/ælˈkɔɪ.ə/·al-KOY-uh
Read it once. Actually keep it.
Alcoïa notices when something didn't stick and gives you a chance to retrieve it before you move on.
Works on any page. No account needed to start. No camera required.
Try it. Scroll, no install
This is a live demonstration. Nothing here is being sent anywhere.
Working memory holds a handful of items at once. When a sentence keeps you waiting for its verb, or a paragraph introduces four new terms in a row, that budget runs out before the meaning does, and you keep scrolling anyway.
Reading researchers call the fix retrieval practice: being asked to recall something, rather than being shown it again, is what moves it into memory you can actually use later.
That is the whole mechanism. Not a summary. Not a highlight. A short question, answered in your own words, about the sentence you just read.
…being asked to recall something,
rather than being shown it again, is what moves it into memory you can actually use later.
What does retrieval practice mean, in this passage?
The default response now
Paste it in, get an answer, retain nothing
The page is long, so it goes into a chat window. The chat window gives back three paragraphs. The three paragraphs feel like understanding. Nothing was actually read, and nothing sticks. There was never a moment that required recall.
What happens instead
You read it. alcoia checks that it landed
The text stays yours to read. alcoia watches pace and re-reading in the browser, and when a passage looks like it slipped past, it asks one short question about that exact sentence, not a topic or summary. Answering right ends it. Answering wrong is when an explanation appears.
How it works
Three honestly labelled stages
It watches how you read
Pace against the difficulty of the paragraph, against your own usual rate, scrolling back to re-read, selecting or copying, leaving the tab. No camera needed. This is the primary and default path.
It notices when you slow down
Against the difficulty of what you're reading, against your own baseline pace, and against re-reading patterns. These signals combine to spot where comprehension is likely to slip.
It asks
A short question about what you just read, with the sentence containing the answer quoted underneath. Wrong, it explains. Right, it gets out of the way. At most one interruption every three minutes, five a session.
Privacy
What actually leaves your machine
- ✓ The camera is off by default, and only starts when you turn it on.
- ✓ No video, image or webcam frame ever leaves your device.
- ✓ No raw gaze coordinates are stored or transmitted (aggregates only).
- ✓ Reading detection works with no camera and no permission prompt.
- Passage text is sent to a server to generate questions and explanations. That's the one thing that leaves your machine, said here at the same size as everything above it, not in a footnote.
- There is no covert mode, and there will never be one.
The client that does this is open source under AGPL-3.0. In v1, there is no camera. This is verifiable in the extension manifest, not a promise requiring trust.
Read the full privacy explainerWho it's for
Built around one loop, used for different reasons
Students
Coursework, papers, dense assigned reading. A way to actually keep what you read instead of skimming it once and forgetting it by the exam.
For students →Educators
A receipt students can submit as evidence a reading happened, and an aggregate, anonymous view of which paragraphs a class struggled with.
For educators →Language learners
Vocabulary you lingered on, collected automatically and reviewed on a spacing schedule, plus a reading-rate baseline in your second language.
For language learners →Research
Built on other people's evidence, not ours yet
Built on reading research from Rayner (1998), Just & Carpenter (1980) and D'Mello et al. (2016), whose randomised trial found that interrupting a drifting reader with just-in-time questions recovered comprehension losses (d = 0.47).
No accuracy figure for alcoia itself is published anywhere on this site. There has been no real-participant evaluation yet, and a number with nothing real behind it is worse than no number at all.
Read the research pageOpen source
You can read the code that reads your pages
The extension is open source under AGPL-3.0. Anyone can audit exactly what it does with page content and with the camera (including the one file that touches the webcam, linked above. The server that generates questions and explanations is a separate program and is not open source.
The server that generates questions and explanations is not open source.
github.com/alcoia-group/alcoiaVersus AI shortcuts
Why not just use ChatGPT?
Because summaries feel like understanding. You read a passage, paste it into ChatGPT, and get back a perfect summary. You absorbed it passively. You'll forget it in days.
Alcoïa interrupts at the moment reading is likely to fail and asks you to retrieve what you just read in your own words. That retrieval practice creates actual retention. It's not a faster way to skim. It's a better way to actually learn.
Reading isn't the same as learning. Alcoïa intervenes at the moment that matters and uses retrieval rather than another summary to make the information stick.
Pricing
Free is genuinely useful. Paid is optional.
Free
$0
Difficulty scan, focus ruler, bionic reading, dyslexia mode, TTS, accessibility features, 150 guided checks a month. No account needed.
Reader
$59/year
300 guided checks a month, retrieval questions, vocabulary review, reading receipts, PDF and PPTX, sync, and optional webcam mode.
Teams & Classrooms
$4/seat/mo
25-seat minimum, annual only. Instructor seat free. Aggregate class view, assigned readings, receipt export, admin console, SSO, DPA.
Questions
Do I need a webcam?
No. Reading detection works with browser telemetry alone. The camera is optional and off by default.
What's the difference between a summary and a question?
A summary is something you're shown. A question is something you have to answer using the text you just read. That retrieval is what creates real retention.
When does Alcoïa interrupt?
Only when your reading pattern suggests something didn't stick. If you're reading smoothly at an appropriate pace, Alcoïa stays out of the way.
Does Alcoïa share my data?
No. Everything stays on your device or in your private account. You can delete it anytime. For classrooms, you choose what to share with instructors.
Can I use Alcoïa on mobile?
Currently it's a browser extension. Mobile support is on the roadmap. See all questions →