Anki Remote for More Sustainable Reviews: Learn how to choose a daily Anki workload, change your new-card and review limits, and avoid creating a review backlog you can't maintain.
One of the first things many new Anki users ask is:
How many Anki cards should I do per day?
The answer isn't simply "as many as possible."
Your daily Anki workload needs to fit your schedule, your course load, the amount of material you're learning, and the amount of time you can consistently dedicate to reviews.
Anki gives you control over two important daily limits: New Cards/Day and Maximum Reviews/Day. Understanding the difference between them can help you build a routine that is challenging without becoming overwhelming.
In this guide, we'll cover how many cards to do per day, how to change your Anki card limits on desktop and mobile, what happens when you add too many new cards, and what to do when your review workload starts getting out of control.
How Many Anki Cards Should You Do Per Day?
There is no universal number of Anki cards that every student should complete each day.
A reasonable workload for one student might be completely unrealistic for another.
Your starting point should depend on:
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How much material you're learning
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How many classes you're taking
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How difficult the material is
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How much time you have for Anki
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How many reviews you already have
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Whether you're preparing for a major exam
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How much time you need for practice questions and other study methods
For general coursework, starting with 10–30 new cards per day can be a reasonable range to test. Students with heavier workloads or dedicated exam preparation may eventually use more, but the important question is whether the resulting review workload remains manageable.
Think of your new-card limit as a commitment.
If you choose 20 new cards today, you're not only committing to learning those 20 cards today. You're also creating future reviews.
That's why a smaller number that you can maintain consistently is often better than an aggressive number that causes you to fall behind.
New Cards vs. Review Cards: What's the Difference?
Anki's daily limits can be confusing because new cards and review cards are not the same thing.
New Cards/Day
New Cards/Day controls how many cards that you have not previously learned Anki can introduce each day.
For example, if your limit is 20, Anki can introduce up to 20 new cards during that day's study sessions.
This is the number you should pay the most attention to when deciding how much new material you're adding.
Maximum Reviews/Day
Maximum Reviews/Day limits how many review cards Anki will show you in a day.
These are cards you've already learned and that Anki has scheduled for review.
If you reach the review limit, Anki may stop showing additional reviews even if more are waiting. The official Anki manual notes that this setting can be useful for smoothing out unusually large review loads, but hiding reviews can also leave cards waiting for later.
For most students who are trying to maintain their reviews, the goal should not be to use this setting to permanently avoid a large workload.
Instead, if reviews are consistently becoming too much, look first at whether you're introducing too many new cards.
How to Change Your Daily Anki Card Limit
Changing your daily card limit only takes a few steps.
On Anki Desktop
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Open Anki and find the deck you want to study.
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Click the gear icon next to the deck, or open the deck and select Options.
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Find the Daily Limits section.
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Adjust New Cards/Day to control how many new cards are introduced.
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Adjust Maximum Reviews/Day if you need to change the review limit.
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Save your settings.
The exact layout can vary between Anki versions, but the current Anki manual confirms that deck options contain both New Cards/Day and Maximum Reviews/Day.
On AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad
AnkiMobile also lets you customize daily limits through the deck options.
Open your deck, access its options, and look for the daily limits for new cards and reviews.
AnkiMobile's documentation confirms that the number of new cards introduced each day can be customized in the deck options.
What About AnkiDroid?
On Android, the same basic concept applies: open the relevant deck's options and adjust the daily new-card and review limits.
Because the interface can change between versions, look for the Daily Limits, New Cards/Day, or Maximum Reviews/Day settings rather than relying on an exact button location from an older screenshot.
What Happens When You Increase Your New-Card Limit?
This is where many Anki users get into trouble.
Increasing your new-card limit can feel great at first.
Suppose you normally learn 20 new cards per day and decide to increase that number to 50.
On day one, you may simply see more new cards.
But those cards don't disappear after you answer them.
They enter Anki's learning and review system and will need to be seen again.
The Anki manual specifically notes that consistently learning new cards increases your future review workload. For example, Anki estimates that consistently learning 20 new cards per day can eventually result in roughly 200 reviews per day, although actual workloads vary depending on scheduling and individual study patterns.
That's why today's new-card limit should be chosen with tomorrow's workload in mind.
A Simple Way to Choose Your Daily New-Card Limit
Instead of asking:
"What's the maximum number of cards I can finish today?"
Ask:
"What's the number I can realistically keep doing every day?"
Consider these five questions:
1. How much time do you actually have?
If you have 30 minutes available for Anki, don't choose a workload that routinely takes two hours.
2. How many reviews are already due?
If your review queue is already large, adding more new cards may not be the best move.
3. How many other classes are you taking?
Your Anki workload has to coexist with lectures, assignments, labs, practice questions, and other responsibilities.
4. Are you preparing for a specific exam?
A student six months away from an exam has a different timeline from someone who has an exam next week.
5. Can you maintain the number for several weeks?
This is the most important question.
A daily target should be sustainable—not just achievable on your most productive days.
A Practical Starting Range
These aren't rules, but they can give you a starting point:
| Study situation | Reasonable starting point |
|---|---|
| New to Anki | 5–15 new cards/day |
| Regular coursework | 10–30 new cards/day |
| Heavy science coursework | 20–40 new cards/day |
| Dedicated exam preparation | Adjust based on timeline and review workload |
| Large existing backlog | Reduce or pause new cards temporarily |
These numbers are starting points, not targets you have to hit.
If 20 new cards produce a workload you can comfortably maintain, there is no reason to increase it simply because someone else is doing 50 or 100.
What If Your Anki Reviews Are Getting Out of Control?
If your review count keeps increasing, don't automatically respond by increasing your maximum reviews or trying to complete increasingly long sessions.
First, ask why the workload is growing.
Common causes include:
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Adding too many new cards
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Missing several days of reviews
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Making cards that are unnecessarily difficult
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Using Anki for information that doesn't need repeated memorization
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Taking on a deck that is too large for your timeline
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Trying to learn multiple large decks at once
If you are already behind, consider temporarily reducing or stopping new cards while you work through the existing review workload.
The current Anki manual specifically recommends stopping new-card introductions when you have a review backlog, because continuing to introduce new material can make the backlog worse.
For a more detailed strategy, see our guide on How to Avoid Falling Behind in Anki This Semester.
Should You Set Maximum Reviews to 9999?
You'll see this recommendation frequently in Anki communities.
The idea is simple: don't artificially hide reviews just because you've reached a daily limit.
There is some logic behind it, but it shouldn't be treated as a universal rule.
Anki's Maximum Reviews/Day setting exists for a reason. The official manual explains that it can be used to smooth out unusually large review workloads. However, if you repeatedly hit the limit, you're effectively pushing some reviews into the future.
For many students, the better approach is:
Use a realistic new-card limit first.
If your reviews remain manageable, you can keep your review limit high enough that it doesn't routinely hide due cards.
If your workload is consistently too large, reduce the number of new cards rather than relying on an extremely high review limit to solve the problem.
How Many Anki Cards Should You Do for the MCAT?
MCAT students often face a particularly large Anki workload because they may be working through thousands of cards over a limited period.
Your ideal number depends heavily on how far away your MCAT is and how large your deck is.
For example, someone beginning MCAT preparation several months before the exam has more time to introduce cards gradually than someone who is only a few weeks away.
Don't choose your daily number based solely on the size of your deck.
Choose it based on:
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Your test date
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Deck size
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Current review workload
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Content-review schedule
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Practice-question schedule
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Available study time
Our Best Anki MCAT Decks in 2026 guide goes deeper into choosing a deck and avoiding unnecessarily large workloads.
If you're specifically trying to determine your MCAT Anki workload, you can also use our Best Anki Settings for MCAT Prep guide.
The important point is that Anki should support your MCAT preparation—not consume the time you need for practice questions and full-length exams.
Starting a New Semester? Set Your Card Limit Early
The beginning of a semester is one of the best times to establish a sustainable Anki workload.
It's easy to start with an ambitious goal when your schedule is still relatively light.
Then lectures, assignments, labs, exams, and other responsibilities start accumulating.
Instead of waiting until your reviews become overwhelming, decide early how much Anki you can realistically maintain.
Our How to Set Up Anki for a New Semester guide walks through building a sustainable semester routine, including choosing a realistic number of new cards.
The goal isn't to maximize your daily card count.
It's to create a system that still works when school gets busy.
What If You Miss a Day of Anki?
Missing one day doesn't mean you need to panic.
Anki is designed around scheduled reviews, so missed reviews can accumulate.
The worst response is often to immediately double your new-card target or create an enormous marathon session that makes you exhausted.
Instead:
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Resume your normal review routine.
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Reduce or pause new cards if necessary.
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Give priority to overdue reviews.
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Adjust your workload temporarily if your schedule is unusually busy.
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Return to your normal new-card rate once your workload is manageable.
Anki's own documentation explains that when you fall behind, the scheduler prioritizes cards that have been waiting the longest.
For a detailed recovery strategy, see How to Avoid Falling Behind in Anki This Semester.
Don't Confuse More Cards With Better Studying
It's tempting to measure your progress by card count.
You might think:
"I did 500 cards today, so I must have had a great study day."
Not necessarily.
The better questions are:
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Did you actively recall the information?
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Did you understand the cards you missed?
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Can you explain the concepts without looking?
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Can you apply the information to practice questions?
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Can you maintain this workload tomorrow?
Anki is a tool for spaced repetition and retrieval practice.
It isn't a competition to see who can finish the most cards.
A sustainable 150-card review that you can repeat every day can be more useful than forcing yourself through 500 cards once and burning out afterward.
How an Anki Controller Can Help With Long Reviews
Once your daily workload becomes consistent, you may notice another problem: reviewing hundreds of cards means performing the same keyboard or mouse actions over and over.
That's where an Anki controller helps.
An Anki controller, Anki clicker, or Anki Remote lets you control common Anki actions without repeatedly reaching for your keyboard.
For students who spend a significant amount of time reviewing, the goal isn't simply to press buttons faster.
It's to reduce the small interruptions that can make long sessions uncomfortable.
Anki Remote is designed specifically around this type of one-handed Anki workflow.
If you already have a sustainable daily workload, a controller can make those longer sessions easier to manage. But it shouldn't be used as a reason to keep increasing your card count indefinitely.
The goal is still sustainable studying.
A Simple Daily Anki System
If you're unsure where to start, keep it simple.
Step 1: Choose a realistic new-card number
Start lower than your maximum theoretical capacity.
Step 2: Protect your reviews
Don't continually add new material while your existing workload is becoming unmanageable.
Step 3: Track your workload
Pay attention to how many reviews you are doing and how long they take.
Step 4: Adjust gradually
If your workload is consistently easy to maintain, increase your new-card limit gradually.
If reviews are becoming overwhelming, reduce new cards.
Step 5: Leave time for other studying
Anki should not consume all of your study time.
Leave room for lectures, textbooks, practice problems, question banks, labs, and full-length exams.
Bottom Line
There is no single correct number of Anki cards to do every day.
The right number is the number you can learn, review, and maintain consistently without creating an overwhelming backlog.
Start with a manageable new-card limit, pay attention to your review workload, and adjust gradually as you learn how your schedule and memory demands respond.
If your reviews start piling up, reduce new cards rather than simply pushing yourself to do more and more every day.
And if you're spending a lot of time in Anki, an Anki controller such as Anki Remote can make repetitive review actions more convenient—but the real goal is still the same: build a study system you can sustain.
