Taking notes once involved balancing notebooks, Post-its and scraps of napkins with random scribbles on them. Fed up with turrets worth of pages, you made the transition to digital, accumulating notes in devices and cloud storage. Now, with the help of AI, you can elevate your note-taking into a system for getting ideas out of your head, crystallizing them into your essential thoughts, and even executing them.
Bringing in new tech can be a heavy lift, particularly when dealing with sensitive personal notes. You want it to help you, not take the heart out of what you are trying to say.
My team and I researched and tested the best AI note-taking apps. Our goal? To discover tools that help you create notes, format notes, and search your notes faster—without making you feel as if AI is supplanting your brain.
What Makes a Good AI Note-Taking App?
Great note-taking app allows fast note creation and good organization. AI takes this a step further by producing content, connecting related notes, and prettifying messy prose.
Here’s what I thought about in testing AI note-taking apps:
- AI Utilities: Great apps have tools like text generation, summarization, and semantic linking. A one-click “make this shorter” button won’t do.
- User-Friendliness: You ought to be able to create notes quickly and easily. The best apps are fast to use with little clicking.
- Notes Organization: As you accumulate notes, you need to be able to retrieve information without hassle. Search and categorization are critical.
- Cross-Device Access: You should be able to access and update notes regardless of where you are, whether at a desk or on the go.
- Security & Privacy: Your notes are private. The top apps keep themselves at their best — private and protected.
Over four weeks, I tested these apps daily, exploring their AI features and judging their usability on mobile. Here are my top five picks:
Best 5 AI Note-Taking Apps Glance
- Mem – Best for AI-Powered Organization
- Evernote – The best AI-Powered Editing
- Microsoft OneNote and Copilot Pro – Chat With Your Notes
- Notion – Best for Creating a Second Brain
- Reflect – Best Voice-to-Text Notes
Best AI Note-Taking Apps For 2025
1. Mem – Best for AI-Powered Organization
Organizing is a breeze with Mem. It also suggests hashtags to help you categorize them as you add notes so you can easily find them later. Once you open a hashtag, Mem finds other related notes to add.
Key Features:
- Smart Write and Edit tools polish your ideas without substituting for them.
- Chat-based search using Generative AI lets you converse with your notes instead of sifting through them.
- Built for saws of all types and sizes.
Pros:
- Strong data-centric AI organization.
- AI note search chatbot.
Cons:
- No free plan.
Price: From $14.99/month
2. Evernote – The best AI-Powered Editing
Evernote helps with tidying up scrawled, hurried notes. The AI Edit tool can help you correct typos or summarize long notes, or alter tone. Its AI search also crawls through PDFs and handwritten notes, surfacing relevant content.
Evernote is still a contender even after recent changes under new ownership. Its note taking experience is still one of the best in town, especially on an m
Key Features:
- AI-Powered Search is scanning PDFs, images and handwritten notes.
- AI editor: cleans the text with little effort
- Good for both short notes and long text.
Pros:
- Great for detailed note-taking
- Browsers with multiple views for easy navigation.
Cons:
- Been making some major adjustments that can affect stability.
Price: Free plan; Paid plans from $14.99/month
3. Microsoft OneNote and Copilot Pro – Chat With Your Notes
OneNote adds an AI chat sidebar that answers questions about your notes through Copilot Pro. You can also select text and have A.I. summarize it, paraphrase it or transform it into a to-do list.
OneNote’s freeform layout is ideal for mind mapping as well as other types of dashboard-like note arrangement, which makes it a good fit for visual thinkers.
Key Features:
- You can now chat with your notes using an AI trained on your data.
- Drag-and-drop for flexible note organization.
- It shows sources to verify this AI-powered search.
Pros:
- Extreme flexibility note-taking
- AI-powered responses quote their sources.
Cons:
- AI features are somewhat hidden in the ui.
Price: Free plan offered; Microsoft 365 subscription from $6.99/month; AI features require a $20/month add-on
4. Notion – Best for Creating a Second Brain
Notion isn’t just a note-taking app; it’s a complete workspace. You can use a database to organize notes with tags, topics, and relational data fields.
Notion AI can write text, summarize content, and answer questions about your notes. Setup takes time, but its flexibility makes it a powerhouse of a tool.
Key Features:
- Content generation and editing assistance by AI.
- Relational databases allow us to connect and sort notes.
- Works best for individual and team collaboration.
Pros:
- Organization that is highly customizable.
- Great collaborative features.
Cons:
- It takes a lot of work to set up, and effort to keep.
Price: Free (limited use) | Paid plans from $10/month | AI = $10/user/month
5. Reflect – Best Voice-to-Text Notes
Reflect is designed for people who think verbally. It allows you to speak, translate that voice into text and offers A.I. tools to polish, outline or reorganize notes. Or set a custom prompt for the way you want to organize it (if that is something you do with a certain type of note).
Reflect also has solid encryption, so your notes stay private — just don’t forget your passphrase, or you won’t be able to access your notes ever again.
Key Features:
- AI-based cleanup tools for voice-to-text transcription
- Notes formatted with custom AI prompts
- Daily notes feature: Exercise your thoughts daily.
Pros:
- Perfect for taking hands-free notes.
- Encrypted for the privacy of your automated decision making.
Cons:
- It had features that were not easy to discover.
Price: $10/month (annual billing)
Which AI Note-Taking Apps is Right for You?
It was a leap from paper to digital. Today, AI is transforming note-taking to make it faster and smarter. These tools make capturing ideas easy, while AI organizes and connects them, letting you focus on your work.
Which is the best app for you depends on your requirements. Give a few a try — each of them has a free trial — and see what works best with your workflow.
Wrap-Up on AI Note-Taking Apps
The software for note-taking powered by AI is changing the way we tap, methodically, and access information. Whether you require AI-powered organization, editing, chat-based assistance or voice transcription, there’s a tool that will complement your workflow. With these smart features, you can help improve your productivity that allows your notes to work for you and not the other way round.
Best 5 AI Note-Taking Apps: An Overview
| Tool Name | Features | Best For | Pricing |
| Mem | Chat-based search using Generative AI lets you converse with your notes | Best for AI-Powered Organization | Paid plan from $14.99/month |
| Evernote | AI-Powered Search is scanning PDFs, images and handwritten notes. | Best AI-Powered Editing | Free plan and paid plans from $14.99/month |
| Microsoft OneNote + Copilot Pro | You can now chat with your notes using an AI trained on your data. | Chat With Your Notes | Free plan offered; Paid plan from $6.99/month; AI features with $20/month add-on |
| Notion | Content generation and editing assistance by AI. | Best for Creating a Second Brain | Free plan offered; Paid plans from $10/month; AI features with $10/user/month |
| Reflect | AI-based cleanup tools for voice-to-text transcription | Best Voice-to-Text Notes | Paid plan from $10/month (annual billing) |
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