The best apps to remember what you read

1. PrismoBest overall: writes the questions, schedules every review
2. ReadwiseBest for Kindle highlighters
3. RemNoteBest for students with PDFs and textbooks
4. AnkiBest free option if you write your own cards
5. RecallBest for articles, videos and podcasts
6. KernBest for books you finished without notes
7. Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM)Best free way to quiz yourself on documents
8. ChatGPTThe do-it-yourself route

How we judged them

Most "remember what you read" lists mix reading trackers, summary apps and note apps. I kept only apps that help you remember, and judged them on what memory research says works. Two techniques stand out in the evidence: testing yourself instead of rereading, and spacing those tests out over days and weeks. So for each app I asked four questions:

1. Does it make you recall, or just show you things again? Seeing a highlight again feels like remembering. Answering a question is remembering.
2. Does it bring each idea back on a schedule set by your answers? The ideas you miss should return sooner, the ones you know later.
3. Who does the work? Writing good flashcards takes time, and it's the step most people quit on.
4. Does it work for how you actually read? Kindle, paper books, audiobooks, podcasts, articles, courses.

Facts about each app come from its own website, help pages and app store listings, checked on October 14, 2026, with links below. I use Prismo every day, since I build it, and I tried ChatGPT myself on a reading note; for the others I relied on their documentation, and I say so where it matters. I left out reading trackers like Goodreads and StoryGraph, and summary apps like Blinkist, because they don't test you on what you read.

The comparison table

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Prices change; follow each app's link below for the current numbers. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.

1. Prismo: the best app to remember what you read

Best for anyone who wants to remember what they read, watch and hear, without making flashcards.

Prismo is the app I make, and it's first because it's the only app here that turns every note you write into questions automatically and then schedules them by your answers. After a chapter, an episode or a conversation, you write or dictate a few lines in your own words. That's the only work you do. Prismo does the rest:

1. It keeps the ideas worth keeping. It pulls them out of your note and files them under topics, adding to what you already know instead of starting a new pile for every book.
2. It writes the questions. Five kinds: multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, short answer, and questions that connect two ideas. You never make a card.
3. It brings each idea back at the right time. Right answers wait longer, misses come back sooner, from a day up to several months, so a few minutes a day keeps everything you've learned.

Why that makes it the best overall: the two things memory research says keep ideas are recall and spacing. Most apps give you one of them, or both if you do the work yourself, writing cards or generating quizzes item by item. Prismo gives you both for everything you learn, from any source: books on paper or Kindle, audiobooks, podcasts, courses, even a conversation. And because you start by writing a few lines in your own words, every note is already a round of recall.

How Prismo works · Prismo vs Readwise · Prismo vs Anki

2. Readwise: best for Kindle highlighters

Best for people who highlight a lot on a Kindle or in Apple Books and want every highlight collected and brought back.

Readwise syncs highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Instapaper, podcasts through Snipd and others (24 import sources in all), and shows a handful again every day in its Daily Review, by email and in the app. Its Mastery feature turns a highlight into a question-and-answer or fill-in-the-blank card, but you write each card yourself, and you choose when to see each one again: soon, later or someday. The full plan includes Readwise Reader, a read-it-later app.

Choose it if your reading lives on a Kindle and you want every highlight collected and brought back, in the author's own words. Watch out for: seeing a highlight again is not the same as recalling it, and there's no free plan. Lite is $5.59 a month billed yearly; the full plan is $9.99 a month billed yearly or $12.99 monthly, with 50% off for students. Readwise pricing

Compared with Prismo: Readwise keeps the author's words in front of you; Prismo makes you recall the ideas, and writes the questions so you don't have to.

3. RemNote: best for students with PDFs and textbooks

Best for students who want their notes, PDFs and flashcards in one place, on any device.

RemNote is a note-taking app with flashcards and spaced repetition inside it. You can turn any line of your notes into a card, read and annotate PDFs, and use AI to generate cards from your notes or documents, which spends AI credits. Reviews are scheduled with SM-2 or FSRS, the two algorithms Anki also offers.

Choose it if you study from PDFs and textbooks, want notes and flashcards together, and want a free plan. Watch out for: it's a whole note-taking system with its own way of working, which is a lot if you only want to keep the ideas from a few books. The free plan includes 3 PDFs and 250 AI credits a month; Pro is $8 a month billed yearly ($96), Pro with AI $18 a month billed yearly ($216). RemNote pricing

Compared with Prismo: RemNote is a full study system you build and organize yourself; Prismo asks only for a few lines and does the organizing and the questions.

4. Anki: best free option if you write your own cards

Best for people who want complete control and don't mind making every card.

Anki is the reference flashcard app for spaced repetition, used by medical students and language learners for years. You write cards (or download shared decks), and Anki schedules each one from how well you answered, with SM-2 or the newer FSRS. It's free on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and the web; the iPhone app is a one-time $24.99.

Choose it if you need to memorize a lot of precise facts, want to tune every setting, or study mostly on a computer. Watch out for: the cards are the hard part. Turning a book's ideas into good questions takes real time for every chapter, and it's the step many readers give up on. Anki · Prismo vs Anki

Compared with Prismo: Same principle of spaced repetition, but in Anki you write every card. In Prismo you write a few lines and the questions are made for you.

5. Recall: best for articles, videos and podcasts

Best for people who learn mostly from the web and want an AI library of everything they've saved.

Recall (recall.it, formerly getrecall.ai) saves articles, YouTube videos, podcasts and PDFs, summarizes them, and links related items into a knowledge base you can chat with. On the paid plan, you can ask it to generate questions about any saved item, and it schedules them with spaced repetition. Not to be confused with "Recall: Read & Remember", a separate iPhone app that quizzes you on imported highlights.

Choose it if most of what you want to keep comes from articles and videos you save in a browser. Watch out for: the quizzes aren't in the free plan, questions are generated item by item when you ask, and there's no Kindle import. Plus is $10 a month billed yearly or $12 monthly. Recall pricing

Compared with Prismo: Recall shines with web content you save; Prismo works for anything you can put into words, including paper books, audiobooks and conversations, and quizzes you without being asked.

6. Kern: best for books you finished without notes

Best for iPhone users who read a lot and want zero setup.

Kern takes a different approach: you type the title of a book you've read, and it builds a deck of cards about the book's ideas, examples and claims, then brings them back in a short daily feed. You don't write anything. It's a new app, for iPhone only, with the first book free, then Kern Plus at $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year, or $1.99 to unlock a single book.

Choose it if you want no effort at all and read on paper or from the library. Watch out for: the cards come from the title, not from your reading, so they test the book's general ideas rather than what struck you, and the site doesn't say how they're made. Kern

Compared with Prismo: Kern quizzes you on the book in general; Prismo quizzes you on what you took from it, in your own words.

7. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM): best free way to quiz yourself on documents

Best for a one-off study project: a set of PDFs, articles or videos you need to understand this week.

Google's research notebook, called NotebookLM until July 2026, answers questions about the sources you upload, with citations, and can generate flashcards and quizzes from them. You can mark cards as got it or missed it and redo the ones you missed. The free tier is generous.

Choose it for studying a specific set of documents, for free. Watch out for: it doesn't schedule reviews, so nothing brings you back next week, and each notebook stands alone rather than building a library of what you've learned. Gemini Notebook

Compared with Prismo: Great for a one-off study session, but nothing brings you back next week. Prismo schedules every review.

8. ChatGPT: the do-it-yourself route

Best for a quick check right after you read, with tools you already have.

You can paste your notes into ChatGPT, or any AI chat, and ask it to quiz you. We tried it with a short note on the first chapter of Make It Stick. It asked one good, open question at a time ("Why can rereading a chapter make you feel like you've learned it, even when you might struggle to recall it later?"), which is excellent practice in the moment.

Watch out for: it doesn't keep a review schedule, so on its own it won't track what you got wrong and bring each idea back in three days, a week and a month. If you're disciplined, pair it with a calendar: our review schedule calculator gives you the dates.

Compared with Prismo: ChatGPT can quiz you once; Prismo keeps track of every answer and brings each idea back at the right time.

Also worth knowing

• Recall: Read & Remember (iPhone): imports Kindle and other highlights, asks you open questions about them and grades your explanation. Small and new.
• RememBook: quizzes on books you add, with Kindle and Readwise highlight import.
• Loxie: short daily questions from a ready-made library of popular books and topics.
• Glasp and Snipd: bring back highlights from the web and clips from podcasts, without quizzing you.
• Quizlet: study sets with AI help, built for classes more than for books you read for yourself.

Which one should you choose?

• You want to remember what you read, listen to and learn, with the least effort: Prismo. This is the right choice for most readers.
• You read on a Kindle and mainly want your highlights back: Readwise. Add Prismo for the ideas you want to actually remember.
• You're a student with PDFs, slides and textbooks: RemNote, or Anki if you'd rather write cards and pay nothing.
• You want no effort at all and use an iPhone: Kern.
• You learn mostly from articles and YouTube: Recall.
• You just want to test yourself once, now: Gemini Notebook or ChatGPT, for free.

Whatever you choose, the habit matters more than the app: after you read, close the book and try to say what it said. Our guide on how to remember what you read walks through the whole method, and our book quizzes let you see how much of a popular book you still remember.

More comparisons: the best spaced repetition apps · the best flashcard apps · Anki alternatives · Readwise alternatives

Changes to this page

• October 14, 2026: first version. All prices and features checked on the apps' own sites and store listings that day.