note.md Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

note.md in 60 seconds

note.md is a local-first markdown workspace for macOS that combines note-taking, a citation manager, and a PDF reader, then turns your notes into cited memory for AI agents. The verdict: a thoughtful, privacy-respecting research tool with a sharp point of view, held back by being macOS-only and niche. Best for researchers, academics, and writers who want a private knowledge base. Price: free, with lifetime premium for early adopters. Rating: 7/10.

What is note.md?

note.md is a research workspace that lives entirely on your machine. It stores everything as plain markdown files in real folders, so your notes are not trapped in a proprietary database. It bundles three things researchers usually juggle across separate apps: a block editor for writing, a citation manager, and a PDF reader. The idea is to keep your reading, your notes, and your sources in one place instead of scattered across a PDF tool, a note app, and a reference manager.

It started as a master’s student’s personal tool. The maker, André Aigner, wanted a local version of Confluence for a single person building their own academic knowledge base, and that origin shows in the design. note.md is built natively in Swift for Apple Silicon, runs its AI features on-device with no cloud uploads, and is compatible with Obsidian vaults and plain .md files. The standout concept is “cited memory with receipts,” which exposes your note vault to AI agents like Claude through the filesystem, so the AI can reason over your research and point back to the actual source rather than making things up.

What are note.md’s key features?

Local-first markdown storage

Everything is a plain .md file in a real folder on your disk. No lock-in, no proprietary format, no forced cloud sync. If you stop using note.md tomorrow, your notes are still just markdown files you can open anywhere. For anyone who has been burned by a note app shutting down or holding their data hostage, this is the foundational feature.

Integrated citation manager and PDF reader

note.md folds reference management and PDF reading into the same app as your writing. You read a paper, highlight it, take notes, and the citation is right there. This is the workflow that usually requires Zotero plus a PDF app plus your notes tool, collapsed into one. For academic work, removing that friction is the main reason to use it.

Cited memory for AI agents

This is the clever part. note.md exposes your vault to AI agents through the filesystem, so a tool like Claude can use your actual notes as grounded memory and cite the source it pulled from. The maker frames it as “librarian, not ghostwriter,” meaning the AI surfaces evidence with receipts rather than generating unsourced answers. For research, citations you can trace are the whole game.

On-device AI and Obsidian compatibility

The AI features run on-device, so nothing gets uploaded to a cloud, which matters if your research is sensitive or unpublished. And because it reads plain markdown and Obsidian vaults, you can layer it onto an existing setup rather than migrating everything. That lowers the cost of trying it.

How much does note.md cost?

note.md has a free tier, and early launch participants are being offered lifetime note.md Premium. The company has not published detailed subscription pricing yet, so the practical situation is that you can use it for free now, and if you are an early adopter you may lock in premium permanently at no recurring cost. The exact paid pricing for later users is not public.

For context, the research tooling space is a mix of free and paid. Obsidian is free for personal use with paid sync, Zotero is free and open-source, and Notion starts around $10/mo. A local-first tool with a free tier fits that pattern. The lifetime premium offer is a genuine incentive to try it during launch, though as always with lifetime deals, weigh it against the risk that a small one-person-origin product may evolve slowly or change direction.

Who is note.md best for?

Use note.md if you are a researcher, academic, or serious writer on a Mac who wants your reading, notes, and citations in one private, local-first place. The cited-memory feature is most valuable for exactly this person, someone who needs AI help but cannot tolerate made-up references. If you already think in markdown and care about owning your data, it fits naturally.

Skip note.md if you are not on macOS, because it is Apple-only with no Windows, web, or mobile version. Also skip it if you need real-time collaboration or a team knowledge base, since this is built for a single person’s vault. And if you want a mature, deeply extensible ecosystem, Obsidian’s plugin community is far larger today.

Best note.md alternatives

Obsidian: Free for personal use, sync around $4/mo. The dominant local-first markdown tool, cross-platform, with a huge plugin ecosystem. More mature and more flexible, though citation management and AI grounding require plugins and setup.

Zotero: Free and open-source. The standard for reference management and PDF annotation in academia. Stronger on citations specifically, weaker as a writing environment. Many researchers will use both.

Notion: Free tier, paid from around $10/mo. Cloud-based and collaborative, with AI built in. The opposite philosophy to note.md, less private and not local-first, but better for teams and structured databases.

Final verdict: Is note.md worth it?

note.md is a focused, opinionated tool that does something most note apps get wrong: it treats your sources and your AI memory as first-class, with citations you can actually trace. The local-first design, on-device AI, and Obsidian compatibility show real respect for users who care about owning their data. For a Mac-based researcher or academic writer, it is well worth trying while the free tier and lifetime premium are on offer.

The limits are clear-eyed ones. It is macOS-only, it is young, and it came from a single maker’s personal need, which means the audience is narrower and the roadmap less certain than an established tool. If you are outside that niche, it is not for you. But if you are exactly the researcher it was built for, note.md is one of the more thoughtful tools in the space. We rate it 7/10.