How many flashcard reviews per day to hit your goal
Calculate daily flashcard reviews: total reviews needed ÷ days available. Plan your Anki or SRS workload with spaced repetition benchmarks.
See step-by-step calculation
When to use this calculator
- A Spanish learner with 500 high-frequency words to consolidate before a trip in 2 months: 500 × 4 reviews = 2,000 ÷ 60 days = ~34 reviews/day, about 11 minutes of Anki.
- A first-year medical student with ~3,500 anatomy and pharmacology terms and 300 days until boards: 14,000 reviews ÷ 300 = ~47 reviews/day, a sustainable 16-minute block.
- A JLPT candidate splitting a kanji deck and a vocabulary deck: running the calculation once per deck to set each deck's daily quota without doubling up by accident.
- A law student with 600 key definitions and 60 days to the bar: production-style cards need ~5 reviews each → 3,000 reviews ÷ 60 = 50 per day (~17 minutes).
- A learner planning weekends off who recalculates with effective days only: 2,000 reviews ÷ 44 weekdays (2 months) = ~46 reviews per weekday instead of 34.
The Forgetting Curve in Numbers: % Retained Without Review
Without review, recall of new material falls below ~30% within a day and can approach single digits in a month — the case for daily spaced reviews.
| Time since learning | Ebbinghaus 1885 (savings %) | Murre & Dros 2015 replication (savings %) | Roughly equivalent to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 minutes | 58.2% | 44.2% | Same study session |
| 1 hour | 44.2% | 32.5% | End of a class |
| 9 hours | 35.8% | 27.0% | Later the same day |
| 1 day | 33.7% | 27.0% | Next-day review point |
| 2 days | 27.8% | 28.6% | First spaced interval |
| 6 days | 25.4% | 20.5% | ~1 week |
| 31 days | 21.1% | 4.1% | ~1 month (no review) |
Source: Murre JMJ & Dros J (2015), 'Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve', PLOS ONE (PMC4492928), Table 3, alongside Ebbinghaus's original 1885 savings data. 'Savings %' is how much faster relearning is vs. first learning — a direct measure of retention. The collapse to ~4% at 31 days with no review is exactly why spaced repetition exists: each well-timed review resets the curve before it bottoms out.
Anki's Default SM-2 Schedule: When Each Card Comes Back
On Anki defaults, a card rated 'Good' returns at ~1, 3, 8, 19, 48 days — about 4 reviews to 'learned', the basis for the reviews-per-card multiplier.
| Card stage | Default setting | What 'Good' does next | Effect on the interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning step 1 (new card) | 1 minute | Advances to step 2 (10 min) | Card stays in today's queue |
| Learning step 2 | 10 minutes | Graduates the card | Moves to the review queue |
| Graduating interval | 1 day | First real review tomorrow | First spaced interval |
| Easy interval | 4 days | (pressing 'Easy' on a new card skips ahead) | Graduates straight to 4 days |
| Starting ease | 2.50 | Next interval = previous × 2.50 | 1 → 3 → ~8 → ~19 → ~48 days… |
| Hard multiplier | 1.20 | 'Hard' grows the interval ×1.20 only | Slower growth, card returns sooner |
| Easy bonus | 1.30 | 'Easy' adds ×1.30 on top of ease | Faster growth, fewer total reviews |
Source: Anki Manual — Deck Options (docs.ankiweb.net), the default values of Anki's built-in SM-2 scheduler (derived from Wozniak's 1987 SuperMemo algorithm). With these defaults and a card always rated 'Good', intervals run roughly 1 → 3 → 8 → 19 → 48 days, so about 4 reviews reach a mature 30+ day interval — which is why this calculator multiplies card count by ~4 reviews before dividing by your days. FSRS (Anki's newer optional scheduler) tunes these per-card, but SM-2 remains the default and the basis of the ~4–6-reviews-per-card planning rule.
How it works
How It's Calculated
Reviews per day = Total reviews needed ÷ Days available
Total reviews needed = Cards in your deck × Reviews per card (~4–6)
Daily time ≈ Reviews per day × 20 secondsThe key planning insight of spaced repetition is that one card ≠ one review. Under SM-2-style scheduling (Anki's default, derived from Wozniak's 1987 algorithm), a card rated "Good" comes back at roughly 1 → 3 → 7 → 15 → 30 days. Reaching a 30+ day interval — the practical threshold for "learned" — takes about 4 reviews for easy recognition cards (vocab you only need to recognize) and 5–6 for production cards (things you must write, say or apply). Multiply your card count by that factor before dividing by days.
The ~20 seconds per review is the widely cited benchmark in SRS communities (Anki medical-school and language-learning user bases): it covers reading the prompt, recalling, flipping and rating.
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Reference Table
| Cards | Reviews/card | Total reviews | Days | Reviews/day | Daily time* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | 4 | 800 | 30 | 27 | ~9 min |
| 500 | 4 | 2,000 | 60 | 34 | ~11 min |
| 600 | 4 | 2,400 | 90 | 27 | ~9 min |
| 1,500 | 4 | 6,000 | 120 | 50 | ~17 min |
| 3,500 | 4 | 14,000 | 300 | 47 | ~16 min |
| 600 | 5 (production) | 3,000 | 60 | 50 | ~17 min |
*At ~20 seconds per review.
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Typical Cases
Case 1 — Spanish vocabulary before a trip
500 words × 4 reviews = 2,000 reviews; 60 days.
Case 2 — Medical boards
3,500 terms × 4 reviews = 14,000 reviews; 300 days.
Case 3 — Bar exam crunch
600 definitions you must produce verbatim × 5 reviews = 3,000 reviews; 60 days.
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Common Errors
1. Confusing cards with reviews. Planning "500 cards in 60 days = 8 per day" ignores that each card returns 4–6 times. The real workload is 2,000+ reviews — four times the naive estimate. Always multiply by reviews-per-card first.
2. Leaving no buffer for missed days. Life happens; reviews pile up exponentially when you skip days because due cards accumulate. Plan with ~90% of your calendar days (e.g., enter 54 instead of 60) so a bad week doesn't break the schedule.
3. Compressing below the maturity window. A card needs 4–6 sessions spread over at least 4–6 weeks to reach a long interval. Cramming 2,000 reviews into 10 days technically fits the formula but defeats the spacing — retention collapses within a month. Treat ~2 months as the practical minimum for any deck you want to keep.
4. Adding new cards while backlogged. When overdue reviews stack up, the right move is to pause new material, clear the backlog over a few days, then resume — not to push through with an ever-growing daily load.
5. Using the same multiplier for recognition and production cards. Cards you must write or say from memory lapse more often. Budget 5–6 reviews each (or multiply your total by 1.2×) for production decks, versus 4 for recognition-only vocab.
Example: TOEFL vocabulary in 60 days
Frequently asked questions
How many reviews does one flashcard actually need?
What is the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and why does it set my daily quota?
How many flashcard reviews per day is sustainable long-term?
Does the calculator account for weekends or days off?
What's the difference between new cards and review cards in Anki?
What happens if I fall behind and miss several days?
Is there a minimum number of days needed to learn a deck properly?
How many words should I plan for when learning a language?
Sources & references
Methodology & trust
Calculadora de educación revisada por el equipo editorial de Hacé Cuentas, contrastada con Wikipedia EN — Spaced Repetition, según nuestra política editorial y metodología.
Última revisión: June 22, 2026. Los parámetros se verifican periódicamente con las fuentes citadas.
Calculations run 100% in your browser. We do not store or transmit your data.
Indicative results. For critical decisions, consult a professional.
Rodríguez, M. (2026). How many flashcard reviews per day to hit your goal. Hacé Cuentas. https://hacecuentas.com/flashcards-daily-goal-retention
Contenido bajo licencia CC-BY 4.0 — reutilizable citando la fuente con enlace a Hacé Cuentas.