Anki for Chinese: a free HSK 3.0 deck and how to use it

By the HanTrace team · Updated November 1, 2026

Anki is the most trusted spaced-repetition tool among serious Chinese learners — and the single biggest reason people quit it isn't the algorithm. It's deck quality: old word lists, wrong counts, inconsistent pinyin. If you've bounced off Anki before, the deck was probably built on the old HSK 2.0 lists — which are now a level behind.

This page gives you a free way to fix that: an HSK 3.0 Anki deck built from the same vocabulary data that powers every page on HanTrace — 12,000+ notes across seven decks, covering HSK 1 through the new 7–9 band. No account, no email, no upsell.

Why spaced repetition suits Chinese better than most languages

Chinese vocabulary has two properties that make forgetting expensive:

• Characters compound. Knowing 看 helps with 看见, 看书, 好看 — but only if 看 stays in memory long enough to connect. Forgetting a “basic” word quietly breaks ten words you thought you knew.
• Recognition and production drift apart. You can read a character for months and still be unable to write it. Anki's two-way cards force both directions instead of letting recognition fake fluency.

Spaced repetition schedules each word for review right before you'd forget it. It isn't magic — it just makes retention a scheduled habit instead of a hope.

What's in the HanTrace deck

• Seven decks: HSK 1 through 6, plus the combined HSK 7–9 band — matching how the new standard actually groups its advanced levels.
• 12,000+ notes built on the official HSK 3.0 vocabulary, following the multi-character word counts that the new standard tests.
• Consistent pinyin with tone marks, sourced from the same curated data as the rest of this site — no half-finished entries.
• Free and complete — the full deck, not a freemium teaser. Download the .apkg here.

One honest note: this deck is built on the official HSK 3.0 word list — it is not produced by the exam organizers themselves.

Setting it up in five minutes

1. Install Anki — free on desktop and Android; iOS has a paid app (the desktop version is enough to start).
2. Download the deck — grab the .apkg file from our downloads page and open it; Anki imports everything in one step.
3. Pick one level deck as your active deck. If you're between levels, the HSK 3.0 level guide shows what each level covers so you can place yourself.
4. Set new cards/day to something survivable. 10–15 new cards a day beats 50 for three days and then quitting. Anki's reviews compound — every new card is a future commitment.
5. Do reviews daily, even briefly. The algorithm assumes it. A 15-minute daily streak beats a 2-hour weekend session, every time.

How to make Anki actually work for Chinese

Three adjustments that matter for Chinese specifically:

• Say every card out loud before flipping. Chinese is tonal; silent review trains reading only. If you're unsure whether you produced the right tones, that's exactly what tone practice is for — 10 minutes there fixes what silent flashcards quietly break.
• Write a few characters by hand each week. Typing uses pinyin recognition; the new HSK tests handwriting. Print a tracing sheet from the words you keep missing.
• Look words up properly when confused. Every word in the deck has a full page on this site — pronunciation, examples, related words — one tap from the deck if you keep this site open alongside.

Anki vs. built-in review apps

You don't have to choose. Anki is the best open review system: your data leaves with you, scheduling is transparent, and decks are portable. Built-in review — including HanTrace's own vocabulary book once you save words — is better for friction: study where you already are, no imports, no apps. Many learners do both: Anki at a desk, built-in review on the phone between things.

Frequently asked questions

The deck is built from the official HSK 3.0 vocabulary but is not produced by HSK / Chinese Testing International. HanTrace is an independent Mandarin tool.