Spaced Repetition Apps for Spelling in 2026: Anki, Quizlet and More

You want the thing everyone recommends for vocabulary, a spaced-repetition app, but for spelling. You have a list of words that keep tripping you up, and you want software that brings each one back at the right moment until it holds. The trouble is that most flashcard apps were built for facts and foreign words, where seeing the answer and saying "yes, I knew that" is good enough. Spelling is not like that.

The short answer, as of November 2026: Anki is the best free option for spelling, once you set it up to play the word aloud and make you type it. Out of the box, it shows you the answer and asks how well you knew it. Quizlet has a genuine listen-and-type Spell mode, but it sits inside Learn, a mostly paid feature, and Quizlet's spaced-repetition schedule lives in a separate flip-the-card mode. Memrise and SuperMemo are language courses first. Brainscape and RemNote schedule well, but neither describes a hear-and-type mode on its own pages. A dedicated dictation app does all of it for you, at the price of control.

Every claim below about another product was checked on its own website or app store page on 1 November 2026. Prices change, so check again before you pay. We make one of the tools compared, and we say where the others are the better choice.

What a spelling app actually has to do

A flashcard app can schedule reviews perfectly and still teach spelling badly. To be useful for spelling, it has to do four jobs.

First, you should hear the word without seeing it. If the card shows "necessary" and asks whether you know it, you are recognizing a spelling, which is far easier than producing one. Second, you should type it from memory, letter by letter, because that is the act you are trying to get better at. Third, the app should show you exactly which letters were wrong, because "wrong" alone does not tell you whether your trouble is the c, the double s, or the ending. Fourth, it should schedule the next review from your own record, so the words you miss come back soon and the ones you know drift further apart.

The research behind those four jobs is solid. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke showed in 2006 that trying to recall material strengthens it far more than studying it again, even when the studying feels more productive. Nicholas Cepeda and colleagues reviewed hundreds of experiments in 2006 and found that spreading practice out beats cramming it. The best gap, they found, grows with how long you want to remember. Our piece on the testing effect goes deeper on the first idea.

Then there is a practical question: who builds the cards? With a general flashcard app, you do. That is a strength if you have a specialist list, such as drug names, and a chore if you just want to spell better.

The comparison in one table

Anki: the best free choice, if you will build it

Anki is free, open-source flashcard software. The computer version runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and the Android app, AnkiDroid, is free and built by outside contributors. The iPhone and iPad app, AnkiMobile, is a one-time $24.99 on the US App Store, which helps fund the project. There is no subscription.

What makes it right for spelling is a built-in card type called Basic (type in the answer). It is an ordinary card with a box to type in. When you press Enter, Anki compares what you typed with the stored answer and shows which parts were right and which were wrong. Add audio, your own recording or the computer's voice, and you have a dictation trainer.

The manual is candid about one limit: the comparison does not grade the card. You still press Again, Hard, Good or Easy yourself. So make a rule and keep it. Any wrong letter means Again, however close you were, because a near-miss is exactly the word that is not yet stored.

On scheduling, Anki is as strong as anything here, and more adjustable. Its default scheduler is the legacy SM-2 algorithm, descended from Piotr Wozniak's SuperMemo work of the late 1980s. It also offers FSRS, the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler, an open-source model developed from 2022 that estimates how likely you are to recall each card and times the next review accordingly. Our explainer on how an algorithm decides when you see a word again explains the difference in plain terms.

The cost is your time. You make every card, and the first one involves a settings screen you have never seen. Shared decks exist, but they are rarely built around the words you personally miss.

How to set up Anki for spelling in about twenty minutes

This setup uses only features described in Anki's own manual. It assumes the desktop version, where card templates are easiest to edit; the free AnkiWeb sync service can then carry your cards to your phone.

1. Click Add, then click the note type name at the top left and choose Basic (type in the answer).
2. Put the word to spell, such as "necessary", in the Back field. That is the answer Anki will check.
3. In the Front field, put a short clue that does not contain the word: a meaning, or a sentence with a gap, such as "It is not ___ to bring food."
4. Add the sound. Either record yourself saying the word with the microphone button in the editor and leave the recording in the Front field, or use the computer's voice (step 5).
5. For the built-in voice, open Cards and add {{tts en_US:Back}} to the front template, above {{type:Back}}. On Windows, Mac and iPhone, Anki uses the system's own voices; on Linux the manual says you need an add-on.
6. Open the deck's options, scroll to the FSRS section at the bottom, and switch it on. Leave desired retention at the default of 90 percent.
7. After a few hundred reviews, press Optimize in the same section, then about once a month after that.

The front of the card now says the word and gives a clue, you type, and the back lines your attempt up against the right spelling. Two details from the manual may surprise you. The typing box does not appear in the card preview or on AnkiWeb, the browser version, so practice in the app. And each card holds one typing comparison, so it is one word per card.

Keep the deck small at first, ten or 15 new words a day at most, because every new word adds reviews for weeks. If the setup sounds like a chore you will never finish, believe that instinct and pick a tool that has done it for you.

Quizlet: a real spelling mode, and a separate schedule

Quizlet surprises people here. Its help pages describe a Spell mode that prompts you to type what you hear. If you misspell a word, the letters you missed are highlighted and the word is spelled out for you, and you try again; to finish a round, you have to spell each word correctly twice. You can slow the audio down, and the mode works in 18 languages. That is a proper dictation exercise.

The catch is where it lives. Spell mode is now part of Learn, and Quizlet's help center says Learn is for Quizlet Plus subscribers, with free users allowed a limited number of rounds per set. A free account still gets you flashcard sets and the ordinary Flashcards activity.

Quizlet also has spaced repetition, but in a different place. In Flashcards, you can choose a spaced-repetition study method. You flip each card, rate yourself Repeat, Hard, Okay or Easy, and Quizlet brings it back anywhere from minutes to four or more days later. Its help center says this is currently available only on the Quizlet website. So on Quizlet, the mode that makes you type is not the mode that spaces reviews over days; the help pages do not describe Spell mode as scheduling words across days.

Quizlet is the right choice if your list already exists there, such as a set a teacher shared, or if you want spelling and other subjects in one place. Do the Spell rounds for production, and use spaced-repetition Flashcards on the website only as a reminder of which words are due.

Memrise and SuperMemo: language courses first

Memrise is a language-learning app, and its strength is ready-made courses with native-speaker video. You can make custom word lists in the app, and Memrise says they draw audio from more than 611,000 recordings and use the same spaced-repetition engine as its official courses. Older user-made courses moved in March 2024 to a separate community site, where a course's creator can switch off the tapping questions, though not the multiple-choice ones. Memrise fits someone learning English as a new language. It fits less well if you want a bare dictation drill.

SuperMemo grew out of Piotr Wozniak's experiments in the 1980s, and its SM-2 algorithm, first used in 1987, still runs inside other apps, including as Anki's default. Today it sells language courses, including English at basic, intermediate and advanced levels and by purpose, such as business and exams, through apps for iPhone and Android and on the web. Its proprietary algorithm schedules reviews, you can add your own flashcards, called MemoCards, and some courses, such as its Extreme series, let you type answers once you switch that option on. It offers a free month. Choose it for a structured English course, not for practicing your own list of problem words.

Brainscape and RemNote: good schedulers, no dictation

Brainscape is honest about its design. You recall an answer in your head, reveal the card, and rate your confidence from 1 to 5, and the rating decides how soon the card returns. The free plan allows unlimited cards with spaced repetition, Pro adds sounds and images to cards, and it runs on the web, iPhone and Android. Its own articles say it keeps cards flip-and-rate on purpose, to fit in more repetitions. For definitions, that is efficient. For spelling, the rating is a guess: you can feel sure about "accommodate" and still type one m.

RemNote combines note-taking with flashcards and offers FSRS, version 6 according to its help center, alongside SM-2. The free plan includes unlimited notes and flashcards, and Pro is $8 a month or $96 a year. Its pages do not describe a hear-and-type mode, so it suits students who already keep their notes there, and spelling only as a side task.

Do flashcards work for spelling?

They work when the card makes you produce the word and fail when it lets you recognize it. A card that shows "definitely" on the front and asks whether you knew it trains your eye a little. A card that says the word aloud and waits for you to type it trains the thing you need: retrieving the letters in order with nothing to copy.

The second requirement is honesty about mistakes. Self-rated cards depend on you noticing your errors, and with spelling you often do not, because the wrong version has looked right to you for years. That is why the type-in comparison matters so much: the software sees the missing s even when you would not.

The third is the schedule, and almost every tool here is good at it. Any of them beats a list you reread on Sunday night. If you want a sense of how many new words that schedule can carry, our post on the honest math of spaced repetition works it through.

Which one to choose

If you have a specific list, twenty minutes to set it up, and you like control, use Anki with the setup above. It costs nothing on a computer or Android and does all four jobs well once built. For a patient person it is the best free option, and we say so even though we make a competitor.

If you already study in Quizlet, or a teacher has shared a set there, use Spell mode for the typing and accept that the long-term schedule is a separate, website-only flip mode. If you are learning English as a new language, Memrise or a SuperMemo course will teach you the language with the spelling inside it. If your list is mostly definitions, Brainscape and RemNote are efficient and fair to recommend, though not for spelling.

If you do not want to build anything, a dedicated dictation app does it for you, with the words, the recordings and the schedule already in place. You give up control over exactly which cards exist, and in exchange you can start in under a minute. For a wider view that includes rule courses and checkers, see our honest comparison of spelling apps for adults, and for zero-cost options, our guide to free spelling apps and websites.

What to do next

Write down the ten words you most often get wrong. Then spend twenty minutes building them as Anki type-in cards with audio, and practice them for a week, marking Again for any wrong letter. If you keep the routine up, you have a free spelling trainer for life.

If you would rather see what ready-made dictation with spaced review feels like first, you can spell five words on Spelling.School's home page with no sign-up. A word like necessary is a good place to find out whether your trouble is the c or the s.

Questions people ask

Is Anki good for spelling?

Yes, once it is set up for spelling. Use the built-in Basic (type in the answer) card type, put the word in the answer field, add audio with a recording or Anki's text-to-speech, and keep the word itself off the front of the card. Anki then compares your typing letter by letter and shows the wrong parts, but you still grade the card yourself, so press Again for any wrong letter.

Can you use Quizlet to learn spelling?

Yes. Quizlet's Spell mode says a term aloud, asks you to type it, highlights the letters you missed and makes you spell each word correctly twice to finish a round. As of November 2026, Spell mode is part of Learn, which is mainly for Quizlet Plus subscribers, with a limited number of free rounds per set. Quizlet's spaced-repetition schedule is a separate flip-and-rate Flashcards mode, available only on its website.

What is the best spaced repetition app for spelling?

The best one is whichever makes you hear a word, type it from memory, see exactly which letters were wrong, and schedules the next review from your own results. Anki does all four for free once you set up audio and type-in cards, which suits patient people with their own list. If you do not want to build cards, a dedicated dictation app with spaced review does the setup for you.

Do flashcards work for spelling?

Flashcards work for spelling when they make you produce the word rather than recognize it. A card that says the word and waits for you to type it builds the memory you need, while a card that shows the spelling and asks if you knew it mostly trains recognition. Spacing the reviews over days adds much of the benefit, as decades of research on the spacing effect show.

Is there a free spaced repetition app for spelling?

Anki is the strongest free option: it is free on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, and only the iPhone app costs money, $24.99 once as of November 2026. It can play a word aloud, check what you type and schedule reviews with the optional FSRS algorithm. Some paid tools also have free plans with a daily allowance of new words and free reviews.

What is FSRS in Anki?

FSRS, the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler, is an open-source scheduling model that Anki offers as an alternative to its older default, SM-2. It estimates how likely you are to remember each card and schedules reviews to hit a target you choose, 90 percent by default. You switch it on in the FSRS section at the bottom of the deck options, and Anki's manual suggests optimizing its settings about once a month.

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