GraphNotes and the apps you already use
GraphNotes and Goodnotes
Yes, keep Goodnotes for notebooks, slides and writing on the page. And add GraphNotes for the reading where each note has to keep its way back to the passage it is about.
What this page says about Goodnotes 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
| Goodnotes | GraphNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Handwritten notebooks, whiteboards, and marking up PDFs | Reading PDFs and writing by hand, with every note linked to where it came from |
| Runs on | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Windows and the web | iPad, iPhone and Mac. The Mac shows handwriting but does not take new handwriting |
| Price | Free with limits. Essential is $11.99 a year and Pro $35.99 a year | Free, with no subscription. In public beta on TestFlight |
| Handwriting | Apple Pencil. Search finds handwriting, and turning it into typed text is optional | Apple Pencil. Handwriting stays handwriting, search finds it, and it becomes typed text only on request |
| PDFs | Write and highlight directly on the page, and export the marked-up PDF | 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 | Typed text can link to a website or to a page of a notebook or whiteboard, not to a place on the page | 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 | Whiteboards with no edge, beside paged notebooks | Boards with no edge. Cards are the docs themselves, and connectors join cards, sticky notes and the notes in PDFs’ margins |
| Where notes live | On your device, with iCloud between Apple devices. Goodnotes Cloud, with an account, on other platforms and on Pro | On your devices and in your own iCloud. No account |
| Getting notes out | PDF, image or Goodnotes document on Apple devices; PDF elsewhere | 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 | Goodnotes’ own connector in Claude, added March 2026, makes new documents from a chat. It cannot read or edit the notes you have | 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 Goodnotes is the better tool
- Writing directly on a PDF’s pages or on slides.
- Notebooks you fill page after page, and whiteboards beside them.
- Android, Windows and the web, as well as Apple devices.
- Working in a notebook together, on its Pro plan.
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 whole PDFs, where a note in one PDF’s margin connects to a note in another’s.
- No price and no account. GraphNotes is free, and your notes stay on your devices and in your own iCloud.
Using both
Keep your notebooks in Goodnotes. When a reading matters, open its PDF 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 Goodnotes, typed text can carry a web link, so a notebook page can point to the exact passage.
Export with Highlights makes a copy of a PDF with your GraphNotes highlights and, if you choose, your notes in it. Goodnotes imports it like any PDF.
GraphNotes is free and in public beta on TestFlight. Join the Beta.
Sources
- Goodnotes: plans and prices
- Goodnotes: about the app
- Goodnotes Help: links
- Goodnotes Help: search
- Goodnotes Help: exporting
- Goodnotes Help: where documents are stored
- Claude: the Goodnotes connector
- Goodnotes Help: Goodnotes in ChatGPT and Claude