Turn a lecture recording into flashcards you can import
Upload a recorded lecture, class or seminar and get question-and-answer study cards written from what was actually said, as a two-column CSV you can import into Anki or Quizlet. You also get notes and the full timestamped transcript. A recording of up to 15 minutes is free in full; a longer lecture is $5, up to 6 hours.
- Study cards as CSV: front in column one, back in column two, no header row
- Cards written only from the transcript of your lecture
- Notes with chapters, key points and key terms as defined in the lecture
- Full transcript with timestamps in Word, PDF and TXT
- Upload a file or paste a Google Drive or Dropbox link
How to make flashcards from a lecture recording
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1
Upload the lecture
Add the audio or video file, up to 2 GB, or paste a public Google Drive or Dropbox link to it.
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2
Unlock the whole lecture
Read the notes for the free part, then pay $5 so the notes and cards are written from every minute.
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3
Download the cards CSV
Download the study cards CSV and import it into Anki or Quizlet, with column one as the front and column two as the back.
Cards from your lecturer, not from the internet
Ready-made flashcard decks follow a textbook’s version of a subject. Your exam is set by your lecturer, who stresses some terms, skips others and drops hints such as "this will come up". The cards here are written from the transcript of your recording only. A definition on a card is the one the lecture gave, and nothing that was not said in the recording is added.
That also means the cards are only as complete as the audio. If the lecturer pointed at a slide and said "as you can see here", the slide is not in the recording and will not be in the cards.
Importing the CSV
Anki: use its import option, choose the CSV, check that the separator is a comma, and map the first field to Front and the second to Back. The file has no header, so the first row is a real card.
Quizlet: create a set and use its import option, which takes pasted text. Open the CSV in a text editor, copy the rows, paste them, and set the separator between term and definition to comma. A card whose text contains a comma is wrapped in quotation marks in the CSV, so look over those cards after importing.
Why a chat assistant tends to fall short
Ask a chat assistant for flashcards from a 90-minute lecture and two things tend to go wrong. It may not take the file at all, because audio uploads are limited in length and often missing from free plans. If you paste a transcript instead, a long one is usually condensed before the cards are made, so the second half of the lecture comes out thin. Here the full transcript is made first, ten minutes at a time, and the notes and cards are written from all of it.
Before and after you pay
- While the job is locked, notes and cards cover the free part only, and the screen says so
- After payment they are rewritten from every minute of the lecture
- Choose a translation language to get the notes, cards included, in that language
- Check formulas, numbers and names against the recording before you rely on them for an exam
How the tool works, what it costs and how your files are handled is on the Lecture Recording to Notes page; prices for every tool are on the pricing page.
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Questions and answers
Can ChatGPT make flashcards from my lecture recording?
From a short clip or a short pasted transcript, often yes. A full lecture tends to exceed the audio upload limit, and long transcripts get condensed first, so cards for the later parts go missing.
Does the CSV have a header row?
No. It has two columns, front and back, and every row is a card, which is how Anki and Quizlet expect a simple deck.
What does a lecture cost?
$5, paid once, for a recording of up to 6 hours. A recording of up to 15 minutes is free in full, downloads included. Unlimited is $19 a week if you have lectures every day.
Can I get English cards from a lecture in another language?
Yes. Choose English as the translation language, and the notes and study cards are written in English while the transcript keeps the original with English under each paragraph.
Will the cards include what was on the slides?
Only what was said out loud. The cards come from the transcript, so slide content the lecturer did not read out is not included.