Filmina vs Turbo AI (Turbolearn)
Turbo AI, the study app formerly called Turbolearn, records your lectures and turns them, along with your PDFs and videos, into notes, flashcards, quizzes and podcasts. Filmina is an AI study app that explains your lecture slides out loud, one at a time, with a frame on the part being explained, and then builds the summary, the practice and a plan up to the exam from your own material. Turbo AI starts from what was said in class; Filmina starts from the slides you have to understand.
Turbo AI, which most students still know as Turbolearn, is built around an AI note taker: you record the lecture and get organized notes, then turn them into flashcards, quizzes, practice questions or a podcast, or chat with them. It also takes PDFs, YouTube videos, audio and Word files, handles formulas, chemical equations and code, and has a notes editor where classmates can edit together. It runs on the web, tablets and phones, with a free tier.
It is very good at capturing the lecture. The slides your professor projected, the ones the exam is written from, it treats like any other file to summarize.
Turbo AI turns what was said in class into notes. Filmina takes the slides your professor used and explains each one out loud, then turns them into notes and practice.
What Turbo AI does well
- Notes from the lecture itself. Record and you get organized notes, without typing during class.
- Many study formats. Flashcards, quizzes, practice questions, podcasts and a chat, from the same notes.
- Good with STEM. It says it handles math formulas, chemical equations, physics diagrams and code snippets.
- Notes you can edit together. A document-style editor with live collaboration.
- A free tier to start. Note generation, flashcards and quizzes are available without paying, with limits.
If your lectures are mostly talk and you want the notes written for you, Turbo AI is built for exactly that.
Where it stops being enough
Notes of the lecture are not the slides explained
Many courses are taught from a deck: the professor talks over sixty slides, and the exam comes from those slides. Notes from the recording tell you what was said. They don't sit you in front of slide 23, the chart nobody explained, and walk you through it.
Filmina starts there. Mina, Filmina's tutor, explains each slide out loud, in order, with a frame around the part she's talking about, and reads charts, tables and scanned slides. Filmina checks in code that no block was left unexplained, and on any slide you can ask about it or circle the part you don't get.
In Filmina, the recording and the slides end up together
Filmina also records: Record class transcribes live next to the notes you're typing, tells speakers apart and writes dictated formulas as formulas, and when it ends builds a summary by topic. If you sit far back, a classmate can record for you with a link.
The difference is where that goes. Your notes stay in the subject's notebook, and Mina takes them into account when she explains the slides: what your professor said makes it into the explanation of each slide.
Flashcards, or a plan up to the exam
Turning notes into flashcards and quizzes is a good start. The week before the exam you also need to know what to do each day and to come back to what you got wrong.
Filmina asks when your exam is and what it covers, and builds a plan per subject up to that date, on a calendar next to Google, Apple or Outlook. Practice has eight formats (flashcards, multiple choice, matching, fill in the blanks, cases, in your own words, mixed and a timed mock exam), adapts to how you're doing and brings back what you missed the next day.
Filmina vs Turbo AI, point by point
| What matters | Filmina | Turbo AI (Turbolearn) |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Understanding your lectures and getting ready for the exam | Taking notes from lectures and turning them into study tools |
| Starting point | Your slides (PDF, PowerPoint, Keynote), documents, books and recordings | A lecture recording, PDFs, YouTube videos, audio and Word files |
| Explaining the lecture | Out loud, slide by slide, with a frame on the part being explained | Written notes from the recording or file, and a chat |
| Recording the lecture | Live transcription next to your notes, with a summary by topic | AI note taker that records and writes the notes |
| Notes | Summary, mind map, podcast and key concepts per file and per subject | Organized notes and podcasts |
| Asking questions | A chat per subject that says which slides each answer comes from | Chat with your notes |
| Practice | Eight formats that adapt to how you're doing | Flashcards, quizzes and practice questions |
| Study plan | Per subject, up to the exam date, with a calendar | Not a feature it lists |
| Group work | Share a file, summary, map or note with a read-only link | Live collaboration on notes |
| Where it runs | In the browser: computer, tablet or phone | Web, tablet and phone apps |
| Price | Free with no card, and Pro monthly: US$8 (see pricing) | Free tier with limits; paid plans, prices in the app |
What was said, or what was projected
The honest comparison is not which one is better, but which part of studying each one does.
Turbo AI, for talk-heavy lectures
Your professor talks more than the slides say, you want notes written for you, or you study STEM and want flashcards from those notes fast.
Filmina, for slide-based courses
The exam comes from the deck, and you need each slide explained, your class notes next to it, and practice and a plan up to the exam date.
They don't step on each other: one captures the lecture, the other explains the slides. Filmina's Record class covers the first part too, so you can keep both in one place.
What Turbo AI has and Filmina doesn't
- YouTube videos. Filmina reads files you upload, not links.
- Notes you edit together in real time. In Filmina, what you share is a read-only link.
- Ready-made AP study guides. Filmina works from your own course material.
- Native apps. Turbo AI has phone and tablet apps. Filmina runs in the browser and installs as an app from there.
Frequently asked questions
What happened to Turbolearn?
Turbolearn is now called Turbo AI: turbolearn.ai redirects to turbo.ai, and the site describes it as formerly TurboLearn. It is the same study app, built around an AI note taker for lectures.
Is Turbolearn free?
Turbo AI has a free tier that covers note generation, flashcards and quizzes, with limits; unlimited use and advanced AI are on the paid plans. Its site doesn't list prices, so check them in the app.
What is a good alternative to Turbolearn?
For notes and flashcards from a recording, Knowt, Mindgrasp and StudyFetch work in a similar way. If your course is taught from lecture slides, Filmina explains each slide out loud, records and transcribes the lecture, and builds the summary, practice and a plan up to the exam from your own material.
What's the difference between Filmina and Turbo AI?
Turbo AI records the lecture and turns it, and your files, into notes, flashcards, quizzes and podcasts. Filmina explains your lecture slides out loud, one at a time, with a frame on the part being explained; it also records and transcribes the lecture, and builds the summary, the mind map, eight kinds of practice and a plan up to the exam.
Can Filmina record my lectures?
Yes. Record class transcribes live in the browser, on a computer or a phone, next to your notes, and when it ends builds a summary by topic. It uses hours from your plan: one a month on Free and ten on Pro.
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 MindgraspNotes that write themselves, against a lecture you actually understand.
- Filmina vs StudyFetchAn AI tutor for your files, against the slide explained out loud.
- Filmina vs KnowtFree flashcards, against understanding the slide first.
- Filmina vs NotionStoring your notes, against understanding the lecture.
- All comparisonsEvery study app we've compared Filmina with, in one list.