Memly MCP connects MCP-compatible AI clients like ChatGPT and Claude to Memly, so flashcards generated in a chat can be saved straight into your own deck. Setup is one step: enter the remote MCP URL https://app.memly.ai/mcp and authorize with OAuth. Free users can search and view decks and cards; Plus and Pro users can create, edit, delete, and restore them. It joins the speed of AI generation with long-term retention powered by FSRS.
You asked an AI to "turn this into flashcards," and it did. So where did those cards go? Most people leave them sitting in the chat window and lose them the moment the tab closes. Even if you copy them somewhere, roughly 70% of that content is gone within 24 hours unless you review it again. That is what Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve predicts. No matter how fast AI makes cards, "generate and forget" never turns into memory.
Memly MCP solves this at the structural level. Flashcards you generate in ChatGPT or Claude are saved directly into a Memly deck without copy-paste, and the modern spaced-repetition algorithm FSRS resurfaces each card at the moment you are about to forget it. It connects AI's generation speed to science-backed retention in a single line.
This guide covers how Memly MCP works, what free and paid plans can do, how to connect Claude and ChatGPT, how to ask the AI, vocabulary and exam use cases, and how it differs from Anki MCP. The exact connection settings are kept current on the Memly MCP setup guide, so use this article alongside it.
What is Memly MCP
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data safely. As of 2026, more than 300 clients support it, including ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and VS Code, turning AI from "just chatting" into "actually doing."
Memly MCP uses this standard to offer Memly as an official remote MCP server. Register https://app.memly.ai/mcp in your AI client and authorize with your own Memly account via OAuth, and the AI can work with your decks and cards directly. There is no shared API key and no fixed account; it touches only the data of the account you authorize.
Once connected, the AI sees two main tools: list_decks to read your deck list and import_flashcards to save cards. The flow comes down to four steps.
- Connect: add Memly's MCP URL in ChatGPT or Claude
- Approve: confirm your Memly account on the consent screen and authorize via OAuth
- Ask: say "turn this explanation into five cards and add them to my Edo period deck"
- Save: Memly validates the content, saves the cards, and FSRS schedules the reviews automatically
Why "generate and forget" does not stick
AI can make dozens of cards in seconds. But cognitive science consistently places retrieval, not creation, at the center of memory.
In Roediger & Karpicke (2006), groups that spent time re-reading retained about 42% after a week, while groups that practiced retrieval (testing themselves) retained about 56%. Cepeda et al. (2008) further showed that spacing reviews at the right intervals beats cramming them together for long-term memory.
| Method | Retention after 1 week | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Re-reading only | ~42% | The fluency illusion makes you feel you "know it" |
| Retrieval (active recall) | ~56% | The effort of recall strengthens the memory trace |
Active recall plus spaced repetition is what turns memorization into knowledge that lasts. Cards left in a chat window get neither. Saving them to Memly is not just storage; it puts each card on a foundation where FSRS estimates its forgetting probability and assigns the optimal review date. For the bigger picture of AI-assisted memorization, see the AI flashcard app guide, and for how FSRS works, see the FSRS 6.0 deep dive.
What Memly MCP can do: free vs paid
Memly MCP is more than a card importer. It can search, view, edit, delete, and restore decks and cards. The plan you need depends on whether you are "viewing" or "changing" Memly.
| Operation | Free (incl. Trial) | Plus / Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Search and list decks (list_decks) | Yes | Yes |
| Search and view cards | Yes | Yes |
| Add cards (import_flashcards) | No | Yes |
| Edit card text, tags, destination deck | No | Yes |
| Delete / restore cards and decks | No | Yes |
In other words, viewing decks and cards works on the free plan, while saving AI-made cards or editing existing ones requires an active Plus or Pro subscription. Trial users can authenticate but cannot run the card import. Every write operation is executed only after Memly checks authentication, plan, and deck ownership server-side.
How to connect Memly to Claude
Before you start
- If you want to save cards, sign in to a Memly account with an active Plus or Pro plan
- To save into an existing deck, confirm the deck name in Memly first
- Keep the URL https://app.memly.ai/mcp ready (no trailing slash)
Add the custom connector in Claude
- Open Claude settings or Customize, then open Connectors
- Choose "Add custom connector" and enter Memly as the name
- Enter https://app.memly.ai/mcp as the remote MCP server URL
- Leave OAuth Client ID and OAuth Client Secret blank
- On the Memly consent screen, confirm the account shown and approve
Confirm the connection
You are connected when Claude shows list_decks and import_flashcards. If "Authorization with the MCP server failed" persists, delete the connector and add it again with the same URL. The full reconnection steps are on the Memly MCP setup guide.
How to use Memly in ChatGPT, and what to watch for
- Open the MCP or connector settings in ChatGPT
- Register https://app.memly.ai/mcp as the Remote MCP server URL
- When the OAuth flow opens, sign in to Memly and approve
- To save into a named deck, call list_decks first, then import_flashcards with the matching deckId
One caveat: ChatGPT's full MCP connectors and developer mode are currently rolled out mainly to Business, Enterprise, and Edu environments, and availability depends on your plan, workspace settings, and OpenAI's rollout. Check the official sources for the latest scope. Claude's custom connectors have been available to individuals earlier, so starting with Claude is the surest path.
How to ask the AI: prompts you can use
No jargon needed. Ask in plain language.
- Create: "Turn this explanation into five flashcards and add them to my Edo period deck."
- Edit: "Find the Tokugawa Ienari card and make the answer shorter."
- Review before saving: "Before saving, show me the fronts and backs in a list."
Saving cards is a write operation, so the AI client shows the action and asks for your confirmation, which makes accidental writes unlikely. For good cards, ask one idea per card, keep answers understandable without the source, and preserve exact terms and proper nouns.
Use cases: vocabulary and exam prep
Vocabulary and language learning
Hand the AI an article and say, "Pull the key vocabulary from this into 15 cards with example sentences and add them to my English deck." The material you just read becomes study cards, and FSRS optimizes how often each word appears, so the vocabulary that matters to you sticks better than a generic word list.
Exam prep and professional knowledge
While you work through concepts with the AI, say, "Turn the definitions and decision rules I need to memorize into one card each and add them to my exam deck." Understanding and memorization flow together. The larger and more precision-heavy the subject, the better AI generation and spaced repetition fit.
How it differs from Anki MCP
A popular alternative for handling flashcards via MCP is the third-party Anki MCP. The two take very different directions.
| Item | Anki MCP | Memly MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Third-party / community | Official |
| Setup | Local Anki + AnkiConnect, ngrok for web | Enter one URL |
| Review | Depends on Anki itself | FSRS across web and mobile |
| Pricing | Free / open source | Free (read) + Plus/Pro (write) |
Which fits you depends on whether you already have an Anki library and how much setup you want to do. The Memly vs Anki MCP comparison breaks this down step by step with a decision guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use it on the free plan?
Searching and viewing decks and cards works on the free plan. Adding, editing, deleting, and restoring require Plus or Pro.
Does it work in ChatGPT?
Yes, in ChatGPT environments that support Remote MCP. Because full MCP connectors and developer mode have plan and environment limits, starting with Claude's custom connector is the most reliable way to try it.
Is it safe? Is my data protected?
The connection uses per-account OAuth 2.1, and it can only touch the decks and cards of the account you authorize. Other users' data is never visible. Every write checks authentication, plan, and ownership, and rich HTML is sanitized to allowed tags only.
Which AI clients are supported?
Any MCP-compatible client, in principle. The main examples are Claude (custom connector) and ChatGPT (Remote MCP-capable environments).
Conclusion: turn AI chats into knowledge you keep
More people are having AI make flashcards. But most never save or review them, leaving great output to drain down the forgetting curve a month later. Memly MCP joins AI's generation speed with the memory science of active recall and spaced repetition, turning "generate and forget" into knowledge that lasts.
You have two choices now. One is to keep leaving AI-made cards in the chat window. The other is to connect your AI client to Memly's MCP endpoint (https://app.memly.ai/mcp) today and start keeping the cards you ask for. Open the Memly MCP setup guide, connect Memly to Claude or ChatGPT, and ask the AI to "make cards" once. You can create a Memly account for free, so you can try the connection without entering payment details. For the full picture, see the AI flashcard app guide.
