How to Change the Good, Easy, Hard, and Again Button Timing in Anki

Anki's answer buttons — Again, Hard, Good, and Easy — aren't just labels. Each one triggers a specific algorithm-driven calculation that determines when you'll next see a card. If those intervals feel too short, too long, or just off for how you actually study, you can adjust the underlying settings to change how each button behaves. Here's how that works and what to consider before touching the defaults.

What the Four Answer Buttons Actually Do

When you review a card in Anki and press one of the four buttons, you're telling the scheduler how well you recalled it. The scheduler then uses that input — combined with the card's history — to calculate its next review interval.

• Again — You failed to recall the card. It resets (or nearly resets) and re-enters the learning queue.
• Hard — You recalled it, but with difficulty. The interval increases, but less than it would with Good.
• Good — Normal successful recall. The interval multiplies by the card's current ease factor.
• Easy — Effortless recall. The interval jumps significantly and the card's ease factor gets a boost.

These buttons don't apply fixed time values. They apply multipliers and modifiers to each card's individual schedule. That distinction matters when you're trying to change how they feel.

Where the Timing Settings Live in Anki

For New Cards and Learning Steps

New cards pass through learning steps before they graduate to the review queue. These steps are defined by time intervals — for example, 1m 10m means a new card gets shown again after 1 minute, then after 10 minutes before graduating.

To change these:

1. Open Anki and go to your deck.
2. Click the gear icon next to the deck → Options.
3. Under the New Cards tab, look for Learning Steps.
4. Edit the step values (in minutes, using m, or days using d).

The Again button during learning sends the card back to the first step. The Good button moves it to the next step. The Easy button graduates the card immediately using the Easy interval setting.

For Review Cards

Once a card has graduated, the four buttons affect it differently:

To adjust the multipliers:

1. In Deck Options → Reviews tab.
2. Look for Easy Bonus — this multiplier increases the Easy interval above Good.
3. Look for Interval Modifier — this scales all review intervals up or down globally.
4. Look for Hard Interval — this sets the multiplier applied when you press Hard on a review card.

For Lapses (When You Press Again on a Review Card)

When you press Again on a card you've reviewed before, it becomes a lapse. Settings that control this behavior:

• Relearning Steps — The card goes through a mini-learning sequence before returning to reviews.
• New Interval — What percentage of the old interval the card retains after a lapse (e.g., 0% resets it, 70% preserves most of the schedule).
• Minimum Interval — The floor for how soon a lapsed card can return to reviews.

These are found in the Lapses tab within Deck Options.

The Variables That Affect What "Right" Looks Like for You 🎯

Changing these values isn't universally good or bad — the impact depends on several factors:

How much material you're reviewing. If your daily review load is already high, widening intervals reduces daily volume but risks forgetting. Tightening steps increases retention but adds more cards per session.

Your retention goal. Anki's default targets roughly 90% retention. If you're preparing for a high-stakes exam, you might want tighter intervals. If you're maintaining long-term knowledge casually, wider spacing may suit you better.

Card type and complexity. Simple recognition cards (vocabulary, flags, faces) can handle aggressive spacing. Complex conceptual cards that require active recall often benefit from more conservative intervals.

Which version of Anki you're using. AnkiMobile (iOS), AnkiDroid (Android), and the desktop version handle options slightly differently in their UI layout — though the underlying settings sync across devices via AnkiWeb. The FSRS scheduler (available as an option in newer desktop versions) also fundamentally changes how intervals are calculated, replacing the traditional SM-2 algorithm with a more sophisticated model.

Your current ease factor distribution. If cards have accumulated low ease factors over time (sometimes called ease hell), changing multipliers alone won't fix the problem. You may need to reset ease factors or enable tools like the Reset Ease add-on or switch to FSRS.

The Spectrum: Different Approaches Lead to Different Outcomes

On one end: a learner doing casual language review might increase the Interval Modifier to 130–150%, press Easy liberally, and review infrequently. They trade some forgetting for a much lighter daily load.

On the other end: a medical student memorizing high-stakes pharmacology might tighten learning steps to 1m 5m 10m, set the New Interval after a lapse to 0%, and press Hard or Again frequently to keep difficult cards circulating. They accept a heavier workload in exchange for higher confidence.

Neither approach is objectively correct. Both are using the same four buttons and the same settings — just calibrated for entirely different goals and constraints. ⚙️

One Setting That Affects All Four Buttons Indirectly

The Ease Factor is worth understanding separately because it follows each card individually and affects what Good and Hard produce over time. Cards you've found difficult accumulate lower ease factors, meaning even pressing Good produces shorter intervals than it would on an easy card. This isn't a bug — it's intentional adaptive behavior — but it means the same button press does different things on different cards.

If your review intervals feel inconsistent across your deck, the ease factor distribution is often the underlying reason — not the button timing settings themselves. 📊

Whether adjusting learning steps, lapse penalties, multipliers, or ease factors actually improves your experience depends on what's driving the friction in the first place — and that varies considerably from one study setup to the next.