the official Anki ecosystem, and links to them from the official Anki site.

This is worth knowing because there are other apps with similar names. To avoid installing the wrong thing, start from the official Anki website and follow the mobile links from there.

Be aware that AnkiDroid is free, while the official iPhone and iPad app, AnkiMobile, is paid. That can surprise people, especially because Anki Desktop and AnkiWeb are free.

After installing the mobile app, sign in using the same AnkiWeb account you used on the desktop application, then sync.

The usual workflow is:

  1. Create and edit cards on your computer.
  2. Sync from Anki Desktop.
  3. Sync on your phone or tablet.
  4. Review your cards on the mobile app.

I would still do most card creation on the desktop application. The mobile app is very useful for reviewing cards whenever you have a few spare minutes, but a computer is much easier for typing, editing, importing, and organising.

The main Anki terms

Anki has a few terms that are worth understanding early.

The important ones are:

  • Decks
  • Notes
  • Cards
  • Fields
  • Card types
  • Tags

These sound more complicated than they are.

Decks

A deck is a collection of cards.

You might have a deck for a subject, an exam, a language, or a topic.

For example:

  • GCSE Biology
  • French Vocabulary
  • Driving Theory
  • Microsoft AZ-204

At the start, keep your deck structure simple. It is easy to spend too much time organising and not enough time actually revising.

A small number of clear decks is better than a complicated system you have to maintain.

Notes and cards

This is one of the bits that can confuse people.

In Anki, a note is the information you enter.

A card is what Anki shows you when you revise.

For a simple flashcard, one note usually creates one card.

For example, you might create a note with:

Front:

What is a prime number?

Back:

A number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself.

Anki then turns that note into a card. When you review it, Anki shows the front first, then reveals the back when you ask to see the answer.

For basic use, you do not need to worry too much about the distinction. Just remember that you enter notes, and Anki generates cards from them.

Later, this becomes useful because one note can create more than one card. For example, with language vocabulary, one note could create a card from English to French and another card from French to English.

But that is not something you need to use straight away.

Fields

Fields are the parts of a note.

For a basic card, the fields are usually:

  • Front
  • Back

The front is the question or prompt. The back is the answer.

Other note types can have more fields. For example, a language note might have:

  • Word
  • Meaning
  • Example sentence
  • Pronunciation

But again, you do not need to start with anything complicated. A basic front-and-back card is enough to begin.

Card types

A card type controls how a note is turned into a card.

For a basic note, the card type is simple: show the front first, then show the back.

Anki also has other card types, such as cloze deletion cards. A cloze card hides part of a sentence and asks you to remember the missing part.

For example:

The capital of France is [...].

That can be useful, but I would not start there unless you already know you need it.

For now, basic cards are enough.

Tags

Tags are labels you can add to notes.

They can help you find, filter, or organise cards later.

For example, you might tag cards with:

  • biology
  • definitions
  • difficult
  • exam-paper
  • chapter-3

Tags can be useful, but they can also become a distraction. When you are starting out, do not worry about creating the perfect tagging system.

It is better to make a few useful cards and start reviewing them.

Creating your first deck

To get started, create one simple deck.

Choose a name that describes what you are learning. For example:

GCSE Biology

or:

French Vocabulary

or:

Driving Theory

The exact name does not matter. The point is just to have somewhere to put your first cards.

Avoid creating lots of decks before you have added any cards. It feels productive, but it is usually just organising work that can wait.

Creating your first card

Once you have a deck, create a basic card.

A good first card should be small, clear, and easy to mark as right or wrong.

For example:

Front:

What is a prime number?

Back:

A number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself.

That is a useful flashcard because it tests one idea. The answer is not a single word, but it is still concise. There is not much room for waffle.

At this stage, do not worry about making perfect cards. You will get better at writing them as you use Anki.

A good rule of thumb is:

  • one card
  • one idea
  • one clear answer

If a card feels too big, split it into smaller cards.

Syncing your cards to your phone

Once you have created some cards on the desktop app, you can sync them using AnkiWeb.

The basic process is:

  1. Create an AnkiWeb account.
  2. Sign in from Anki Desktop.
  3. Sync your collection.
  4. Install the mobile app.
  5. Sign in to the same AnkiWeb account on your phone.
  6. Sync on the phone.

After that, your decks should appear on your mobile device.

This is useful because reviewing cards does not require much setup. You can do a few cards while waiting for something, sitting on the sofa, or having a spare five minutes.

I would still create and edit most cards on the desktop app. The phone is great for reviewing, but less pleasant for lots of typing and organising.

One important habit: sync before and after using Anki on different devices. That reduces the chance of conflicts where two devices have different versions of your collection.

Reviewing cards

Reviewing cards is the main point of Anki.

When a card is due, Anki shows you the front. You try to answer it from memory. Then you reveal the back and decide how well you knew it.

Anki then gives you buttons such as:

  • Again
  • Hard
  • Good
  • Easy

The exact buttons and timings can vary depending on your settings, but the idea is simple.

If you got it wrong, choose Again. Anki will show it again soon.

If you got it right but had to think hard, choose Hard.

If you got it right reasonably comfortably, choose Good.

If it was very easy, choose Easy.

You do not need to overthink this. Most of the time, Good is the normal answer for a card you remembered.

The important thing is to be honest. If you got the card wrong, mark it wrong. That is not a failure. It just tells Anki to bring the card back sooner.

A simple daily routine

Anki works best when you use it regularly.

That does not mean spending hours in it every day. A simple routine is enough:

  1. Study a topic.
  2. Add a few cards for the important points.
  3. Review the cards that are due.
  4. Repeat the next day.

The reviewing is the important bit. Creating lots of cards and never reviewing them is not very useful.

It is also worth starting small. Add a handful of cards and get used to the process. Once it feels natural, you can add more.

Try not to create hundreds of cards before doing any reviews. That can make Anki feel overwhelming before you have built the habit.

Things I would not worry about yet

Anki has a lot of features. You do not need most of them at the beginning.

I would not worry yet about:

  • custom card templates
  • add-ons
  • complicated deck hierarchies
  • advanced scheduling settings
  • perfect tags
  • importing large files
  • statistics
  • changing how the review algorithm works

Those things can be useful later, but they are not needed to get started.

At the beginning, the goal is simple:

  • create a deck
  • add some basic cards
  • review them honestly
  • sync to your phone if useful

That is enough.

Where this leads next

Once you understand the basics of Anki, the next challenge is creating good cards without spending forever doing it.

That is where AI can help.

In the next article, I will look at how to use AI to turn learning material into flashcards, how to avoid creating bad cards, and what makes a flashcard useful in the first place.