# Notability: AI Notes & Study — Handwriting, PDF & audio

> Digital note-taking, annotation, and audio recording app with AI features. (iPhone/iPad app by Ginger Labs.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notability-ai-notes-and-study/id360593530 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Ginger Labs](https://appshunter.io/developer/318126112)
- Category: Productivity, Education
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 458,525 App Store ratings · 3,781 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 18.0 · 455 MB
- Languages: American English, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and 13 more
- Released: 2010-04-01
- Data updated: 2026-11-03
- Monetization: freemium
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notability-ai-notes-and-study/id360593530/reviews.md

## What is Notability?

From your first lecture to your next big meeting, Notability helps you think, learn, and work better. Take handwritten notes, annotate documents, record audio, and stay organized in one place so your ideas are always clear, searchable, and ready when you need them.

NEW: NOTABILITY CLASSIC IS BACK
Prefer to pay one time for Notability? Our Classic plan is a one-time purchase with no subscription required.

FREE DIGITAL NOTES FOR WORK & SCHOOL
• Write, type, or sketch with digital ink, highlighters, and text tools.
• Mark up anything: PDFs, textbooks, lecture slides, images, and more.
• Combine handwriting, typed text, images, diagrams, and sketches on the same page.
• Stay organized with customizable folders and subjects that grow with you.

FOR PROFESSIONALS: WORK SMARTER AND SAVE TIME
• Mark up documents, capture meetings, organize ideas, and present with confidence.
• Import and handwrite on any document: PDFs, DOCs, presentations, reports, and more.
• Fill out forms in the office or on a job site.
• Combine handwriting, text, photos and documents in one place.
• Record calls and meetings to transcribe voice in real-time. Audio is synced to your notes so nothing is missed.
• Receive automated meeting notes, takeaways, and summaries.
• Search handwriting, transcripts, text, and PDFs to quickly revisit decisions and action items.
• Present notes, documents, and ideas in full screen, with a laser pointer to guide attention.
• View and edit two notes side-by-side to stay focused and productive.
• Share a PDF of your note in one tap.

FOR STUDENTS: STUDY SMARTER AND ACE EXAMS
• Take handwritten notes digitally or annotate lecture slides or your textbooks.
• Record lectures and get instant audio transcripts and real-time summaries in your notes.
• Audio recordings are synced to the exact moment you write in a note — perfect for lectures.
• Import lecture slides, textbook PDFs, and assignments into organized folders and subjects.
• Search across handwriting, typed notes, and transcripts to instantly find content from classes.
• Study content from your note with personalized quizzes and flashcards to practice with active recall.
• Chat with your notes to review concepts, clarify ideas, and prepare for exams.
 
WORK YOUR WAY
• Seamlessly switch between handwriting and typing.
• Import files instantly and keep everything connected.
• Share notes easily to collaborate or get feedback when needed.
• Access your notes across iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the web.
• Create beautiful notes using templates from the Notability Gallery.

UPGRADE TO A NOTABILITY SUBSCRIPTION
Notability is free to use. With an upgraded subscription, you can receive:
• Unlimited note-taking
• AI-powered productivity and study tools
• Handwriting recognition and math conversion
• Live Audio transcripts
• Auto-backup and iCloud sync

Download for free on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and web.
Privacy Policy: notability.com/privacy
Terms of Service: notability.com/terms

## Key features

- Handwritten and typed notes
- PDF and document annotation
- Audio recording and transcription
- AI-powered summaries and quizzes
- Customizable organization
- Cross-device sync

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Notability Plus | $19.99 | per year |
| Notability Plus | $19.99 | per year |
| Notability Plus | $19.99 | per year |
| Notability Plus | $19.99 | per year |
| Notability Plus | $7.99 | per month |
| Notability Plus | $12.99 | per 3 months |
| Notability Lite | $14.99 | per year |
| Notability Pro | $99.99 | per year |
| Notability Pro | $19.99 | per month |
| Notability Lite | $5.99 | per month |


## Chart rankings

- #149 in Top Free · Productivity (US App Store)
- #101 in Top Grossing · Productivity (US App Store)

## What do users think of Notability?

Reviews of Notability are mostly positive: the Productivity app is rated 4.8/5 from 459K App Store ratings. What users like most: great app for note-taking, smooth handwriting experience. Top complaints: sync issues with iCloud, limited search and organization options. Summarized from real user reviews.

**Pros**

- 🚀 Great app for note-taking
- 👍 Smooth handwriting experience
- 📝 Excellent organization and file management
- 🎙️ Useful audio recording feature
- 🔍 Handwriting recognition and search
- 🌈 Customizable colors and themes

**Cons**

- 🐛 Sync issues with iCloud
- 🔍 Limited search and organization options
- 🖍️ Frustrating highlighter behavior
- 🔒 Concerns about subscription model
- 🔧 Buggy after recent updates

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Notes disappearing or getting corrupted
- Frequent crashes and performance issues
- Palm rejection problems after updates
- Inconsistent behavior when importing files

**Most requested features**

- Improved folder/hierarchy organization
- More shape recognition and drawing tools
- Side-by-side viewing of multiple notes
- Ability to edit/rename audio recordings
- Better integration with other apps and services

## Is Notability safe?

Notability: AI Notes & Study appears safe based on user ratings. The AppsHunter Safety Score for Notability is 96 out of 100. This assessment is based on 458,525 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.8 out of 5. Of 458,525 App Store ratings, 94.8% point to a safe experience, 1.3% suggest some concerns, and 3.9% point to a risky experience.

## Is Notability legit?

Notability: AI Notes & Study appears to be a legitimate app. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Notability is 93 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

## Recent user reviews (10 of 3,781)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notability-ai-notes-and-study/id360593530/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Great app and great support

*2026-10-25, version 16.12.4*

I’ve had Notability for many years as a Classic User and I would be lost without it. It’s generally easy to use all it’s aspects. I’ve had a few issues mainly where I’ve needed help understanding tools or where I’ve made mistakes needing correcting. The Support section always provide prompt help to sort out issues.

### 3/5 — iPhone Duo Blank Space!

*2026-10-25, version 16.13.2*

As nice as it is that this has been updated for the new iOS and iPhone duo, it is very annoying that there’s always the massive right bar on the side. It is totally unusable space with no menus and no utility. It makes the small screen completely useless for notability, and the large one only useful in portrait mode. Please remove this and let the space be usable! Goodnotes does not have this limitation.

### 2/5 — Contacting customer support was a nightmare

*2026-10-24, version 16.13.2*

I love using Notability for studying, but this ordeal was a rollercoaster. One of my notes disappeared. It wasn’t in recently deleted or in unfiled notes, and it was over 60 pages’ worth of work. I went online and followed all the steps to try and recover the note, but nothing was working. There was one option I could not try, which was to search iCloud Drive. There’s no option for me to search iCloud Drive within the app. However, when I searched for the note using my Mac’s Spotlight search, it showed that the file existed, but Notability wouldn’t allow me to open it. I emailed support, and it was an AI bot that couldn’t understand “there’s no option for me to search iCloud Drive,” even though I repeated myself multiple times, submitted images and a screen recording for proof. It responded a whole day later, asking if I found it. No, I did not. Thankfully, my laptop backs up automatically, and I was able to find an older version of the note, but I lost about 6 pages of work. Genuinely so upset.

### 2/5 — Used to be good, now it sucks

*2026-10-23, version 16.13.2*

Endless popups about further upgrading and spending more money. Sucks at syncing across devices. Takes forever to load docs when you open it. Was better before all the AI garbage was added.

### 4/5 — Vraiment Bien

*2026-10-23, version 16.12.5*

C'est vraiment bien j'adore

### 5/5 — AMAZING

*2026-10-22, version 16.13.2*

Solved all my needs, and when I encountered a glitch and reported and asked for help to the support team, they were super responsive, fast, patient, and solved my issue. Very impressive! I wish i had given it a try long ago

### 3/5 — Good noting taking, bad Pro subscription

*2026-10-22, version 16.13.2*

I’ve been using this app for several months now and I generally enjoy it. It’s not taking care of the audio recording and transcript features work well and a very helpful for keeping track of my university lectures. Unfortunately, my experience with the AI features have been disappointed whenever I try to use them i’m repeatedly told that the AI doesn’t have access to my notes which prevents me from using the features that are included in my pro subscription, considering the subscription price. I accept these speeches to work more consistently because the app has a lot of potential and the notetaking transcription features are genuinely useful. I hope the developers could address these issues as I would love to take full advantage of everything that I passed the offer for now it’s great not taking tool but the AI functionality has been a let down.

### 5/5 — Love it.

*2026-10-22, version 16.13.2*

Love the app.

### 3/5 — It’s Okay

*2026-10-22, version 16.13.2*

Notability is a helpful and good app that is easy enough to do, but there are a few areas where it misses. Largely, Notability is a miss in the value section for me because they don’t update things that users request, despite people requesting it for years (ex., for years, users have requested an option to eliminate the page break in “seamless view” for things like drawing and math, and notability will not). The AI features are essentially useless, too. One area where notability shines is the ease in importing and exporting notes, as well as the cloud sharing between devices. I used notability for about 4 years in college and have used it as a teacher after college — it’s good but could be the best (but it’s not). One last note is that Notability does an excellent job of blending text and drawing with the Apple Pencil — one of the best Apple Pencil experiences to date as someone who’s been using one for over 5 years.

### 5/5 — Whiteboard feature

*2026-10-22, version 16.13.2*

It’s good. But add a whiteboard feature, like how Goodnotes has it

## Frequently asked questions about Notability

### What does Notability do?

Notability is a digital note-taking application that allows users to write, type, annotate, draw, and record audio. It helps users organize their thoughts, study materials, and work documents in one place. The app supports annotating PDFs, lecture slides, and other documents, and offers AI-powered features for summaries and quizzes.

### What are the key features of Notability?

Key features include the ability to combine handwriting, typed text, images, and sketches on a single page, annotate PDFs and other documents, record audio synced to notes, and generate real-time transcripts and summaries. It also offers AI-powered study tools like quizzes and flashcards, and allows for side-by-side note viewing.

### How much does Notability cost?

Notability is free to download and use with basic features. An optional subscription unlocks unlimited note-taking, AI-powered productivity and study tools, handwriting recognition, math conversion, live audio transcripts, and auto-backup with iCloud sync.

### What devices is Notability compatible with?

Notability is available for free on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the web. Users can access and edit their notes seamlessly across all these devices, ensuring their information is always connected and accessible.

### Who is Notability for?

This app is designed for students who need to take lecture notes, annotate textbooks, and study effectively, as well as professionals who need to mark up documents, capture meeting details, organize ideas, and present information efficiently.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 16.13.4 — 2026-11-03

• Introducing Markdown Import: bring .md files into your notes with their formatting intact.
• Personalize Learn with your preferred summary length, quiz difficulty and field of study in AI Customization Settings
• Fixed bugs with Paste and Match Style, Scribble, version history, text boxes, and indentation.

Thanks for using Notability.

### 16.13.3 — 2026-10-26

• Introducing Graphs: write a function by hand and see it plotted in your note.
• Chat supports images again and keeps your conversation when you return.
• Turn on Narrow Margins in Note Editor settings for smaller text margins in new notes.
• Connected Services in Settings shows your most recent cloud sync.

Thanks for using Notability.

### 16.13.2 — 2026-10-21

• Fixed an issue with zooming and scrolling on iOS 27.

Thanks for using Notability.

### 16.13.1 — 2026-10-19

• Added Arabic and Hebrew support with full right-to-left layout.
• Fixed unwanted scrolling when you return to Notability on iOS 27.
• A clearer Learn usage meter and more reliable Quizzes.
• Finish My Notes appears only on notes you haven't completed.
• Fixed bugs with text editing, shape rotation, and PDFs in dark mode.

Thanks for using Notability.

### 16.13 — 2026-10-12

• Notability now fully supports Liquid Glass on iOS 26 and later
• Improved calendar events shown in Home.
• Fixed imported PDFs landing above your last page.
• Fixed a bug with the chat bar keyboard on iPhone.
• Fixed a crash when using the camera.

Thanks for using Notability.

## Apps similar to Notability

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Noteful: Notes & PDF Markup](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334) | 4.8 (24,310) | Free | Productivity |
| [MyScript Notes: AI Handwriting](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/myscript-notes-ai-handwriting/id1119601770) | 4.7 (38,703) | Free | Productivity |
| [Freenotes®: AI Notes Taking](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/freenotes-ai-notes-taking/id6464237904) | 4.7 (64,642) | Free | Productivity |
| [CollaNote: Notes & PDF Markup](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/collanote-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1540956268) | 4.7 (15,072) | Free | Productivity |
| [Kilonotes-Notes & Mark up PDF](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kilonotes-notes-and-mark-up-pdf/id1514322479) | 4.6 (4,970) | Free | Productivity |
| [Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/goodnotes-ai-notes-docs-pdf/id1444383602) | 4.7 (466,958) | Free | Productivity |

## More apps by Ginger Labs

- [Twobird](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/twobird/id1455545515)

All apps by Ginger Labs: https://appshunter.io/developer/318126112

## Related topics

[notability](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/notability) · [note taking apps free](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/note-taking-apps-free) · [notability free](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/notability-free) · [nobility](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/nobility) · [note ability](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/note-ability) · [annotate ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/annotate-ai) · [note taking free](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/note-taking-free) · [JOTABLE](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/jotable) · [notable](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/notable) · [lecture notes](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/lecture-notes) · [lecture note taking app](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/lecture-note-taking-app) · [scribble notes](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/scribble-notes) · [notetaking](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/notetaking) · [note taking audio](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/note-taking-audio) · [goodnotes](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/goodnotes) · [lecture note taker](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/lecture-note-taker) · [recording notes](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/recording-notes) · [goodnotes 6](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/goodnotes-6) · [notify](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/notify) · [ai lecture note taker](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ai-lecture-note-taker)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-11-03.*