Updated October 2026 · written by the maker of Fluent Air. AnkiVocab details come from its website in October 2026; check it for current features and prices.
The short version
- Choose AnkiVocab if you want rich vocabulary cards (definitions, synonyms, IPA) to download into Anki, or to make cards from words you highlight on web pages with its Chrome extension.
- Choose Fluent Air if you want one app to make and study sentence cards, bring your existing Anki decks with their review history, and keep studying for free without AI.
Side by side
| AnkiVocab | Fluent Air | |
|---|---|---|
| What a card is built around | a word: definition, example sentences, synonyms, IPA | a sentence: you pick from 9 everyday sentences per word, at your level |
| Audio and image | yes (AI image, audio) | yes (audio of sentence and word; stock photo or AI drawing) |
| Both directions (recognise and produce) | not stated on its site | automatic: each sentence makes two cards |
| Where you study | in Anki (download .apkg) or in its browser review (FSRS) | in the app, on phone and computer, offline |
| Import your existing Anki decks | not stated on its site | yes, with cards, media and review history |
| Export to Anki | yes (.apkg) | yes, with your reviews |
| Make cards from web pages | yes, Chrome extension | no; a notebook to save words and where you saw them |
| Free | 50 cards on signup | free plan with no time limit (study, import, export, sync, manual cards) + 5 AI cards a month, 20 in the first month |
| Paid | $4.99/month for 100 cards, $14.99/month for 500; one-time credit packs | $4.99/month or $39/year for 150 AI cards a month |
Word cards or sentence cards?
This is the real choice. A word card gives you a lot about one word: what it means, how it's pronounced, related words. A sentence card gives you the word inside something people actually say, so you learn its grammar and the words it usually goes with.
Fluent Air puts the sentence first and keeps the word details on the back: its dictionary form, the most useful forms (gender, plural, key conjugations), pronunciation tips, and a short meaning. Hover or tap any word in the sentence to see what it means.
If you already use Anki
With AnkiVocab you keep Anki as your study app and add the new cards to it. With Fluent Air you can move a deck over with its history (tomorrow's due cards stay the same) and study everything in one place, or export back whenever you want. Try one deck first either way.
Price per card
At the entry plans, AnkiVocab is about $0.05 a card (100 for $4.99) and Fluent Air about $0.03 (150 for $4.99), and each Fluent Air sentence gives you two cards. AnkiVocab's credit packs have no monthly commitment, which suits people who add cards in bursts.
Try a word in Fluent Air
New accounts get 20 AI cards in the first month. Import a deck from Anki too, and export it back if it's not for you.
Start free