Quizlet to Anki: How to Export and Import Your Decks (and a Faster Alternative)

If you’re searching for quizlet to anki, you probably have one of two problems: Quizlet changed its pricing, or you want real spaced repetition instead of Quizlet’s match-and-memorize approach. This guide covers the actual export and import steps — and then gives you an honest answer about whether Anki is the right destination.

How to export from Quizlet

Quizlet lets you export any set you own as a plain text file. Here’s how:

1. Open the set you want to export

2. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top right corner

3. Select Export

4. Choose your separator settings: Tab between term and definition, New line between cards

5. Click Copy text or Download

You’ll get a plain text file (.txt) with one card per line, term and definition separated by a tab character. This is the format Anki can import directly.

Note on images: Quizlet images do not export with the text file. If your set has image-based cards, you’ll need to re-attach them manually in Anki after import. This is one of the more frustrating limitations of the Quizlet export system.

How to import into Anki

Once you have the exported text file:

1. Open Anki on desktop (the import feature is desktop-only — AnkiWeb and mobile don’t support direct imports)

2. Go to File → Import

3. Select your exported .txt file

4. In the import dialog, set:

• Type: Basic (or whatever note type matches your cards)

• Deck: Choose or create a target deck

• Fields separated by: Tab

• Map Field 1 → Front, Field 2 → Back

1. Click Import

For most sets this works cleanly. The main failure modes are: special characters that didn’t export correctly (fix by opening the txt in a text editor and checking for garbled characters), and multi-line definitions that break the card count (fix by removing hard line breaks inside definitions before import).

What you lose in the move

Before you commit, be clear on what doesn’t transfer:

• Study progress. Quizlet’s study history doesn’t export. You start fresh in Anki with no scheduling state.

• Images. As noted above, images require manual re-attachment.

• Shared sets. You can only export sets you own. Community sets require the original creator to export or you to copy the cards first.

• Audio. Text-to-speech audio generated by Quizlet does not export.

Is Anki actually the right move?

This is worth thinking through honestly. Most people leave Quizlet because of two things: the paywall and the lack of real spaced repetition. Anki solves both — it’s free and its spaced repetition (SM-2, or FSRS in recent versions) is genuinely excellent for long-term retention.

But Anki has real costs:

• iOS costs $24.99 one-time. If you study on iPhone, this is a real barrier.

• Card creation is manual. Anki has no built-in AI generation. Creating cards from PDFs, notes, or docs requires either manual entry or third-party add-ons that require setup.

• Add-on maintenance. Anki’s power comes from its add-on ecosystem, but add-ons break on version updates and require periodic maintenance.

• Sync is AnkiWeb, not Google/Apple. If you’re used to seamless sync, AnkiWeb requires an extra account and occasional sync conflicts.

If your main reason for leaving Quizlet is the spaced repetition and you study primarily on desktop, Anki is a strong choice. If you need AI card generation, budget iOS, or a lower-maintenance setup, the answer is less clear.

A faster alternative: import directly into Deckbase

If you want FSRS scheduling, AI-assisted card creation, and a free iOS app without Anki’s setup overhead, Deckbase accepts the same CSV and text file exports(opens in a new tab) that Anki does — so the export steps above work for Deckbase too.

The main differences from Anki:

• AI card generation is built in (paid plans) — no add-ons

• iOS app is free (no $24.99 fee)

• FSRS scheduling without add-on configuration

• Web + mobile sync without a separate AnkiWeb account

If you’re evaluating both, see the Anki alternatives comparison(opens in a new tab) for a feature-by-feature breakdown, and the Deckbase vs Anki page(opens in a new tab) for the direct comparison.

Which path should you take?

Use this decision tree:

• Study primarily on desktop, want free everything, happy to configure add-ons: Quizlet → Anki is the right move. Follow the steps above.

• Study on iPhone, want AI generation, want less setup: Quizlet → Deckbase. Same export steps, different import destination.

• Main pain point is Quizlet’s price, not the study method: Evaluate free tiers on Anki and Deckbase before committing to a full migration.

Whatever you choose, export one small set first and verify the import looks correct before moving your full library. Migration bugs are much easier to catch on 20 cards than on 2,000.