GraphNotes and the apps you already use
GraphNotes and Apple Notes
Yes, keep Notes for everything you jot down: it is on every Apple device and it is quick. And add GraphNotes for long reading, where a note needs to stay tied to its passage and show what links to it.
What this page says about Apple Notes was read in its maker’s own pages on November 11, 2026, and its Claude row in its maker’s pages and Anthropic’s on November 14, 2026; they are listed at the end. Prices are US prices on that day. Apps change, so check there for what it does today.
Side by side
| Apple Notes | GraphNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Quick notes of every kind: text, checklists, scans and drawings | Reading PDFs and writing by hand, with every note linked to where it came from |
| Runs on | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro and iCloud.com | iPad, iPhone and Mac. The Mac shows handwriting but does not take new handwriting |
| Price | Free, on every Apple device | Free, with no subscription. In public beta on TestFlight |
| Handwriting | Apple Pencil or a finger. Search finds handwriting in the languages it supports | Apple Pencil. Handwriting stays handwriting, search finds it, and it becomes typed text only on request |
| PDFs | Attach a PDF to a note and draw on its pages | Highlights, with your notes beside each passage in Margin view. The file is never changed; Export with Highlights makes a copy with them in it |
| Links between notes | A link can go to a web page, to another note or to a section of a note | Every doc, highlight, block and board has a link. Each shows what it links to and what links to it, and a link can say why |
| Boards | Scrolling notes, with areas for drawing and handwriting | Boards with no edge. Cards are the docs themselves, and connectors join cards, sticky notes and the notes in PDFs’ margins |
| Where notes live | In iCloud, or only on the device | On your devices and in your own iCloud. No account |
| Getting notes out | PDF or Markdown, or open the note in Pages | Export Everything: docs as Markdown with their links, PDFs with highlights written in, handwriting as images, boards as JSON Canvas. Also a one-file backup |
| Claude | No connection from Apple. Anthropic’s own extension for Claude Desktop reads and writes notes on a Mac. Apple Intelligence offers ChatGPT, not Claude | From GraphNotes for Mac, once you turn it on: Claude reads your library, PDFs’ pages included, and what it proposes waits for you to keep it. How it works |
Where Apple Notes is the better tool
- Getting a thought down fast, with Quick Note.
- Notes of mixed kinds: checklists, scanned documents, and audio with a transcript.
- Being there already, on every Apple device and on iCloud.com.
- Sharing a note or a folder and editing it together.
What GraphNotes adds
- Notes that stay tied to their passage. Each highlight is a note of its own, with a link to its page and words, and your notes on it sit beside the passage in Margin view.
- Both directions. Every doc, highlight and board shows what it links to and what links to it.
- Links that say why. A connection can carry a reason, such as Supports, Contradicts or Cites, and a label of your own.
- Boards that hold docs, PDFs and sticky notes, joined by connectors.
- Search that finds words in your handwriting and shows the handwriting, with the words marked.
Using both
Keep Notes for the everyday. For a paper or a case you will read closely, open the PDF in Files or Mail and share it to GraphNotes, or save it in the GraphNotes Inbox folder in iCloud Drive.
Copy Link in GraphNotes gives a graphnotes.app link to a doc, a highlight or a board. It is a web link like any other, and it opens that note in GraphNotes on an iPad or iPhone that has it. In Notes, Add Link takes it, so a note can point to the exact passage.
GraphNotes is free and in public beta on TestFlight. Join the Beta.
Sources
- Notes on the App Store
- iPad User Guide: add drawings and handwriting in Notes
- iPad User Guide: work with PDFs in Notes
- iPad User Guide: add links in Notes
- iPad User Guide: export or print notes
- Claude: Read and Write Apple Notes
- iPhone User Guide: turn on ChatGPT