Recall is your calm second brain. Paste a link, PDF, markdown note, or code snippet — the FSRS algorithm schedules the perfect moment to see it again. Optional AI generates flashcards and grades your answers. Capture in under 10 seconds, review in under 30. The friction-free Anki alternative.
Paste a link, PDF URL, markdown note, or code snippet. Recall auto-detects the type, fetches an OpenGraph preview for links, extracts text from PDFs, and turns it into a reviewable card. PWA share target so anything on your phone is one tap away.
Keywords: save links to remember, PDF flashcards, markdown notes, code snippet memorization
The Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler is the modern algorithm that outperforms SuperMemo's SM-2. Recall persists your individual forgetting curve, so the next review lands exactly when you'd otherwise forget.
Keywords: FSRS algorithm, spaced repetition scheduler, optimal review timing, forgetting curve, Ebbinghaus
Flip, type, recall + reveal, or AI quiz. Keyboard-first: space to reveal, 1–4 to rate Again / Hard / Good / Easy. Interleave-by-tag boosts retention versus blocked practice.
Keywords: active recall, flashcards app, free flashcards, study app, interleaving practice
Bring your own Anthropic Claude API key. On save, Recall generates a one-line summary, 3-5 key concepts, and 3 flashcard Q&A. During review, AI quiz grades your typed answers and suggests a rating.
Keywords: AI flashcards, Claude flashcards, AI quiz generator, automatic flashcard creation
Daily 8am email digest via Resend and quiet web push (VAPID) — only when something is due. One-tap unsubscribe. GitHub-style heatmap, streak counter, 30-day load forecast.
Keywords: spaced repetition reminders, daily review digest, learning streak, study habit tracker
Runs on Vercel Hobby + Neon Postgres + Clerk + Resend. Every service is free at the tier we use. Your data, your keys, exportable to JSON and Anki. MIT licensed.
Keywords: self-hosted Anki alternative, free Anki alternative, open source flashcards, Next.js learning app
Hermann Ebbinghaus showed in 1885 that we forget about 50% of new information within an hour and ~80% within a week — unless we actively review it. Spaced repetition flips this: by scheduling reviews right before you would forget, every repetition costs less and lasts longer. FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) is the modern open algorithm that models your individual memory stability and difficulty per card and computes the next review interval that maximizes retention while minimizing time spent. Recall is built on the ts-fsrs reference implementation.
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that schedules each review at the moment you're about to forget the material. Done right, it converts short-term recognition into permanent recall with the minimum number of repetitions. Recall implements spaced repetition using FSRS, the most accurate open scheduler available today.
Anki is excellent but has friction: you have to format each card front/back, the desktop UI is dated, and modern sync requires a paid AnkiWeb account or self-hosting. Recall accepts any input (link, PDF, markdown, code) without forcing a card format, ships a clean PWA, uses FSRS instead of SM-2, optionally generates flashcards with Claude AI, and is fully self-hostable on free tiers.
Yes. Recall is open source (MIT) and the hosted reference deployment is free. All third-party services we depend on (Vercel Hobby, Neon Postgres, Clerk, Resend) have generous free tiers that Recall stays within by design.
FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) is a modern, open-source spaced repetition algorithm. It models your individual memory stability and difficulty per card and computes the next review interval that maximizes long-term retention while minimizing review time. It outperforms SuperMemo's SM-2 — the algorithm that classic Anki uses by default — in benchmarks.
Recall exports to a tab-separated format Anki Desktop imports natively (File → Import → Text). Anki → Recall import is on the roadmap. In the meantime, paste a list of URLs or notes in the Settings → Import box to bulk-add.
Only if you want AI summaries, AI-generated flashcards, or AI quiz grading. Provide your own Anthropic Claude key in Settings — it's encrypted with AES-256-GCM at rest and used only when you enable AI on an individual item. The rest of the app works perfectly without it.
The review queue is cached by a service worker, so once today's session is loaded you can keep reviewing on a flight or subway. Capture and stats require network.
Yes. All your items live in your own Postgres database. The app is open source so you can audit exactly what runs. Your Anthropic API key is encrypted at rest. If you want full ownership, self-host — the README has a 7-step Vercel deploy walkthrough.