NotebookLM’s new feature beats Quizlet at its own game

Having a memory worse than a goldfish while studying a major full of memorization-heavy courses every semester isn’t exactly the best combo. Unfortunately, that’s the combination I’ve been stuck with. I've tried every study technique there is, and only one really works best for me when I'm dealing with courses where I need to retain a lot: flashcards.

Now, when I hear flashcards, the first tool that comes to mind is Quizlet. I've relied on Quizlet since I was in middle school, and it's been my go-to companion for cramming definitions, formulas, and concepts right before exams. I've tested dozens of other flashcard apps, hoping to find something that could actually beat Quizlet, but nothing ever came close.

Well, until recently. My favorite AI tool, NotebookLM, just rolled out a set of learning-focused features, and one of them happens to be a Flashcards mode.

NotebookLM’s Flashcard Mode creates flashcards from your own notes

No worrying about hallucinations

NotebookLM's Flashcards feature is still fairly new, and the rollout was just recently completed. So, if you haven't had the chance to explore the feature yet, you can find it in the Studio panel alongside all of NotebookLM's other core learning features like Audio Overviews and Mind Maps.

The way the feature works is extremely simple. Once you're done uploading all the sources you'd like to study, like your lecture slides, PDFs, and handwritten notes, you can simply click the Flashcards button and NotebookLM will do all the hard work for you, creating appropriate flashcards automatically.

Now, if you've used Quizlet, or another mainstream flashcard tool before, you’re likely aware that you need to spend time manually creating all the flashcards. And unfortunately, this isn't a task you can wrap up in a couple of minutes. I've spent entire days creating flashcards for certain courses, and while it does benefit me in the end, I often feel that time could be better spent actually studying instead of building the materials to study from.

It’s like spending hours rewriting notes hoping to memorize them. That’s why NotebookLM's Flashcards feature is such a game-changer. It takes away the tedious part of creating flashcards and generates ready-to-study cards instantly.

NotebookLM’s Flashcards feature solves the biggest flaw in AI-generated flashcards

Flashcards straight from your own sources

NotebookLM is far from the first tool to introduce AI-powered flashcard generation. However, I feel like no other tool does it quite like NotebookLM. Most of the AI flashcard generators I’ve tried require you to describe the topic you’d like to create flashcards for, and then they generate cards based on whatever online sources they can pull from.

This means the results are often generic, and since they aren’t directly tied to the material you’ve provided, they frequently include content you haven’t even covered in class or need to study in the first place. While there are a few tools that let you upload the study material you’d like to generate flashcards from, I’ve found that they often hallucinate and still end up mixing in irrelevant or incorrect information.

On the other hand, NotebookLM's biggest strength has always been keeping everything grounded in your own sources. Even if you’re using a feature other than Flashcards, the tool only references the materials you’ve uploaded. This means you don’t need to worry about your flashcards pulling in random information from elsewhere. They’ll always be accurate, reliable, and aligned with what you actually need to study.

You can customize your flashcards to fit your study style

Tailored to how you study best

All the features NotebookLM adds always reflect customization at their core, and the Flashcards tool is no different. When you click the pencil icon on the top-right corner of the Flashcards button, a Customize Flashcards pop-up appears. Here, you can choose whether you’d like Fewer or More cards, or stick to the Default setting.

For reference, I used the Flashcards feature to study for a quiz a couple of hours ago, and my notebook had two sources. I picked the Default number of cards, and it generated 73 flashcards. You can also pick the Level of Difficulty from Easy, Medium, and Hard — with Medium being the default.

Finally, you can add custom instructions to tell NotebookLM what the focus of the flashcards should be. For instance, you can ask it to restrict the flashcards to a specific topic or source, or even limit the number of words that appear on the front of each card.

Everything you need, in the same app

When I sit down to study using flashcards, I often have a million different questions buzzing in my head. Since Quizlet is only focused on the flashcard feature, I have no option but to switch between different tools to get the answers I need. With NotebookLM though, I have all the learning features I need in one place. I’ve been using the AI tool for all my studying since it launched, and the Flashcards feature just makes it even better.

The Flashcards feature is also designed in a way that encourages learning. For instance, when you’ve uploaded your sources to a notebook, generated flashcards, and are studying them for the first time, you’re bound to have questions since you didn’t create them yourself. Instead of manually digging through your sources, each Flashcard’s Answer card has an Explain button you can click to get a deeper breakdown of the concept right then and there.

You can also ask any questions you might have in the Chat section, and NotebookLM will give you a concise explanation within seconds. The best part is that NotebookLM’s responses always include citations, meaning you can double-check the answer against your sources and be confident that what you’re learning is accurate.

NotebookLM also offers a variety of other learning tools, like Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Quizzes, Mind Maps, and more. This makes it a true all-in-one study companion, letting you switch between different formats depending on how you learn best, all without ever leaving your notebook.

NotebookLM’s free tier is more than sufficient for the average student

Why pay for Quizlet Plus?

The biggest complaint I’ve always had with Quizlet and other mainstream flashcard tools is that they lock away their best features behind paywalls. I use NotebookLM every single day, both for work and college, and not once have I felt the need to upgrade to the premium tier. When it comes to flashcards specifically, the free version lets you create 10 sets of flashcards daily.

Since your flashcards are saved in the Studio panel, and you don’t need to regenerate them each time, that limit is more than enough for consistent studying without ever feeling restrictive. NotebookLM’s other daily limits are pretty generous too. You can generate up to 10 quizzes, 3 audio and video overviews, and ask a total of 50 questions in Chat — all without paying a single dollar. In contrast, Quizlet locks many of its learning tools, like Study Guides and its Learn and Test modes, behind its Quizlet Plus subscription.

The Flashcards feature is NotebookLM's best feature yet

I’ve been playing around with NotebookLM since Google was experimenting with it in Labs, and I’ve watched it gradually evolve into the tool it is today. Out of all the features added over time, Flashcards easily stand out as the most useful for me. They take a method I’ve relied on for years and make it faster, smarter, and more efficient.