Goodnotes review
A broad note-taking app for handwriting, PDFs, collaboration, and AI across five platforms.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Goodnotes is a digital note-taking application for students, professionals, and teams who want handwritten notebooks alongside typed documents, whiteboards, PDFs, and audio. It supports digital ink, PDF import and annotation, signing, handwriting search, spellcheck, templates, sharing, and collaboration. Offline access is supported, with some features and document availability depending on prior local loading and platform. The app is available on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
The plan structure covers individual, Apple-only, and team use. Free includes up to three notebooks, text documents, and whiteboards, 100 MB storage, a 5 MB import limit, watermarked exports, and limited audio recording. Essential costs $11.99 per user per year and adds unlimited notebooks, documents, whiteboards, folders, 5 GB storage, unlimited audio, watermark-free exports, and basic Goodnotes AI. Pro costs $35.99 per user per year and adds Goodnotes Cloud cross-platform library synchronization, private link sharing, real-time collaborative documents, advanced AI, and Google Drive integration. Teams costs $120 per seat per year with collaboration, Drive and Google Calendar integrations, SAML SSO, domain control, and consolidated billing. Apple users also have the one-time Special Edition purchase, which excludes Goodnotes Cloud.
Its strongest distinction is the connection between handwriting and richer document workflows: audio recording can synchronize with handwriting, while AI can provide meeting transcription, live summaries, content generation, and image generation. Integrations include Google Calendar, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, ChatGPT, Claude, and iCloud. Goodnotes suits people who want a notebook-style workspace with PDF work and cross-platform options. Choose another app if you need unrestricted free storage, cross-platform cloud synchronization on the entry paid tier, or advanced AI without moving to Pro or adding AI Pass, which costs $9.99 per month and provides approximately 12 times more AI credits.
Goodnotes pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Handwriting, typed notes, whiteboards, PDFs, and audio in one app
- Searchable handwriting plus AI transcription, summaries, and generation
- Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android support
- Where it doesn't
- Free plan limits users to three notebooks and 100 MB storage
- Cross-platform Goodnotes Cloud sync starts with the Pro plan
- Advanced AI requires Pro or the separate AI Pass add-on
Goodnotes fact sheet, pricing and score →
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