Best Apps for College Students in 2026

TL;DR

• You don't need 50 apps — you need 10-15 great ones that cover studying, productivity, finances, health, and campus life
• The best study apps in 2026 combine AI with real learning science (not just answer-finding)
• Most premium app features aren't worth paying for when you're a student — we note which free tiers actually work
• This list is curated from real student recommendations, not sponsored placements

Table of Contents

• Study and Homework Apps
• Note-Taking Apps
• Productivity and Organization
• Writing and Research
• Budgeting and Finance
• Health and Wellness
• Campus Life and Social
• Bonus: Apps to Delete
• Building Your App Stack

Study and Homework Apps

Gradily — AI Homework Assistant

Price: Free / Pro at $9.99/month Best for: Getting step-by-step help that actually teaches you

Gradily is an AI homework assistant designed specifically for students. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, it walks you through problems step by step instead of just giving you the answer. This means you actually learn the material, which is kind of the whole point of college.

It's especially useful for STEM subjects where you need to understand the process, not just the final answer. The free tier covers most basic needs, and the Pro plan is cheaper than a single campus coffee per week.

Anki — Spaced Repetition Flashcards

Price: Free (desktop and Android) / $24.99 one-time (iOS) Best for: Memorizing literally anything

Anki has been around forever, and it's still the gold standard for spaced repetition flashcards. The algorithm shows you cards right before you'd forget them, which makes memorization dramatically more efficient than traditional flashcards.

The learning curve is steeper than Quizlet, and the interface looks like it was designed in 2005 (because it was). But once you get past that, it's unmatched for subjects that require heavy memorization — med school students swear by it.

Pro tip: Don't make your own cards from scratch. Search AnkiWeb for shared decks in your subject first. Chances are someone's already made a deck for your exact class.

Wolfram Alpha — Computational Engine

Price: Free (basic) / Pro at $7.25/month (student pricing) Best for: Math, science, and data computations

Wolfram Alpha isn't AI in the ChatGPT sense — it's a computational knowledge engine that actually calculates answers. This makes it incredibly reliable for math, physics, chemistry, and engineering problems. When ChatGPT confidently gives you the wrong integral, Wolfram Alpha gives you the right one.

The Pro version's step-by-step solutions are worth the student discount price if you're in any STEM field.

Quizlet — Study Sets and Practice Tests

Price: Free / Plus at $7.99/month Best for: Quick study sets and collaborative studying

Quizlet is more accessible than Anki, with a huge library of pre-made study sets. The AI-powered learning modes can generate practice tests from your notes. The free tier is fine for most students — the paid version adds AI explanations and ad-free experience.

Note-Taking Apps

Notion — All-in-One Workspace

Price: Free for personal use (includes education plan) Best for: Organized students who want everything in one place

Notion is part note-taker, part project manager, part wiki, part everything else. You can build databases for tracking assignments, take lecture notes, manage group projects, and create a personal knowledge base. The free education plan (sign up with your .edu email) removes most limitations.

The downside: Notion's flexibility is also its weakness. You can spend more time building the perfect system than actually studying. Start with a simple template and resist the urge to over-engineer.

Goodnotes / Notability — Handwriting Notes

Price: Goodnotes: $9.99 one-time / Notability: Free with subscription for premium Best for: iPad users who prefer handwriting

If you have an iPad and Apple Pencil, handwritten notes are genuinely superior for learning (research backs this up — you retain more when you write by hand). Goodnotes and Notability are the two main contenders, and both are excellent. Goodnotes' one-time price makes it the better value.

Both let you annotate PDFs (great for marking up lecture slides), search your handwriting, and organize notebooks by class.

Obsidian — Connected Knowledge

Price: Free Best for: Advanced students who want to connect ideas across classes

Obsidian is a markdown-based note-taking app that lets you link notes together, creating a web of connected knowledge. It's particularly powerful for humanities and social science students who need to draw connections between readings, lectures, and ideas.

It's completely free, works offline, and your notes are stored as plain text files on your device (no vendor lock-in). The plugin ecosystem is massive. But fair warning: it has a learning curve, and you need to be the kind of person who enjoys building systems.

Productivity and Organization

Todoist — Task Management

Price: Free / Pro at $4/month Best for: Keeping track of assignments and deadlines

Your brain is terrible at remembering deadlines. Stop trying. Todoist lets you capture tasks quickly, set due dates, organize by project (read: class), and set recurring tasks for weekly readings. The natural language input is great — type "Read Chapter 7 by Thursday" and it automatically sets the due date.

The free tier gives you up to 5 projects and basic features, which is enough for most students. Pro adds reminders and filters.

Google Calendar — Scheduling

Price: Free Best for: Time blocking and schedule management

You probably already have Google Calendar, but most students underuse it. Beyond just adding class times, use it for:

• Time blocking — Schedule specific study sessions for specific subjects
• Assignment deadlines — Add them as all-day events so they show up in your daily view
• Buffer time — Block out transition time between activities
• Recurring events — Weekly study groups, gym sessions, meal prep

Sync it with your university's LMS if possible, so assignment deadlines auto-populate.

Forest — Focus Timer

Price: $3.99 (iOS) / Free with ads (Android) Best for: Staying off your phone while studying

Forest uses a simple but effective concept: plant a virtual tree when you start studying, and it grows as long as you don't touch your phone. If you leave the app, your tree dies. It sounds silly, but the gamification works. Over time, you build a forest that represents your focused study time.

It pairs perfectly with the Pomodoro Technique — set 25-minute focus sessions and watch your forest grow.

Notion Calendar (formerly Cron)

Price: Free Best for: Students already in the Notion ecosystem

If you use Notion for notes and project management, Notion Calendar integrates directly and is legitimately great. It pulls scheduling, to-dos, and notes into one view. Free, clean design, and it plays nice with Google Calendar.

Writing and Research

Zotero — Reference Manager

Price: Free (300MB storage) / $20/year for 2GB Best for: Managing sources for research papers

If you're writing research papers, a reference manager will save you hours. Zotero lets you save sources with one click from your browser, organize them by project, and automatically generate citations and bibliographies in any format (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

The free 300MB is plenty for undergrads. The browser extension is essential — install it immediately. For more on citation formatting, check out our APA format citation guide.

Grammarly — Writing Assistant

Price: Free (basic) / Premium at $12/month (student pricing available) Best for: Catching grammar and clarity issues

Grammarly's free tier catches basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. The Premium version adds style suggestions, tone detection, and plagiarism checking. Whether Premium is worth it depends on how much writing you do — if you're writing multiple papers per week, it probably is.

Install the browser extension so it works in Google Docs, email, and LMS discussion boards automatically.

Google Scholar — Academic Search

Price: Free Best for: Finding scholarly sources for research papers

Google Scholar indexes academic papers, theses, books, and conference proceedings. It's usually the best starting point for research, and it shows you which papers are most cited (a good proxy for importance). Use the "Cited by" feature to find more recent papers that reference a seminal work.

Pro tip: Set up your university library in Scholar's settings. This adds "Full Text @ [Your University]" links so you can access papers through your school's subscriptions. For a full walkthrough on the research process, see our guide on how to write a research paper.

Budgeting and Finance

YNAB (You Need a Budget) — Budgeting

Price: Free for students (normally $14.99/month!) Best for: Actually tracking where your money goes

YNAB is objectively the best budgeting app, and they offer it free for students (you just need to verify with your .edu email). The methodology — give every dollar a job — genuinely changes how you think about money.

The learning curve takes about 2-3 weeks, but students who stick with it report spending 20-30% less within the first few months. That's real money when you're living on ramen.

Splitwise — Bill Splitting

Price: Free Best for: Splitting rent, utilities, and group expenses

If you have roommates, Splitwise is non-negotiable. It tracks who owes what, handles uneven splits, and settles up with minimal awkwardness. No more passive-aggressive texts about the electricity bill.

UNiDAYS / Student Beans — Student Discounts

Price: Free Best for: Saving money on everything

These apps aggregate student discounts from hundreds of brands. Verify with your student email once, and you get access to discounts on tech, clothing, food, software, and more. Always check these before buying anything online — the discounts range from 10-50% off.

Health and Wellness

Headspace — Meditation and Sleep

Price: Free for students (through many university partnerships) Best for: Stress management and sleep

College is stressful. Headspace offers guided meditation, sleep sounds, and stress-reduction exercises. Many universities now provide free Headspace subscriptions — check your student health center's website before paying.

Even 5-10 minutes of guided meditation before a big exam can measurably reduce anxiety. The sleep content is also genuinely useful if you struggle with falling asleep.

Strong / Hevy — Workout Tracking

Price: Free (basic) Best for: Tracking workouts at the campus gym

If you use the campus gym (and you should — it's included in your fees!), a workout tracker helps you progressively overload and actually see gains. Strong (iOS) and Hevy (cross-platform) are both excellent and free for basic use.

MyFitnessPal — Nutrition Tracking

Price: Free (basic) Best for: Making sure you're eating enough (and well enough)

The freshman 15 gets all the attention, but just as many students under-eat due to busy schedules and tight budgets. MyFitnessPal's food database is massive, and even tracking for a week gives you valuable insights about your nutrition. You don't need the premium version.

Campus Life and Social

GroupMe — Group Messaging

Price: Free Best for: Class group chats and club communication

GroupMe remains the standard for college group chats. It works across iOS and Android, doesn't require phone numbers (unlike iMessage or WhatsApp), and lets you mute the 47 unread messages from your lab group at 2 AM.

Uber / Lyft — Transportation

Price: Pay per ride Best for: Getting home safely

Not glamorous, but important. Download both and compare prices — one is often significantly cheaper than the other for the same ride. Many universities have partnerships that offer discounted rides in certain areas.

Libby — Free Library Books

Price: Free (with library card) Best for: Reading textbooks and leisure books for free

Libby connects to your local public library and lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks for free. Some textbooks (especially older editions) are available, and it's great for any reading you do for fun. All you need is a library card, which is free.

Bonus: Apps to Delete

Let's be honest about which apps are actively working against your success:

• TikTok (during study hours) — Move it off your home screen at minimum. The algorithm is literally engineered to keep you scrolling.
• Any app that sends constant notifications — Go to Settings right now and turn off non-essential notifications. Your focus will thank you.
• Multiple social media apps — You don't need Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter/X, BeReal, AND Threads. Pick 2-3 max.
• Games with "daily login" rewards — These are designed to create habits. During the semester, they're focus killers.

Building Your App Stack

You don't need every app on this list. Here's a minimal recommended stack based on student type:

The STEM Student

• Gradily (homework help)
• Wolfram Alpha (computation)
• Anki (memorization)
• Notion (notes and organization)
• Todoist (task tracking)

The Humanities Student

• Obsidian or Notion (connected notes)
• Zotero (reference management)
• Grammarly (writing)
• Google Scholar (research)
• Todoist (task tracking)

The "I Just Need the Basics" Student

• Google Calendar (scheduling)
• Todoist (tasks)
• One note-taking app (Notion or your default Notes app)
• Gradily or ChatGPT (homework help)
• YNAB (budgeting)

The Overachiever

• Everything above, plus Forest for focus, Headspace for stress, and a workout tracker for balance. Because burnout isn't a badge of honor — it's a productivity killer.

The best app setup is one you actually use consistently. Start with 3-4 core apps, build habits around them, and add more only when you have a genuine need. Your phone should be a tool for learning, not a distraction machine.

For more study strategies that complement these tools, check out our guides on how to finish homework faster and the Pomodoro Technique for students.

Now go download YNAB and cry a little when you see where your money actually goes. It's a rite of passage.