What is Praesto?
Praesto is an AI lecture assistant for university students, on iPad, iPhone, Mac and the web. It helps during the lecture: a question worth asking, a starting point when you are called on, and a way back in if your mind wandered for a minute. After class it turns the same lecture into practice and review that comes back for weeks. It is made by Praesto Logica LLC, and it is not related to other companies that use the name Praesto.
Who is Praesto for?
University students, undergraduate and graduate, in lecture-heavy courses. It fits classes where you are expected to speak, like case discussions in business school and cold calls in law school, and courses with hours of lecture every week. It also works in long meetings and talks.
What does Praesto do during a lecture?
It writes a live transcript and a Live Note as you listen. Short quiz cards land on the idea that just went past and grade themselves the moment you pick. Clever questions puts two questions per topic in front of you while that topic is still live (Essential and Pro). And Chat answers from what has been said so far, your notes and your documents, while recording continues.
What happens when my professor calls on me?
Cold-call assist listens for your name (Essential and Pro). Add the name people call you in class, and how it sounds, in your Profile. When your name is spoken while you are recording, a drawer opens by itself with a sentence starter and likely answers, drawn from your notes, your readings and the last few minutes of the room. The drafted answer stays under that line of the transcript, so you can find it weeks later. It is in beta.
What does Praesto do after class?
It turns the lecture into practice. Practice sets come from your own transcript, notes and documents, and each question is cited and graded. Every quiz and practice question you answer comes back on a spaced schedule, and Review lists only the ones that are due. You can also make a session report, ask Chat about the lecture, and search every class.
How accurate is the transcript?
It depends on the room. A clear voice near the device transcribes best; noise, distance, fast speech and rare terms make mistakes more likely. You can edit any line yourself, or ask for a correction pass: every suggested change arrives with a checkbox and an editable box, and only what you tick is applied.
Can Praesto’s AI get things wrong?
Yes. Like any AI, it can misread a point or state something that was not said, so check before you rely on it. Praesto keeps the source close: Chat answers from your session, each practice question shows the moment it came from, and research answers list their sources. A cold-call answer starts from your material, but when nothing you brought applies it may use a web search or general knowledge.
Will Praesto distract me in class?
You decide how much appears. Quiz cards are short, and in Settings you choose how often one can appear during a long session, or turn them off. Clever questions wait in their own tab until you look. Praesto does the writing, so you can listen and glance down only when you need to.
Does my audio leave my device?
When you record with the microphone on iPhone, iPad or Mac, Apple’s speech recognition turns speech into text on your device; in the web app, speech models run in your browser. Our servers receive the text, not the audio, and Chat and the other AI features work from that text on our servers. We do not use your content to train AI models, and our AI provider is contractually prohibited from training on it.
How much does Praesto cost?
There is a free plan at $0, which keeps 4 sessions at a time. Essential is $9.99 a month on the web ($11.99 in the App Store), with 1 month free. Pro is $12.99 a month on the web ($14.99 in the App Store), with 1 month free.
Which devices does Praesto run on?
iPad, iPhone and Mac through the App Store, and any browser through the web app. Recording in a browser needs Chrome or Edge on a computer. There is no Android or Windows app.
Who makes Praesto?
Praesto Logica LLC, a small company founded by Wongyu Choi, who built Praesto to use in class.
Free to start. For iPhone, iPad and Mac, or Chrome or Edge on a computer.