You'll get one card per line of your list, with the words exactly as you wrote them. Filling anything in with AI is optional and starts switched off.

What you need

• Your list, as text you can paste or as a .txt, .csv, .tsv or .md file of up to 1 MB.
• One word or phrase per line, with its translation on the same line if you have one. Copied spreadsheet cells and text exports from other flashcard apps work too.
• Up to 1,000 lines per import.
• AI credits only if you choose to have translations or details filled in. Every account gets 500 free every 30 days. A plain import spends none.

1. Open the importer

On the web, open Import from the page menu in the header, then choose A word list you already have.

It also opens from:

• The Add button in the header (a + on narrow screens) opens a sheet. A word list you already have is listed under both Cards and New deck. Under Cards, the deck at the top is where the list goes, so change it first if it's the wrong one.
• When you're adding a card to a deck, the link Already have a list? Paste it opens the importer for that deck.

Note: On iOS and Android, go to Settings and tap Import, then A word list you already have. On a deck's add-card screen, the same Already have a list? Paste it link is there.

2. Paste your list or choose a file

The page is titled Add a word list.

1. Paste the list into Your list. The placeholder shows the expected shape: el perro – the dog.
2. Or click Choose a file. On the web you can also drag a file onto the box. It shows Drop your file here while you drag.
3. Click Continue.

A file you choose is read into the box. Nothing is added to a deck until step 7.

Note: On iOS and Android there's no drag and drop. Use Choose a file. The preview opens as a separate screen.

3. Check how your list was split

We read your list like this shows your first line split into Word and Translation. If that's right, go on to step 4.

If it's wrong, use the controls next to Not right?:

• Swap sides: your list has the translation first. One click turns every line around.
• Split it differently opens a list of the characters a line can be split on. Each option shows your first line split that way, so pick the one that looks right. The last option, Keep each line whole, makes every line one card with no translation.
• The first line is a heading, not a word: tick this if your file starts with column names. Vocards ticks it for you only when the first line has at least two cells and every one is an English heading such as "word", "translation" or "example". Anything else is read as your first card.

How Vocards picks the split:

• It looks at the first 50 lines and uses the character that splits most of them. A character has to split at least 60% of those lines to count.
• A dash only counts with a space on both sides, so well-known stays in one piece. Hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes all work. The same goes for =. A colon needs a space after it.
• Tabs, semicolons and commas are read the way spreadsheets save them. A comma inside quotes stays in the text: "hello, hi",cześć gives two fields.
• Blank lines are skipped.

If a line has more than two parts, the third is added as an example sentence, the fourth as that sentence's translation, and the fifth as the card's context. Anything after the fifth is ignored. The preview only shows the first two, so remove extra columns you don't want before you import.

4. Choose the deck

Under Target deck, choose Pick any deck or Create new deck. Create new deck is selected at first.

• For an existing deck, click the deck field and pick one.
• For a new deck, fill in Deck Name, I speak and I'm learning. The two language fields start as Select a language. All three are required. A list doesn't tell Vocards which languages it's in, so it asks.

If you opened the importer from a deck, this choice is already made and you won't see the two options.

Note: On iOS and Android the buttons are Use existing deck and Create new deck. The new-deck fields are Deck Title, I speak and I'm learning, and the language fields start as Select language.

5. Go through the rows

Above the rows, a summary line counts the cards you're about to add, and, when there are any, the lines already in the deck and the lines that can't be added. For example: 42 new cards, 3 already in this deck, 1 line we couldn't read.

Every row has a tick box. Click a row to tick or untick it. Some rows carry a note:

• Already here: the word is already in the deck, or appears higher up in your list. Capitals and extra spaces don't count as a difference. These rows start unticked. Tick one and you get a second card. The existing card is never changed.
• No translation yet: the line has no translation. The card is still added.
• Sound left out: the line had a sound or an image in it, as exports from other flashcard apps sometimes do. The text is kept and the media is left out. HTML formatting, such as bold or line breaks, is removed too.
• No word on this line or This line is too long: this line can't be added, and its tick box is disabled. A line is too long when one of its parts runs over 500 characters.

Note: Already here only looks at the deck you're importing into. A word that's already in another deck with the same two languages is added again, and each copy is scheduled on its own. When that happens, your decks page shows a banner counting the words that appear more than once. Its Review button opens Duplicate words, where you keep one copy of each word and move the rest to Discarded. On iOS and Android the banner is on the decks tab, with a Review button.

6. Decide what happens after adding

Under After adding them, pick one:

• Nothing – add them exactly as I wrote them . No AI credits spent. This is selected at first.
• Fill in the missing translations with AI, only listed when some ticked rows have no translation.
• Fill in the translations and the details with AI fills the missing translations, then adds the part of speech, register, context and examples. Only listed when some ticked rows have no translation.
• Fill in the details with AI takes the place of the two options above when every ticked row already has a translation.

Every option except the first uses AI credits, and only on the cards from this import.

Note: On iOS and Android this choice sits above the rows.

7. Add the cards

Click the button at the bottom. It shows how many rows are ticked, for example Add 42 cards. It stays disabled until at least one row is ticked and the deck is chosen.

What you'll see

You land on the deck with a message such as "Added 42 cards". The cards show your words exactly as you wrote them.

If you picked an AI option, the deck page starts it straight away on the cards from this import, with a progress counter in the deck's banner.

Cards without a translation are added, but they stay out of study sessions until they have one. The deck shows a banner with a count of cards that need a back, and Complete backs fills them with AI. You can also type a translation into each card yourself.

Limits

• 1,000 lines per import. A longer list shows "Only the first 1000 lines can be added at once – yours has 1400." Import the first part, then paste the rest in a second import. Lines from the first import show as Already here if you paste them again.
• 1 MB per file.
• One file at a time. If you drop several on the web page, only the first is read, and a note says how many were ignored.
• 20 word-list imports in an hour. This limit is separate from the one on Kindle and Google Play Books imports.

If something goes wrong