How to Turn YouTube Videos into Flashcards and Quizzes

To make flashcards or a quiz from a YouTube video or a PDF, either write the cards yourself from the transcript or text, or give the source to a tool that generates them. As of November 2026, ChatGPT, the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook, several study apps and SumAI can all do it. They differ mainly in which sources they accept and where they run.

Which tools turn a video or PDF into flashcards?

The table compares six ways to make flashcards, as each vendor documents them as of November 2026. Limits and prices change, so check the linked pages before you depend on one. SumAI is our app, so weigh our view accordingly.

Option	YouTube video	PDF	What you get	Runs on
Write your own	Yes, from the transcript	Yes, from the text	Cards in your own words	Paper or any flashcard app
ChatGPT	Paste the transcript; a pasted link is not documented for the mobile app	Yes, by upload	Interactive flashcards, study mode, quizzes in chat	Web, iOS, Android
Gemini app	Not documented as a source for flashcards	Yes, by upload	Quizzes, flashcards, study guides, practice tests	Web, iOS, Android
Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)	Yes, public videos with captions	Yes	Flashcards and quizzes with a difficulty setting	Web, iOS, Android
Study apps (listed below)	Most take YouTube links	Yes	Flashcards, quizzes or practice tests	Web and iOS; most also Android
SumAI	Yes, videos with captions	Yes, PDFs with selectable text	A multiple-choice quiz with a score, plus flashcards, with every summary	iPhone and iPad

How do you write your own flashcards from a video?

Writing your own flashcards is free, works with any source, and leaves you with cards in your own words. It is also the slowest route.

1. Open the transcript. On a YouTube video with captions, open the description and select Show transcript, as YouTube Help describes. Our guide to getting a YouTube transcript on iPhone covers the options.
2. Read it through and mark the ideas you would need to explain in an exam. For a one-hour lecture, aim for 10 to 20 rather than 80.
3. Turn each idea into a question on the front of a card and a short answer on the back.
4. Note the timestamp on each card so you can check it later.

For a PDF, do the same from the document’s headings and note the page number instead.

What makes a good flashcard?

A good flashcard asks one clear question that you have to answer from memory. These rules apply whether you write the cards or edit generated ones:

• One idea per card. A card with a three-part answer should be three cards.
• A question that requires recall. Ask “What does X do?”, not “X is important: true or false?” You should not be able to answer by recognizing the wording.
• Your own words. Rewrite cards that copy a sentence from the transcript. If you cannot rephrase one, you have found something you do not yet understand.

For example:

• Weak: “Testing effect: testing improves memory.”
• Better: “In the 2006 Roediger and Karpicke study, how did the tested group and the restudy group compare after one week?”

Why does testing yourself beat rereading?

Testing yourself beats rereading on delayed tests, which is the kind that matters for exams. In a 2006 study by Roediger and Karpicke, students who took a recall test on a passage remembered 56% of it a week later, and students who restudied the passage remembered 42%. After only five minutes the order was reversed: restudying scored 81% and testing 75%.

A 2013 review by Dunlosky and colleagues rated practice testing and distributed practice as the two high-utility techniques out of ten, and rated rereading as low. For flashcards that means two things: answer each card before you look at the back, and return to the deck on several days instead of in one long session.

No study cited here compares AI-written cards with cards you write yourself. What the evidence supports is the testing, whoever wrote the questions.

How do ChatGPT, Gemini and Gemini Notebook make flashcards?

ChatGPT, the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook can all generate flashcards. Of the three, only Gemini Notebook’s help pages describe making them from a YouTube link.

ChatGPT

OpenAI’s Help Center describes ChatGPT’s interactive flashcards made from a topic or from notes you upload: you flip a card, mark whether you knew it and shuffle the deck, and the set is saved in your library. Study mode is available across ChatGPT plans on web, iOS and Android, accepts uploaded PDFs and course materials, and can quiz you in the chat.

Free accounts get three file uploads a day. For YouTube, OpenAI documents transcript-based answers only for its browser extension on a computer, when the video has captions. We could not confirm that a YouTube link pasted into the mobile app is read, so paste the transcript text instead. See also SumAI vs ChatGPT.

Gemini app

The Gemini app can create a quiz, flashcards, a study guide or a practice test from a prompt, and Google’s help page says you can add files as the source. Google’s feature table lists quizzes and flashcards as available without a paid plan. The help page does not mention YouTube videos as a source for these study materials.

Gemini Notebook

Gemini Notebook is Google’s research notebook, renamed from NotebookLM in July 2026. You add sources to a notebook, including PDFs and links to public YouTube videos with captions, then generate flashcards or quizzes with a difficulty level. Google says the flashcards can be downloaded as a CSV file.

The iPhone and iPad app includes flashcards and quizzes. Gemini Notebook is the better choice when you want one set of cards drawn from several sources, because a notebook holds up to 50 sources without a paid plan. It requires a Google Account. See SumAI vs Gemini Notebook.

Which study apps make flashcards from videos and PDFs?

Dedicated study apps are built around coursework, with features such as recording a live lecture. All six below make flashcards, and most also make quizzes or practice tests. What differs is what they accept, according to each vendor’s own pages as of November 2026:

• Turbo AI (formerly TurboLearn AI): PDFs, documents, lecture recordings and pasted YouTube links.
• Knowt: PDFs, images, videos, slides, audio and YouTube links. It has a spaced repetition mode.
• Mindgrasp: PDFs, DOCX files, audio and video files, article links, and YouTube and Vimeo links.
• StudyFetch: PDFs, slides, lecture recordings, images of notes and YouTube links.
• Quizlet: pasted text and .docx, .pdf and .pptx files, which become a study guide with a flashcard set. Its upload page does not list YouTube links.
• Coconote, owned by Quizlet: links, audio, video, documents and websites. Its home page does not name YouTube.

All six have iOS apps and a free tier or a free trial. We could not verify the free limits, so check before you commit.

How does SumAI make flashcards and a quiz?

SumAI makes flashcards and a quiz as part of summarizing, so there is no prompt to write. Each summary of a video, article or PDF comes with a multiple-choice quiz that shows a score and a set of flashcards. The steps are in the Quick steps box above.

What to know before you rely on it:

• Sources. YouTube videos, Shorts and live streams need captions or auto-generated subtitles. PDFs need selectable text, so an image-only scan will not work.
• One source per set. The quiz and cards belong to one summary, which means one video, article or PDF.
• Checking. Any AI-generated question can be wrong or miss nuance. Ask AI answers from the source, with tappable timestamps for videos, and the full transcript is there to settle doubts.
• Platform. SumAI runs on iPhone and iPad. There is no Android app, web app or browser extension.
• Export. SumAI’s App Store listing describes PDF and Markdown export for summaries and does not list a flashcard export. If you need cards in another flashcard app, ChatPDF’s flashcard page lists Anki, Quizlet and Brainscape formats.

Which option should you choose?

The right flashcard tool depends on your device and on where your material lives:

• You are on an iPhone and want cards from one link or PDF: SumAI, which does not require an account. The Gemini Notebook app is the alternative if you use a Google Account and want to combine sources.
• You already use ChatGPT or Gemini: upload the PDF, or paste the transcript, and ask for flashcards.
• You need Android or a computer: Gemini Notebook, ChatGPT, the Gemini app, or a study app with a web version.
• You record live classes: a study app that lists lecture recording, such as Turbo AI or Knowt.
• You have time and the exam matters: write the cards yourself, or rewrite the generated ones.

Whichever you choose, the evidence favors answering the cards from memory on several different days. Our guide to studying from YouTube lectures gives a one-week schedule.