Best Anki decks: where to find them and how to pick a good one

Most people get Anki decks from AnkiWeb's shared decks (ankiweb.net/shared/decks). They're free, you can search them by subject, and each one has a description and ratings. For languages, the best decks teach the most common words first, with example sentences and audio. Well-known ones are Kaishi 1.5k and Core 2k/6k for Japanese, and frequency decks for Spanish, French and Chinese.

Where to find decks

• AnkiWeb shared decks. The main source. Open it in a browser, or from Anki itself (Get Shared on the desktop, + then Get shared decks in AnkiDroid). Download the .apkg file and open it in Anki. You can't add a shared deck straight to your AnkiWeb account; import it into an app first, then sync.
• GitHub and project websites. Some bigger decks are kept on GitHub, where you can see the change history and report mistakes. Kaishi 1.5k is one: it's on GitHub and on AnkiWeb.
• Paid decks. Some courses sell their own decks. Refold, for example, sells a Spanish 1K vocabulary deck on its site. Paid isn't automatically better; compare it with the free ones first.

Shared decks are .apkg files, and they open the same way in Anki on a computer, AnkiDroid and AnkiMobile. Anki shared decks covers importing one without the author's review history, and AnkiDroid decks goes through it on Android.

Well-known decks by language

Japanese

• Kaishi 1.5k. About 1,500 beginner words, each with an example sentence, audio and a reading. A common first deck once you can read hiragana and katakana.
• Core 2k/6k. Decks built on iKnow's Core 2000 and Core 6000 lists: common words in study order, each with a sentence. There are many versions on AnkiWeb, with different orders and formats; read the descriptions. The first 100 words of the Core 2000 shows what's in it.

Anki for Japanese covers choosing between them, kanji, furigana and a daily pace.

Spanish, French and others

• Frequency decks. For most languages, look for a deck of the most common words, ideally with example sentences. Many are built from Routledge's A Frequency Dictionary of… series, which covers Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese and others. See the most common Spanish words for what the top of such a list looks like, and Anki for Spanish for setting up a Spanish deck, conjugation included.
• Sentence decks. Once you know a few hundred words, a deck of short sentences teaches grammar along with vocabulary. Sentence cards vs word cards explains the trade-off.

Chinese

• HSK decks. Decks built from the HSK exam word lists, one per level, are the usual choice if you're working toward the exam. How to study for the HSK covers the levels, and the most common Chinese words is a good place to start whether or not you take it.

Outside languages

• AnKing is the best-known deck for US medical school (USMLE Step 1).
• Ultimate Geography covers countries, capitals, flags and maps. It's kept on GitHub.

How to judge a deck

1. Look at the order. For a language, the most common words should come first. A deck sorted alphabetically or by topic takes much longer to pay off.
2. Check the size against your goal. 2,000 cards at 20 new cards a day is over three months of new cards, with reviews on top. How many new cards per day has the maths.
3. Check that cards have context. A word alone is easy to forget. An example sentence, audio, or a cloze card makes it stick.
4. Study 50 cards before you commit. If the cards are confusing or wrong, delete the deck. It's easier to switch in week one than in month three.

Anki shared decks has a longer checklist, including what to look for in the reviews and how deck updates work. Once you've picked one, the best Anki settings for language learning covers what to change in Deck Options.

Whatever deck you pick, it matters less than studying every day. Do flashcards work for language learning? covers what they do well and what they don't.

On iPhone

Decks, the app this site is for, comes with its own language decks in its library. It can't open Anki decks or .apkg files, and it's iPhone only.