Frequently Asked Questions

Ostella is an Anki add-on for medical students, optimized for the AnKing Overhaul deck (Step 1 and Step 2). You talk through scenarios and mechanisms instead of flipping cards one at a time. Ostella searches your deck locally, underlines card-backed facts, compares what you say with the cards, and suggests Anki ratings (Again, Hard, Good, Easy). Nothing is written to Anki until you confirm it. Confirmed ratings go to Anki's own FSRS scheduler.

Every new install starts with 10 free credits (1,000 credits = $8 of AI usage). They are claimed automatically; no credit card or access code is needed. Beta students can enter an access code for a larger allowance. Ostella Pro costs $10 per month and includes up to 40 credits a day and 1,000 a month. You can cancel at any time from Manage subscription in the app. Local deck search, card browsing and the progress view spend no credits.

Your Anki collection, local chat history and search index stay on your computer. When you use study features, your message and relevant card excerpts pass through our US-hosted server to the AI providers that write the reply. Our server does not store chats, cards or handouts. It keeps your account limits and a 30-day request log without text (timestamps, models, duration, status, size) to diagnose errors. Optional summary usage numbers are off by default. Details are in the Privacy Policy.

Ostella uses Google's paid Gemini API (Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and Gemini 3.8 Flash). Google states that data sent this way is not used to train models and is logged only for a limited period to detect abuse. Chat replies may also route to Lithos (GLM 5.3 Ultra), which operates under zero data retention by default. For broad questions, short snippets (up to 600 characters of your message and 200 per candidate card) go via OpenRouter to a decision endpoint operated by or for Liquid AI. Voice dictation runs on your computer with Whisper.cpp; audio is not uploaded.

Local deck search, card browsing and the progress view work offline once your index is built. Chat replies, recall grading and handout matching need an internet connection to reach the AI providers.

Ostella needs Anki 25.02 or newer on Windows 10/11 or macOS. On macOS, Apple Silicon (M1 to M4) is recommended for local voice dictation.

To delete the data on your computer, remove the add-on from Anki and delete the Ostella folder in your Anki profile. To delete server-side account records, spending logs, optional contact information or submitted feedback, send a message through the contact page.

No. Ostella is a study aid for concept review. It is not medical advice, not a medical device, and must not be used for patient care or clinical decisions. The AI can be wrong; verify clinical decisions against primary medical guidelines. Never enter protected health information (PHI) or patient identifiers.

Add a lecture PDF or syllabus. Ostella extracts the text on your computer with PDFium; the PDF file itself is not uploaded. It compares each slide and paragraph with your deck and shows which facts the deck already covers and which are specific to your school. You can also attach diagram excerpts to card backs.

A Chrome and Edge side panel that keeps Ostella beside question banks or lecture portals. Alt+Shift+P attaches the current page or question stem to your chat. Separately, Ostella can suggest cards to unsuspend. It is currently installed as an unpacked extension; a Chrome Web Store listing is planned.

No. Ostella is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anki, AnKing, AnkiHub, Google, the NBME, or the FSMB.