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Table of Contents
Although many of the best note-taking apps have similar features and interfaces, some now incorporate AI in innovative ways that help them stand out. Using AI for taking notes makes sense, no matter whether you want to brainstorm ideas, collect and archive information, or simply stay organized. AI chatbots can even help you expand on your notes, find related information, pick out action items, or summarize just about anything. PCMag has been covering note-taking apps for more than a decade, so you can trust that our picks are actually worth using. When dealing with anything AI-related, remember to fact-check everything.
EDITORS' NOTE
May 28, 2026: With this update, our lineup of recommended AI note-taking apps remains unchanged. We have vetted the existing picks for currency and availability.
Our Top Tested Picks
Best for Brainstorming
Albus
SCORE
4.5
Outstanding
What Our Ratings Mean
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Bottom Line
With a fine-grained organizational structure, a generous free version, and an abundance of features, OneNote is a superbly versatile and complete note-taking app.
Pros & Cons
- Free version includes all core features
- Excellent organization tools
- Supports free-form placement of attachments, drawings, and text
- Top-notch web clipper
- Local storage option available only on Windows
- Limited OCR tools
- No geotagging
Microsoft Copilot is a major part of Windows 11. It appears in the Start menu and every Microsoft 365 app, including OneNote, where it's arguably most useful for information discovery. Here, you can use the ChatGPT-based Copilot to generate notes on any topic. If you don’t like OneNote, you can do the same things with Copilot in Microsoft Word. Leveraging Copilot anywhere you can write and edit text makes for an excellent AI note-taking experience.
Note generators: Copilot helps you get an overview of a topic without needing to run tons of web searches yourself.
Microsoft users: If you already use (or pay for) a bunch of Microsoft apps or are a habitual Copilot user, using the AI in your notes takes only a few clicks and should feel familiar.
Best AI Features Overall
Notion
SCORE
3.0
Average
What Our Ratings Mean
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Bottom Line
Notion is a good note-taking app for collaborating and is packed with features, including excellent AI integration, but it's overly complicated and doesn't work offline.
Pros & Cons
- Endlessly customizable
- Strong for collaboration
- Can build custom databases
- Great tools for importing from Evernote (and other apps)
- Overly complex for most people
- No offline access
- Sluggish
- Mediocre web clipper
- Full of Silicon Valley jargon
- Missing many features
Notion's AI excels at answering questions about your existing data, automating actions based on the text you select, and generating text in response to prompts you provide. Notion's AI can assist you with almost everything you do, including brainstorming related ideas, creating social media posts, summarizing content, and translating, among other things. The combination of these abilities makes Notion a great platform for expanding existing information and generating new ideas.
Software engineers: Notion seems to be popular among software workers, so it should be high on your list if you work in that industry and want to keep pace with your teammates.
Tinkerers: One of Notion's defining traits is its customization potential, making it a great fit if you love to dive deep into an app and tweak things to your preferences.
Starts at $120 Per Year at Reflect App
Buying Guide: The Best AI Note-Taking Apps for 2026
What About Copilot Pages and Google NotebookLM?
Although these aren't strictly note-taking apps, Copilot Pages and Google NotebookLM can fill similar roles. Pages lets you open up Copilot responses in a text editor while preserving your ability to prompt the chatbot further, and NotebookLM is a research tool that enables you to find sources, get insights into your sources, and organize your thoughts in various ways.
AI Is Everywhere
AI isn’t just coming to your note-taking apps or your operating system—it's in your search results and a variety of productivity apps. To stay current on all the new AI developments, bookmark our All About AI and Try AI series pages.
Recommended by Our Editors
About Our Experts
Khamosh Pathak
Contributor
Experience
I'm a content specialist with more than a decade of experience creating technology content. My passion is crafting easy-to-read guides, helpful content, blog posts, and explainers that make sense to everyone, not just techies. I have written for popular technology websites including MakeUseOf, How-To Geek, and Lifehacker. I also write guides for technical automation that are easy for anyone to understand.
Ruben Circelli
Writer, Software
Experience
I’ve been writing about consumer technology and video games for over a decade at a variety of publications, including Destructoid, GamesRadar+, Lifewire, PCGamesN, Trusted Reviews, and What Hi-Fi?, among many others. At PCMag, I review AI and productivity software—everything from chatbots to to-do list apps. In my free time, I’m likely cooking something, playing a game, or tinkering with my computer.
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