Medly AI vs Knowt

Knowt turns your notes, PDFs, videos and slides into flashcards, summaries and practice tests, and much of it is free. Medly gives you exam-style GCSE and A-Level questions and marks every answer you write. Both use AI, for different parts of revision.

The short answer

Choose Medly if you're sitting GCSEs or A-Levels and want to practise exam questions written to your board's specification, with every answer marked. Choose Knowt if what you mainly need is free flashcards and notes made from your own material, or its prep for AP, SAT and ACT exams.

How Medly and Knowt differ

We checked Knowt's details on its own website on 7 and 8 November 2026, using standard prices and leaving out time-limited offers. Knowt publishes its prices in US dollars. You can verify them on Knowt's home page, plans page, guide to the free plan and GCSE hub.

What Knowt does well

A lot of Knowt costs nothing. Learn Mode with unlimited rounds, spaced repetition, practice tests and a Match game are all free. Upload notes, PDFs, lecture videos, slides, or photos and scans of handwritten notes, and it makes flashcards, summaries and practice tests from them. There are millions of shared flashcard sets, class notes and study guides to use as well.

It has an AI chat, and Kai, its AI voice tutor, works on your own sets, or on all your files with Ultra. For AP students, Knowt grades free-response answers against the rubric with feedback, and it runs mock exams for AP, SAT and ACT. Knowt says it has 8.9 million users, and that at least 700,000 students used it for the May 2025 AP season.

Where Medly is different

Questions written for UK exams

Most of Knowt's material comes from what students upload or share. It has GCSE and A-Level hubs, some with exam-board pages for AQA, Edexcel and WJEC written by former students. Medly's questions are written to AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC, Eduqas, CCEA and CIE specifications and checked by teachers and examiners, across more than 14 question types, from multiple choice to 6-mark extended responses and essays.

That range matters. In AQA's GCSE Biology, for example, about 40% of the marks are for knowledge and understanding, and about 60% for applying that knowledge and analysing information. Flashcards help most with the first part. Writing full answers is how you practise the rest.

Every answer marked

Knowt grades AP free-response answers against the rubric, and its practice tests mark short answers right or wrong. Each answer you write on Medly comes back annotated, showing which marking points you hit, where marks were lost and what to change. The marking is tied to the specification points and assessment objectives for your board, and every result feeds a mastery score for that topic, so Medly can suggest what to practise next. If you're stuck, the AI tutor can work through the question with you, and it remembers what you've covered before.

Handwritten answers, marked

You'll sit most of your exams on paper, so Medly lets you practise that way. Write your answer on the built-in canvas with a pen, eraser and text tools, and handwriting recognition reads it so it can be marked. If you've done a past paper on paper, Upload & Mark lets you upload it and have that marked too. Knowt uses handwriting differently: it turns photos and scans of your notes into notes and flashcards.

Mocks run like the real thing

Medly Mocks are free mock exams set by examiners and sat by students across the country at the same time. They come with grade boundaries, a results day and a percentile showing where you sit in the cohort. Knowt's mock exams are for AP, SAT and ACT, and its practice tests are built from your notes.

Does Medly raise marks?

In a randomised controlled trial in GCSE science, students using Medly for 30 minutes a week for four weeks scored 22% higher on the post-test than classmates revising the same topic in their usual way, adjusted for where they started. That's 2.56 more marks out of 35 across 644 students, an effect size of 0.33.

The trial was designed, randomised and analysed by WhatWorked Education with Professor Steve Higgins of Durham University. You can read our summary of the trial or the paper on arXiv.

Price

Knowt's Basic plan is free, with unlimited sets and notes, 1 AI summary a month, 1 AP, SAT or ACT mock exam and 5 practice-room sessions. Knowt Ultra costs $95.99 a year or $24.99 a month. It removes ads and adds unlimited AI summaries, lecture and podcast tools, Kai on all your files and unlimited AP, SAT and ACT mock exams. Knowt publishes its prices in US dollars.

Medly's free plan includes 5 marked questions, 20 AI tutor messages and 1 uploaded paper a day, with lessons, notes, textbooks and flashcards that have no daily limit. Medly Mondays unlock unlimited practice in one subject from 9am on Monday to 9am on Tuesday. You don't need a card to sign up. Full access costs £24.99 a month or £180 a year and covers every subject on Medly.

Frequently asked questions

Is Medly or Knowt better for GCSE revision?

It depends what you need. If you want exam questions written to your board's specification, with every answer marked, Medly is built for GCSE and A-Level. If you want free flashcards and notes made from your own material, Knowt is built for that.

Is Knowt free?

Yes, for its core features: flashcards, Learn Mode and practice tests. Knowt Ultra costs $95.99 a year or $24.99 a month (US prices). Medly's free plan includes 5 marked questions a day, and full access costs £24.99 a month or £180 a year.

Is Knowt aligned to UK exam boards?

Partly. Knowt has GCSE and A-Level hubs, some with exam-board pages for AQA, Edexcel and WJEC written by former students, but most of its material comes from what students upload or share. Medly's questions are written to AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC, Eduqas, CCEA and CIE specifications.

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• Medly AI vs Save My Exams

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From Paul and Kavi at Medly