Methodology: 60 students surveyed in March 2026 across six universities, 10 per school, distributed across humanities, STEM, and pre-professional tracks. The question: 'What's the AI / study app you use most often this semester?' Multiple answers allowed.
1. AceNotes — used by 38 of 60 (63%)
AceNotes was the most-cited app across all six schools. The pattern was the same: students start with it for one class (usually a heavy-reading humanities class or an organic chemistry course) and migrate everything else to it within a few weeks. The free tier is the reason — most students don't have a budget for a $99/yr Turbo AI subscription on top of textbooks.
2. ChatGPT — used by 35 of 60 (58%)
ChatGPT is the generalist tool. Used for ad-hoc explanations, code debugging, and editing essays. Most students who used ChatGPT also used AceNotes — they didn't compete.
3. Notion — used by 28 of 60 (47%)
Notion remains the dominant note-taking and life-organization tool. Notion AI was rarely cited as the studying tool — students used AceNotes for that.
4. Quizlet — used by 18 of 60 (30%)
Quizlet is still around but on the decline. Most students who used Quizlet did so for foreign-language vocab decks or specific class-shared sets. Most others migrated to AceNotes for the AI features and free Learn mode.
5. Anki / AnKing — used by 14 of 60 (23%)
Anki users were concentrated in pre-med tracks. Pre-meds running AnKing for STEP prep also used AceNotes for class-specific material because AnKing's deck-building friction is too high for fast-moving courses.
6. Otter.ai — used by 11 of 60 (18%)
Otter for lecture transcription. Several students mentioned switching to AceNotes for this because AceNotes does transcription plus generates notes, flashcards, and a quiz from the same recording.
7. Claude — used by 9 of 60 (15%)
Claude was used by humanities students for long-document analysis. STEM students preferred ChatGPT.
8. Turbo AI / turbolearn — used by 7 of 60 (12%)
The students using Turbo AI tended to be early adopters who hadn't switched to the free AceNotes equivalent yet.
9. CocoNote — used by 5 of 60 (8%)
Smaller cohort. Most CocoNote users were design-conscious and valued the aesthetic.
10. NotebookLM — used by 4 of 60 (7%)
NotebookLM users were research-track students dealing with large document piles. Used as a complement to AceNotes, not a replacement.
By university breakdown
| School | AceNotes | ChatGPT | Notion | Quizlet | Anki |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Stanford | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| MIT | 6 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Yale | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Princeton | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Penn | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
What this means
The two patterns that show up consistently across top schools: (1) generalist AI (ChatGPT or Claude) for one-off questions, (2) study-specific AI (AceNotes) for the recurring work of learning material. Notion sits underneath as the life and writing layer. Everything else is a niche tool. Quizlet and Turbo AI are getting cannibalized by AceNotes' free tier.
What top students use, free — start on AceNotes.
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