Microsoft OneNote vs Google Keep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Microsoft OneNote
Capture and organize your thoughts, ideas, and plans with a powerful digital note-taking tool. Utilize AI features for summaries and transcription, and seamlessly sync notes across all your devices. Collaborate on projects and integrate with other Microsoft Office apps.
- AI-powered Copilot notebooks
- Voice transcription and smart notes
- Document scanning and text extraction
- Cross-device synchronization
- Collaboration on notes and ideas
- Integration with Microsoft Office
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Supercharge your productivity with OneNote. Organize thoughts and ideas, and simplify planning important moments with your digital note-taking. Smart notes on your phone can sync across all your devices with Microsoft OneNote. Combine the power of digital ink with the natural feel of a pen to help you sketch out your inspirations. Take smart notes and capture every detail with voice transcription. Our writing tools make it easy to capture your notes, review your content later, and access AI studying. Take smart notes, share writing ideas, organize note-taking, and collaborate on your creative ideas and writing - all with Microsoft OneNote. ONENOTE APP FEATURES: AI-POWERED COPILOT NOTEBOOKS • Make sense of your files with AI chat • Summarize meetings, classes, and discussions easily from your notes • Listen to audio overviews, created directly from the notes you take AI NOTE-TAKING WITH HOMEPAGE AND QUICK CAPTURE • Streamlined writing: Find notes from your connected accounts in one place to easily create, find, & act on your notes. Now with Samsung Notes integration. • AI workflows with Copilot: Capture text, voice, ink or images to your notepad with Quick Capture • Smart notes: Capture smart notes in ink. Click the pen button & write down thoughts • Write smart notes, draw & clip things from the web to add to your writing notebook SCAN PICTURES & EXTRACT TEXT FROM WRITING • Note-Taking Scanner: Scan documents, pictures, or files to extract writing • Capture images to extract text from documents & more • Apply different filters to change colors, add ink, crop images & more SMART NOTES & AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION • Voice smart notes: Take accurate notes with voice dictation • Click the Mic button to record, then click it again to end recording & save the file • Dictate smart notes in 27 languages (note some languages are in preview) & use Auto-Punctutation to format NOTE-TAKING THAT HELPS YOU ACHIEVE MORE • Organize writing using to-do lists, follow-up items, marks for what’s important & custom labels • Use OneNote as a notebook, journal or a notepad for work or AI studying • Notepad badge hovers on screen & lets you quickly write your thoughts down any time • NEW Sticky notes - Make quick memos & note-taking COLLABORATE WRITING & SHARE SMART NOTES • Write meeting notes, brainstorm projects, & draw attention to important points • Take notes & save ideas across your favorite devices, no matter what device your team likes to use BETTER TOGETHER WITH MICROSOFT OFFICE • OneNote is part of the Office family & works great with your favorite apps, such as Excel or Word, to help you do more Write notes, save ideas & keep up with your to-do list with Microsoft OneNote. APP REQUIREMENTS: OneNote is free on iPhone and many other devices. Get started today! Download OneNote and sign in with your Microsoft Account or the account assigned to you by your work or school. Monthly Microsoft 365 subscriptions purchased from the app will be charged to your App Store account and will automatically renew within 24 hours prior to the end of the current subscription period unless auto-renewal is disabled beforehand. You can manage your subscriptions in your App Store account settings. This app is provided by either Microsoft or a third-party app publisher and is subject to a separate privacy statement and terms and conditions. Data provided through the use of this store and this app may be accessible to Microsoft or the third-party app publisher, as applicable, and transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or any other country where Microsoft or the app publisher and their affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. Please refer to the Microsoft Software License Terms for Microsoft 365. See “License Agreement” link under Information. By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions.
Google Keep
Capture, edit, and share notes and lists across all your devices. Add photos, audio, and text from images, and set time or location-based reminders. Collaborate with others in real-time for shared tasks.
- Cross-device synchronization
- Add notes, lists, photos, audio
- Organize with labels and colors
- Time and location-based reminders
- Voice memo transcription
- Extract text from images
- Real-time collaboration
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• Capture, edit, share, and collaborate on your notes on any device, anywhere. • Add notes, lists, photos, and audio to Keep. • Organize your notes with labels and colors. • Set and forget. Get reminded about a note at the right time or place. • Record a voice memo and have it automatically transcribed. • Grab the text from an image to help you quickly find that note again through search. WHEN AND WHERE YOU NEED IT Need to remember to pick up some groceries? Set a location-based reminder to pull up your grocery list right when you get to the store. Need to finish a to-do? Set a time-based reminder to make sure you never miss a thing. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS Next time you go to the store, share your shopping list on Keep and watch as items get checked off in real time. No need for text messages back and forth. Get things done together, faster. FIND WHAT YOU NEED, FAST Quickly filter and search for notes by color and other attributes like lists with the label “To-dos”, audio notes with reminders or just see shared notes. Find what you're looking for even faster, and let Keep do the remembering for you. ALWAYS WITHIN REACH Keep works on your phone, tablet and computer. Everything you add to Keep syncs across your devices so your important stuff is always with you. Try Google Keep on the web at http://keep.google.com and find it in the Chrome Web Store at http://g.co/keepinchrome.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Google Keep at none against Microsoft OneNote's 3. Google Keep also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). Microsoft OneNote's advantage is ratings volume (1.1M vs 29K) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Microsoft OneNote sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Google Keep asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Microsoft OneNote against 4.6 for Google Keep. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Microsoft OneNote has 1.1M ratings behind it against 29K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 44% and 45% positive.
Microsoft OneNote ships an update weekly, Google Keep every 6 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.
| Parameter | Microsoft OneNote | Google Keep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (1.1M ratings) — better | 4.6 (29K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 44.3% of reviews | 45.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.1M — better | 29K |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #83 | #76 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 414 MB | 207 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Microsoft Corporation | |
Customer experience
Microsoft OneNote
Google Keep
User reviews
Microsoft OneNote
From 1.1M App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Simple, works well
- 👍 Great for planning
- 👍 Powerful note-taking app
- 👍 Invaluable tool for note taking
- 👍 Used for years, couldn't be without this app
Room to improve
- 🔨 Could be better
- 🔨 Formatting issues on mobile app
- 🔨 Buggy widget, no dark app icon
- 🐛 Glitchy, crashes often
- 🐛 Terrible sync speeds
Google Keep
From 29K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Lean and efficient
- 👍 Minimalistic and easy to use
- 🤝 Good for collaboration
- 💡 Useful for note-taking and lists
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and crashes frequently
- 🔄 Sync issues and data loss
- 🕰️ Slow performance and lag
- 📱 Limited functionality on mobile
- 🔒 Lack of security features
Bugs and requests
Microsoft OneNote
Reported bugs
9 issues- Cursor positioning is erratic
- Search function does not work well
- Ink to text conversion missing on iPad
- Syncing issues, notes not syncing properly across devices
- Crashing, freezing, and performance issues
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Scrolling issues, page jumping to top unexpectedly
- Eraser tool deletes more than intended
- Formatting issues when importing/exporting
- Inconsistent behavior between desktop and mobile versions
Requested features
11 requests- Native Markdown support and merged cell support
- Ruler, ability to choose or create notebook covers
- Ability to password protect app or individual notebooks
- Option to open on last opened page instead of Home
- Ability to turn note into task that appears on To Do and Planner
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Search for tags, more Evernote-like search features
- Ability to select text using 3D Touch
- Option to limit page to A4 size with framing
- Pencil feature like Notes app for drawing
- Ability to delete notebooks
- Ability to delete notes from Apple devices
Google Keep
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes randomly duplicating or disappearing
- Checkboxes not working as expected
- Keyboard issues and text input problems
- Refresh failures and connectivity problems
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for widgets
- Improve text formatting options
- Introduce folder/category organization
- Enable password protection for notes
- Enhance search and sorting capabilities
In-app purchases
Microsoft OneNote
- Microsoft 365 Personal1 Month trial$9.991 Month
- Microsoft 365 Personal$11.991 Month
- Microsoft 365 Family$12.991 Month
Google Keep
No in-app purchases








