The best Knowt alternatives in 2026

Knowt is a free study site and phone app. You make flashcards and notes, import Quizlet sets in two clicks, and study with Learn, practice tests, spaced repetition and Match. Its help center says all of those are free on your own sets, with unlimited sets and notes.

The AI is where the free plan stops. Free gets one AI summary a month, shared between PDFs, videos, pictures, PowerPoints and recorded lectures. Ultra, at $24.99 a month or $149.99 a year with a 3-day trial on the yearly plan, makes them unlimited, removes the ads, and adds a podcast generator, a voice tutor and AP, SAT and ACT prep. Knowt runs on the web, iPhone and Android, with a Chrome extension. Its site lists no Mac app.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Every fact about another app comes from its own site, help center or App Store page, checked October 21, 2026. We didn't run tests.

• One AI summary a month isn't many when every lecture and every reading wants one.
• Ultra costs more a month than many study apps, and the yearly plan is paid up front.
• There's no Mac app, so on a laptop it's a browser tab.
• They'd rather their notes and recordings weren't kept in someone else's account.
• They want one tool for notes, cards and recorded classes, not three tabs.

From each app's own site or App Store page, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Tap Fn + ⌃, or click Record on Koi's dock, and pick In person.
2. Leave it running. Koi listens through your Mac's microphone and writes down what's said on your Mac as it goes.
3. Stop it at the end. The page asks whether to summarize it.
4. Say yes. The transcript's words go to Koi's AI, and the page gets a summary, the key points, flashcards and what the class was told to do.
5. Click the Study pill over the flashcards and rate each one Again, Hard, Good or Easy.

Say no, and nothing from the recording leaves your Mac: you keep the sound and the transcript. Ask your lecturer first, and check your school's rules: Koi doesn't announce itself to the room. The full walkthrough is in how to record a lecture on a Mac.

Not with an import: Koi has none, for Knowt or anything else. What you can do is copy terms and definitions into a spreadsheet as two columns and paste them into a /flashcards table on a Koi page, since Koi's tables take a spreadsheet pasted in. Your Knowt progress stays behind. For most people the easier path is to keep old sets where they are and let Koi make cards from this term's new material.

• Price: Knowt's cards and study modes are free. Koi is a paid plan, with no free tier and no student price.
• AI: Knowt Free makes one AI summary a month. Koi makes study notes whenever you ask, within your plan's Koi usage.
• Recording: Knowt's lecture recordings count toward that one summary on Free. Koi records as much as you like, on your Mac.
• Study modes: Knowt has Learn, practice tests, Match and spaced repetition. Koi has spaced repetition, a quiz on its study notes, and Study mode.
• Where your things are: Knowt keeps them in your account, on every device. Koi keeps them on one Mac.
• Beyond study: Koi is also dictation in any app, call recording, a calendar and documents. Knowt is for studying.

Ultra includes Kai, a voice tutor that works on your files. Koi's closest thing is Study mode. Turn it on in Settings, under Koi, or from the menu bar, tap Fn + ⌘, and ask about the problem on your screen. Instead of the answer, Koi circles where your working went wrong, asks what you'd try next and draws only the next step. Each thing you miss becomes a card on a page called “What I got wrong”.

It's a call with Koi, the assistant that sees your screen, so your voice and, unless you turn it off, a picture of your screen go to the AI provider while it lasts. See our guide to an AI tutor that sees your screen.

• Happy writing your own cards, and want it free? Stay on Knowt, or try Anki.
• Want the biggest pile of shared sets? Quizlet.
• Want notes and cards in a Mac app and on your phone? RemNote.
• Want a tutor to talk to on your phone? StudyFetch.
• Want streaks and leagues? Gizmo.
• Want every lecture and reading turned into notes and cards, on your Mac? Koi.

More on Koi's study tools, its notes and documents, or the plans. Comparing free options? See our Notion alternatives for students.