Anki to Notion: Convert Notes to a Database

This guide shows you how to move your Anki notes into a Notion database, turning flat flashcards into a structured, searchable, and filterable knowledge base. You’ll learn the two main methods—manual export/import and using a community-built converter—and get step-by-step instructions for each. By the end, you’ll have a Notion database with your Anki fields as columns, ready for further organization.

What You’ll Need

• An Anki desktop app (Anki 2.1 or later) with your notes/collection.
• A Notion account (free or paid) with a workspace where you can create a new page.
• Basic familiarity with Anki’s Browse screen and Notion’s database views.
• Optional: A CSV editor (like Excel, Google Sheets, or a text editor) if you need to clean up the exported data.

Step-by-Step

Method 1: Export Anki Notes as CSV and Import to Notion

1. Open Anki and go to Browse. Launch Anki on your computer. Press B or click “Browse” in the top toolbar to open the note browser.
2. Select the notes you want to export. Use the sidebar to filter by deck, note type, or tags. Click on the first note, then press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac) to select all visible notes. If you only want a subset, hold Ctrl/Cmd and click individual notes.
3. Export the selected notes. Go to File → Export (or right-click on the selection and choose “Export Notes”). In the dialog that appears:
   • Set Export format to Notes in plain text (.txt). This gives you a CSV-like file.
   • Make sure Include is set to All fields (or the specific fields you want).
   • Check Include tags if you want them as a column.
   • Click Export and save the file to a convenient location (e.g., Desktop).
4. Rename the file to .csv. The exported file will have a .txt extension. Right-click it and rename to anki_notes.csv (or any name ending in .csv). If Windows warns about changing the extension, confirm.
5. Open the CSV in a spreadsheet editor (optional but recommended). Open the file in Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc. You’ll see columns like “Tags” and then one column per field (e.g., “Front”, “Back”, “Extra”). This is a good time to clean up the data: remove HTML tags if you don’t want them, split combined fields, or delete columns you don’t need.
6. Create a new Notion page. In Notion, go to your workspace and click + New page. Give it a name like “Anki Notes”.
7. Create a database. On the new page, type /database and select Database – Inline or Database – Full page. This creates an empty table.
8. Import the CSV. With your database open, click the ⋯ (three dots) in the top-right corner of the database, then choose Import → CSV. Select your anki_notes.csv file. Notion will map the CSV columns to database properties. Review the mapping—make sure “Front” goes to a text property, “Back” to another, etc.
9. Confirm and finish. Click Import. Notion will create rows for each note. After import, you can rename properties, change property types (e.g., from text to select), and add new views (board, gallery, timeline) to suit your needs.

Method 2: Use a Community Converter (Anki to Notion)

Several open-source tools exist that automate the conversion, often preserving media and formatting better than a raw CSV. A popular one is “Anki to Notion” on GitHub. The general steps are:

1. Export your Anki collection as a .apkg file. In Anki, go to File → Export, choose Anki Deck (.apkg), and save the file.
2. Download and run the converter. Search for “Anki to Notion converter” on GitHub. Download the latest release (usually a Python script or a standalone executable). Follow the tool’s README instructions—most require you to run a command like python anki_to_notion.py your_deck.apkg.
3. Provide your Notion API token. The converter will ask for a Notion integration token. To get one, go to notion.so/my-integrations, create a new integration, and copy the token. You’ll also need to share the target database or page with that integration.
4. Run the conversion. The tool will read your .apkg, extract the notes, and create a new database in Notion with properties for each field. It may also upload media files to Notion.
5. Verify the result. Open Notion and check that the database was created correctly. If some fields are missing, you may need to adjust the tool’s config file to map field names.

Common Mistakes

• Exporting cards instead of notes. Anki’s export dialog can export cards or notes. If you export cards, you’ll get duplicate rows for cards with multiple card types. Always choose “Notes in plain text” to get one row per note.
• Forgetting to rename .txt to .csv. Notion’s import only accepts .csv files. If you skip the rename, the import option won’t recognize your file.
• Not cleaning HTML in fields. Anki fields often contain HTML tags like <br> or <div>. If you import them raw, your Notion database will show the tags as plain text. Use a spreadsheet to remove them or use a converter that strips HTML.
• Ignoring the Notion property type mapping. During CSV import, Notion may guess the property type incorrectly (e.g., a text field becomes a select). Always review the mapping before importing.
• Using an old Anki version. Older Anki versions may export in a different format that Notion can’t parse. Update Anki to the latest version.

Tips

• Use tags as a select property. In Notion, you can turn the “Tags” column into a multi-select property to filter notes by topic.
• Add a “Last Reviewed” property. If you want to keep track of your study progress, add a date property and update it manually or via a formula.
• Create different views. Use Notion’s gallery view to see your notes as visual cards, or a board view grouped by tag.
• Backup your CSV. Before importing, keep a copy of the CSV in case something goes wrong.
• Use a formula to combine fields. For example, create a formula property that concatenates Front and Back for a quick review.

Troubleshooting

• Import fails with “File not supported.” Ensure your file is a .csv (not .txt) and that it’s not empty. Also check that the file is not open in another program.
• Notion imports but all rows are in one column. This happens when the CSV delimiter is not a comma (e.g., semicolon). Open the CSV in a text editor and replace semicolons with commas, or re-export from Anki with the correct delimiter.
• Media files (images/audio) are not imported. The CSV method does not include media. Use the converter method or manually re-upload media to Notion. For the converter, make sure the media folder is in the same directory as the .apkg file.
• The converter script errors out. Check that you have Python installed and all dependencies (like requests) installed. Read the error message—it often points to a missing field or a bad API token.
• Fields are in the wrong order. In the CSV, the first row is the header. If you reordered columns in a spreadsheet, make sure the header row matches the data. Notion maps by column name, so keep the headers intact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I convert Anki notes to Notion without a desktop app?

No, the export requires the Anki desktop app. AnkiWeb does not offer a direct export to CSV. You can use AnkiDroid or AnkiMobile to sync, but the export must be done on a computer.

Will my images and audio be transferred?

With the CSV method, no. You’ll need to upload media manually. The converter method (Method 2) can transfer media if it’s configured correctly.

How do I keep the tags as a multi-select in Notion?

After importing, go to the database properties, find the “Tags” property, and change its type to “Multi-select”. Notion will automatically create options from the imported values.

Can I sync changes back to Anki?

No, this is a one-way conversion. Notion is not a spaced repetition tool. If you need to edit notes and have them back in Anki, you’d have to export from Notion and re-import to Anki, which requires a different process.

What if I have a huge collection (10,000+ notes)?

Notion can handle large databases, but the import may take a few minutes. If you hit API limits, split the CSV into smaller chunks (e.g., by deck) and import each separately.

Is there a way to automate this conversion regularly?

Yes, you can use the converter script in a scheduled task (e.g., cron job) if you’re comfortable with command line. However, it will overwrite the existing Notion database, so you’d need to handle duplicates.

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