Readlang to Anki: how to export your words and build cloze cards

Do you need Anki at all?

Before exporting anything, it is worth knowing what Readlang already does with your words, because for a lot of people it is enough.

Every word you click becomes a flashcard. Readlang orders them by frequency, so the words that appear most often in the language come up first, and schedules reviews with spaced repetition. A reminder email arrives once a day. On Premium you can practise the words from one specific book, which is handy when you want to finish a novel before moving on. None of that needs a second tool.

Anki still earns its place in three situations.

• You already have a deck. Years of cards, tags, a review streak. Splitting reviews across two apps is the fastest way to abandon one of them.
• You use more than one source. Words from a textbook, a class, a podcast and Readlang belong in one queue with one algorithm, and Anki is the neutral ground.
• You want to review offline. Readlang flashcards need the network, as the offline page explains; an Anki deck on the phone does not.

If none of those applies, stay in Readlang; the export below will still be there if you change your mind.

Step 1: export your words from Readlang

The export lives in the vocabulary manager, the list of everything you have translated. The steps are described by what you are looking for rather than by pixel, because the layout changes now and then.

1. Open the vocabulary manager, the list of your saved words, in a desktop browser, where Anki is running and the file is easy to handle.
2. Narrow the list if you want to. You can select words by hand, or, on Premium, work from the words of one particular book. For the first export, taking the whole list is fine.
3. Select the words you want and choose Action → Export.
4. Save the CSV file. Open it once in a spreadsheet to see the columns before you touch Anki; expect at least the word, the translation and the context sentence, and possibly more.

Two things to know at this point. The export is the whole selection, every time; there is no "since last export" option, and the section on limits below explains how people work around it. And the file is one-way: Readlang cannot read a CSV back in.

Step 2: import the CSV into Anki

The import is done in the desktop version of Anki, which syncs to the phone afterwards. Dialog names below are generic; the exact wording depends on your Anki version.

1. Create a deck for the language, or pick the one you already use.
2. Choose File → Import and select the CSV file. Anki reads the separator on its own; if the preview shows everything in one column, change the separator to a comma.
3. Pick the note type. Basic gives a word on the front and the translation on the back. Cloze gives the sentence with the word hidden, which is what the forum guide recommends and what the next section builds.
4. Map the fields. This is the only step that needs attention, and the table below covers both note types.
5. Set what happens to duplicates. Anki can skip or update a note whose first field already exists in the deck; choose skip if you re-export regularly.
6. Import, then open the deck and check a few cards before you start reviewing.

Field names are those of the default Anki note types. If you use a custom note type, map to whatever plays the same role.

Building cloze cards from the context sentence

A basic card asks "what does this word mean". A cloze card asks "which word fits this sentence", and because the sentence is the one you actually read, the card carries the memory of where you met the word. That is the whole argument of the June 2024 forum guide, and it is a good one.

Anki marks a cloze by wrapping the hidden part in double curly braces with a number: {{c1::word}}. Readlang does not add those markers, so you add them yourself, before or after the import.

Before import, in a spreadsheet

Add a column that takes the context sentence and replaces the word with the wrapped version. Every spreadsheet has a substitute function that does this in one formula per row. Import that column into the Text field of a Cloze note and the translation into Back Extra.

After import, in Anki

Import as Cloze with the raw sentence in Text, then open the card browser and add the markers by hand, or with a find-and-replace across the field. Slower, but you see each card once.

One honest limitation of both routes: the exported word is usually the dictionary form, and the sentence often has it inflected. A straight replace misses those rows. Expect to fix a share of cards by hand, or accept that some of them stay as plain sentence-plus-translation cards. It is not a reason to skip the method; it is a reason to check the deck before you start.

Known limitations, from the forum

Three things people ask for and do not get, all documented on forum.readlang.com. None of them stops the workflow above.

• No import into Readlang. Requested in 2024 and not built. Your Anki deck, your old word lists and your edited CSV cannot go back into Readlang. Treat Readlang as the source and Anki as the destination, never the other way round.
• No "only new words since the last export". A thread from April 2026 asks for it; it does not exist. The working habit is to export the whole list each time and let Anki skip the duplicates on import, which it does when the first field of a note already exists. Tag each import with the date so you can tell batches apart in the browser.
• No one-click Anki button. The export is a generic CSV, not an Anki package, which is why the field mapping is a manual step.

There is also the ordinary caveat of any export: the translation in the file is the one Readlang showed when you clicked, which may have been the first meaning rather than the one that fitted. The Readlang tutorial covers choosing a better translation while reading, which is the moment to fix it.

Readlang Mobile: what happens to your words there

Disclosure: we make Readlang Mobile, a native iOS app for iPhone and iPad. It is an independent product with no connection to Readlang or its developer, and the full comparison is on the Readlang vs Readlang Mobile page. On this question, the facts are short.

Words you tap while reading are saved automatically, without a click to add them. On Premium the app practises them for you: example sentences, multiple choice, and a game, all inside the reader, with nothing to export or import.

What it does not do is the subject of this page. There is no Anki export, no CSV export, and no way to import the vocabulary you built in Readlang. If Anki is the centre of your routine, Readlang is the better fit, because its CSV is the bridge and Readlang Mobile has none. Better to say that here than have you find it out after a week of tapping.

Where Readlang Mobile makes sense is the opposite habit: reading on a phone, wanting the words to be practised where they were collected, and not wanting a spreadsheet in the loop. Free for 30 translations a day; Premium is $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year, with the first year at $29.99 as of September 2026. The iPhone page shows what reading looks like there, and the Readlang guide is the map of everything else.

Questions people ask