Best Free Current Affairs Apps in India (2026) for UPSC, SSC and Banking

Which app is best for current affairs depends on your exam and on what you'll put up with. For SSC and railway exams, GK & Current Affairs 2026 puts daily current affairs, quizzes, free mocks and offline reading in one free app, if ads don't bother you. UPSC aspirants get more depth from an institute such as Vision IAS or Vajiram IAS, Hindi-medium readers from Current Affairs 2026 Hindi or Jagran Josh, and bank aspirants from Oliveboard, Adda247 or AffairsCloud.

We make RetainIt, one of the apps below, so weigh what we say about it with that in mind. To keep this fair, we read every app's Google Play India listing, ours included, on the same day, 23 September 2026, and report the same numbers and labels for each. We don't name any app "best overall", ours included; RetainIt's limits sit beside everyone else's, and where another app does a job better, we say so. No app paid to be listed, and none of the links to other apps are affiliate links.

All 14 current affairs apps in our comparison are free to install; they differ in ads, paid plans, language and whether they make you practise or only read.

The short answer

How we checked these apps

On 23 September 2026 we opened each app's Google Play India listing and noted the same things for every one: downloads, star rating and review count (India's, since ratings differ by country), the "Contains ads" and "In-app purchases" labels, the last-updated date and what the description says about current affairs. For coaching and test-prep brands, we also read the brand's own current affairs or pricing page, where the free and paid split often sits.

We didn't install or test the other apps, and we won't pretend we did. So this page shows what each app offers and costs, not how good its questions are; a week of your own use will show you that. RetainIt's feature details come from our own app.

A listing rarely says whether a missed question comes back or where the content comes from, so check those in your first week with the six questions we ask of any app, ours included. An old update date doesn't always mean old content, but check that this week's news is there.

What "free" means on Google Play

"Free" comes in three kinds, told apart by two labels under the app's name on Google Play (in the Play Store app, "In-app purchases" sits beside the Install button):

• Free with ads. "Contains ads", as for GK & Current Affairs 2026, Jagran Josh, Adda247 and GK Now.
• Free with paid upgrades. "In-app purchases" (Adda247, PW), or no such label while the brand still sells plans (Testbook, Vision IAS, EduRev, AffairsCloud).
• Free with no ads and nothing to buy. Neither label and no paid plan we could find, as for RetainIt. Oliveboard's app also shows neither label, but we couldn't check Oliveboard's pricing page.

Current affairs apps compared

Downloads, ratings, labels and update dates are from each app's Google Play India listing, and plan prices from the brand's own website, as of 23 September 2026. Downloads use Indian notation as Play shows it (K = thousand, L = lakh, Cr = crore); PW's badge read 50M+, which is 5Cr+. "No" under Ads means no "Contains ads" label; "None listed" means no in-app purchases label and no paid plan we could find.

Our own app has the smallest numbers here: a 4.9 from 26 ratings tells you far less than a 4.3 from 1.11 lakh reviews.

Best free current affairs apps for SSC and railway exams

SSC and railway General Awareness rewards short, exact facts, and in SSC's syllabus static GK is the bigger area. As per the latest notices, GA is one of four sections in SSC CGL Tier-I and one of three in RRB NTPC CBT-1 (RRB ALP, under CEN 01/2026, has none). So look for daily one-liners, plenty of questions and some static GK.

GK & Current Affairs 2026 (Mukesh Kaushik)

GK & Current Affairs 2026 puts a lot into one free app: short daily current affairs, a daily quiz, free mocks including an All India Mock Test, previous years' papers, 5,000 GK questions, NCERT books and job updates, readable offline once downloaded. It has 50L+ downloads and 4.3 stars from 1.11 lakh reviews, and was last updated on 23 June 2026.

The catch is ads, and current affairs is one feature among many. Its mocks come in English and Hindi, but the listing names no language for the current affairs, so check that in your first week.

Best for: SSC, railway and defence aspirants who want GK, current affairs and mocks together.

Testbook SuperPass

Testbook's app is now titled Testbook SuperPass. Its listing promises free daily current affairs and GK capsules, plus daily PDFs. A free daily quiz and pages in Hindi and four regional languages are on testbook.com/current-affairs; the listing doesn't mention them. It has 50L+ downloads, 4.3 stars from 1.4 lakh reviews and no ads label.

The paid Testbook Pass lists mocks, previous papers, notes, doubt support and live tests, but no current affairs. SuperPass is ₹1 for a two-day trial, then ₹399 for 90 days. Check the renewal terms before starting the ₹1 trial: a review on the listing, marked helpful by 16 people, complains of unexpected auto-renewal charges.

Best for: SSC, railway and bank aspirants who already use, or plan to buy, Testbook's mocks.

GK Now: Daily Current Affairs

If you revise from PDFs, try GK Now by Gulia Infotech. Its description lists free monthly current affairs PDFs, weekly summaries and six-month compilations, plus daily one-liners, MCQ sets and sections for SSC and State PSC exams, all in Hindi and English. It's small (50K+ downloads, 4.6 stars from 427 reviews), shows ads and was last updated on 29 July 2026. We couldn't confirm whether the PDFs need a login.

Best for: bilingual SSC aspirants who revise from monthly and six-month PDFs.

Whatever app you choose, give static GK its own slot with a standard book. Our guide on how to prepare current affairs for SSC CGL shows how to turn one-liner PDFs into a quiz, and railway aspirants can check how many months of current affairs RRB NTPC needs.

Best current affairs apps for bank exams

Under the 2026 notices, IBPS PO, SBI PO, IBPS Clerk and SBI Clerk have no General Awareness in Prelims, so current affairs counts at Mains. There it carries weight: the 2026 IBPS PO notification raised Mains GA to 50 questions for 60 marks. Look for current affairs apps for banking with Banking Awareness and Economy quizzes, not only general news. Take RBI numbers from rbi.org.in and date them, as our banking awareness guide for Mains shows.

Oliveboard Current Affairs & GK App

Oliveboard's Current Affairs & GK App gives daily cards of under 50 words, topic quizzes including Banking Awareness and Economy, and monthly current affairs eBooks in Hindi and English, citing PIB, national newspapers and exam notifications as sources. Oliveboard's website adds free monthly "BOLT" PDFs and quizzes. The listing shows neither an ads nor an in-app purchases label, with 10L+ downloads and 4.5 stars from 11.6K reviews.

The catch: its last update was on 30 August 2025, more than a year before our check, so confirm the cards show this week's news. We also couldn't check Oliveboard's pricing page, so we can't say whether any part of the app needs a paid plan.

Best for: bank aspirants who want Banking Awareness quizzes and monthly eBooks.

Adda247

Adda247 is a full exam-prep app for bank, insurance, SSC, railway and state exams. Its listing mentions daily current affairs, free PDF notes and a daily quiz alongside "2 lakh+ free mock tests and previous year papers", and currentaffairs.adda247.com has free daily articles, a one-liner PDF and monthly current affairs. The app has 1Cr+ downloads and 4.4 stars from 9.29 lakh reviews.

It shows ads and has in-app purchases, and Adda247 sells paid packs such as the Mahapack on its website. Current affairs test series cost extra: the Monthly Current Affairs Master Pack for Banking & RB Exams was ₹849 for a year when we checked. The listing doesn't say which current affairs features are free in the app.

Best for: bank aspirants who want current affairs next to a large free mock-test library.

CareersCloud (AffairsCloud)

AffairsCloud's app, CareersCloud (AffairsCloud), is aimed at banking, insurance and SSC exams, with daily current affairs PDFs, daily topic-wise and section-wise quizzes, and weekly quizzes. AffairsCloud's FAQ says its daily current affairs is free. The monthly PDF and weekly tests are paid: its September 2026 page puts them in a "CA 2026 Plan" and an in-app course, "Crack Current Affairs 2026". We found no price for either. The app shows no ads label, has 10L+ downloads and the lowest rating in our table, 3.9 from 8.98K reviews.

Best for: banking and insurance aspirants who already follow AffairsCloud's daily posts.

Best current affairs apps for UPSC

Prelims wants exact facts: which Article, which body, which year. Mains wants the argument behind the news, from editorials and answer writing, and no app summary replaces a good newspaper there. So current affairs apps for UPSC work best for monthly consolidation and Prelims practice. Our guide on how to remember current affairs for UPSC turns one story into both.

Vision IAS

The Vision IAS app centres on the institute's monthly current affairs magazines in English and Hindi, with All India Radio episodes, infographics, Prelims mocks and Mains test evaluation. It has 10L+ downloads, 4.5 stars from 46.7K reviews and no ads label, but was last updated on 2 March 2026.

The daily current affairs we saw is on the website, whose free Basic Plan covers daily news, a news summary, the monthly magazine and a 10-question daily quiz. Paid plans, from ₹999 for three months, add News Today PDF downloads, Weekly Focus, 5,000+ current affairs questions and daily answer writing. We couldn't confirm how that split works in the app.

Best for: UPSC aspirants who want a monthly magazine in English or Hindi.

Vajiram IAS

The Vajiram IAS app offers daily current affairs and editorials curated for the UPSC syllabus, plus MCQs, test series and classes. Its website, vajiramandravi.com/current-affairs, carries Daily Prelims Pointers, daily editorial analysis, a daily quiz and its monthly magazine, Recitals, with no price shown. The app has 10L+ downloads, 4.2 stars from 12.9K reviews and no ads label, and was updated on 27 August 2026. Its listing names no content language, and we didn't check whether its current affairs needs a paid course.

Best for: UPSC aspirants who want daily current affairs and editorials from one institute.

PW and PW OnlyIAS

PW (5Cr+ downloads, 4.7 stars from 14 lakh reviews) is a paid course platform, and its listing doesn't mention current affairs. Its daily UPSC current affairs batches are free, though: pw.live lists "Daily Current Affairs" batches by Aasim Sir and Divyansh Sir at ₹0, taught in Hinglish. pwonlyias.com has free daily articles tagged by GS paper, and the daily posts we opened had a Mains angle and a Prelims practice quiz. We saw all this on the websites and couldn't confirm it in the app.

Best for: UPSC aspirants who learn well from Hinglish video.

Insights IAS and Drishti: why their apps aren't in the table

The Insights IAS app describes free daily current affairs, daily quizzes, PIB notes and mindmaps, but its listing was last updated on 30 December 2023 and its website didn't load when we checked, so confirm the feed is current before relying on it. Drishti's daily current affairs, editorials and daily MCQs are on drishtiias.com, with no price shown. Its Play app, Drishti Learning App, is a course platform with in-app purchases, rated 3.8, whose listing mentions current affairs once.

Best current affairs apps in Hindi

Practise in the language you'll write the exam in. As per the latest notices, SSC CGL papers come in English and Hindi, and RRB CBTs in English, Hindi and 13 regional languages. A scheme you know only as "PMJJBY" can slow you down when the Hindi paper spells it out as प्रधानमंत्री जीवन ज्योति बीमा योजना.

Current Affairs 2026 Hindi

Current Affairs 2026 Hindi, from Guru Balaji Developer, is written for Hindi-medium readers: daily one-liners with questions and answers, month-wise archives for 2026, 2025, 2024 and more, a quiz mode (its June 2026 update notes say "New Quiz Feature Added"), bookmarks and videos. It names UPSC, SSC, banking, railway, State PCS and defence exams, and has 10L+ downloads and 4.3 stars from 8.52K reviews. It shows ads, describes no PDFs or editorials, and was last updated on 15 June 2026.

Best for: Hindi-medium SSC, railway, bank and State PCS aspirants who revise from one-liners.

Jagran Josh Current Affairs & GK App

Jagran Josh's app, listed as Current Affairs & GK App 2025, gives daily current affairs in Hindi and English, recap pointers, a date-wise archive, a free daily quiz and month-wise question banks. It has 50L+ downloads and 4.2 stars from 1.05 lakh reviews. It shows ads, its title still says 2025, and its last update was on 16 March 2026, so check that the feed is current.

Best for: bilingual readers who want a date-wise archive and a free daily quiz.

Current Affairs 2026 (HI/EN)

Current Affairs 2026 (HI/EN) is a simple bilingual reader with daily updates, a question-answer section, quizzes with progress tracking and bookmarks. It has 5L+ downloads and 4.4 stars from 9.21K reviews, shows ads, names no exam and describes no PDFs. It was updated on 20 September 2026.

Best for: a quick daily read and quiz in Hindi or English.

Other apps with Hindi

• GK Now and EduRev's Daily Current Affairs 2026 are bilingual, and Oliveboard's monthly eBooks come in Hindi.
• For UPSC in Hindi, the Vision IAS app has its monthly magazines in Hindi. On the web, drishtiias.com has a Hindi switch, and pwonlyias.com has a Hindi-medium series and a Hindi tab for its monthly magazine.
• Our app, RetainIt, has its summaries, MCQs and explanations in Hindi too, but the Hindi is AI-translated, so many technical terms and proper nouns stay in English.
• For Tamil, Daily Current Affairs by MasterMindsEducation covers English, Tamil and Hindi, with ads and 50K+ downloads.

Free current affairs apps with no ads

Eight apps in our table show no "Contains ads" label: Oliveboard, Testbook SuperPass, Vision IAS, Vajiram IAS, CareersCloud, PW, EduRev's Daily Current Affairs 2026 and RetainIt (ours). A missing ads label doesn't mean nothing to buy, though, since most of them sell courses, plans or passes. Four of them also show no "In-app purchases" label and were updated in September 2026: Testbook SuperPass and CareersCloud, covered above, and the two below.

EduRev Daily Current Affairs 2026

The listing for EduRev's Daily Current Affairs 2026 describes daily news summaries, GK notes, a "Read & Quiz" set after each day's notes, topic-wise MCQs, weekly and monthly PDFs, offline study and mocks, with a one-tap switch between Hindi and English. It shows no ads or in-app purchases label, and the app was updated on 21 September 2026.

It's small, though (10K+ downloads, 49 reviews), and EduRev's website sells an Infinity plan for current affairs, ₹499 a year when we checked, whose perks include downloading documents and "No Daily Limits & No Ads". We couldn't confirm whether that applies inside this app, so check that the PDFs you want are free.

Best for: bilingual aspirants who want short daily notes, a quick quiz and PDFs.

RetainIt (our app)

RetainIt is the app we make. It's free, with no ads, no subscription and no in-app purchases, and it's built around recall rather than reading. Each day brings AI summaries with key points and exam facts, and fresh MCQs, each with an explanation. Missed questions go back into later quizzes until you answer them correctly, a Weak Areas list shows your lowest-accuracy topics, and Custom Practice runs over the last 7 or 30 days. Content comes in English and Hindi.

It's new and small: 1K+ downloads and 4.9 stars from just 26 ratings. It's Android only and needs a Google sign-in. The summaries are AI-written with no source links, so check key numbers and names on PIB. Questions are MCQs only, with no mock tests, previous years' papers or Mains answer writing. Nothing schedules your reviews; you choose when to run the 7-day and 30-day rounds. The Hindi is AI-translated, and static GK isn't covered.

To judge the summaries before installing, read them for a few days on our free web reader, which needs no sign-in. What RetainIt does and doesn't do has the full detail.

Best for: aspirants who already have a reading source and want daily recall practice without ads.

GKToday

GKToday's listing calls its material ad-free, but it mentions in-app purchases and says nothing specific about daily current affairs. Its website's daily quiz shows no price, while its current affairs PDFs sell per issue at ₹150 to ₹300. The app was last updated on 28 January 2026.

Apps we left out, and why

• Stale listings. IASbaba was last updated in May 2024 and BYJU'S Exam Prep (formerly Gradeup) in June 2024. Current Affairs 2026 Latest by vocab24 (GK24 in its description) and Online Life Hub's Daily Current Affairs and GK, which offers Hindi PDF books, were last updated in August 2025. We kept Oliveboard despite a similar date because its Banking Awareness quizzes and monthly eBooks are aimed squarely at bank exams; for the other two, apps updated this year offer the same kind of daily current affairs, quizzes and Hindi content.
• Unacademy. For UPSC, its subscribe page marks "Daily CA notes + questions" for the paid Iconic, Iconic Pro and Offline plans, not for Free, Lite or Plus. That's a coaching subscription, not a current affairs app.
• News apps. Inshorts and other general news apps aren't organised around exam syllabi, so we kept to exam-prep apps.
• Apps we didn't verify. PadhAI, the PIB app, UPSC Current Affairs App 2026 (Trioglobe) and Current Affairs 2026 Offline came up in our searches, but we didn't check their listings on the day, so we haven't rated them. We also compared Android listings only; some of these brands have iPhone apps, which we didn't compare.

Whichever app you pick, use it like this

An app only helps if you pull the facts back out of memory. The routine below takes about 15 minutes a day:

1. Read (5 minutes). Today's summary or one-liners. Note the exam facts: names, numbers, dates, bodies.
2. Recall (3 minutes). Close the app, say or write three of those facts, then check.
3. Quiz (5 minutes). Cover the options with your thumb, answer first, then read every explanation.
4. Log (2 minutes). Write each miss or lucky guess on a card or in a list.

Once a week, and again at month end, run a mixed quiz on that period instead of rereading. Our guide on how to remember current affairs explains why recall and spacing beat rereading.

To judge an app, use it this way for a week, then on day 8 test yourself cold on 20 facts from that week. If most won't come back, change how you use the app, or try another.