Semora vs Studley AI: which is right for you?
Semora is a syllabus-first app that automatically turns a scanned syllabus into a semester of deadlines and grades, while Studley AI is a materials-first app that turns whatever you upload — PDFs, slides, videos, or photos — into flashcards, quizzes, and AI-narrated study podcasts.
What each product does
Semora
Semora (iPhone, iPad, Android, and web) starts with your syllabus. You import it by camera photo (multi-page, up to 5 pages), PDF upload, drag-and-drop on the web, or pasted text, and Semora's AI extracts the course name, instructor, meeting times, office hours, semester dates, grading scale, and every assignment, exam, quiz, project, and reading with its due date — building deadlines, a grade tracker, and a class schedule automatically.
Studley AI
Studley AI (iOS, Android, and web) lets you upload PDFs, lecture slides, lecture recordings, YouTube videos, article links, or a photo of handwritten notes, and its AI converts that material into a study set: flashcards, multiple-choice quizzes, fill-in-the-blank exercises, written-response tests, and an AI tutor for questions about that content. A "Solve" feature lets you photograph a homework problem for a step-by-step explanation, and a podcast feature turns material into AI-narrated audio. Progress is tracked across four mastery levels (unfamiliar, learning, familiar, mastered). Its menu also lists a test maker, an AI lecture note taker, and an essay grader. As of October 7, 2026, it is rated 4.7 out of 5 from 4,444 ratings on the US App Store and 4.7 from 112,179 ratings on Google Play, where it shows 1M+ downloads.
Semora vs Studley AI: feature comparison
| Semora | Studley AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Syllabus & deadline handling | Core purpose of the app. Photo, PDF, drag-and-drop, or pasted-text import auto-extracts every assignment, exam, quiz, project, and reading with due dates. | No syllabus-parsing or deadline-extraction feature found in Studley AI's public materials. It converts uploaded material (PDFs, slides, recordings, YouTube videos, articles, photos) into study sets, not a due-date calendar. |
| Canvas sync | Free on every plan: paste the private Calendar Feed link Canvas gives you, with no token, and Semora keeps those deadlines current. Moodle connects with its calendar link; Blackboard needs a token your school issues, so it varies by school. | Not publicly described. No LMS integration is mentioned in Studley AI's available materials. |
| Grade tracking | Included in the free tier; Pro adds Progress Insights with trend charts, CSV export, and a print view on web. | Not publicly confirmed. Studley AI tracks mastery of uploaded study material across four levels (unfamiliar to mastered) rather than a course grade. |
| Study planning | Smart Plan builds a study schedule that adapts to your deadlines (the next 7 days free, 14 on Pro); on Pro, the Workload dashboard flags crunch weeks and Academic Risk alerts warn of falling grades or overloaded weeks. | A "Solve" feature gives step-by-step homework help from a photo, and an AI tutor answers questions about uploaded material. No dedicated study-schedule or deadline-planning feature was found. |
| Pricing | Free: one semester, with one AI action for the life of the account (a syllabus scan, a lecture recording, or a document turned into notes), one course you add by hand, and every class you bring in from Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle, which never count toward that limit. Deadline and grade tracking and same-day reminders are included. Pro: $4.99/month or $29.99/year, bought by card on the web or in the iOS app, and it covers your whole account. | Free: one study set, per Studley's own FAQ. Unlimited: $3.74 a week billed monthly or $1.88 a week billed annually (about $97.76 a year), per the same FAQ. Studley's App Store prices differ, for example $13.99–$14.99/month or $97.99/year. |
| Platform availability | iPhone and iPad (one universal iOS app), Android, and web, sharing one account with near real-time sync between them. | iOS, Android, and web (studley.ai). |
Semora's full Free and Pro breakdown is on the pricing page.
Cheaper on Pro: Semora Pro is $4.99/month or $29.99/year. Studley AI's own FAQ prices Unlimited at $3.74 a week billed monthly or $1.88 a week billed annually (about $97.76 a year), so Semora's yearly plan costs less than a third of Studley's.
Syllabus-first and materials-first are different starting points
The mechanical difference is what you hand the app and what it hands back. Semora takes one document per course, the syllabus, and returns structured records: course name and code, instructor, class meeting blocks with days, start and end times, kind and room, office hours, semester start and end dates, the letter-grade scale, and every assignment, quiz, exam, project, and reading with a due date, due time, percentage weight, and a confidence score. A materials-first app takes a chunk of content and returns study objects built from that content. Studley AI sits squarely in that second group: uploaded PDFs, lecture slides, YouTube videos, article links, or a photo of handwritten notes become flashcards, multiple-choice quizzes, fill-in-the-blank and written-response exercises, an AI tutor scoped to that material, and AI-narrated audio, with progress tracked across four mastery levels.
That difference decides what each app can answer. A syllabus-first tool answers what is due, when, and how much it is worth, across every course at once. A materials-first tool answers help me learn this specific pile of material. Neither answer substitutes for the other, which is why the two categories tend to coexist on the same phone rather than replace each other.
Semora also splits the write into two stages on purpose. The course itself, its meeting times, and its grading scale are saved as soon as the scan finishes, because those are low-risk and you want them there. Only the deadlines wait for your approval. The review screen shows every extracted item with per-item editing: anything the model scored below 0.8 confidence is badged "Low confidence — please verify," a dated item falling outside the semester window is badged "Date looks outside this term — double-check," and undated items like "Final exam — date TBA" sit in a separate "Needs a date" section, deselected, so they cannot quietly land on the wrong day. Saving happens in one step, and if it fails you stay on the screen with your selections intact.
What happens when a due date moves
Professors move dates. This is the part that separates a planner you keep from one you abandon in week six, because the cost of a schedule change has to be one edit rather than a re-import. In Semora, changing a task's due date cancels that task's existing reminders and reschedules them against the new date and time. If device calendar sync is on (Pro), the calendar event is updated in place rather than duplicated, and if you had deleted that event by hand, a fresh one is written instead.
Grades recompute rather than sit stale, because a course grade is recalculated from your current task list each time you look: weighted categories, drop-lowest rules, points earned over points possible, and your extra-credit policy all resolve on the fly. The Workload dashboard regroups your work by week using a load score of grade weight times a per-type multiplier, so an exam still reads as a heavier week than a reading even when the syllabus put a percentage on neither.
Smart Plan (Pro) replans over a rolling 14-day horizon against your own settings: daily study minutes, session length, separate weekday and weekend start times, whether weekends count at all, and whether to route around your class meetings and calendar. With auto-reschedule on, a moved deadline reshuffles the plan without you touching it. Edits made offline are saved on your device, sent when you reconnect, and reminders are rescheduled afterward, so a date change typed on the bus is not lost.
Where the two categories overlap, and where they don't
Semora Pro does generate flashcards, so the overlap is real, but the input differs. Semora's cards are built from that course's own syllabus topics plus any lecture notes you upload to the course as a PDF or image, and a deck can be scoped to a single exam or quiz instead of the whole course. The generator deliberately skips administrative content (office hours, grading policy, late-work rules) because none of that is quizzable. The AI tutor is grounded on the same syllabus-plus-notes material. A lecture you record in the iPhone or iPad app becomes a transcript and notes, and on Pro you can also make a practice quiz and flashcards from it.
What Semora does not do is accept the wider range of inputs a materials-first app is built for. Studley AI's public materials describe YouTube videos and article links as valid uploads, a "Solve" feature that gives step-by-step help from a photo of a homework problem, and AI-narrated podcast-style audio. Semora has none of those, and while it records lectures live, it cannot import a recording you already have. Going the other direction, no syllabus parsing or deadline extraction appears in Studley AI's public materials, and no LMS integration is described there.
The honest read is that these are complements more often than alternatives. If you already have a study-set app you like, adding a syllabus-first planner does not duplicate it. If you already have a planner, a study-set app does not replace the deadline and grade layer underneath it. The question is which half you are missing, not which app wins.
What to check before you commit a semester to any planner
Five things are worth checking on any app in this space before your semester depends on it, whichever one you pick. First, does it show you the extraction before it commits it? An AI that writes forty due dates straight into your calendar with no review step is one bad date away from a missed final. Second, is the free tier permanent or trial-shaped? A tier that expires after a couple of weeks is a discount, not a free plan.
Third, can you get your data back out? In Semora that means CSV export and a print view for grade reports on the web, plus .ics export for deadlines, both on Pro. Fourth, does anything depend on your school? For Canvas and Moodle, no: both connect with a calendar link you already have, with nothing for your school to approve. Blackboard is the exception, because it uses a token your school issues, so whether it works varies by school. All three are free on every plan.
Fifth, check the devices honestly. Semora is one universal iOS app for iPhone and iPad, an Android app on Google Play, and a web app, sharing a single account with near real-time sync; there is no Mac app, and browser notifications fire only while a tab is open. Pro is purchased either with a card on the web through Stripe or in the iOS app through the App Store, and applies account-wide either way, Android included, so a student who only ever uses the browser can subscribe right there and still be Pro if an iPhone turns up later.
Which one fits your situation?
Semora may fit better if you...
- Want your syllabus turned into a calendar of deadlines automatically, instead of typing them in by hand
- Want grades, assignments, and class schedule tracked in one place all semester, included free
- Want your Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle deadlines brought in free
- Want a study schedule, built from your deadlines, that adapts as they change
Studley AI may fit better if you...
- Have a specific PDF, slide deck, YouTube video, or set of notes you want turned into flashcards and a quiz in one pass
- Want AI-narrated podcast-style summaries of study material
- Want a photo-based homework solver for step-by-step problem help
- Aren't looking for syllabus parsing or a semester-long deadline calendar at all
How this comparison was made
Semora publishes this comparison. It is a desk review of the vendor pages linked below, checked October 7, 2026. Semora's own details are written from the app and corrected when we find an error.
Frequently asked questions
Does Studley AI extract deadlines from a syllabus the way Semora does?
Based on its public materials, no. Studley AI is built to turn uploaded material — PDFs, slides, videos, articles, or photos — into flashcards, quizzes, and study aids; it doesn't appear to parse a syllabus or extract assignment due dates onto a calendar. Semora is built specifically for that job.
Is Semora or Studley AI free to use?
Both have a free plan. Semora's covers one semester; its limits are in the table above and on Semora's pricing page. Studley AI's free plan lets you make one study set, per its own FAQ, and its Unlimited plan is $3.74 a week billed monthly or $1.88 a week billed annually.
Does Studley AI sync with Canvas?
Not publicly described. No Canvas or other LMS integration is mentioned in Studley AI's available materials. Semora imports Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle deadlines free.
Which is cheaper, Semora or Studley AI?
Semora's pricing is confirmed directly: free, or Pro at $4.99/month or $29.99/year. Studley AI's own FAQ lists Unlimited at $3.74 a week billed monthly or $1.88 a week billed annually, about $97.76 a year, and its App Store prices differ (for example $97.99 a year).
What happens in Semora when a professor pushes a due date back?
You change the date on the task and everything downstream follows from that one edit. Semora cancels that task's existing reminders and reschedules them against the new date and time, and if device calendar sync is on it updates the same calendar event in place instead of leaving a duplicate behind. Your course grade recalculates from the current task list, the Workload dashboard regroups that week, and Smart Plan replans its 14-day horizon when auto-reschedule is on.
Does Semora generate flashcards from course material the way Studley AI does?
Semora Pro includes flashcards with spaced repetition, but they are built from your course's syllabus topics and any lecture notes you upload to that course as a PDF or image, and a deck can be scoped to one exam or quiz rather than the whole course. On Pro you can also make flashcards from a lecture you record. It skips administrative content like office hours and late-work policy. Studley AI's materials describe a wider input range, including YouTube videos and article links, which Semora does not accept.
Can I use Semora and Studley AI at the same time?
Yes, and for a lot of students that is the sensible setup, because they solve different halves of the problem. Semora turns your syllabi into one deadline list, a weighted gradebook, and a class schedule across all your courses. Studley AI turns a specific pile of material into flashcards, quizzes, and study aids. No syllabus parsing or deadline extraction appears in Studley AI's public materials, so neither app makes the other redundant.
Does a multi-page syllabus use up more than one scan?
No. A photo scan can cover up to 5 pages and roughly 10 MB combined, and the whole thing counts as one scan — which on free is the single AI action the account gets, however many pages it covers. The same holds for a PDF upload, a drag-and-drop on web, or pasted text. Scanning a syllabus for a course you already have does not merge into it: Semora offers to open the existing course or make a separate copy, so a date corrected in week two is something you edit by hand.
See your own syllabus turned into a semester plan
Scan a syllabus and get your deadlines, grades, and schedule organized in one snap.