How to Add Audio to Anki Cards (Manually or with AI)

To add audio to an Anki card, attach the sound file in Anki’s editor — or record it there directly. With AI connected, you can instead tell your AI where the sound file is, and it stores and embeds the audio for you.

This guide shows both: the standard Anki way for a card or two, and the AI way when you want audio cards built for you.

The standard Anki way (no add-on needed)

For a single card, plain Anki already does this well:

1. In Anki, click Add (or open a card in Browse).
2. Click into the field where the sound should go.
3. Click the paperclip icon in the editor toolbar and pick your audio file — or click the microphone icon to record yourself directly.
4. Save the card. Anki copies the audio into your collection and shows a play button on the card.

That’s the whole manual flow. The AI way below helps when you make many audio cards, or want the audio fetched from a link.

Adding audio with AI

AnkiMCP doesn’t make voice audio itself. Instead, you point your AI to an audio file, and AnkiMCP saves it into your Anki collection and adds it to a card. The rest of this guide shows that workflow, the methods that work, and the limits.

What you need

• Your AI connected to Anki. Do the Connect Claude to Anki guide first.
• Anki open on the same computer.
• An audio file you want on a card. This can be a file on your computer, a public URL, or a file made by a separate audio MCP server (see below).

Time: about 5 minutes.

How audio gets onto a card

AnkiMCP saves your audio file into Anki’s media folder. It then writes Anki’s sound tag into a card field, like [sound:hello.mp3]. That tag tells Anki to show a play button.

You can give the AI the audio in three ways:

1. A file on your computer. Tell the AI the file path. This is the fastest method.
2. A public URL. The AI downloads the file and stores it. No extra tools needed.
3. A file from a TTS (text-to-speech) MCP server. A separate server makes the voice audio, then AnkiMCP stores it.

Avoid pasting raw audio data. File paths and URLs are faster and use far fewer tokens.

Step 1: Get your audio ready

Prepare the audio file first, in one of three ways:

• Save a sound file on your computer and note its full path — like /Users/you/hola.mp3 on a Mac, or C:\Users\you\hola.mp3 on Windows. Not sure how to copy a path? See the tip in Add images to your cards.
• Find a public link to a pronunciation clip.
• Use a separate audio-generating MCP server to make the voice. One example is the ElevenLabs MCP server. It makes the audio file; AnkiMCP then stores it.

Step 2: Ask your AI to add the audio

Open your AI and make a plain request. Be clear about the file and the card.

For a new card:

Create a card in my “Spanish” deck. Front: the audio file at /Users/you/hola.mp3. Back: “Hello”.

For an existing card, describe the card by its content:

Add the audio file at /Users/you/hola.mp3 to the front of my card about “hola”.

(On Windows, the path looks like C:\Users\you\hola.mp3.)

One thing to know before you update an existing card: close Anki’s Browse window first. If the note is open in Browse while the AI updates it, the change may not be saved, and you won’t see an error.

The AI stores the file in Anki’s media folder, then writes the [sound:hola.mp3] tag into the field.

Step 3: Open Anki and study

Open your deck in Anki and start a review. The card with audio shows a play button. Click it to hear the sound.

Check it worked

Find the card in Anki’s Browse window. The field should contain a sound tag like [sound:hola.mp3], and the card preview should show a play button. If you hear the audio, it worked.

Supported audio types

AnkiMCP accepts common audio files. MP3 is the safest and most common choice, and it plays on every Anki platform.

The file path and URL methods only accept media files (audio, images, video). Other file types are blocked for safety.

Fix common problems

The AI says it added the audio, but the card didn’t change. Updates fail silently if the note is open in Anki’s Browse window. Close Anki’s Browse window, or pick a different note, then ask the AI to try again.

I don’t hear anything when I click play. Make sure the file is a real audio file and the name in the [sound:...] tag matches the stored file exactly. In Anki, run Tools → Check Media to find missing files.

Common questions

Does AnkiMCP do text-to-speech? No. AnkiMCP doesn’t make voice audio. It stores and embeds audio files you provide. To turn text into speech, pair it with a separate TTS MCP server, then let AnkiMCP store the result.

Does Anki support audio flashcards? Yes. Anki plays audio with its [sound:filename.mp3] tag. AnkiMCP writes that tag for you, so you don’t have to edit fields by hand.

Next steps

• Add images to your cards using the same media tools.
• Write better prompts for Anki so the AI makes the cards you want.

Disclaimer: “Anki” is a registered trademark of Ankitects Pty Ltd. AnkiMCP is an independent, community-built project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ankitects. MCP is an open standard originated by Anthropic; AnkiMCP is likewise not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.