Key findings
Each finding is written as a single sentence so it can be quoted on its own. Please cite the report when you use them.
- Duetoday students created 8,261 notes, made by 4,639 students: an average of 1.8 notes per active student.
- PDFs were the most common identifiable source of student notes (1,385 notes, 16.8% of all notes), ahead of YouTube videos (838, 10.1%) and uploaded audio, video and document files (819, 9.9%).
- The median YouTube video that students turned into notes was 38.7 minutes long, so students mostly convert long-form videos rather than short clips.
- Students created 585 notes by dictating live lectures (7.1% of all notes).
- Monday is the busiest day for note creation (1,389 notes, 16.8%) and Saturday the quietest (793, 9.6%); Monday sees 1.75 times as many notes as Saturday.
- Weekends account for 22.7% of notes created, against the 28.6% an even spread across the week would give.
- Note creation peaks at 16:00 UTC (564 notes) and is lowest at 23:00 UTC (234); the six hours from 12:00 to 17:59 UTC account for 33.7% of all notes.
- Monthly note creation peaked in November 2025 (1,140 notes) and March 2026 (1,336 notes), the two exam seasons in the data window.
What students turn into notes
PDFs are the single largest identifiable source of notes, followed by YouTube videos and uploaded audio, video and document files. Live lecture dictation, where a student records a lecture as it happens, accounts for 7.1% of notes. The largest group, "other / pasted text", covers notes created from pasted text and other inputs that are not tagged with a more specific source.
View data table
| Source | Notes | Share of all notes |
|---|---|---|
| PDFs | 1,385 | 16.8% |
| YouTube videos (829 + 9 from a legacy import path) | 838 | 10.1% |
| Uploaded files (audio, video, documents) | 819 | 9.9% |
| Live lecture dictation | 585 | 7.1% |
| Screen recordings | 67 | 0.8% |
| Manual notes | 26 | 0.3% |
| Other / pasted text | 4,541 | 55.0% |
| Total | 8,261 | 100.0% |
Video length. The median YouTube video turned into notes was 38.7 minutes long. Half of the videos were longer than that, so students mostly use Duetoday on long-form content such as recorded lectures and full tutorials rather than short clips.
Which days students study
Note creation is highest at the start of the week and tapers towards the weekend. Monday (1,389) and Tuesday (1,379) are almost level; Saturday is the quietest day at 793 notes. Sunday picks up again (1,083), almost matching Friday (1,095).
View data table
| Day | Notes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 1,389 | 16.8% |
| Tuesday | 1,379 | 16.7% |
| Wednesday | 1,277 | 15.5% |
| Thursday | 1,245 | 15.1% |
| Friday | 1,095 | 13.3% |
| Saturday | 793 | 9.6% |
| Sunday | 1,083 | 13.1% |
What time students study
Measured in UTC, note creation climbs through the morning, peaks at 16:00 UTC with 564 notes and falls to its lowest point at 23:00 UTC (234). The peak hour sees 2.4 times as many notes as the quietest. Because students are spread across time zones, a UTC hour is not the same local time for everyone; read this chart as the platform's daily rhythm rather than a single student's day.
View data table
| Hour (UTC) | Notes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 274 | 3.3% |
| 01:00 | 245 | 3.0% |
| 02:00 | 255 | 3.1% |
| 03:00 | 245 | 3.0% |
| 04:00 | 329 | 4.0% |
| 05:00 | 296 | 3.6% |
| 06:00 | 283 | 3.4% |
| 07:00 | 314 | 3.8% |
| 08:00 | 301 | 3.6% |
| 09:00 | 345 | 4.2% |
| 10:00 | 330 | 4.0% |
| 11:00 | 362 | 4.4% |
| 12:00 | 382 | 4.6% |
| 13:00 | 434 | 5.3% |
| 14:00 | 456 | 5.5% |
| 15:00 | 463 | 5.6% |
| 16:00 | 564 | 6.8% |
| 17:00 | 486 | 5.9% |
| 18:00 | 403 | 4.9% |
| 19:00 | 324 | 3.9% |
| 20:00 | 320 | 3.9% |
| 21:00 | 319 | 3.9% |
| 22:00 | 297 | 3.6% |
| 23:00 | 234 | 2.8% |
How studying rises in exam season
From June 2025 to April 2026, monthly note creation shows two clear peaks: November 2025 (1,140 notes) and March 2026 (1,336 notes), the exam seasons at the end of the autumn and the run-up to spring assessments. Activity dips in October and February between them. The rise from June to September is likely to reflect Duetoday's own growth over the period as well as the start of the academic year, so compare the peaks with the months around them rather than with the start of the series.
Darker bars mark the November and March exam-season peaks.
View data table
| Month | Notes |
|---|---|
| June 2025 | 29 |
| July 2025 | 146 |
| August 2025 | 388 |
| September 2025 | 727 |
| October 2025 | 589 |
| November 2025 | 1,140 |
| December 2025 | 970 |
| January 2026 | 790 |
| February 2026 | 565 |
| March 2026 | 1,336 |
| April 2026 | 832 |
What this means for students
- Start before the peak. Note-taking surges in exam months. Turning lectures into notes and flashcards earlier in term spreads the work and leaves time for spaced review.
- Use the Sunday reset. Activity picks up on Sunday. A short weekly session to turn the week's lectures, PDFs and videos into notes keeps Monday light.
- Long videos are worth converting. With a median of 38.7 minutes, the videos students turn into notes are lecture-length. Notes and flashcards make them reviewable without rewatching.
Related guides: turn a YouTube video into notes, turn a PDF or slides into notes and review flashcards with spaced repetition.
Methodology
- Data source
- Duetoday's production database, queried on 5 October 2026.
- Anonymisation
- Only anonymised aggregate counts were extracted. No individual-level records, note content, names or other personal data were used or published.
- Data window
- Totals, note sources, median video length, day-of-week and hour-of-day figures cover all notes created up to 5 October 2026. The monthly seasonality chart covers June 2025 to April 2026.
- Time zone
- All timestamps are in UTC. Day-of-week and hour-of-day figures are based on the UTC time a note was created, not the student's local time.
- Definitions
- A note is a single note created in Duetoday. "Students" means distinct accounts that created at least one note; "accounts" counts all Duetoday accounts. Notes per active student is total notes divided by students who created notes.
- Source categories
- Each note carries the input type it was created from. YouTube includes 9 notes created through a legacy import path. "Other / pasted text" groups notes created from pasted text and inputs without a more specific source tag.
- Limitations
- The figures describe Duetoday users, not all students, and reflect the product's growth over the period. Counts measure notes created, not time spent studying.
How to cite this report
You are welcome to quote the findings and reproduce the charts with attribution and a link to this page.
Hampton, J. (2026). How Students Study with AI: Duetoday Study Report 2026. Duetoday. https://www.duetoday.ai/research/student-study-habits-2026/
For press or research questions, email hello@duetoday.ai.
