Anki Pro vs Anki: Are They the Same App? (2026 Clarification)

If you searched for "Anki Pro" expecting to find a premium tier of the Anki app you already know, stop here. Anki Pro is not the same as Anki. They are two entirely separate products made by two unrelated companies with no commercial relationship. One is the original open-source flashcard application that medical students and language learners have relied on for nearly two decades. The other was a commercial app for iOS and Android that borrowed a confusingly similar name — and as of June 2025, that second app no longer exists under the name "Anki Pro" at all. It rebranded to Noji after losing a trademark dispute with Ankitects, the company behind the original Anki.

This article exists because the naming overlap caused — and continues to cause — real confusion. People download "Anki Pro" expecting AnkiWeb sync, add-ons, and .apkg native compatibility, then discover none of that works. Others pay a monthly subscription thinking they are getting a premium version of the Anki they already use on desktop. Neither assumption is correct. This guide will clarify exactly what each product is, what happened with the rebrand, and which one (if either) you should actually use.

Is Anki Pro the Same as Anki? The Short Answer

No. Here is the situation in plain terms:

• Anki is an open-source spaced repetition application created by Damien Elmes in 2006, now developed by Ankitects. It runs natively on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. The desktop and Android versions are free. The iOS version (AnkiMobile) costs $24.99 as a one-time purchase. It uses the FSRS algorithm by default since version 25.x, has over 1,600 community add-ons, and syncs through AnkiWeb at no cost.
• "Anki Pro" was a separate commercial application for iOS and Android, built by a company unrelated to Ankitects. It operated on a subscription model ($4.99/month, $29.99/year, or $74.99 for a lifetime license), used the older SM-2 scheduling algorithm, and had no connection to AnkiWeb or the Anki add-on ecosystem. In June 2025, under pressure from Ankitects over trademark infringement, it rebranded entirely to Noji.

The two products share only a name — and even that is no longer the case. "Anki Pro" now refers to historical versions of what is today marketed as Noji. If you are looking for the question "is Anki Pro the same as Anki," the answer is definitively: it never was.

The confusion is understandable. "Pro" is a common suffix for premium tiers of software (think Notion, Canva Pro, Spotify Premium). Searching for "Anki Pro" in the App Store returned a result that looked plausibly like an official upgrade. It was not. Ankitects has never released a paid "Pro" tier of Anki desktop. The premium Anki product is simply AnkiMobile for iOS — a one-time $24.99 purchase, not a subscription.

The Original Anki: Damien Elmes’ Open-Source Flashcard System

To understand why the naming confusion matters, you first need to understand what the original Anki actually is — because it is genuinely remarkable software with a two-decade track record.

Damien Elmes released Anki in 2006. The name comes from the Japanese word for "memorization" (“anki” / “暗記”). His goal was a spaced repetition system that worked on the desktop without requiring a subscription or internet connection. The software is written in Python, distributed under a free and open-source license, and the source code is publicly available on GitHub. Ankitects, the small company Elmes founded to maintain Anki, funds development primarily through iOS AnkiMobile sales. The official manual is at docs.ankiweb.net.

Today, Anki ships across five platforms:

• Anki Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux) — free. The full-featured primary client.
• AnkiMobile (iOS/iPadOS) — $24.99 one-time. Official iOS port. See our complete Anki on iPad guide for setup details.
• AnkiDroid (Android) — free. Open-source Android port maintained by a separate volunteer team, fully compatible with AnkiWeb sync.
• AnkiWeb — free browser-based review interface that also serves as the sync server for all other clients.

The desktop download is straightforward. Our Anki download guide for Mac and Windows walks through the installation process including common Gatekeeper issues on macOS. Understanding the deck structure before you download is worthwhile — see what is an Anki deck for a beginner-friendly overview.

What makes Anki technically distinctive is its scheduling algorithm. FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) is a modern algorithm developed by open-source contributors and published with supporting research. It became the default scheduler in version 25.x (first introduced as an option in Anki 23.10 released October 2023). FSRS models memory more accurately than the legacy SM-2 algorithm. It takes into account not just recall success or failure but the precise difficulty history of each card, producing individually tuned review schedules. You can read more about the science behind spaced repetition study techniques and how algorithms like FSRS and SM-2 differ in practice.

The other pillar of Anki’s dominance is its add-on ecosystem. Over 1,600 community-built add-ons extend Anki in ways no commercial app can match: sentence mining from Netflix subtitles, automatic audio generation via text-to-speech, image occlusion for anatomy, LaTeX rendering for mathematics, readability statistics, and dozens of interface improvements. This ecosystem took fifteen years to accumulate. It does not transfer to any other application.

Anki decks use the .apkg format, a container that holds cards, media, and scheduling history. AnkiWeb hosts tens of thousands of shared .apkg decks across every conceivable subject. Medical students use pre-made decks like Anking (a comprehensive USMLE deck with tens of thousands of cards) that have been refined by thousands of contributors over years.

Anki Pro (Now Noji): A Separate Commercial App

"Anki Pro" appeared in app stores around 2021 — a commercial flashcard app for iOS and Android that marketed itself with a name close enough to Anki to cause significant confusion. The company behind it is described in some sources as Salutem-adjacent, though the app was operated independently. It had no affiliation with Damien Elmes or Ankitects.

The pricing structure was subscription-based: $4.99 per month, $29.99 per year, or $74.99 for a lifetime license. This is in sharp contrast to Anki desktop being free and AnkiMobile being a one-time $24.99 purchase. For users who primarily care about cost, the math is immediately unfavorable for Anki Pro: the monthly subscription costs more in two years than an AnkiMobile lifetime purchase costs upfront, without providing any of Anki’s ecosystem advantages.

Anki Pro’s review algorithm was SM-2, the older SuperMemo algorithm from the 1980s that the original Anki also used until October 2023. SM-2 is a proven algorithm and widely used — Quizlet’s spaced repetition also uses a variant of it — but it has been superseded by FSRS in terms of research-backed accuracy. Using SM-2 rather than FSRS is not a disqualifying flaw, but it means Anki Pro offered inferior scheduling compared to what the free Anki desktop provides by default.

The app offered a relatively clean mobile interface, decent deck organization, and the ability to import .apkg files from Anki. What it could not offer was AnkiWeb sync, any compatibility with the Anki add-on ecosystem, or access to shared decks directly. It existed as a walled garden: you could get Anki content in, but you could not participate in the Anki community from within it.

The June 2025 Rebrand: Why Anki Pro Became Noji

In June 2025, "Anki Pro" was renamed to Noji. The rebrand did not happen by choice.

Ankitects, which holds trademark rights to the Anki name in multiple jurisdictions, pursued a trademark dispute against the company operating Anki Pro. The argument was straightforward: "Anki Pro" used the registered "Anki" trademark without authorization, creating consumer confusion about the relationship between the two products. This is exactly the kind of confusion this article is documenting — users searching "ankipro vs anki" frequently assume the two are related.

The rebrand to Noji was the outcome. The new name has no etymological relationship to "Anki." It is a fresh brand. The underlying app — iOS/Android only, subscription pricing, SM-2 algorithm, no AnkiWeb integration — remains essentially the same product under a different name. Existing Anki Pro users who had active subscriptions were migrated to Noji accounts.

For the search queries "anki pro" and "ankipro vs anki" that still bring people to this question in 2026: the product you are looking for is now called Noji. If you are comparing "noji vs anki," the comparison in the next section applies directly.

The rebrand is also a reminder that Ankitects takes the Anki name seriously. Other apps have caused similar confusion over the years — notably AnkiApp (a completely separate commercial app that also used "Anki" in its name for years). Ankitects has been consistent in pushing back against unauthorized use of the trademark.

Anki vs Anki Pro: Side-by-Side Comparison

Here is a direct comparison of the two products across the dimensions that matter most. Note that "Anki Pro" column reflects the product as it existed before the Noji rebrand; Noji’s feature set is essentially identical.

Feature	Original Anki (Ankitects)	Anki Pro / Noji (separate company)
Company	Ankitects (Damien Elmes)	Separate, unaffiliated company
Platforms	Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Web	iOS and Android only
Pricing	Desktop & Android: free. iOS: $24.99 one-time	$4.99/mo, $29.99/yr, or $74.99 lifetime
Algorithm	FSRS (default since version 25.x; SM-2 available)	SM-2
Sync	AnkiWeb (free, official)	Proprietary cloud (requires subscription)
Add-ons	1,600+ community add-ons	None
.apkg import	Native format	One-way import only (no sync back)
AnkiWeb shared decks	Full access to 10,000+ shared decks	Not accessible
Open source	Yes (GPL & AGPL)	No
Offline use	Full offline, always	Limited offline (subscription-gated)
Current name (2026)	Anki	Noji (rebranded June 2025)

The table makes the competitive position clear. On every dimension except mobile interface polish, the original Anki either matches or significantly exceeds what Anki Pro / Noji offers — and does so at lower cost. The only category where Noji might offer something genuinely different is a cleaner, more modern mobile UI for iOS users who find AnkiMobile’s interface less polished. That is a real consideration, but it is narrow.

Can You Import Anki Decks (.apkg) Into Anki Pro / Noji?

Yes — but with a critical caveat that many users do not realize until after they have already moved their decks.

Anki Pro (and now Noji) supports importing .apkg files. You can save a deck from your desktop app as an .apkg file, transfer it to your phone, and import it into Noji. The cards, their content, and even some formatting will carry over. For simple text-only decks, this works adequately.

Here is what does not transfer when you import .apkg into Noji:

• Review history and scheduling data. Your card intervals, ease factors, and review logs do not import. Noji treats every imported card as a new card with no scheduling history. Cards you have studied for months get reset to day zero.
• AnkiWeb sync. An imported deck in Noji is completely disconnected from AnkiWeb. If you review cards on both platforms, the scheduling data will diverge immediately. There is no way to merge them back.
• Add-on-dependent features. Cards using special templates created by Anki add-ons (image occlusion, advanced cloze types, custom JavaScript rendering) may not render correctly in Noji.
• Media dependencies. Audio files and images embedded in decks may or may not import correctly depending on how they were linked in the original deck.

The practical result: if you have an established Anki deck with months or years of scheduling history, importing it into Noji means starting over. You lose the accumulated data that makes spaced repetition valuable. The import capability gives the appearance of compatibility without the substance of it.

The flow runs in one direction only: Anki → Noji. There is no supported export from Noji back to .apkg format that would allow you to return to Anki with your Noji review history intact.

The Ecosystem Gap: Sync, Add-ons, and Community

The comparison table captures features, but it does not fully convey the magnitude of the ecosystem gap between Anki and Noji. The difference is not just about what buttons exist in the app — it is about what the app plugs into.

AnkiWeb sync is more than a convenience feature. It is the mechanism that connects Anki desktop, AnkiMobile, and AnkiDroid into a single unified study system. A card you review on your laptop at 9am is not due on your phone at 9pm. The scheduling is shared across every device. This is the behavior most users expect from synchronized study. Noji offers its own proprietary sync, but only between Noji installs — it does not interact with the Anki ecosystem at all.

The add-on ecosystem is where the gap becomes irreversible. Anki add-ons are Python plugins that extend the desktop application in ways the core developers never anticipated. Medical students use AnKing add-ons. Language learners use sentence-mining add-ons that automatically create cards from browser content. Mathematicians use LaTeX rendering add-ons. These represent years of community development work. Noji has no equivalent. It is a closed system.

The shared deck library on AnkiWeb represents another dimension of community value that Noji cannot access. Highly polished shared decks like AnKing (USMLE Step 1 and Step 2), Japanese Core 2000/6000 vocabulary sets, and professionally curated language decks have been refined over years by thousands of users. These decks can be downloaded directly into Anki for free. Noji users who want equivalent content must either create it manually or import individual .apkg files without the scheduling history those decks carry.

The community around Anki is substantial: subreddits, Discord servers, YouTube channels dedicated to Anki workflows, blog posts covering specific use cases for medical school, language learning, and professional certifications. This community produces guides, deck templates, and troubleshooting advice. Noji has no equivalent community infrastructure — not because the app is bad, but because it has not existed long enough under either name to build one.

If you want to understand the full scope of the Anki ecosystem before committing to it, our guide to spaced repetition study techniques and the Anki deck beginner’s guide cover the fundamentals. For AI-assisted deck creation on top of the Anki platform, see our PDF to Anki AI guide, which compares tools that generate .apkg decks automatically from uploaded documents.

Noji vs Anki: Which Should You Choose?

The answer depends on your platform, workflow, and how seriously you are committing to spaced repetition as a long-term practice.

Choose original Anki if:

• You want the most powerful free spaced repetition system available. Anki desktop is free, runs on every major operating system, and uses FSRS — the most research-backed scheduling algorithm currently deployed at scale.
• You are a medical student, law student, or serious language learner. The add-on ecosystem and shared deck library are purpose-built for high-volume memorization. The AnKing deck alone has more carefully curated medical content than any commercial alternative.
• You need desktop functionality. Anki’s desktop application, combined with AnkiDroid or AnkiMobile, gives you a full cross-device workflow. See our Anki for Mac download guide or the AnkiMobile setup walkthrough for setup details.
• You want access to community decks and add-ons. These require the original Anki. No other application has access to AnkiWeb’s shared library.
• You care about data ownership. Anki stores your cards and review history locally. You can export everything at any time. The data belongs to you unconditionally.

Consider Noji if:

• You are strictly mobile-only (iOS or Android) and find AnkiMobile’s interface less intuitive than a modern consumer app.
• You are an absolute beginner who wants a polished onboarding experience and do not intend to use add-ons, shared decks, or cross-device sync with Anki desktop.
• You have already evaluated Anki and specifically found its mobile interface to be the blocker — not the algorithm, not the ecosystem, just the UI.

That is a narrow use case. And even within it, the lifetime subscription at $74.99 needs to be weighed against AnkiMobile at $24.99 one-time — with AnkiMobile giving you the full Anki ecosystem on iOS. For most learners, the calculus strongly favors sticking with the original.

Consider Flashcard Maker if:

There is a third path worth knowing about, particularly for learners whose primary study environment is a web browser rather than a mobile device. Flashcard Maker is a Chrome extension (Manifest V3, desktop only) that takes a fundamentally different approach to the flashcard creation problem.

Rather than requiring you to open a separate app and manually type content, Flashcard Maker lets you highlight any text on any webpage and create a flashcard from it via right-click — without leaving the page. Cards are reviewed in Chrome’s side panel using FSRS spaced repetition, the same modern algorithm Anki now uses by default. All data is stored locally in IndexedDB, with no account required and full offline capability. You can import Quizlet TSV and CSV files and export your decks to a Quizlet-ready TSV file.

For researchers, developers, students reading documentation, or anyone doing substantial learning through web browsing, Flashcard Maker reduces the friction of card creation to near zero. It sits alongside your existing workflow rather than replacing it. The app is completely free with no subscription.

Looking for alternatives to Quizlet more broadly? Our Quizlet alternatives guide covers the full landscape. For a detailed ranking of every major flashcard app including Anki, Noji, and Flashcard Maker, see the best flashcard app guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Anki Pro an official product from Ankitects?

No. Anki Pro was made by a separate company with no affiliation to Ankitects or Damien Elmes. Ankitects pursued trademark action, which resulted in Anki Pro rebranding to Noji in June 2025. Ankitects has never released a paid "Pro" tier of Anki. The closest thing to an official premium Anki product is AnkiMobile for iOS, a $24.99 one-time purchase.

What happened to Anki Pro? Is it still available?

Anki Pro is no longer available under that name. As of June 2025 it was rebranded to Noji. Existing Anki Pro subscribers were migrated to Noji accounts. The underlying app — iOS and Android, subscription-based, SM-2 algorithm — continues under the new name.

Can I use Anki Pro / Noji with AnkiWeb?

No. Noji has its own proprietary sync system that only works between Noji installs. It does not connect to AnkiWeb and cannot sync with Anki desktop or AnkiDroid. If you study on Noji and also use Anki desktop, your review history will diverge and there is no way to merge them.

Is the ankipro vs anki algorithm comparison meaningful?

Yes. Original Anki uses FSRS by default since version 25.x. Noji (formerly Anki Pro) uses SM-2. FSRS is a newer, research-backed algorithm that models memory more accurately and produces better-optimized review intervals. SM-2 is well-proven but older. This is a real difference, not marketing. For long-term learning, FSRS produces measurably better retention per unit of review time.

Can I import my Anki decks into Noji?

Yes, with limitations. Noji accepts .apkg imports but does not carry over your scheduling history. Every imported card starts fresh, as if you had never studied it. You also lose AnkiWeb sync, add-on-dependent card features, and the ability to export back to .apkg format with Noji review history intact. The import is one-way and loses your accumulated study data.

Is AnkiDroid the same as Anki Pro?

No. AnkiDroid is the free, open-source Android client for the original Anki, maintained by volunteer developers. It is fully compatible with AnkiWeb sync and the .apkg format. It has no relationship to Anki Pro or Noji. AnkiDroid is the correct free Android companion for Anki desktop users.

What is the difference between Noji and AnkiMobile?

AnkiMobile is the official iOS client from Ankitects ($24.99 one-time). It syncs with AnkiWeb, supports all Anki card types, and is the iOS counterpart to Anki desktop. Noji is a separate commercial app (subscription-based) from an unrelated company with no AnkiWeb integration. For iOS users serious about Anki, AnkiMobile is the correct choice.

Is there a free alternative to both Anki and Noji?

Yes. Anki desktop itself is free for Windows, Mac, and Linux. AnkiDroid is free for Android. If you are on iOS, Flashcard Maker is a free Chrome extension (desktop) that uses FSRS spaced repetition with local-first storage and no account required. It is desktop-only (no mobile version), but works well for web-based study workflows. See our best flashcard app comparison for a complete overview.

Did Anki Pro ever add FSRS?

Not before the Noji rebrand. Anki Pro operated on SM-2 throughout its existence. Whether Noji will adopt FSRS in future updates is not publicly confirmed as of this writing. Original Anki made FSRS the default in version 25.x.