The best AI app to turn lecture slides and PDFs into flashcards and quizzes is Studyboost. Upload your PowerPoint slides, PDFs, Word documents or EPUB textbooks, and Studyboost turns them into flashcards with spaced repetition, scored quizzes and practice exams. Studyboost Pro costs $10 a month or $90 a year (that is $7.50 a month), and every new account starts with a 3-day free trial of Pro. What sets it apart is one workspace: your sources, an AI chat whose answers cite your sources, your flashcards, quizzes and practice exams all share the same context.
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Which AI apps turn lecture slides and PDFs into flashcards and quizzes?
Plenty of apps can make flashcards from pasted text. Far fewer handle a 60-slide lecture deck, a textbook chapter and a recorded lecture in the same place, then build both flashcards and quizzes from all of it. Here is how the main options compare.
| Tool | Best for | Free option | Paid price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studyboost | Slides, PDFs, docs and lectures turned into flashcards, quizzes and practice exams in one workspace | 3-day free trial of Pro | $10/mo or $90/yr |
| Knowt | Free AI flashcards and practice from notes | Yes | Ultra $24.99/mo or $149.99/yr |
| Quizlet | A huge library of shared study sets | Yes | Plus $9.99/mo or $44.99/yr |
| StudyFetch | AI study sets with a built-in tutor | Yes, limits unpublished | Premium $19.99/mo or $96/yr |
| Anki | Free, fully customizable spaced repetition | Yes (desktop, web, Android) | AnkiMobile for iOS $24.99 one-time |
| NotebookLM | Free explanations grounded in your sources | Yes, 50 sources per notebook | Google AI Plus $4.99/mo, AI Pro $19.99/mo |
| RemNote | Notes and flashcards in one outline | Yes | Pro $10/mo, Pro with AI $20/mo |
Why is Studyboost the best app for turning slides and PDFs into study material?
Studyboost is built around the files students actually get from their courses. You do not need to copy text out of a slide deck or convert anything first.
It reads the formats your course uses
Studyboost accepts:
- PDF for textbooks, readings and exported lecture notes
- PowerPoint (.pptx) for lecture slides
- Word (.docx) for handouts and your own notes
- EPUB for digital textbooks
- Markdown and plain text for typed notes
- YouTube videos and web pages for recorded lectures and online readings
- Audio uploads (WebM, MP4, MPEG and WAV, up to 100 MB) for lecture recordings
That means one course can live in one project: the slides from week three, the textbook chapter they came from and the recording of the lecture itself.
It makes flashcards, quizzes and practice exams from the same sources
From those materials, Studyboost generates:
- Flashcards with spaced repetition. Reviews are scheduled with FSRS, a modern spaced repetition algorithm, so cards come back right before you are likely to forget them.
- Quizzes with scores and history. Every attempt is scored and saved, so you can see whether you are improving on a topic.
- Practice exams. Multiple choice exams and progressive exams that get gradually harder, with optional focus topics when you only want to drill one part of the course.
- Notes and summaries when you want a condensed version of a long deck before you start drilling.
Everything shares the same context
This is the part most apps miss. In Studyboost, the AI study agent, your flashcards and your quizzes all work from the same uploaded sources. If a quiz question confuses you, ask the AI chat about it in the same workspace. The agent reads your material and its answers cite the exact passages they come from, so you can check the slide or page yourself. No new chat, no re-uploading, no scrolling back through tabs to find an earlier explanation.
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How do the other flashcard and quiz apps compare?
Each of these tools is genuinely good at something. The right choice depends on what you need most.
Knowt
Knowt is one of the most popular AI flashcard tools with students, and it has a free tier. It is a good fit if you mostly want flashcards and practice from your notes and you are happy to stay on the free plan. Its paid Ultra plan costs $24.99 a month or $149.99 a year, which is more than double Studyboost Pro. See the full Knowt vs Studyboost comparison.
Quizlet
Quizlet's biggest strength is its library. For many intro courses, someone has already made a study set you can use for free. Quizlet Plus costs $9.99 a month or $44.99 a year. It is a strong choice for memorizing shared sets, less so when your exam is built on your own professor's slides.
StudyFetch
StudyFetch turns uploaded materials into study sets and pairs them with an AI tutor. It has a free tier with unpublished limits, and Premium costs $19.99 a month or $96 a year. If you like its tutor style, it is a reasonable option, but it costs twice as much as Studyboost per month.
Anki
Anki is free on desktop, web and Android, and it is the most customizable flashcard app there is. Medical students and language learners swear by it for good reason. The trade-off is that Anki does not read your slides for you. You either write cards by hand or wire up add-ons and other AI tools. AnkiMobile on iOS is a one-time $24.99. Compare it directly in Anki vs Studyboost.
NotebookLM
Google's NotebookLM (now also called Gemini Notebook) is free and excellent at explaining your sources, with up to 50 sources per notebook. It is a great reading companion. Paid tiers come through Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month or AI Pro at $19.99 a month. If you want a long-running flashcard deck with spaced repetition reviews alongside your sources, a dedicated study workspace fits better.
RemNote
RemNote combines outline-style notes with flashcards and has a free plan. Pro costs $10 a month, and Pro with AI costs $20 a month or $216 a year. It suits students who want to write structured notes and build cards inside them.
How do you turn a lecture deck into flashcards and a quiz in Studyboost?
The workflow takes a few minutes per lecture.
Step 1: Gather your materials
Collect the files for one course or one exam:
- Lecture slides as PowerPoint or PDF
- Textbook chapters as PDF or EPUB
- Handouts and your own notes
- Links to recorded lectures on YouTube
Step 2: Upload them to one project
Add everything to a single Studyboost project. Keeping a course together is what lets the flashcards, quizzes and AI chat share context.
Step 3: Generate flashcards and a quiz
Ask for flashcards from a deck or chapter, then generate a quiz from the same material. Review the cards and keep the ones that match what your professor emphasizes. For tips on what makes a strong card, read how to make effective flashcards.
Step 4: Review on schedule
Study your flashcards when Studyboost schedules them. Spaced repetition only works if you show up for the reviews, so short daily sessions beat one long weekend session. If you want the science behind it, see what is spaced repetition.
Step 5: Test yourself before the exam
A week out, switch to practice exams. Start with a progressive exam to warm up, then set focus topics for the areas where your quiz scores are lowest.
What should you look for in an AI flashcard and quiz generator?
Before you pay for any tool, check five things.
- Does it accept your files as they are? If your professor shares PowerPoint decks, you want .pptx support, not a workaround.
- Does it make quizzes as well as flashcards? Flashcards build recall of facts. Quizzes and practice exams test whether you can apply them.
- Does it schedule reviews? Without spaced repetition, a big deck turns into cramming.
- Can you check where an answer came from? Answers that cite your sources let you verify them against the slide or page.
- Is the price fair for a student budget? Many AI study apps charge around $20 a month or more.
Studyboost covers all five in a single Pro plan.
Is a paid AI flashcard app worth it compared with free tools?
Free tools are a good place to start. Anki is free and powerful. Quizlet and Knowt have free tiers. NotebookLM is free and strong at explaining sources.
A paid app earns its price when it saves you hours every week. If you spend a Sunday turning slides into cards by hand, or you jump between a PDF reader, a chatbot and a flashcard app, the cost is your time. Studyboost Pro at $10 a month puts uploads, AI chat with cited answers, spaced repetition flashcards, quizzes and practice exams in one place. That is half the monthly price of StudyFetch Premium and less than half of Knowt Ultra.
Frequently asked questions
Can Studyboost make flashcards from PowerPoint slides?
Yes. Studyboost accepts PowerPoint (.pptx) files directly, along with PDF, Word, EPUB, Markdown and plain text. Upload your lecture deck and generate flashcards and quizzes from it in the same workspace.
How much does Studyboost cost, and is there a free trial?
Studyboost has one plan, Pro, at $10 a month or $90 a year, which works out to $7.50 a month. New accounts start with a 3-day free trial of Pro. You can cancel any time, and access continues to the end of your billing period.
Does Studyboost use spaced repetition?
Yes. Studyboost schedules flashcard reviews with FSRS, a modern spaced repetition algorithm. Cards you find hard come back sooner, and cards you know well are spaced further apart.
Can I make practice exams from my lecture notes?
Yes. Studyboost generates practice exams from your uploaded materials, including multiple choice exams and progressive exams that get gradually harder. You can add focus topics to target specific parts of the course.
Can Studyboost use recorded lectures as well as slides?
Yes. You can add YouTube lecture videos, web pages and audio uploads (WebM, MP4, MPEG or WAV up to 100 MB) alongside your slides and PDFs. Everything in a project shares the same context.
Is Studyboost better than Anki for slides and PDFs?
They are good at different things. Anki is free and the most customizable flashcard app, but you make or import the cards yourself. Studyboost generates flashcards, quizzes and practice exams from your slides and PDFs and schedules reviews with spaced repetition, which saves the card-making time.
Ready to study from your own slides?
Stop copying slides into flashcards by hand. Upload your lecture decks and PDFs, and let Studyboost build the flashcards, quizzes and practice exams, with an AI chat that cites your sources whenever you get stuck.