# Pad Notes AI: Smart Notebooks — Handwriting, PDF & Study AI

> Handwriting, PDF & Study AI (iPhone/iPad app by Hung Tien Pham.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pad-notes-ai-smart-notebooks/id6779363432 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Hung Tien Pham](https://appshunter.io/developer/1896766758)
- Category: Productivity, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 685 MB
- Languages: American English, Arabic, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and 8 more
- Released: 2026-06-16
- Data updated: 2026-10-19

## What is Pad Notes AI?

Pad Notes AI brings handwriting, typed notes, PDF annotation and a note-focused AI assistant into one workspace on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

WRITE AND CREATE
Write with Apple Pencil on compatible iPads or draw with touch. Adjust ink and stroke size, highlight, add text and images, and hold a stroke to turn it into an editable shape. Erase whole strokes or just part of them.

MAKE EACH NOTEBOOK YOURS
Choose from 15 cover styles, 19 page templates and 12 paper colors. Use ruled, dotted, grid, Cornell, planner, music and reading journal pages. Organize notebooks in folders, pin favorites, search your notes, and import or export PDFs.

WORK WITH YOUR NOTES
Record audio, use transcription and translation, and ask the assistant to summarize, explain or create study questions from selected pages. Apple on-device AI requires a supported device with Apple Intelligence available. Online AI requires your own provider API key and an internet connection. The basic offline mode extracts text and keywords using rules.

Start with up to 20 notebooks for free. A one-time lifetime purchase unlocks unlimited notebooks. iCloud sync uses your device's Apple Account and requires iCloud to be available.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lifetime Access | $9.99 | one-time |


## Is Pad Notes AI safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Pad Notes AI.

## Is Pad Notes AI legit?

Pad Notes AI: Smart Notebooks appears legitimate, with a few gaps. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Pad Notes AI is 65 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.2.1 — 2026-10-12

• Imported PDFs now use their original page dimensions instead of a default paper size.
• Improved rendering of rotated PDF pages and pages with crop bounds.
• Page previews, zoomed pages and PDF exports now use consistent page framing.

### 1.2.0 — 2026-10-12

• More cover designs, page templates and paper colors, with clearer previews when creating notebooks.
• Paper lines remain complete when zooming out.
• Hold-to-shape editing and partial erasing for geometric shapes.
• Clearer tool selection and live brush-size previews.
• Better translation placement, audio responsiveness and settings layouts.
• Live page swipes, including when zoomed at the page edge; swipe past the last page to create another.

### 1.1.4 — 2026-09-14

Thank you for using Pad Notes AI! Version 1.1.4 brings important reliability improvements, audio recovery tools, and enhanced data security:

• Audio Recording Recovery: Added a dedicated recovery manager in your library. If an audio recording is interrupted or fails to save, you can easily recover it to your notebook page or share the original audio file.
• Interruption Resilience: Enhanced audio recording engine to gracefully handle interruptions, preserving your recordings up to the exact moment of disruption.
• Robust Storage & Safeguards: Enhanced database resilience to protect your notes and drawings under low storage or system interruptions, providing clear recovery options without data loss.
• Secure API Key Storage: Upgraded Gemini API key management to securely store your keys inside the Apple Keychain with hardware-level encryption.
• Improved PDF Export: Faster, cancellable page-by-page PDF rendering with optimized memory management for large notebooks.
• Performance & Stability: Refined thread safety, smoother autosave indicators, and overall stability enhancements on macOS and iPadOS.

### 1.1.3 — 2026-07-17

Welcome to Pad Notes AI version 1.1.3! In this release, we've introduced powerful organization tools, enhanced Apple Pencil ink consistency, improved live AI streaming, and optimized performance across iPad and Mac (Catalyst).

Key Updates:

ALL-NEW FOLDER MANAGEMENT

Easily organize your notebooks with a dedicated folder sidebar leveraging iPad-first NavigationSplitView.
Drag-and-drop notebooks directly onto folder chips for instant filing.
Filter your Home Library notebooks by folder effortlessly.
UNINTERRUPTED LIVE SPEECH TRANSCRIPTION

Enhanced audio recording and Speech-to-Text translation with intelligent continuous chunking. The app now bypasses the system's 60-second limit, allowing you to capture long lectures, meetings, and notes without interruption.
STREAMING AI ASSISTANT (NOTES AI PANEL)

Implemented real-time streaming responses for the AI assistant — see answers appear word-by-word instantly.
Added a "Stop Generating" button to let you abort AI outputs at any point.
Enhanced chat history presentation and overall AI panel user interface.
CONSISTENT APPLE PENCIL INK RENDERING

Fixed canvas rendering inconsistency. Enforced light-mode traits on the PencilKit canvas and PKToolPicker, ensuring ink colors remain vibrant and legible on light paper templates, even when system-wide Dark Mode is active.
Standardized toolbar icon tinting for a clean, uniform look.
ROBUST MACOS CATALYST SUPPORT

Optimized desktop experience under macOS Catalyst, adjusting toolbar behaviors, configuring window scenes, and fixing keyboard/shortcut issues.
Resolved sheet dismissal bugs where the "Done" button would occasionally fail to close settings on macOS.
UI/UX & ACCESSIBILITY POLISH

Streamlined interface layouts and standardized system colors to improve contrast, accessibility, and readability.
Implemented an adaptive overflow menu in the Editor toolbar to keep functions reachable on split screens.
Added scroll-to-current-page functionality in the Page Browser for faster navigation.
Thank you for choosing Pad Notes AI! If you enjoy the app, please take a moment to leave a review on the App Store.

### 1.1.2 — 2026-07-06

Folder management
Keep your notebooks organized with the new folder system. Drag and drop notebooks into folders right from your library, and browse quickly using the dedicated folder sidebar.

Refreshed library
A redesigned library with a responsive sidebar and a fresh new theme that looks great on iPad, iPhone, and Mac.

Smoother AI assistant
AI responses now stream in real time, so you see the content as it is being generated. Added a Stop Generating button and conversation history in the Notes AI panel.

Cleaner page editor
A new adaptive toolbar with a smart overflow menu, tidier on smaller screens. Browse pages with segmented view options and auto-scroll to the current page.

Better Mac support
Improved macOS support with more reliable notebook management, toolbars, and windows.

More
Added translations for more languages, fixed toolbar issues, and improved overall stability.

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## More apps by Hung Tien Pham

- [LunarV - Lịch Âm Việt Nam](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lunarv-lich-am-viet-nam/id6770913893)
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- [vTTS: Offline Text to Speech](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vtts-offline-text-to-speech/id6817003401)

All apps by Hung Tien Pham: https://appshunter.io/developer/1896766758

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*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 2026-10-19.*