# Difference between studying tagged cards and cards under sub-decks?

**URL:** <https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 25, 2021, 8:45am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248 "2021-05-25T08:45:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lecticia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@lecticia](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/lecticia)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 8:45am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248/1 "2021-05-25T08:45:59Z")

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people say that it is better to study by tagging cards but I don’t understand the difference between studying tagged cards and cards under sub-decks?  
also, can we do custom study for sub-decks?

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**Author:** ![cqg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@cqg](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/cqg)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 9:43am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248/2 "2021-05-25T09:43:27Z")

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Tag system is more flexible than decks / subdecks, since a single card can have several tags, but it can’t belong to two different decks at the same time.

You can use both, depending on your needs / preferences.

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**Author:** ![NameLessGO](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/namelessgo/32/34298_2.png) [@NameLessGO](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/NameLessGO)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248/3 "2021-05-26T01:37:10Z")

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Although Anki can handle more than 100k cards  
it can not handle too much decks → it will slow down, especially on mobile → to prevent this, users use tags and sub-tags to maintain the organization of the cards

but unless you got yourself more than 10-20 decks, wouldn’t worry about it (although it will vary based on the model of the phone/pc)

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**Author:** ![vit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/65b543/32.png) [@vit](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/vit)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:34am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248/4 "2021-05-27T04:34:39Z")

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> [@Manual. The maximum number of decks is not updated](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/manual-the-maximum-number-of-decks-is-not-updated/7092):
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> The Manual states: "Anki was not designed to handle many decks (more than several dozen), … Upgrade 2.1.22 : “Removed the ‘too many decks’ message in the deck list screen.”

Quote: [dae]  
I have tweaked the wording a bit, but I would still not recommend you go wild with thousands of decks.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 5:03am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/difference-between-studying-tagged-cards-and-cards-under-sub-decks/10248/5 "2023-05-01T05:03:41Z")

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