Anki vs NotebookLM

as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-21

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Anki edges out NotebookLM overall, scoring 46 to 41 and landing in 38 of 60 answers versus 32. Anki owns the flashcard and exam-prep territory, named in every answer for best flashcard app, best Quizlet alternative, spaced repetition, and exam or med/law study questions, but it never shows up for summarising textbook chapters or explaining a stuck concept. NotebookLM takes those exact gaps, swept for summarising chapters, studying from PDFs, lectures, and university use, while never appearing for flashcards or exam apps. Head to head across questions, NotebookLM leads 10 to 9, with one tie, so the race is closer than the overall scores suggest.

Head to head

metric	Anki	NotebookLM
score	46	41
questions won	18	13

By assistant

Anki

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	44	55% of answers	#2.6
Claude	59	90% of answers	#4.5
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	38	45% of answers	#2.3

NotebookLM

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	46	60% of answers	#3.0
Claude	39	55% of answers	#3.7
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	38	45% of answers	#2.2

Where they differ

Only Anki gets named for

What's the best app to study for an exam?
What's the best flashcard app?
What's the best study app for medical or law exams?
What's the best alternative to Quizlet?
Which study app uses spaced repetition best?
What's the best open-source study or flashcard tool?
What's the best AI study tool for languages other than English?

Only NotebookLM gets named for

What's the best AI tool to summarise a textbook chapter?
What's the best AI tool to explain a concept I'm stuck on?

More comparisons

Not sold on either?

Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full AI study tools leaderboard