Ace
Disclosure: we make Ace. Gizmo details below come from its App Store listing as of October 26, 2026; features change, so check there too. Gizmo is a trademark of its owner; Ace is not affiliated with it.
Short answer: Gizmo is a general AI flashcard app: it makes flashcards and quizzes from many kinds of input, has a big library of public decks, an AI tutor and study games. Ace is narrower: it builds practice questions only from your own lecture material, checks every answer against your file and shows the sentence it came from. It also adds put-in-order, diagram and formula-simulation questions, and live one-on-one duels.
What do Ace and Gizmo have in common?
Both turn study material into practice instead of making you write cards by hand, and both are built around active recall, the most reliable study technique there is. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who practised recalling a passage remembered far more of it a week later than students who spent the same time rereading it. Both also make it a game you can share with friends.
Where they split is the source of truth. Gizmo is designed to work from almost anything, including public decks other students made. Ace is designed around one rule: your exam is on your lecturer's material, so every question should come from it and be provable from it.
Where is Ace different from Gizmo?
| Ace | |
|---|---|
| Where questions come from | Only the file you upload: PDF, PowerPoint, Word, ePub, text or a YouTube lecture link |
| Checking | Every answer checked against your file; questions that fail are dropped before you see them |
| Proof on every question | The sentence from your material that backs the answer, shown under it |
| Beyond flashcards | Put the steps in order, label a diagram taken from your own slides, and formula simulations where you set the value |
| Scope | Pick the chapters you're being examined on |
| Playing with a friend | Live one-on-one duels on the same questions, taking turns against a clock |
| Planning | A study calendar for solo or duel sessions, plus streaks |
Why does "only from your file" matter?
Public decks and general knowledge are handy for common topics. For your course, they carry a risk: a card written by someone else, or an answer filled in from general knowledge, may define a term differently from your lecturer, use a different textbook's numbers, or cover things your module skipped. You can't easily spot that while you're still learning the material.
Ace removes the question. Nothing comes from outside your file, every answer is checked against it, and the backing sentence sits under each answer, so you always revise your lecturer's version. When you miss one, you read the exact line you need. See how Ace writes and checks questions, and our guide to trusting AI study answers.
When isn't a flashcard enough?
Flashcards are perfect for terms and definitions. Exams also ask you to sequence, identify and apply:
- Sequence: put a process in the right order, such as the stages of the cardiac cycle or the steps of a chemical synthesis.
- Identify: label the part on a diagram from your own lecture slides.
- Apply: in formula topics, move a value in an interactive simulation until you hit the target.
Ace writes these when your material contains them, alongside multiple choice and type-the-answer questions. Our guides on memorising anatomy and studying physics show where each type helps. Try Ace with your own lecture: your first study set is free.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Gizmo alternative for lecture material?
If your exam is on your own lecture slides, PDFs or recorded lectures, Ace builds questions only from that file, checks every answer against it and shows the source sentence under each one.
Does Ace have public decks?
No. Every set in Ace is made from material you upload, so it matches your course.
Which files can I upload to Ace?
PDF, PowerPoint, Word, ePub, plain text and YouTube lecture links.
Where can I use Ace?
In the browser at acenow.app and in the iPhone app.
Sources
- Gizmo (2026). Gizmo: AI Tutor. App Store listing. apps.apple.com
- Roediger, H. L. & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. PDF
