Comparison

Brainscape vs Cogni

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Brainscape

This app uses AI and spaced repetition to help you learn faster and remember longer. Create your own multimedia flashcards or access a vast marketplace of expert-curated content for various subjects and exams. It's designed for serious learners who want to optimize their study time.

Highlights
  • AI-powered flashcard maker
  • Spaced repetition algorithm
  • Expert-curated flashcard marketplace
  • Create multimedia flashcards
  • Collaborative content creation
  • Active recall and self-assessment
Features
Read full description

Learn faster and remember longer with Brainscape, the AI flashcard app that combines scientifically proven spaced repetition and active recall. Create flashcards instantly from notes, PDFs, images, and text, or study millions of expert-created flashcards for exams, languages, certifications, and more. Whether you're switching from Anki or another flashcard app, Brainscape helps you study more efficiently. Brainscape’s intelligent study system is designed around proven cognitive science principles that help you learn faster and remember longer. By combining active recall, metacognition, and spaced repetition, Brainscape helps serious learners spend less time studying and retain more of what they learn. How Brainscape works. Study any subject using smart flashcards designed to maximize retention: - Actively recall answers instead of passively rereading notes - Rate your confidence from 1–5 after each card - Let Brainscape automatically optimize review timing using spaced repetition - Focus more time on difficult concepts and less on material you've already mastered This unique combination of active recall, self-assessment (metacognition), and spaced repetition is designed to help you learn more efficiently. Where do all of Brainscape’s awesome flashcards come from? Three places: 1. Exper-created flashcards: Study professionally designed collections covering: - Foreign languages - MBE (Bar Exam) - NCLEX - MCAT - AP courses - Series 7 - GRE - And many more 2. Community-created flashcards: Search millions of flashcards created by students, teachers, professionals, and organizations around the world. 3. Create your own flashcards: Instantly create multimedia flashcards from: - Notes - PDFs - Images - Documents - Text input Add images, audio, and collaborate with classmates or colleagues. Why learners all over the world use Brainscape - AI-powered flashcard creation - Scientifically designed spaced repetition - Active recall learning techniques - Progress tracking and study insights - Millions of existing flashcards ready to study - Available across web and mobile devices How much does it cost? Creating and sharing great text flashcards is FREE. (Woohoo! And sorry, we do have to charge for image creation for security reasons.) And for unlimited access to ALL of Brainscape's user-generated and premium, expert-curated content, as well as optional features, like bookmarks and card reversibility--or to me your content private, you can upgrade to Pro for $19.99 (monthly), $59.99 (every 6 months), or $95.99 (annually). Alternatively, you can unlock a LIFETIME of learning with Brainscape for a one-time cost of only $199.99 American dolla billz. The fine print: The 3 recurring subscriptions (monthly, semiannual, and annual) will renew automatically within 24 hours before the end of the current period, unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the period. You can cancel auto-renewal any time by going to Account Settings, and the cancellation will apply after the active subscription period is complete. Go ahead and learn more about our Terms and Privacy Policy at brainscape.com/terms. What’s on the horizon? It’s our vision to empower everyone, everywhere to rise to the challenge of personalized forever-learning. And for this reason, we love hearing from our user community: it’s through your feedback that we can continue to innovate our platform to be more convenient, efficient, and even fun and social to use!

About

Cogni

This app uses AI to generate flashcards from various sources like PDFs, notes, or audio. It employs spaced repetition for efficient memorization and allows importing existing decks. Study notes can be generated alongside cards, and a library of pre-made decks is available.

Highlights
  • AI flashcard generation
  • FSRS spaced repetition
  • Anki deck import
  • Notes alongside cards
  • Offline study
  • Pre-made deck library
  • Cross-platform sync
Read full description

Cogni is a flashcard app with FSRS spaced repetition, AI flashcard generation and Anki deck import. Study on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web: your decks and progress sync through one account, and reviews work offline. MAKE FLASHCARDS WITH AI Upload a PDF, photograph your notes or textbook pages, upload a lecture recording, paste text or type a topic. Cogni drafts question-and-answer and cloze cards. You check the drafts and keep the ones you want. FSRS SPACED REPETITION Every card is scheduled with FSRS, the open-source algorithm that predicts when you are about to forget. After each answer, rate your recall (Again, Hard, Good or Easy) and see when the card comes back. Each day you review only what is due. IMPORT YOUR ANKI DECKS Save an .apkg file in Files, tap + in Cogni and choose “Import .apkg”. Cards, subdecks, cloze cards, images and audio come with it. Anki's review history stays in Anki: FSRS builds a new schedule from your answers in Cogni. NOTES NEXT TO YOUR CARDS Generate study notes together with your cards and read them in Cogni on the web, linked to the cards they produced. READY-MADE DECKS Browse a library of 5,000+ decks for languages, medicine, anatomy and more, add a deck and start studying. BUILT FOR - Medical, nursing and pre-med students - Language learners building vocabulary - Students preparing for exams - Anyone moving their decks from another flashcard app FREE TO START Create cards, import decks, sync and study up to 40 card reviews a day for free, and try one AI generation. Cogni Premium removes the daily review limit, adds text-to-speech and includes AI generation within your plan's allowance. Terms of Use: https://cogni.cards/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://cogni.cards/privacy/

Screenshots

Brainscape4 screens
Cogni4 screens

Verdict

The call

Brainscape and Cogni both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 83% of Brainscape's written reviews are positive against 36% of Cogni's. Brainscape also leads on ratings volume (22K vs 1.7K) and chart position (#189 vs unranked). Cogni's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Brainscape sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month and Cogni sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Brainscape against 4.7 for Cogni. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Brainscape has 22K ratings behind it against 1.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of Brainscape's written reviews are positive against 36% of Cogni's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Brainscape ships an update every 3 weeks, Cogni every 9 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Brainscape versus Cogni: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBrainscapeCogni
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (22K ratings) — better4.7 (1.7K ratings)
Positive reviews82.7% of reviews — better35.8% of reviews
Number of ratings22K — better1.7K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank#189 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB75 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperBrainscapeCOGNIFLY LTD

Customer experience

Brainscape

All ratings21,531 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.0%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews1,128 reviews
Positive82.7%
Neutral5.0%
Negative12.3%

Cogni

All ratings1,689 ratings
Positive92.8%
Neutral2.7%
Negative4.4%
Written reviews201 reviews
Positive35.8%
Neutral17.4%
Negative46.8%

User reviews

Brainscape

From 22K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Amazing flashcard app
  • 👍 Great for studying and learning
  • 👍 Helpful for passing exams and tests
  • 👍 Convenient to use on mobile devices
  • 👍 Effective spaced repetition algorithm

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🐛 Buggy app with crashes and syncing issues
  • 🔒 Limited functionality in free version
  • 👎 Difficult to edit and organize cards
  • 👎 Inaccuracies in some pre-made decks

Cogni

From 1.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great app for memorizing and growing recall skills
  • 🚀 Lifesaver for challenging, memory-heavy subjects like med school
  • 👍 Sleek and user-friendly interface, no distractions

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Locked up referring to an upgrade page, couldn't continue using the app
  • 🐛 Not easy to use, inaccurate for Spanish language
  • 🐛 Desktop flashcards deck won't sync with mobile, forcing duplicate work

Bugs and requests

Brainscape

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when switching between cards
  • Syncing issues causing data loss
  • Difficulty importing and organizing custom cards
  • Inconsistent performance on different devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow more customization of cards (e.g., adding images, audio)
  • Improve search and browsing functionality
  • Provide more detailed progress tracking and statistics
  • Offer family/group subscription plans
  • Add support for more languages

Cogni

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App no longer available after paying for annual subscription
  • Occasional crashes

Requested features

4 requests
  • Integrate ChatGPT or Claude for automatic card creation
  • Add sub-decks for larger decks that need more review
  • Improve algorithm for hard/again ratings to better target struggling cards
  • Add subsections for decks to study different sections separately

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Brainscape

Subscriptions3
  • Brainscape Pro$19.991 Month
  • Brainscape Pro$59.996 Months
  • Brainscape Pro$95.991 Year
One-time1
  • Brainscape Pro Lifetime$199.99
9 purchases

Cogni

Subscriptions7
  • Premium Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Premium Monthly$7.991 Month
  • Premium Monthly$14.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • Premium Annual$19.991 Year
  • Premium Annual$24.991 Year
  • Premium Annual$29.991 Year
  • Premium Annual$49.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime Premium$69.99
  • Premium Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is Brainscape free?
Brainscape is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cogni free?
Cogni is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Brainscape or Cogni?
Brainscape is rated higher. Brainscape averages 4.8 out of 5 from 22K ratings, while Cogni averages 4.7 from 1.7K ratings.
Do Brainscape or Cogni have ads?
Neither Brainscape nor Cogni shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Brainscape or Cogni?
Brainscape ships an update every 3 weeks, and Cogni every 9 days. Most recently, Brainscape was updated on November 5, 2026 and Cogni on November 5, 2026.

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