Anki Settings for Beginners
The Only Setup Guide You Need in 2026
TL;DR
Beginners should enable FSRS (built into Anki 23.10+, toggled at the bottom of a deck's Options), set new cards to 10-15 per day, and use learning steps of "1m 10m". This prevents a review backlog while FSRS learns your forgetting curve. If even that feels like too much, Flica ships FSRS pre-configured with zero setup.
The most common way to quit Anki in the first month isn't boredom, it's the backlog. You install it, download a 5,000-card deck, leave the defaults on, and three weeks later you open the app to 400 cards due and a wall of reviews you'll never clear. That dread is almost always a settings problem, not a discipline problem. Anki's out-of-the-box configuration was tuned for power users, not first-time learners.
The good news: you only need to change about five things, and none of them require understanding the algorithm. This guide gives you the exact numbers to enter, explains what each one does in plain English, and tells you honestly when Anki's setup is more friction than it's worth. By the end you'll have a config that keeps your daily reviews under control while the algorithm does the heavy lifting.
Why Default Anki Settings Frustrate Beginners
Anki's defaults assume you already know what you're doing. The biggest culprit is the new-cards-per-day limit, which defaults to 20. That sounds modest, but every new card you study today comes back tomorrow, then a few days later, then a week later. Twenty new cards a day compounds into 100+ reviews within two weeks, and most beginners burn out before they ever see the long-term payoff of spaced repetition. The second problem is that Anki historically shipped with the older SM-2 algorithm, which is less forgiving of irregular study and produces clumpier intervals. The defaults aren't broken, they're just calibrated for someone with an established habit and a tolerance for big review days. As a beginner, your goal is the opposite: small, sustainable sessions that build the habit first.
The default 20 new cards/day isn't 20 cards of work, it's 20 cards today plus the accumulated reviews from every previous day. That's why backlogs explode in week three.
Step-by-Step: Enable FSRS First
Before touching anything else, turn on FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler). It's the modern scheduling algorithm built directly into Anki 23.10 and later, no add-on required. FSRS was trained on hundreds of millions of real reviews and personalizes intervals to your own memory, achieving similar retention with roughly 20-30% fewer daily reviews than the old SM-2 default. For a beginner that means a smaller, gentler review load from day one. Importantly, FSRS lives in Deck Options, not the main Preferences window. Here's the exact path:
- Open Anki and confirm you're on version 23.10 or newer via Help → About
- Click the gear icon next to a deck and choose Options
- Scroll to the very bottom of the Deck Options panel: on Anki 24.04+ you'll find a dedicated "FSRS" section to toggle; on 23.10-24.03 enable it under the "Advanced" section at the bottom
- Leave Desired Retention at 0.90 (90%): the recommended default for almost everyone
- Click Save: FSRS is now active for your reviews
Don't touch the "Optimize FSRS Parameters" button yet. The optimizer needs at least a few weeks of your own review history before it has enough data to help. The default parameters are excellent for new users.
Daily New Card Limits: What Number to Choose
This is the single most important setting for not burning out. Lower your new-cards limit so the downstream review load stays manageable. A rough rule: your peak daily reviews settle around 8-12 times your new-cards number once a deck matures. So 20 new cards a day can mean 150-240 reviews daily at steady state, which is a part-time job. Pick a number you could sustain on your busiest day, not your best day. To change it, open a deck, click the gear icon → Options → Daily Limits, and set "New cards/day".
| New cards/day | Who it's for | Approx. steady-state reviews/day |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Very busy schedule, casual learner | ~40-60 |
| 10 | Recommended starting point for most beginners | ~80-120 |
| 15 | Motivated learner with 20-30 min/day free | ~120-180 |
| 20 (default) | Established habit, exam crunch only | ~160-240 |
Start at 10. If after two weeks you're clearing your reviews comfortably with time to spare, bump it to 15. It's far easier to raise the limit than to dig out of a backlog. For more on choosing a sustainable number, see our guide on how many flashcards to study per day.
Learning Steps Explained (and What to Set)
"Learning steps" control how a brand-new card is drilled before it graduates into FSRS's long-term scheduling. Each step is a short delay you wait before seeing the card again within the same session or day. Anki's default is "1m 10m", meaning a new card reappears after 1 minute, then 10 minutes, then graduates. FSRS works best when every learning step finishes the same day, so the default "1m 10m" is exactly what beginners want: keep it. If you'd like one slightly longer same-day gap, "10m 1h" is a fine alternative. You'll find this under deck Options → Learning steps.
- 1m - catches cards you got wrong; re-shows them almost immediately
- 10m - a short spacing gap within the same study session
- Keep every step inside the same day - FSRS schedules all longer intervals itself once the card graduates
Keep learning steps short, few, and same-day. Long step chains (like "1m 10m 1h 1d 3d") trap cards in the learning phase and bloat your daily count. FSRS guidance is to avoid steps longer than about 12 hours, so "1m 10m" is the sweet spot.
Deck Options Every Beginner Should Change
Beyond FSRS and limits, a handful of deck options make daily study smoother. Open any deck's options (gear icon → Options) and adjust these. None are mandatory, but each removes a common source of friction or confusion for new users.
- Maximum reviews/day: raise this to 9999 or higher. Capping reviews sounds protective but actually causes hidden backlogs, since due cards silently pile up uncounted. Limit new cards instead, never reviews.
- New card insertion order: set to "Sequential" if you're working through an ordered deck (like a textbook), or leave "Random" for vocabulary
- Bury related cards: turn on "Bury new siblings" and "Bury review siblings" so you don't see the front and back of the same fact on the same day
- Display order, New/review order: "Mix with reviews" keeps sessions varied; "Show after reviews" front-loads your due cards first
- Easy days (optional): if you study less on weekends, FSRS can automatically reduce load on chosen days under "Easy Days"
Apply these to your main deck's options group and any new deck inherits them. You don't need to reconfigure every deck individually unless you want different limits per subject.
When the Setup Feels Too Complex (an Honest Comparison)
Here's the honest part. Even with this guide, Anki asks a beginner to make a series of decisions before they've studied a single card: which version they're on, where FSRS lives in the deck options, what retention to target, how to size limits, what learning steps mean. Anki is free, open-source, and extraordinarily powerful, and for many learners that depth is exactly the appeal. But the setup is genuinely a barrier, and the interface wasn't designed for someone who just wants to start memorizing today. If you've read this far and still feel unsure whether you've configured it correctly, that uncertainty is the real cost of Anki's flexibility. It's worth understanding the tradeoff clearly before you commit weeks to a tool. Our comparison of FSRS vs SM-2 and the detailed FSRS setup walkthrough go deeper if you want to master Anki properly.
| Setup task | Anki (manual) | Pre-configured app |
|---|---|---|
| Enable FSRS | Find it at the bottom of Deck Options | On by default |
| Set daily limits | Decide and enter per deck | Sensible defaults built in |
| Learning steps | Understand and type the values | Handled automatically |
| Optimizer | Run manually after weeks of history | Runs in the background |
| Time to first card | 10-20 min of configuration | Under a minute |
A Simpler Alternative: Flica
This guide helps you get Anki right. But if the settings still feel overwhelming after reading this, Flica ships FSRS pre-configured, zero setup, same algorithm. There's no deck options panel to scroll through, no learning steps to type, and no optimizer to remember to run, because the scheduling that Anki makes you assemble by hand is already assembled. Sensible daily limits are built in, and FSRS, the exact same modern algorithm covered in this article, is running from your very first card. Flica also generates flashcards with AI: paste a PDF, a YouTube link, or your own notes, and it builds a deck for you, so the other big beginner hurdle, making cards in the first place, disappears too. It's free on iOS and Android. If Anki's depth excites you, follow this guide and enjoy it. If you'd rather skip straight to studying, Flica is the shortcut.
Flica = the same FSRS algorithm from this guide, but pre-configured. No settings to choose, plus AI card generation from PDFs and YouTube. Free on iOS and Android.
FAQ
What Anki settings should I use as a beginner?
Three changes matter most. Enable FSRS (gear icon → Options, scroll to the bottom of Deck Options, toggle FSRS, keep retention at 90%), lower new cards per day to 10-15 in each deck's Daily Limits, and set learning steps to "1m 10m". Also raise the maximum reviews/day to 9999 so reviews never silently pile up. That's the whole essential setup for a new user.
Should beginners use FSRS or SM-2 in Anki?
Beginners should use FSRS. It's built into Anki 23.10 and later, takes a single toggle at the bottom of Deck Options to enable, and achieves similar retention to the older SM-2 algorithm with roughly 20-30% fewer daily reviews. Fewer reviews means a gentler, more sustainable load while you're building the habit. There's no real reason to start a new collection on SM-2 in 2026.
How many new cards per day should a beginner set in Anki?
Start with 10 new cards per day. Anki's default of 20 compounds into 150-240 daily reviews once a deck matures, which overwhelms most beginners. At 10 new cards you'll settle around 80-120 reviews a day. If you're clearing those comfortably after two weeks, raise the limit to 15. Always raise gradually rather than digging out of a backlog later.
What are the best Anki learning steps for beginners?
Use "1m 10m", which is also Anki's default. The card reappears after 1 minute, then 10 minutes, then graduates into FSRS's long-term schedule. FSRS works best when every learning step finishes the same day, so avoid steps longer than about 12 hours and avoid long chains like "1m 10m 1h 1d 3d", which bloat your daily count and fight against FSRS. If you want one longer same-day gap, "10m 1h" also works.
Do I need to run the FSRS optimizer as a new user?
No. The default FSRS parameters are excellent and work well out of the box. The optimizer only helps once you have at least a few weeks of your own review history for it to learn from. Running it too early, with little data, can actually produce worse intervals than the defaults. Just enable FSRS, study normally, and revisit the optimizer after a few weeks.
Why do I have so many reviews due in Anki?
Almost always because the new-cards limit was set too high. Every new card returns multiple times over the following weeks, so a high daily intake compounds fast. Lower new cards per day to 10, make sure maximum reviews/day is set high (9999) so nothing is hidden, and let the existing backlog drain before adding more new material.
Your Beginner Setup, in One Checklist
You don't need to understand the math to set Anki up well. Do these four things: enable FSRS at the bottom of Deck Options (retention 90%), set new cards to 10-15 per day, set learning steps to "1m 10m", and raise maximum reviews to 9999 so backlogs can't hide. That configuration keeps your daily sessions short and sustainable while the algorithm schedules everything for long-term retention.
If the menus and decisions still feel like too much, that's a fair reaction, Anki was built for depth, not for a frictionless first day. In that case a pre-configured app gives you the same FSRS algorithm without the setup. Either path works. What matters is that you start with settings that keep you studying past week three.
Skip the Setup, Keep the Algorithm
Flica is a free flashcard app with FSRS pre-configured, the same modern algorithm this guide walks you through, but with zero settings to choose. Paste a PDF or YouTube link and AI builds your deck. Available on iOS and Android.
References
- Anki Manual - Deck Options & FSRS: https://docs.ankiweb.net/deck-options.html
- Anki Manual - Getting Started (new cards and limits): https://docs.ankiweb.net/getting-started.html
- Su, J., Ye, J., Nie, L., Cao, Y., & Chen, Y. (2023). Optimizing Spaced Repetition Schedule by Capturing the Dynamics of Memory. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering.
- Ye, J., Su, J., & Cao, Y. (2022). A Stochastic Shortest Path Algorithm for Optimizing Spaced Repetition Scheduling. Proceedings of the 28th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 4381-4390.
- Wozniak, P. A. (1990). Optimization of Learning (SM-2 algorithm). SuperMemo Research
- Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology