Filmina vs Knowt
Knowt is a free flashcard app with AI notes, built as a Quizlet alternative. Filmina is an AI study app that explains your lecture slides out loud, one at a time, and then builds the summary, the practice and a plan up to the exam from your own material. Pick Knowt to memorize cards; pick Filmina when you first need to understand the lecture.
Knowt started as the free answer to Quizlet's paywall, and it is still that: you make flashcards or import your Quizlet sets, and you study them with Learn mode, a matching game, spaced repetition and practice tests, without paying. On top of that it has AI that turns a PDF, a PowerPoint or a video into notes and flashcards, a lecture recorder, a voice tutor called Kai and AP, SAT and ACT prep.
What it does with your lecture slides is summarize them into notes and cards. Understanding the slide itself, the chart, the formula or the half-sentence your professor wrote, is still on you.
Knowt is a flashcard app that also makes notes. Filmina is a lecture explained out loud, slide by slide, that also makes the flashcards.
What Knowt does well
- Flashcards for free. Making, sharing and studying cards costs nothing, Learn mode and practice tests included. For a lot of students that alone is the reason to switch from Quizlet.
- It imports from Quizlet. Your old sets come over, along with sets from Kahoot and other quiz tools, so you don't start from zero.
- A huge shared library. Millions of notes and sets made by other students, searchable by course and textbook.
- Exam prep for high school. AP, SAT and ACT practice tests, mock exams and an AP score calculator.
- It's everywhere. Web, iPhone, Android and a Chrome extension, with live collaboration on the same set.
If what you need is to memorize a list of terms and you want to do it for free, Knowt is a very good choice.
Where it stops being enough
It summarizes the slide, it doesn't explain it
Upload a sixty-slide deck to Knowt and you get notes and flashcards back: a shorter version of what the slides say. If a slide was already clear, that works. If it wasn't, a shorter version of something you didn't understand doesn't help much, and memorizing its card helps even less.
Filmina starts at that slide. You open the deck and Mina, Filmina's tutor, explains each slide out loud, in order, with a frame around the part she's talking about. She reads charts, tables and scanned slides, and Filmina checks in code that no block on the slide was left unexplained.
The AI is on the paid plan
Knowt's free plan covers making and studying flashcards. According to its plans page in October 2026, the AI summarizers for PDFs, PowerPoints and videos, the lecture recorder, the podcast generator, the voice tutor and the ad-free experience are part of Ultra, at US$149.99 a year or US$24.99 a month.
Filmina's free plan, with no card, includes the explanation itself: 60 minutes to start and then 20 a month, plus an hour of recorded lectures, 30 questions to Mina and one practice per file each month. Pro is US$8 a month.
Cards are one way to practice
Flashcards are great for definitions and dates. An exam with a case, a problem or an "explain why" asks for something else: using the idea, not recognizing it.
Practice in Filmina asks you questions from your own lecture in eight formats: flashcards, multiple choice, matching, fill in the blanks, cases, in your own words, mixed and a timed mock exam. It adapts to how you're doing, and what you missed comes back the next day.
Your subject, not a pile of sets
In Knowt each file becomes notes and sets. In Filmina each file goes into its subject, and the subject is what you study: one summary and one mind map of everything, a chat that answers from all its lectures and says which slides each answer comes from, and a plan that spreads what's left across the days before the exam.
Filmina vs Knowt, point by point
| What matters | Filmina | Knowt |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Understanding your lectures and getting ready for the exam | Flashcards and AI notes, a free Quizlet alternative |
| Starting point | Your slides (PDF, PowerPoint, Keynote), documents, books and recordings | Your cards, Quizlet sets, PDFs, PowerPoints and videos |
| Explaining the lecture | Out loud, slide by slide, with a frame on the part being explained | Notes and summaries of the file; Kai, a voice tutor, on Ultra |
| Notes | Summary, mind map, podcast and key concepts per file and per subject | AI notes and summaries (on Ultra) and notes you write |
| Recording the lecture | Live transcription next to your notes, with a summary by topic | AI lecture recording summarizer, on Ultra |
| Asking questions | A chat per subject that says which slides each answer comes from | AI chat and the Kai voice tutor |
| Practice | Eight formats that adapt to how you're doing | Flashcards, Learn mode, matching, spaced repetition and practice tests |
| Study plan | Per subject, up to the exam date, with a calendar | Exam Predictor & Plan, from your class files |
| Shared library | No: you share a file, summary or map with a read-only link | Millions of notes and sets from other students |
| Where it runs | In the browser: computer, tablet or phone | Web, iPhone, Android and a Chrome extension |
| Price | Free with no card, and Pro monthly: US$8 (see pricing) | Free with ads; Ultra at US$149.99 a year or US$24.99 a month |
Memorizing or understanding first
The honest comparison is not which one is better, but which part of studying each one does.
Knowt, for memorizing
You have vocabulary, dates or definitions to learn, you already have sets in Quizlet, or you're preparing for the AP, SAT or ACT and want to do it for free.
Filmina, for the lecture
You have a deck of slides you didn't fully get and an exam in two weeks, and you need someone to explain it, then make you practice it and plan the days up to the exam.
Using both works: Filmina to understand the lecture, Knowt to drill the terms you still can't remember.
What Knowt has and Filmina doesn't
- Quizlet import and a public library. Filmina doesn't import card sets or have a library of other students' material.
- Unlimited flashcards for free. Filmina's free plan has monthly limits on explanation, questions and practice.
- AP, SAT and ACT prep. Filmina is built for college lectures, not standardized tests.
- Native apps. Knowt has iPhone and Android apps. Filmina runs in the browser and installs as an app from there.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Knowt?
It depends on what you use Knowt for. For flashcards, Quizlet and Anki are the usual alternatives. If what you need is to understand lecture slides before memorizing anything, Filmina explains each slide out loud and then builds the summary, the practice and an exam plan from your own material.
Is Knowt really free?
Making and studying flashcards is free, Learn mode and practice tests included, with ads. According to Knowt's plans page in October 2026, the AI summarizers for PDFs, PowerPoints and videos, the lecture recorder and the voice tutor are part of Ultra, at US$149.99 a year or US$24.99 a month.
Is Knowt better than Quizlet?
For studying flashcards without paying, many students prefer Knowt, because Learn mode and practice tests are free there. Both do the same job: help you memorize what is on the card. Neither explains the lecture the card comes from.
What's the difference between Filmina and Knowt?
Knowt turns your material into flashcards and notes so you can memorize it. Filmina explains your lecture slides out loud, one at a time, records and transcribes the lecture, and from your material builds the summary, the mind map, eight kinds of practice and a plan up to the exam.
Can Filmina make flashcards from my slides?
Yes. Flashcards are one of Practice's eight formats, and the questions come from your own lecture. What you miss comes back the next day.
How much does Filmina cost?
There is a Free plan, with no card, that comes with 60 minutes of explanation to start and then 20 a month. Pro costs US$8 a month and comes with 15 hours of explanation a month.
Keep comparing
- Filmina vs QuizletMemorizing flashcards, against understanding the lecture first.
- Filmina vs StudyFetchAn AI tutor for your files, against the slide explained out loud.
- Filmina vs MindgraspNotes that write themselves, against a lecture you actually understand.
- Filmina vs NotebookLMGoogle's two-host podcast, against the explained slide.
- All comparisonsEvery study app we've compared Filmina with, in one list.