Skip to content

Free browser tools that respect your files — everything runs locally, nothing is uploaded.

PDF to Flashcards

Turn a PDF or pasted notes into cloze and question-and-answer flashcards, study them with SM-2 spaced repetition, and export straight to Anki. Free, no account, and everything stays in this browser.

Create cards

Drop a PDF here, or click to choose a file

Text is extracted on your device — scanned PDFs without a text layer cannot be read.

Used as the Anki tag (deck::Source title) on export.

How generation works

The text is split into sentences (abbreviations like e.g. and Fig. do not end a sentence). Definitional sentences — “Soil pH measures how acidic or alkaline a soil is” — become question-and-answer cards: What is soil pH?

Other sentences of six words or more get one cloze deletion each: a multiword capitalized term, a number or date, or a rare word is replaced with a blank. Identical fronts are dropped, and every card stays editable below.

Study grades run the classic SM-2 algorithm: ease starts at 2.5, failing a card resets it to relearning with a 1-day interval, and passes grow intervals 1 → 6 → previous × ease days.

Review cards (0 of 0 included)

No cards yet. Generate them from a PDF or your notes above, import a JSON backup below, or add a card by hand.

Study

Total

0

New

0

Learning

0

Due

0

Export & backup

The Anki CSV has three columns — front, back, and a deck::Source title tag. In Anki's import dialog choose Comma as the field separator and map the third column to tags.

The JSON backup stores every card plus its SM-2 scheduling state; importing a backup restores the cards into this browser (study progress resets to new).

Private by design: PDFs and notes are processed and saved only in this browser (IndexedDB) — nothing is uploaded to any server, and no account is required.

Quick Answer

A PDF-to-flashcards converter reads a document, picks out key terms and definitions, and turns them into study cards. Drop in a PDF or paste notes and this free tool extracts the text in your browser, generates editable cloze and question-and-answer cards, schedules them with the SM-2 spaced-repetition algorithm, and exports an Anki-ready CSV — no account, and nothing you upload leaves your device.

How It Works

1

Load text: drop a text-layer PDF (parsed in your browser), paste notes, or press Load sample

2

Generate: definitional sentences become Q&A cards, other sentences get one cloze blank each — duplicates dropped

3

Review: edit any front or back, add cards by hand, toggle or delete rows

4

Study: reveal each answer and grade Again / Hard / Good / Easy — SM-2 schedules the next review day

5

Export: download an Anki CSV with deck::title tags, plain CSV, or a JSON backup you can re-import

Key Facts

  • Extract text from PDFs in the browser via pdf.js — or paste notes directly
  • Definitional sentences become question-and-answer cards automatically
  • Cloze deletions pick multiword terms, numbers, dates, or rare words — one per sentence
  • Every card is editable: rewrite fronts and backs, add rows, exclude, or delete
  • Study sessions use classic SM-2 scheduling: ease 2.5 start, 1 → 6 → ×ease intervals
  • Sessions mix all due cards with up to 20 new cards (configurable)
  • Deck and study progress persist in this browser via IndexedDB
  • Export an Anki CSV (front, back, deck::title tags), plain CSV, or a JSON backup you can re-import
  • Free with no account, no card limits, and no uploads — 100% client-side

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the card generation work?

Text is split into sentences with an abbreviation-aware splitter (periods after e.g., i.e., vs., Fig., Jr. do not end a sentence). Definitional sentences like “Pedology is the study of soil” become “What is pedology?” cards. Every other sentence of six words or more gets a single cloze deletion: the generator prefers multiword capitalized terms, then numbers and dates, then rare words (ones that appear at most twice in the document). Identical card fronts are deduplicated, and you can edit or delete anything before studying.

Is this PDF to flashcards tool free?

Completely free and unlimited — no account, no daily card cap, no watermarks. Paid rivals gate this workflow behind subscriptions: PDF2Anki and RemNote both limit free-tier generation and charge monthly plans for bulk AI cards. This tool runs a deterministic generator in your browser instead, so there is nothing to meter.

Is my PDF or are my notes private?

Yes. The PDF is parsed locally with pdf.js inside your browser tab, card generation runs as plain client-side JavaScript, and the deck is saved only to this browser’s IndexedDB. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or sent to a server — you can even use the tool offline after the page loads.

How does the spaced repetition scheduling work?

Study grades run the classic SM-2 algorithm. Each card starts with ease 2.5. Grade Again (1) or Hard (2) resets the card to relearning: interval 1 day, repetitions zeroed, lapse count up. Grade Good (3) or Easy (4) grows the interval 1 day, then 6 days, then previous interval × ease. The ease factor itself moves by 0.1 − (5 − q) × (0.08 + (5 − q) × 0.02) on every answer, clamped between 1.3 and 2.8.

Can it read scanned PDFs?

No — like any text extractor, it needs a PDF with a selectable text layer. Scanned PDFs are images, and the tool tells you when no text was found so you can paste the notes instead. If you have a scan, run it through an OCR tool first, then bring the text back here as plain notes.

How do I get the cards into Anki?

Press “Anki CSV” to download a three-column file: front, back, and a deck::Source title tag. In Anki choose File → Import, set the field separator to Comma, map the third column to Tags, and the cards land in your collection. Plain CSV and a JSON backup (for moving a deck back into this tool) are one click away in the same section.