Flashcards With Spaced Repetition, Free, In a Link
The part of a flashcard app that actually works — showing you a card just before you forget it — is usually the part behind a subscription. In Recall it is the free part, and a whole deck fits inside a link you can text to a classmate.
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The problem
You already know how to study: write the cards, review them, repeat. The hard part is knowing when to repeat. Do it too often and you waste an evening on cards you know cold; leave it too long and the whole deck has drained away. Most flashcard apps solve this with a scheduling algorithm, then put that algorithm, your deck count, or both, behind a monthly fee — and ask you to make an account and upload your notes before you can begin.
How Recall (Flashcards) works
- Paste your list. Recall reads tabs, a pipe, an em or en dash, a spaced hyphen or an equals sign as the split between front and back, so most lists you already have become a deck as they are.
- Review a card and say how it went. A new card offers now, 1 day, 2 days or 4 days, so an easy card can leave for four days instead of coming back tomorrow like everything else.
- Come back when cards are due. Recall shows only what is ready, which on most days is a short stack rather than the whole deck.
- Share the deck as a link, or back it up to a file — both free, both without an account.
What you get
- Spaced repetition, in the free versionRecall uses SM-2, the scheduling algorithm most spaced repetition rests on, with unlimited decks and no card limit. It is not the upsell; it is the app.
- A gentler first weekPlain SM-2 answers 1 day to every passing grade on a new card. Recall splits that into now, 1 day, 2 days and 4 days, so a card you clearly know stops crowding tomorrow's review.
- Paste a list, get a deckTabs, pipes, em and en dashes, a spaced hyphen and equals signs all work as separators. A vocabulary list from a textbook or a spreadsheet column usually pastes in without editing.
- $1 once for exam weekPro studies several decks at once, checks answers you type out, plans backwards from an exam date, forecasts the next fourteen days and prints a paper study sheet. One dollar, for life.
Private by design
There is no account, no ads and nothing uploaded. Decks live in the browser on the device where you made them, and a backup file goes where you put it. A shared deck travels inside the link itself, after the # — the part of a URL a browser keeps to itself and does not send to a server. The trade-off is that the link carries the whole deck, so a few hundred cards makes a very long link; small and medium decks share cleanly, large ones are better sent as a backup file.
Free vs Pro
What's new
v1.1.0 · 2026-09-25
- The home screen now says how many cards are due today and shows your day streak — free
- Daily reminder: pick a time and Recall makes a calendar file (.ics) on your device; your own calendar nudges you every day — free
- Import in seconds: paste two columns from a spreadsheet, a CSV file or a Quizlet export
- Share a “7 days in a row” image with your study group
- Counts and review intervals read naturally in all 15 languages (real plurals, Arabic included); the free Progress panel now shows cards due today and your streak
FAQ
Is the spaced repetition really free?
Yes. Unlimited decks, the full SM-2 scheduling, deck sharing by link and backup or restore are all in the free version, with no account. Pro is $1 once and adds exam-week tools: studying several decks together, typed answers that get checked, an exam date that plans backwards, a fourteen-day forecast and a printable study sheet.
How does Recall remind me to review every day?
Tap Daily reminder, pick a time and Recall makes a small calendar file (.ics) right on your device. Open it once and your phone or computer calendar reminds you at that time every day. There is no server and no push account: the reminder lives in your own calendar, and importing the file again simply replaces the old one. It is free; Pro also adds your exam dates to the same file with an alert the day before.
Can I bring my Quizlet sets or a spreadsheet into Recall?
Yes. In Quizlet use Export and copy the text, or copy two columns from Excel or Google Sheets, or pick a .csv file. Paste it into Import CSV / Quizlet, and Recall detects tabs, commas or semicolons (or you choose), keeps commas inside quoted answers and can skip a header row. Everything is read on your device; nothing is uploaded.
Will the schedule guarantee I remember the material?
No. The intervals are a rule of thumb about forgetting, not a promise about your memory. Recall decides when a card is worth seeing again; how well it sticks still depends on the cards you write and the reviews you show up for.
Can I study the same deck on my phone and my laptop?
You can study the deck on both, but the progress does not sync. Each browser keeps its own schedule, so the two devices drift apart. Pick one device for a deck you are working through, or move a backup file across and accept that the newer schedule replaces the older one.
Why is a shared link so long?
Because the deck is inside it. There is no server holding your cards, so everything the recipient needs has to travel in the URL. A twenty-card deck gives a link that pastes into a chat fine; a two-hundred-card deck gives a link long enough that some apps will wrap or cut it, and a backup file is the better way to send it.