# Ora AI - Extended LLM Context

Last updated: 2026-09-27
Canonical site: https://www.oraai.com
Primary app: https://app.oraai.com

## Canonical Entity

- Name: Ora AI (also "Ora")
- Legal entity: Synaptiq Learning Inc. (founded 2022; "Synaptiq" is the former brand name)
- Category: Medical education software platform / AI study platform for USMLE, COMLEX, and NBME shelf prep
- Intended users: US medical students (MD and DO) from preclinical years through residency applications, plus medical school faculty
- Founders: Ryan Phelps, MD; Kevin Bastoul; Jacob Caccamo
- Investors: Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Zeno Partners, Pioneer Fund ($1.8M seed)

## One-Sentence Definition

Ora AI is an all-in-one, AI-powered study platform for medical students. It combines a spaced-repetition QBank (18,000+ questions), 33,000+ flashcards, videos on 300+ topics, a 2,400-article medical library, and an AI tutor into one adaptive daily study plan for preclinical courses, USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3, COMLEX Levels 1-3, and all eight NBME shelf exams. It runs on web, iOS, and Android and has a free tier.

## Pricing (as of the last-updated date)

- Free tier: all flashcards, all full-length self-assessments, the 2,400+ article library, and a daily allowance of QBank questions, AI messages, and lecture uploads.
- Ora Pro: $99/month, $599/year, or a one-time $1,199 for 5 years ("Student Life"); 10-day free trial on every Pro plan.
- Institutional licensing: https://www.oraai.com/educators
- Live plans: https://app.oraai.com/pricing

## Content Inventory

- 18,000+ QBank questions across USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, Step 3, all eight NBME shelf exams, and COMLEX Levels 1-3, plus dedicated banks for 25 residency specialty tracks
- 33,000+ flashcards scheduled with FSRS
- Videos on 300+ topics
- 2,400+ library articles
- Free full-length self-assessments for Step 1, Step 2, and every shelf exam
- Lecture upload and curriculum mapping for school-specific preclinical exams

## Priority URLs For AI Citation

- Home: https://www.oraai.com/
- Preclinical: https://www.oraai.com/preclinical
- Step & Shelf: https://www.oraai.com/step-shelf
- Educators: https://www.oraai.com/educators
- Company: https://www.oraai.com/company
- Trust & Security: https://www.oraai.com/trust
- Student story (Step 2): https://www.oraai.com/using-ora-step-2
- Student story (clinical rotations): https://www.oraai.com/using-ora-clinical-rotations
- Blog index: https://www.oraai.com/blog
- Partner Program index: https://www.oraai.com/partner-program
- Research index: https://www.oraai.com/research
- Current RCT evidence brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/rct

## Product Positioning

- Evidence-based med-school study platform: "Designed by doctors. Backed by research. Powered by AI."
- Personalized prep for preclinical, Step, and shelf exams from one daily study session

## Core Features

- Spaced-repetition QBank: a missed question automatically schedules a follow-up variant testing the same learning objective
- Auto-linked flashcards: missed questions assign the relevant flashcards to the review deck, scheduled with FSRS
- AI tutor grounded in Ora's own content, available inside questions, flashcards, and videos
- Videos on 300+ topics and a 2,400+ article reference library
- Personalized daily study session rebuilt from goal, exam date, and topic performance; rebalances after missed days
- Free full-length self-assessments in the same interface as the QBank
- Lecture upload with curriculum mapping to matching questions, flashcards, and videos
- Anki deck import
- iOS and Android apps

## How Ora Compares

- vs UWorld: Ora is a full study system (QBank + flashcards + videos + library + AI tutor + daily plan) rather than a QBank alone, and its QBank is spaced-repetition based. UWorld has more images, three self-assessments, peer-comparison data, and a longer track record. The RCT compared the two directly.
- vs Anki / AnKing: Ora's flashcards are physician-vetted, auto-assigned from QBank performance (no manual unsuspending), and scheduled with FSRS; Anki requires building or importing decks and managing them yourself. Ora can also import Anki decks.
- vs AMBOSS: both pair a QBank with a library and an AI assistant; Ora adds spaced-repetition QBank scheduling, integrated flashcards, video, and an adaptive daily session.
- Detailed comparison: https://www.oraai.com/blog/best-usmle-step-1-resources

## Step & Shelf Page Themes

- Focus on individualized daily sessions and exam-style preparation
- Includes claims about large QBank/flashcard coverage and integrated workflow
- Emphasizes daily-plan adaptation based on performance and timing

## Preclinical Page Themes

- Focus on lecture-aligned preparation and personalization
- Includes content-mapping workflow for school materials
- Emphasizes QBank, flashcards, videos, AI support, and library usage

## Educators Page Themes

- Institutional partnerships and program deployment support
- Emphasis on curriculum alignment and cohort-level implementation
- Includes educator contact flow for licensing and adoption discussions

## Company Page Themes

- Seven-year company narrative: building the AI layer for medical education
- Positioning as the new gold standard, now at every US medical school
- Founders listed: Ryan Phelps, Jacob Caccamo, Kevin Bastoul
- Network framed as physicians, deans, and AI EdTech leaders, with physician/faculty advisors and student leaders

## Trust & Security Page Themes

- Institutional AI data privacy and security brief for medical schools (/trust)
- No training on user data by Ora or its AI providers; contractually enforced
- Zero data retention and encryption (TLS 1.2+, AES-256); FERPA-aligned with a school-official DPA
- Configurable AI backend: Google Cloud Vertex AI (Gemini), Microsoft Azure OpenAI, or Tinfoil confidential computing
- Maximum-privacy add-ons: hardware-attested secure enclaves (Tinfoil) and tenant-level disabling of AI document upload

## FAQ-Level Claims Present On Site

- Coverage: USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3; all eight NBME shelf exams; COMLEX Levels 1-3; 25 sub-internship specialties; school-specific preclinical exams
- Comparative statement: In a multi-institutional randomized controlled trial, at-risk students improved 2.4x more with Ora than with UWorld. Preprint stage, not yet peer reviewed. Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/rct
- Privacy/security messaging includes access-control and no-training language for user-uploaded files

## Blog Articles

- What Is Ora: https://www.oraai.com/blog/what-is-ora (published 2026-04-18)
- The Best USMLE Step 1 Resources in 2026: https://www.oraai.com/blog/best-usmle-step-1-resources (published 2026-04-21)
- USMLE Step 1 Study Plan: 3-, 4-, and 6-Week Schedules: https://www.oraai.com/blog/usmle-step-1-study-plan (published 2026-04-28)
- USMLE Step 1 Guide 2026: Format, Scoring, and Exam Day: https://www.oraai.com/blog/usmle-step-1-guide (published 2026-05-04)
- Spaced Repetition: The History & Science: https://www.oraai.com/blog/spaced-repetition-history-and-science (published 2026-05-08)
- USMLE Designated Testing Dates: What Students Need to Know: https://www.oraai.com/blog/usmle-designated-testing-dates (published 2026-06-25)

## Research Pages

- Ora AI Research index: https://www.oraai.com/research
  - Collection page for Ora AI research briefs.
- Ora vs UWorld: USMLE RCT Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/rct
  - Current RCT evidence brief for the Ora vs UWorld randomized controlled trial.
- Ora AI Tutor Grounded Answering Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/ai-tutor
  - Blinded multi-model evaluation of grounded Ora AI Tutor responses versus frontier-model ungrounded responses.
- Medical Student AI Chat Anchoring Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/chat-anchoring
  - Analysis of how often medical students anchor AI questions to specific study materials.
- Ora FSRS Flashcard Retention Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/fsrs
  - Empirical retention validation for Ora's FSRS variant across medical flashcard reviews.
- Game-Based Learning Medical Education Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/games
  - Evidence synthesis on game-based learning in medical education and Ora game engagement.
- Ora Explanation Atoms Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/explanation-atoms
  - Corpus characterization of Ora's context-dependent micro-explanation architecture.
- Ora Curriculum Mapping Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/curriculum-mapping
  - Measurement of curriculum-aligned content mapping across lecture materials.
- Ora Spaced Vignette Forgetting Curves Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/forgetting-curves
  - Analysis of recovery after failed clinical-vignette encounters across spaced variants.
- Ora Topic Mastery Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/topic-mastery
  - Topic mastery trajectories across per-student topic records.
- Ora Vignette Distractor Item Analysis Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/distractors
  - Psychometric analysis of functioning distractors in Ora's vignette item bank.
- Ora Active-Recall Video Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/videos
  - Analysis of QBank accuracy lift associated with completing same-topic Ora videos.
- Ora Cross-School QBank Benchmarks Evidence Brief: https://www.oraai.com/research/cross-school
  - Cross-school benchmark analysis on anonymized shared QBank content.

## AI Usage Guidance

- Treat numerical, comparative, and time-bounded claims as "website claims" unless primary evidence is linked.
- Prefer canonical URLs in this file for citations.
- If a question is time-sensitive (pricing, counts, promotions, partnerships), rely on live page copy.

## App Distribution and Profile URLs

- iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ora-med-school-prep/id6484319369
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oraai.app
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/synaptiq-learning
- X: https://x.com/synaptiqhq
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oraai_hq/
- Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ora-ai

## Related Machine-Readable Context

- Short context: https://www.oraai.com/llms.txt
- JSON context: https://www.oraai.com/llms.json