Most guides to AI note taking compare ten apps as though they do the same job. They do not. Roughly half of the tools sold under that label are meeting recorders that join a call and produce a transcript; the other half are note and knowledge apps that help you write, organise and find notes you create yourself. Buying one when you needed the other is the most common mistake in this category.
This guide is about the second group: apps for notes you write and keep. It compares Notion, Evernote and Mem on the things that decide the choice — what the free tier actually allows, what the AI is metered in, and how much structure each expects from you — and adds Granola, the one meeting tool that behaves like a notepad rather than a recorder. If what you need is a bot that records and transcribes calls, our separate guide to AI meeting assistants compares Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and the assistants built into Zoom and Teams. Figures below come from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked in September 2026; where a vendor does not publish a number, this guide says so instead of estimating.
Three ways to organise notes with AI
A structured workspace. You build the structure — pages, databases, projects — and AI works across it. Notion is the example. It rewards people who will maintain a system and punishes people who will not.
A notebook archive. You capture everything and rely on search to find it again, including text inside images and scanned documents. Evernote is the example, and its value grows with the size of the archive you already have.
An assistant over loose notes. You write without filing, and AI links related notes and answers questions across them. Mem is the example. It suits people who will never maintain folders or tags.
The billing follows the same split. Notion meters AI in credits on top of a seat price, Evernote caps the number of notes you can hold, and Mem caps new notes, messages and open tasks separately. Those meters decide the real cost more than the headline price does.
The note and knowledge apps
1. Notion — AI is a plan tier with a credit meter
Notion’s pricing page lists Free at $0, Plus at $10 per member per month, Business at $20 and Enterprise at custom pricing, with a note that you “save up to 20% with yearly”. It does not publish separate monthly rates alongside those figures, so none are quoted here.
On AI, that page places a trial of Notion AI on Free and Plus, and the full Notion Agent — which “completes complex, multi-step tasks” — on Business, alongside AI meeting notes. Custom Agents are listed on Plus, Business and Enterprise, and require credits.
What to budget separately is the credit meter. The pricing page marks individual AI capabilities as “Requires Notion credits” rather than folding them into the seat price, and prices agents at “free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits”. Notion does not publish a per-action consumption rate, so this part of the bill is difficult to forecast in advance: the per-member figures above are a floor rather than a total.
Suited to: people and teams who want notes beside project databases and shared documents, and who will maintain the structure that makes the AI useful.
2. Evernote — mature capture, capped by note count
Evernote remains strong at what it has always been good at: capturing anything, and searching text inside images and scanned PDFs.
The plan limits are where to start. Its plan comparison caps Free at 50 notes in total, one notebook, one synced device and 1GB of storage, with no AI features listed. Starter raises that to 1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, three devices and 5GB, and Advanced to unlimited notes, notebooks and storage, with “safeguard limits applied to ensure performance and prevent abuse”. Enterprise is custom. Because the free allowance is a total rather than a monthly refill, it works as an extended trial rather than a permanent home for a real archive.
The AI sits on the paid tiers: Starter and Advanced both list an AI Assistant, Semantic Search, AI Transcribe, AI Edit and a way to connect Evernote to AI tools over MCP. So the jump from Starter to Advanced buys capacity, not more AI. Evernote did not display prices on that comparison page when we checked, so none is quoted here.
Suited to: people with years of existing Evernote content, and anyone whose work depends on searching scanned documents and handwriting.
3. Mem — organisation without folders, metered three ways
Mem takes the opposite approach to Notion’s structured workspace. Instead of asking you to file notes into folders and tags, it uses AI to link related notes and surface them when relevant, with a chat interface for querying your own knowledge base.
Its pricing page meters three things separately: new notes per month, messages to Mem, and open tasks and projects. Free allows 25 new notes, 25 messages and 15 open tasks a month; Plus is $9 a month for 50, 50 and 25; Pro is $29 a month for 100, 100 and 50; and Pro 2× is $49 for 200, 200 and 100, with larger tiers and an extra-usage add-on above that.
Those separate meters are the thing to model. Saving two notes each working day comes to about 44 a month, which outgrows Free but fits Plus — yet if you also ask Mem 60 questions that month, you have outgrown Plus’s 50 messages while still inside its note allowance. Count the questions you will ask, not only the notes you will write.
One naming caution: Mem, the note-taking app, is a different company from a similarly named developer memory API, and search results frequently mix the two.
Suited to: individual knowledge workers and researchers who accumulate a lot of notes and dislike maintaining a filing system.
The meeting tool that behaves like a notepad
4. Granola — notes from your meetings, with no bot on the call
Granola sits between the two categories, which is why it belongs here rather than only in a meeting-recorder comparison. Instead of sending a bot into the meeting, it captures audio directly from your device and turns it, together with the notes you type, into a written meeting note. Nothing visibly joins the call. Granola states that it stores transcripts rather than audio recordings, which is a meaningful difference if retention is a concern, and also means you cannot replay a call to check a transcription error.
The free Basic plan includes unlimited meetings, AI notes, AI chat, custom templates and multi-language support. Its limitation is meeting history: Granola’s pricing page describes the free tier as having limited history without publishing a specific window, so check inside the app rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere. Older notes are stored rather than deleted, but become inaccessible until you upgrade.
Its pricing page lists Business at $14 per user per month, unlocking “unlimited meeting notes and history” plus integrations including Notion, HubSpot, Slack and Zapier, and Enterprise at $35 per user per month, adding SSO, API access and org-wide controls including “org-wide auto-deletion periods”. Granola bills monthly and does not offer an annual discount.
Two practical constraints. Granola requires a desktop or mobile app rather than a browser, and runs on Mac, Windows and iOS. On training, Granola states that users can opt out of AI model training in settings on any plan including the free one, but only the Enterprise tier lets an administrator enforce that across a team.
Suited to: consultants and managers who want meeting notes to land in their note system, in meetings where a visible recording bot would be awkward.
Free tiers and limits compared
Free tiers are where these tools differ most, and none of them limits the same thing. Figures are as published by each vendor in September 2026.
| Tool | Approach | What the free tier limits | Paid entry | How AI is metered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notion | Structured workspace | Trial of Notion AI; full Agent on Business | Plus $10/member | Notion credits, $10 per 1,000/month |
| Evernote | Notebook archive | 50 notes total, 1 notebook, 1 device, no AI | Starter (price not displayed) | AI features included from Starter |
| Mem | Assistant over notes | 25 new notes, 25 messages, 15 open tasks a month | Plus $9/month | Separate caps on notes, messages and tasks |
| Granola | Meeting notepad, no bot | Unlimited meetings; limited history | Business $14/user | Unlimited notes and history on Business |
There is no answer-quality column. No vendor publishes a reproducible measure of how accurately its AI answers questions about your notes, and the result depends heavily on how your own notes are written.
Moving notes in, and getting them out
Switching note apps costs more than the subscription. Before moving an archive, import a representative sample — a few notes with dates, attachments, links and a scanned document — and check what survives. Then export that sample and open it outside the product. An app that is easy to enter and hard to leave is a long-term cost, and the AI in any of these tools can only be as good as the notes and source links that made it through the move.
Two further checks are worth making on your own notes before paying. Ask a question whose answer is stated in one note and confirm the app points you back to that note rather than paraphrasing loosely. Then ask about a decision that changed over time and see whether the answer distinguishes the current version from the old one. Those two checks tell you more about fit than any feature list.
Privacy and recording
Use non-confidential material for any first evaluation, and check who can see shared notes, what connected services the assistant can read, and how deletion works. Deleting an AI summary does not necessarily delete the source note or recording.
If you use Granola or any other tool in meetings, recording rules still apply even though no bot appears. Rules differ by country and, in the United States, by state: some require one party’s consent and others require everyone’s. Because nothing announces a botless tool, telling the other participants is your job. This is general information, not legal advice; our meeting assistants guide covers consent and admin permissions in more detail.
How to choose
You want notes beside projects and shared documents: Notion, budgeting for Business or for credits if you want more than the AI trial.
You already have a large archive, or rely on searching scans: Evernote, planning on a paid tier because 50 notes will not hold a real library.
You will never maintain folders: Mem, after counting how many questions you ask as well as how many notes you write.
You want meeting notes without a bot: Granola, remembering that the disclosure is then up to you.
You want recordings and transcripts of every call: that is a meeting recorder, not a note app — see our meeting assistants comparison.
Every tool here has a free tier. Run one for a fortnight with your own notes before committing, and do the export check before you move anything important.
Related guides
- Best AI Meeting Assistants in 2026
- AI Productivity Tools: Build a Stack Without Paying Twice
- Best AI Research Tools in 2026
- Best AI PDF Tools in 2026
- Best AI Writing Tools in 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which note app has the most usable free plan?
It depends on what you would hit first. Mem gives 25 new notes and 25 messages a month, Evernote caps the whole account at 50 notes with no AI, Notion gives a full workspace with only a trial of its AI, and Granola gives unlimited meeting notes with limited history.
Is Notion AI an add-on or part of the plan?
It is a plan tier with a credit meter on top. Notion’s pricing page puts a trial of Notion AI on Free and Plus and the full Notion Agent on Business, and marks individual AI capabilities as requiring Notion credits, priced at “Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits”.
Does Evernote’s free plan include AI?
Not on its current plan comparison. The AI Assistant, semantic search, AI transcription and AI editing are listed on Starter and Advanced; Free lists storage and note limits only.
Which of these works without a bot joining my meetings?
Granola captures audio from your own device rather than sending a participant into the call. Notion’s AI meeting notes sit on its Business plan. For bot-based recorders, see our meeting assistants guide.
Which is better for students?
For organising coursework and revision notes, a knowledge app suits better than a recorder. For students recording lectures, a meeting assistant with a generous free allowance fits better, subject to your institution’s recording rules.
Conclusion
These apps are not interchangeable, and the difference is how much structure they expect from you. Notion rewards a system you maintain and meters its AI in credits; Evernote rewards a large archive and caps the notes you hold; Mem asks for no structure and meters notes, questions and tasks separately. Granola brings meeting notes into the same world without a bot on the call.
Whichever you choose, check two things the marketing pages do not lead with: which meter you will hit first on the free tier, and whether your notes come back out intact when you export them.
