Decks and prices checked: October 2026
The best German Anki deck depends on your level and whether you have an exam. Start with the free Goethe Institute A1 Wordlist deck (926 notes). For B1, use the B1 Wortliste DTZ Goethe deck. If you have no exam and just want the most useful words, the 4000 German Words by Frequency deck is the long-standing favorite, and Refold's paid DE1K deck is the most polished 1,000-word starter.
German vocabulary is not hard because the words are long. It is hard because each noun comes with a gender you can't reliably guess, a plural that follows half a dozen patterns, and a case system that changes the article in front of it. A German Anki deck that shows "Tisch: table" and nothing else leaves you unable to use the word in a sentence. The decks below are the ones German learners actually recommend, checked on AnkiWeb and the publishers' pages in October 2026.
The Goethe Institute A1 Wordlist deck has 926 notes taken from the Goethe-Institut's official A1 word list, including its example sentences, translated into English and proofread by a professional translator, with machine-generated audio and cards in both directions. It is one of the highest-rated German decks on AnkiWeb (339 thumbs up in October 2026) and the source is kept in a public GitHub repository. Last updated December 2021, which matters little for an A1 list that rarely changes.
Best for: complete beginners and anyone sitting Goethe-Zertifikat A1. Weakness: machine audio, and 926 words is only the first step.
The original B1 Wortliste DTZ Goethe deck (2,632 notes, 394 thumbs up) is built from the word list for the Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer, an A2 to B1 exam taken by many people moving to Germany. The overlap with the Goethe B1 list is large, which is why it is the go-to B1 deck. Each note has the word, an example sentence, audio and an English translation. The original was last updated in 2018. A revised version 2 (2,658 notes) keeps the same structure with improved translations and more natural English sentences, and was updated on 30 August 2026. Start with version 2 unless you are already mid-way through the original.
The 4000 German Words by Frequency deck has 4,214 entries of the most frequent German words and collocations, each with a sample sentence and German audio. It has been the default "big" German deck for a decade (226 thumbs up on AnkiWeb). It was last updated in 2015 and leans toward written German, so expect words like "Vertrag" and "Gesetz" earlier than you might want them. An improved copy from 2022 adds the audio field to the card templates.
The German 5000 Frequency Words Audio + Conjugations + Goethe V2 deck is the most actively maintained free option: 5,009 frequency-sorted words, last updated May 2026, with audio, images, full verb conjugations and a Goethe level tag on every word. Version 2.1 added English to German production cards, with the B2 and above production cards suspended by default, so you can filter by tag:A1, tag:A2 or tag:B1. It is newer and has fewer ratings than the 4000 deck, so check a few cards before you commit.
Refold's Fundamental Vocabulary to Learn German is a paid 1,000-word deck with native audio, an image for every word and example sentences written by German teachers. Refold chose the words from German TV, filtering out cognates and words English speakers already guess. The Anki download costs $29.99 once, or you can study it online with a $9/month subscription (prices checked October 2026), with a 30-day refund window.
| Deck | Size | Level | Last updated | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goethe Institute A1 Wordlist | 926 notes | A1 | Dec 2021 | Free |
| B1 Wortliste DTZ Goethe v2 | 2,658 notes | A2 to B1 | Aug 2026 | Free |
| 4000 German Words by Frequency | 4,214 notes | A1 to B2+ | May 2015 | Free |
| German 5000 Frequency + Conjugations | 5,009 notes | A1 to C1 | May 2026 | Free |
| Refold DE1K | 1,000 words | Beginner | Maintained | $29.99 once |
Sizes and dates are from each deck's AnkiWeb or publisher page in October 2026. A note can produce more than one card, for example German to English and English to German.
For a wider view of how vocabulary fits with grammar and input, our guide to the best way to learn German covers the rest of the method.
For A1 and A2, pre-made decks win. The core words are the same for everyone, the Goethe lists define what the exams expect, and a deck with checked translations and audio saves you a lot of time. Making your own beginner deck mostly produces cards with the wrong gender or a missing plural.
From B1 up, the balance shifts. Your course, your textbook and your reading start to use vocabulary that no general list ranks highly, and those are the words you will be tested on or need at work. Keep your pre-made deck for review, but take new words from your own material, each with the sentence you found it in.
Whether you edit a shared deck or write your own cards, put the grammar on the card with the word:
Color-coding nouns by gender (blue for der, red for die, green for das is a common scheme) helps the article become part of the word's appearance. If your deck doesn't, it is a quick change in the card template.
Fifteen to twenty new cards a day suits most learners. Turn on FSRS, keep your maximum reviews high so you never hide a backlog, and finish reviews before adding new cards. If you enable both directions (German to English and English to German), count that as double the load and lower new cards accordingly. Our Anki settings for language learning guide has the full setup, and the general Anki settings guide explains each option.
Related guides: Anki decks for French and Anki decks for Spanish. For every subject we cover, see the Anki decks guide.
For A1 and A2, use the free decks above. StudyCards AI is for the point where your course takes over: upload a textbook chapter, vocabulary list or class handout as a PDF and get question and cloze cards from that material, ready to download as an Anki .apkg file. Check genders and plurals on generated cards before you study them, as you would with any card you didn't write yourself.
Try StudyCards AI FreeThe Goethe Institute A1 Wordlist deck is the best free starting point: 926 notes built from the official Goethe A1 word list, with example sentences, English translations and audio. Finish it, then move to a B1 list or a frequency deck.
Yes. The B1 Wortliste DTZ Goethe deck covers the DTZ A2 to B1 word list with example sentences, audio and translations, and a revised version 2 was updated in August 2026. It is the highest-rated B1 deck we found on AnkiWeb.
Use a Goethe or DTZ word list if you are preparing for a certificate exam, because the exams are built around those lists. Use a frequency deck if you want the most common words for reading and conversation and have no exam date.
Always put the article on the card: der Tisch, die Lampe, das Fenster, never just Tisch. Many learners also color-code cards by gender so the article becomes part of how the word looks. Learn the plural on the same card.
Fifteen to twenty new cards a day is sustainable for most learners. Reduce it if your daily reviews take more than 30 to 40 minutes, and always finish reviews before adding new cards.
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