Short answer: a memory palace app is one of two things. Most are memory trainers: they help you memorise lists, speeches or exam material with the method of loci and spaced repetition. A few are places to keep your own memories, like The Memory Palace, your own 3D memory palace where photos, voice recordings and stories hang in rooms you walk through.
Last updated: 2 November 2026. The facts about other apps come from each maker's own site, as listed in our comparison of memory palace apps; the sources are at the bottom.
The technique behind the name
A memory palace is a very old memory technique, also called the method of loci. You pick a place you know well, such as the house you grew up in, and walk a fixed route through it in your mind. At each spot along the route you leave a vivid image of something you want to remember. Later you walk the route again, and the images come back in order. Memory athletes use it for long lists, students for exam material, speakers for the points of a talk. If you want to try it by hand first, read how to build a memory palace, step by step.
Two kinds of memory palace app
1. Memory trainers
Most apps that call themselves a memory palace app help you learn new information. They give you a palace, ask you to place things in it, and test you later.
- memoryOS teaches the technique with short lessons, ready-made 3D mind palaces where you place things along a path, and spaced repetition. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web.
- Mnemorium is a free, open source desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. You upload photos of spaces you know, anchor notes in a 3D view, and review them with spaced repetition. Your data stays on your computer.
- Anki is not a palace app but a common companion: flashcards with spaced repetition, free on computers and on Android.
2. A place to keep your own memories
The other kind uses the palace the way a family uses a wall of framed photos: as a place where your own memories live, arranged in rooms. You do not memorise anything. You walk through it, and so can the people you invite. The Memory Palace is this kind: your photos, videos, voice recordings and written stories hang in the rooms and wings of a 3D palace with a hall and corridors.
At a glance
| Option | What you do with it | Platforms | Not the best choice when |
|---|---|---|---|
| memoryOS | Learn the technique with lessons, 3D mind palaces and spaced repetition | iPhone, iPad, Android, web | You want to keep your own photos and stories, or you do not want a course |
| Mnemorium | Build palaces from photos of your own rooms and review with spaced repetition | macOS, Windows, Linux; free, open source | You only use a phone, or you want to share a palace with family |
| Anki | Flashcards with spaced repetition, often used next to a palace | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad | What you learn has a fixed order that a route would hold better |
| Memory palace generator (free, on our site) | Turn a list of up to 20 things into a route of 20 places through a villa, with an image for each place and a test | Browser, no account | You need to review the same material for months |
| The Memory Palace | Keep your own photos, voice recordings and stories in rooms you walk through, private by default | Browser, iPhone, iPad, Android | You want to memorise something: it has no lessons, tests or spaced repetition |
Which one do you need?
- You want to remember a list, a speech or exam material: a trainer. memoryOS if you want to be taught, Mnemorium if you want palaces from your own rooms on a computer, Anki next to either for loose facts.
- You want to try the technique once, today: the free memory palace generator. Paste a list, walk the route, take the test.
- You want a place for your own photos, your voice and the stories behind them: The Memory Palace.
The Memory Palace, honestly
The Memory Palace is your own 3D memory palace. Each room holds photos, videos, voice recordings and written stories, and you arrange rooms into wings, for a person, a decade or a friendship. It is private by default. You invite family and friends into a room or a wing, and for each person you choose whether they can only view or also add. It works in the browser and on iPhone, iPad and Android, in five languages, and the free plan has 1 GB. You can download your whole palace as a ZIP on every plan, with a page that opens offline. Made by a small team in Leuven, Belgium.
What it lacks: it is not a memory trainer, so there are no lessons, tests or spaced repetition. It is not end-to-end encrypted (it is encrypted in transit and at rest). And it is newer and smaller than the big names in memory training.
If a palace for your own memories is what you were looking for, you can start your palace for free. If you came for the technique, the memory palace generator is free and needs no account.
Read on: how to build a memory palace, memory palace apps compared, how Sherlock's mind palace works, and all guides on the memory palace.
Sources
- memoryOS, official site (lessons, 3D mind palaces, platforms): memoryos.com
- Mnemorium, official site (free, open source, desktop, FSRS-5, local data): mnemorium.com
- Anki, official download page (platforms and which versions are free): apps.ankiweb.net