13 Best Productivity Apps for Students in 2026 (Free Plans)

The best productivity app for most students is Notion: it holds notes, assignment lists and project boards in one workspace, and its Education plan is free with a school email at an accredited college or university. Want something simpler? Use OneNote for notes and Todoist for tasks, then add Anki for flashcards.

Every price, free-plan limit, student offer and platform below was checked against each vendor's own pricing page or help center and its US App Store and Google Play listings on October 3, 2026. Three details older guides miss: NotebookLM is now called Gemini Notebook, Forest is a free download on iPhone, and Mendeley has no Android or iPhone app.

In a hurry? Jump to: pick by job · the $0 setup · real student discounts · Notion · Todoist · Anki · Gemini Notebook · comparison table · what changed · how we picked · FAQs

Which productivity app do you need? Pick by job

Most students only need a notes app, a task list and a calendar (the first four rows). Add the rest when a specific problem shows up.

Job	Best pick	Why
Notes and tasks in one place	Notion	Free Education plan with a college email
Free typed class notes	OneNote	Free on every platform
Assignments and deadlines	Todoist	Reads dates like "every other Wednesday"
Class schedule and time-blocking	Google Calendar	Free; shareable with a study group
Handwritten notes and PDF markup	Goodnotes	Audio syncs to your handwriting
Group projects	Trello	Cards move across stages on a shared board
Shared files and documents	Google Drive	15 GB free
Flashcards that last	Anki	Spaced repetition; free on Android
Quick flashcards from shared sets	Quizlet	Search sets others shared; Learn is capped
Quizzing yourself on your own readings	Gemini Notebook	Answers cite your own sources
Staying off your phone	Forest	Free, with app blocking
Essays and proofreading	Grammarly	Free spelling and grammar checks
Citations and bibliographies	Zotero	Free; Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs

What is the best free productivity setup for students?

For $0, combine OneNote (or Notion) for notes, Todoist for tasks, Google Calendar for your schedule, AnkiDroid (or Quizlet) for flashcards, Gemini Notebook for your readings and Zotero for citations. It all runs on Android, iPhone and the web; the one exception is Anki's iPhone app, which costs $24.99 once. These are the free-plan ceilings you will hit first, with the cheapest fix:

• Todoist: 5 active projects. Use one project per semester and a section per class. Pro is $60 a year.
• Notion: 5 MB per file and 7 days of page history. The free Education plan (college email) lifts both limits.
• Gemini Notebook: 50 sources per notebook. Use one notebook per course; usage refills every 5 hours up to a weekly cap.
• Zotero: 300 MB of file sync. Library data syncs free without a limit; for PDFs, use WebDAV storage if your school offers it, or pay $20 a year for 2 GB.
• Quizlet: limited free Learn rounds and one practice test per set. AnkiDroid has no paywall.

Which student discounts on productivity apps are real?

Only a few of these apps give students anything. Here is what the vendors' own pages offered on October 3, 2026, who qualifies and how to claim it:

• Notion Education plan: free. For students and educators at accredited colleges and universities. Sign in with your school email as the account's main email (thousands of school domains work, not just .edu, but student IDs are not accepted), then go to Settings → Upgrade plan → Get free education plan. K-12 students are excluded, and you re-verify yearly or the workspace reverts to Free.
• Google AI Pro: free for 12 months. For eligible US college students ages 18 and up, including those whose 2025 trial expired. Redeem it on Google's Gemini student page by December 31, 2026. It adds 4x usage limits and 5 TB of storage. A payment method is required, and it renews at $19.99 a month unless you cancel.
• Microsoft 365: 50% off, or free through your school. Microsoft's US student page lists 50% off Microsoft 365 Personal for enrolled college students, verified with a school email or proof such as a dated student ID or class schedule. Students with an eligible school email can also get the free web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook (Office 365 Education A1). Microsoft's education page also advertises a limited-time 12 months of Microsoft 365 Premium; terms apply.
• No individual student discount listed: Todoist, Goodnotes (its Education version is free for K-12 schools on Apple devices only) and Grammarly (its discounts are for institutions).

Notion's plan has no end date while you can re-verify. Google's is a one-year trial that starts billing afterward, so set a reminder to cancel.

The 13 best productivity apps for students

Each entry lists the free plan, the student deal and where the app runs, as checked on October 3, 2026.

1. Notion: best all-in-one workspace

Notion lets you build one linked workspace for lecture notes, an assignment database and group-project boards, then view the same database as a table, board, timeline or calendar. The cost of that flexibility is setup time, so start from a template rather than a blank page.

• Free plan: unlimited pages and blocks for one person, 5 MB per uploaded file, 7 days of page history and up to 10 guests. Notion AI is a limited trial.
• Student deal: the free Education plan (college and university students only) removes the upload cap, extends page history to 30 days and allows 100 guests. Plus normally costs $10 per member per month billed yearly, or $12 monthly.
• Works on: Android, iPhone, web, Windows, Mac.

Best for: college students who want one customizable hub and have a school email. High school students can still use the Free plan.

2. Todoist: best simple task manager

Todoist is built for fast capture. Type a task with a date, such as "read chapter 4 tomorrow at 4 pm" or "lab report every other Wednesday," and its smart Quick Add recognizes the date and the repeat on its own.

• Free plan (Beginner): 5 active personal projects, 3 custom filters, 1 week of activity history, 5 MB file uploads and automatic reminders; custom reminders need Pro. Every plan caps a project at 300 active tasks.
• Paid: Pro is $7 a month or $60 a year (7-day free trial) and raises the caps to 300 projects and 150 filters. Todoist's pricing FAQ lists no student discount.
• Works on: Android, iPhone, web, Windows, Mac, Linux.

Best for: students who want a clean to-do list that follows them across phone and laptop. Use one project per semester and a section per class to stay under the 5-project cap.

3. Goodnotes: best for handwritten notes and PDF markup

Goodnotes turns a tablet and stylus into digital paper. You can handwrite, mark up lecture PDFs, search your handwriting, and record audio that stays synced to what you were writing at that moment.

• Free plan: up to 3 files in total (notebooks, whiteboards and text documents), 100 MB of storage, 5 MB imports, 20 minutes of audio recording and watermarked exports.
• Paid: Essential is $11.99 a year and Pro is $35.99 a year, each with a 7-day trial; an AI Pass add-on is $9.99 a month. Pro is the plan that syncs your library between Apple and non-Apple devices. No individual student discount is listed.
• Works on: iPad, iPhone, Mac, Android, Windows, web. It is Apple-first: the Android app is rated 3.9 stars on Google Play (Oct 23, 2026) versus 4.7 on the US App Store (Oct 3, 2026).

Best for: iPad and Apple Pencil users who annotate lecture slides and textbooks by hand.

4. Microsoft OneNote: best free app for typed notes

OneNote organizes notes as notebooks, sections and pages, which maps neatly onto one notebook per semester and one section per class. Pages can embed web content, audio and video.

• Free plan: every supported version of OneNote is free to download and use; an optional Microsoft 365 subscription unlocks extra features.
• Student deal: students with an eligible school email can get Office 365 Education A1 for free, and Microsoft lists 50% off Microsoft 365 Personal for college students (details above).
• Works on: Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, web. OneNote for Windows 10 became read-only on October 14, 2025, so use the OneNote app from the Microsoft Store instead.

Best for: students who type their notes, especially at schools that already run on Microsoft accounts.

5. Anki: best for long-term memorization

Anki schedules each flashcard with spaced repetition, so you review a card shortly before you are likely to forget it; the newer FSRS scheduler is available in deck options. That suits vocabulary, anatomy, formulas and anything else you must recall for months.

• Free plan: the desktop app (Windows 10+, macOS 13+ and Linux; current version 26.09.3), AnkiWeb sync and AnkiDroid on Android are all free.
• Paid: AnkiMobile, the official iPhone and iPad app, is a one-time $24.99 purchase on the US App Store; Anki says purchases fund its development.
• Works on: Android (AnkiDroid), iPhone and iPad (AnkiMobile), Windows, Mac, Linux, and browser study through AnkiWeb.

Best for: exam-heavy students who must retain a lot for months. Android users get all of it free; iPhone users pay once.

6. Quizlet: best for quick flashcards from shared sets

Quizlet is a faster start than Anki: type, paste or upload notes to build a set, search sets other people have shared, then study with Flashcards, Match, Blocks and other activities.

• Free plan (per Quizlet's help center): flashcard sets, Flashcards mode and the Match, Blocks and Blast activities; a limited number of Learn rounds and one practice test per set; limited AI Practice Tests and Study Guides; and free high-school-level Expert Solutions.
• Paid: Plus (with monthly usage limits) and Plus Unlimited add full Learn and Test, AI study tools and offline study; annual plans start with a 7-day free trial. Quizlet shows prices by country and we could not confirm the US price, so check the upgrade screen before paying.
• Works on: Android (the free app shows ads), iPhone, web.

Best for: students whose class already has shared sets and who want quick recall practice. Choose Anki when cards need to last for months.

7. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM): best AI study aid for your own materials

Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026. Upload your own slides, PDFs, Google Docs or public YouTube links and its chat answers only from those sources, with clickable citations. It can also generate flashcards, quizzes, reports, mind maps and audio and video overviews.

• Free plan: 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, and up to 500,000 words or 200 MB per source. Usage is metered and refills every 5 hours up to a weekly cap.
• Student deal: Google AI Pro, free for 12 months for eligible US college students (see above), raises the limits to 500 notebooks and 300 sources per notebook. Google says Gemini Notebook is a core service for Workspace for Education accounts; if a school email cannot open it, the school's admin has to turn it on.
• Works on: web, Android, iPhone. Your Google Account needs a verified age.

Best for: students who want to quiz themselves on their own lecture slides and readings. Check your school's AI policy, and verify the citations rather than trusting a summary. For more AI apps, see our guide to the best AI apps for iPhone.

8. Google Calendar: best free scheduler

Calendar is the simplest way to see where your week goes: keep classes, work shifts and study blocks on separate calendars, and share a calendar with a study group (you can share any calendar you own).

• Cost and platforms: free with a Google account on Android, iPhone and the web.

Best for: every student juggling classes plus a job or activities. Pair it with Todoist or Notion for tasks.

9. Forest: best focus timer for phone distraction

Forest grows a virtual tree while you focus, and the tree dies if you leave the app. Forest says players have helped plant more than 2 million real trees through Trees for the Future.

• Free plan: free to download and use on iPhone and Android with no time limit: a focus timer, Deep Focus app blocking, Time Guard for one app or site and one soundscape. The Android listing shows ads.
• Paid: Forest Plus is optional (custom app allowlists, more Time Guard apps, focus analytics, all soundscapes). The US App Store lists subscriptions from $5.99 a month or $32.49 a year ("Early Bird" prices). The older Forest Pro upgrade is no longer sold.
• Works on: Android, iPhone, iPad, Chrome and Firefox.

Best for: students who lose study hours to their phone and respond to a game-like nudge.

10. Grammarly: best writing checker

Grammarly checks spelling, grammar and tone as you type in documents, email and the browser, and on Android and iPhone through its keyboard app.

• Free plan: $0, with spelling, grammar and tone checks and 100 AI prompts a month.
• Paid: Pro is $12 a month billed yearly ($30 billed monthly). It adds full-sentence rewrites and tone adjustments, raises AI prompts to 2,000 a month and includes everything the old Premium plan had, such as plagiarism detection. Its plans page mentions discounts for educational institutions but none for individual students.
• Works on: Android and iPhone keyboards, browser extension, desktop apps and the web editor.

Best for: students who write essays in English. Follow your course's AI-use rules before using AI rewrites on graded work.

11. Google Drive: best for group projects in Docs and Slides

Drive keeps shared files in one place, and you can share a Google Doc, Sheet or Slides file so teammates edit the same copy instead of emailing versions around.

• Free plan: every Google Account includes up to 15 GB, shared across Drive, Gmail and Google Photos.
• Student deal: the Google AI Pro student plan (see above) includes 5 TB of storage for 12 months.
• Works on: Android, iPhone, web, Windows, Mac.

Best for: group projects and anyone who writes in Google Docs. If 15 GB runs out, compare options in our guide to the best cloud storage and backup apps.

12. Trello: best visual board for group projects

Trello lays a project out as cards in lists on a shared board, and you move cards through stages such as To do, Doing and Done.

• Free plan: up to 10 boards and 10 collaborators per Workspace, unlimited cards, 10 MB per file and 250 Workspace command runs a month.
• Paid: Standard is $5 per user per month billed yearly ($6 monthly). Trello's pricing FAQ mentions an education discount but gives no student terms.
• Works on: Android, iPhone, web.

Best for: group projects where everyone needs to see who is doing what. For solo planning, Todoist or Notion is lighter.

13. Zotero: best free reference manager

Zotero collects sources from your browser, stores and annotates PDFs, and builds citations in Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs. It is open source, run by a nonprofit, and has official Android and iPhone apps.

• Free plan: the app and library syncing are free without a limit; file sync includes 300 MB of Zotero Storage (or WebDAV).
• Paid: 2 GB for $20 a year, 6 GB for $60, unlimited for $120.
• Works on: Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac, Linux and a web library.

Mendeley instead? Mendeley Reference Manager has desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux plus a web version, but Mendeley withdrew its Android and iPhone apps on March 15, 2021. A free account has 2 GB of storage and 5 Reading Assistant AI questions; paid plans run $4.99 to $14.99 a month. Choose it only if your lab or library already uses it.

Best for: anyone writing cited papers, a thesis or a literature review.

Quick comparison: free plans, US prices and Android, iPhone and web support

Prices and plans checked October 3, 2026, in US dollars. "Yearly" means billed annually. Google Play ratings were rechecked on October 23, 2026, and the number in brackets is how many ratings that score comes from.

App	Free plan	Paid (US)	Runs on	Google Play rating
Notion	Unlimited blocks, 5 MB files	Plus $10/mo yearly; Education free	Android, iPhone, web, desktop	4.6 (401K)
Todoist	5 projects, 3 filters	Pro $60/yr or $7/mo	Android, iPhone, web, desktop	4.6 (307K)
Goodnotes	3 files, 100 MB	$11.99/yr or $35.99/yr	Android, iPhone, iPad, web, desktop	3.9 (37.7K)
OneNote	Free on every platform	Optional Microsoft 365	Android, iPhone, web, desktop	4.5 (1.5M)
Anki	Free on Android and desktop	iPhone app $24.99 once	Android, iPhone, web, desktop	4.7 (168K, AnkiDroid)
Quizlet	Flashcards, Match; capped Learn	Plus or Plus Unlimited	Android, iPhone, web	4.7 (922K)
Gemini Notebook	100 notebooks, 50 sources each	Google AI Plus or Pro	Android, iPhone, web	4.7 (344K)
Google Calendar	Free	None	Android, iPhone, web	4.6 (4.89M)
Forest	Timer, app blocking	Plus subscription (optional)	Android, iPhone, Chrome, Firefox	4.3 (814K)
Grammarly	Spelling, grammar, 100 AI prompts	Pro $12/mo yearly	Keyboards, browser, desktop, web	4.3 (264K)
Google Drive	15 GB shared	Google One or AI plans	Android, iPhone, web, desktop	4.3 (10.8M)
Trello	10 boards, 10 collaborators	Standard $5/user/mo yearly	Android, iPhone, web	3.8 (123K)
Zotero	App free; 300 MB file sync	2 GB $20/yr	Android, iPhone, desktop, web	4.6 (1K)

What changed that older student-app lists miss

• NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook (announced July 16, 2026), and free usage is metered by a compute-based limit.
• Forest is a free download on iPhone and Android, with an optional Plus subscription.
• Mendeley has had no Android or iPhone app since March 15, 2021; Zotero does.
• Todoist lists no student discount, and its free plan is 5 active projects.
• Grammarly Premium became Pro, and Quizlet's Learn, Test and AI tools are Plus features with limited free access.
• OneNote for Windows 10 is read-only since October 14, 2025.
• Evernote's free plan is 50 notes, 1 notebook and 1 device, which is why it is not on this list.

Popular student apps that did not make the list

These four appear in many student-app roundups. Each is a reasonable app; here is why none holds a place among the 13. Evernote, Freedom and Obsidian were checked on October 3, 2026, and MyStudyLife on October 23, 2026.

• Evernote. The free plan is capped at 50 notes, 1 notebook and sync on 1 device, with 1 GB of storage, which is tight for a full semester of notes. Eligible college students can get 40% off a one-year Evernote Advanced subscription. OneNote and Notion, both in the 13, give students more room on their free or education plans.
• Freedom. A blocker for distracting sites and apps on Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac and Chromebook. Basic blocking is free; Premium adds scheduling at $8.99 a month, $3.33 a month billed yearly, or $99.50 once for Forever access, and it comes with a 7-day trial. Freedom lists no student discount. Forest, already in the 13, handles focus for free, so pick Freedom only if you need hard blocks across every device.
• Obsidian. A note app built on plain Markdown files, free for personal and commercial use with no sign-up. Optional Sync costs $4 a month billed yearly ($5 monthly) and Publish costs $8 ($10 monthly); students, faculty and nonprofit staff get 40% off both. It asks for more setup than Notion or OneNote, which is why those two hold the general-notes slots.
• MyStudyLife. A free school planner for your class timetable (including rotating and week A/B schedules), homework, exams and reminders, on Android, iPhone and the web. The free plan allows up to 5 active tasks at a time and one free AI timetable scan; the paid MSL+ upgrade, with a 7-day free trial, removes the task cap and adds unlimited Scout AI, subtasks, repeating tasks and Google, Apple or school calendar sync. Google Play lists its in-app purchases at $6.99 to $119.99 per item. It ranks high on several student lists, but on October 23, 2026 its Android app was rated 2.6 stars from about 59,500 ratings, the lowest of any app we looked at here, and last updated August 21, 2026. Google Calendar plus Todoist covers the same ground on Android with 4.6-star ratings, so start there and try MyStudyLife only if you need its rotating-timetable setup.

How we picked and verified this list

This guide is built from vendor documentation and store listings, not from our own use of the apps. On October 3, 2026 we:

• Reviewed the current US top results for "productivity app for students" and related searches to see which apps recur and what those pages leave out. Most skip exact free-plan limits and how to claim student discounts.
• Checked each app's own pages: the pricing page or help center plus the US App Store and Google Play listings, recording the free-plan limits, US price, student offer and platforms as of that day. Quizlet's pricing page shows prices by country and we could not confirm its US price, so we describe its plans instead.
• Applied four rules: a usable free plan or a verifiable student deal, Android support (or a full web version), a distinct job, and active development. Zotero replaced Mendeley because only Zotero has Android and iPhone apps.

Prices change without notice, so confirm at checkout. "None listed" means none on the pages we checked.

Bottom line

Start small. Pick one notes app (Notion if you have a college email, otherwise OneNote), Todoist for tasks and Google Calendar for your schedule. Add Anki (free on Android) or Gemini Notebook when exams start, and Zotero when your first cited paper is due. Claim the free Notion Education plan and the Google AI Pro student year (US college students, by December 31, 2026) before you pay for anything. For more picks, see our guides to the best Android apps and the best budgeting apps for college students.