Drop the vocab.db file from your Kindle on this page and you get back every word you looked up, each with the sentence you met it in. Take it as a CSV, or as a file Anki imports straight into a deck, with plain or cloze cards. Nothing is uploaded and nothing needs installing.
or drop it anywhere on this page
Nothing is uploaded. The file is read here, in your browser.
Word as
Anki cards
Repeats
Mastered
| Word | Sentence | Book |
|---|
The file stays on your computer. This page reads the database itself, with a small reader written for exactly this file, so there is no server on the other end to send it to. Once the page has loaded it works with the Wi-Fi switched off.
Plug the Kindle into your Mac with its USB cable. Most models appear in Finder as a drive called Kindle. Open it, press ⇧⌘. to show hidden folders, then open system and then vocabulary. The file is system/vocabulary/vocab.db. Copy it to your Desktop and drop the copy here, so the original is never touched.
If a file called vocab.db-wal sits beside it, copy that as well and drop both together. SQLite parks recent changes in that file until it folds them back into the main one, and this page reads them, so the last few look-ups are not left behind.
Kindles from 2024 onwards connect over MTP instead, and so does the Scribe after a firmware update. Finder cannot open MTP devices, so you need Amazon’s Send to Kindle app for Mac, which has a USB file manager built in, or a free app such as OpenMTP. The Scribe write-up on The eBook Reader covers the change. Look for the same system/vocabulary folder once the device is open.
The Kindle apps on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and PC do not keep this file at all. Vocabulary Builder on the apps explains what they do instead.
The CSV has one row per look-up, or one per word if you leave the repeats box ticked: the word, its dictionary form, the sentence, the book, the author, the language and the date. It opens in Numbers, Excel or Google Sheets as it is.
The dictionary form is what Kindle stores as the stem, the plural or past tense folded back to the headword. Word as decides which of the two leads each row and goes on the front of a card.
The Anki file is tab separated text with a few header lines on top that tell Anki the note type and which column holds the tags. Every note is tagged kindle plus the language code.
| Card type | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | The word | The sentence with the word in bold, and the book underneath |
| Cloze | The sentence with the word blanked out | The whole sentence, with the book in the Extra field |
A sentence that does not contain the word as it was looked up, which happens with some inflected forms, gets the word added underneath as the blank instead, and the page tells you how many that was.
In Anki on your computer, choose File, Import, and pick the downloaded .txt file. Anki 2.1.54 and later read the header lines, so the separator, the note type and the HTML setting arrive already set. Check the preview and click Import.
The deck name in the file is only used if a deck of that name already exists, so make the deck first or pick it in the import window. Older versions of Anki ignore the header: set the field separator to Tab, tick Allow HTML in fields, and choose Basic or Cloze yourself. The Anki manual’s page on text files has every option.
For more on which way round to build the card, see Kindle Vocabulary Builder to Anki.
Vocabulary Builder only records look-ups made on the e-reader itself while it is switched on, so anything you looked up in a Kindle app never reaches the file. If a whole stretch of reading is missing, the usual causes are covered on the export page: the feature turned off, an unregistered Kindle, or no dictionary downloaded for that language.
If the page says the file is not a Kindle vocabulary file, it will list what tables it did find. That usually means a different file was picked, such as one from the documents folder.
Vocabulary Builder only sees the Kindle. For what you read on a Mac, the PDFs, papers, websites, subtitles and screenshots, LeafyApp keeps the same pairing. Press ⌥A, box the word, and it saves the word with the sentence it sits in, explained the way that sentence uses it.
From there it sends cards to Anki or exports CSV, Excel, JSON or PDF. It does not read vocab.db itself. This page does that part.
How do I export my Kindle Vocabulary Builder to CSV?
Copy system/vocabulary/vocab.db off the Kindle over USB, drop the copy on this page and click Download CSV. Each look-up comes out with the word, its dictionary form, the sentence, the book, the author, the language and the date.
Is my vocab.db uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read by this page in your browser and is never sent anywhere. Once the page has loaded it works offline.
Can I make cloze cards from my Kindle words?
Yes. Choose the sentence with the word blanked out before downloading the Anki file. If a sentence does not contain the word exactly as looked up, the word is added under the sentence as the blank.
Does it work with the Kindle app on iPhone or Mac?
No. Only Kindle e-readers keep a vocab.db. The apps have no file to export.
Do I need sqlite3 or DB Browser for SQLite?
Not for this page. If you prefer the command line, the export page has the sqlite3 one-liner that does the same job.
Free while LeafyApp is in beta. One download, macOS 14 and up.
Also worth a look: the sqlite3 route, Kindle words to Anki, or what happened to Kindle Flashcards.
Kindle is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, and Anki is a trademark of its respective owner. LeafyApp is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by either, and the names are used here only to describe compatibility.