Record a lecture, then study from the notes and flashcards SozAI makes of it

The short answer

SozAI turns a recorded lecture into a transcript and notes, then into flashcards and a quiz. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and in the browser at web.sozai.app, all on one account. Record in the hall or upload the file afterwards (up to 500 MB per file), and SozAI detects the language for you, from 99. The first 30 minutes of transcription are free once and need no card; after that Premium costs from $4.99 a week or $79.99 a year in the App Store or Google Play. SozAI works on the recording after class. It does not caption the lecture live.

The study loop, from the lecture hall to the exam

Reading the transcript is where studying starts, not where it ends. Each recording goes through the same five stages, and you can stop at whichever one is enough for that course.

1. Record or upload. In the app, pick the Lecture mode before you start and tap Important when the lecturer says something will be on the exam. In the browser, web.sozai.app records the microphone with the same Lecture type and a Mark as important button; one web recording can run up to 3 hours. A file from the course page or a YouTube link works too.
2. Read the transcript. Every passage has a timestamp and a speaker label, so a question from the audience doesn't blend into the lecture. Fix misheard terms in the phone app before you build cards from them.
3. Get the notes. The Lecture template writes chapters, key terms, facts and a block called Likely to be asked. If you have the slides, add the PDF to the recording and the notes are made again from both.
4. Test yourself. A quiz has 5 to 15 questions with four options each. Under Why you get the explanation and a quote from the lecture, and Add mistakes to flashcards sends the questions you missed into the deck.
5. Review on a schedule. Review shows the cards due today. Rate each card Again, Hard, Good or Easy and the app decides when you see it next. In the last days before an exam, the examiner asks you questions out loud and grades your answers.

What you need, and where SozAI does it

Most study tools are in every app. Three are missing on the web for now: the examiner, the mind map and adding slides.

What it costs a student

There is no student price. Every account gets its first 30 minutes of transcription free, once, with every study tool included. You don't enter a card, and there is no trial that turns into a subscription.

Both paid plans include up to 700 hours of transcription. None of the study tools use transcription minutes; only transcribing does. Generating notes and quizzes has daily limits, and the app says when you reach one. A monthly plan exists only on the web, and cancelling it keeps your access until the end of the period you paid for. Current prices for your store are on the pricing page; refunds follow the refund policy.

Pages for the situation you're in

• A lecture in a language you're still learning: translate the transcript and the notes, and keep the original next to them.
• Exam prep from a semester of recordings: quizzes per lecture, a review queue with reminders, the examiner.
• Slides plus the recording: add the PDF and photos of the board so one set of notes uses both, then open it as a mind map.

For more depth, lecture notes shows unedited output from a public lecture, and quizzes and flashcards explains the review schedule in detail. Teachers and schools have their own page: SozAI for education.

Before you record a lecture

Whether you may record is your university's decision, and often the lecturer's. Ask first. If you need recordings because of a disability, many universities arrange them through the disability or accessibility office, and at some an approved accommodation means the lecturer can't refuse. Keep the recording for your own study and don't post it. None of this is legal advice: your course handbook has the rule that applies to you.

When SozAI is not the right tool

• You need live captions in the room. SozAI works on the recording after the lecture; live captioning is a service your university arranges.
• Your lectures are in a language that recognition handles badly. In our accuracy test the word error rate was 3.6% in English and 50% in Kazakh, so check a transcript before you study from it.
• You want your SozAI decks inside Anki or Quizlet. Cards and quizzes made in the app stay in SozAI. Paste the transcript into the free flashcard generator or the quiz generator instead.
• Your study group wants one shared space. Everyone has their own account and folders; there are no shared class workspaces.
• Your course is mostly problem sets. A quiz from a recording tests what was said. It won't give you practice problems to solve.