your study companion Benkyo Box

Benkyo Box

An app to help you improve your vocabulary and instantly recall anything interesting or important.

Download on the App Store
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how it works

Capture. Review. Remember.

Ever forget something important at a key moment? Checking your notes for the name of that person you want to build rapport with, or googling a concept mid-interview won’t help.

Benkyo Box helps you capture those important facts instantly, then tests how well you remember them. Before you know it, they are in your mind, ready for when you need them.

snap & learn

Turn any image into a study deck. Instantly.

Annotate a photo, your handwritten notes, hide parts of an diagram, and study them right away.

Powerful text recognition helps get it all in fast.

Photo annotation feature
study naturally

Swipe cards. Tap to reveal. No gamification guilt.

A clean, focused study mode that stays out of your way. It loads instantly, so you can complete a study session while your coffee brews.

stay consistent

Stay on top of your studies.

Today View keeps the next step obvious: what is due, what you have already handled, and where your attention is needed.

And using spaced repetition, widgets and reminders surface what’s most effective to study at the time.

Why did we make it?

Most study apps are built for students cramming for exams.

We built Benkyo Box for anyone looking to capture and learn anything in an effortless and delightful way.

A hand holding a television remote toward a screen.

Show Knowledge

Paste an episode wiki URL into Quick Entry to make character, backstory, and lore cards in one pass.

A small bird perched on a reed.

Bird Watching

Import a folder of field photos so each image becomes a card, then use filenames or CSV notes for the answers.

People watching a conference presentation.

Conference Notes

Take photos of presentation slides and annotate key ideas. Or paste meeting notes into Quick Entry and use Apple Intelligence to turn them into cards.

Sunlight over rows of grape vines in a vineyard.

Wine Regions

Take photos of wine labels or maps, then use hidden areas to remember appellations, grapes, and tasting notes.

Two people seated in a museum gallery looking at a painting.

Art History

Add arrows to paintings or notes to point at brushwork, composition, materials, and other visual clues.

A world map with colored pins placed across countries.

World Geography

Place emoji pins on maps to mark capitals, landmarks, routes, and regions with memorable visual anchors.

everything you need to study

Never in your way

Works offline

Study anywhere. No internet needed.

iCloud sync

Seamless across iPhone, iPad, Mac.

100% private

Data saved in iCloud is encrypted so no one can read it, not even us. Analytics are anonymized and never linked to you.

Visual focus

Annotate images, hide diagram labels to quiz yourself, and sketch right over your cards.

Easy import

Anki, CSV, text, and photo folders, and export back to Anki anytime. AI card generation in Advanced Learner.

Audio built in

Record audio on any card and play it back while you study. No add-ons required.

PDF & print

Export to PDF, print a deck, or fold your cards into a pocket-sized study zine.

Fast

Obsessively optimized and tuned by a developer that actually enjoys performance work.

for all your devices

Meticulously crafted for Apple platforms

Benkyo Box on Mac
Benkyo Box on iPad
Benkyo Box on iPhone

An actual Mac app

  • Not an iPad app running on Mac. Beautifully Liquid Glass. Still works on Sequoia.
  • Manage your library with multi-select, drag and drop, and more.
  • Drag folders, CSVs, or Anki decks right into the app.
  • Snap anything on screen into a card from the menu bar — there's even a global keyboard shortcut.
  • Jump straight to any deck from Spotlight.
  • Open as many folder windows as you'd like.

Perfect for iPad

  • Draw over images using Apple Pencil.
  • Multiple windows.
  • Drag and drop images into the Text Editor.

Always in your pocket

  • The fastest way to add study content on the go.
  • Home screen widget that shows your daily progress, and notifications that preview the actual card, so that you can practice your recall before even opening the app.
  • A Live Activity keeps your session on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, ready whenever you've got a sec.
  • Hand off to your Mac (and back) without losing your place.

Shortcuts Galore

  • You can do almost anything that you can do in the app from within Shortcuts.
  • Show your study progress, study cards (even from outside the app!), add and import cards from arbitrary text (perfect for integrating with AI content), CSV, and more.
  • Any setting can be changed with the Set Setting action.
  • In Advanced Learner: Extract cards from web articles, or use a shortcut to hide a folder from studies.
ready to start?

Free. No account needed.

Download and be studying in under a minute.

Download on the App Store
ready to go further?

Advanced Learner adds a few extra superpowers.

Benkyo Box is super capable and unobtrusive for free. When you want a little more, Advanced Learner unlocks these:

Cards from articles & text

Paste a link or text and Apple Intelligence drafts the cards for you. (Always give them a once-over before studying.)

Natural language cards

Type what you want to remember in your own words and Apple Intelligence writes the question and answer for you.

Arrows & emoji pins

Point to the exact spot worth remembering on maps, diagrams, or a visualized mind palace.

Equations

Use equations with LaTeX notation as questions and answers.

Recording transcripts

Your audio turns into text automatically, with the original recording kept right alongside it.

Deadlines

Test on Friday? Set a deadline and your reviews ramp up so it's fresh exactly when you need it.

Hidden folders

Tuck whole folders out of rotation so studies stay focused on what matters right now.

$20 a year, or was $40 $35 once, for a limited time.