GraphNotes and the apps you already use
GraphNotes and Notability
Yes, keep Notability for lectures: it records audio in step with your notes. And add GraphNotes for the reading that comes after, where each note stays tied to the passage it is about.
What this page says about Notability 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
| Notability | GraphNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Handwritten notes with audio recording and transcripts, and marking up documents | Reading PDFs and writing by hand, with every note linked to where it came from |
| Runs on | iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android and the web | iPad, iPhone and Mac. The Mac shows handwriting but does not take new handwriting |
| Price | A free Starter plan with five notes. Paid plans were $11.99 to $79.99 a year on its site | Free, with no subscription. In public beta on TestFlight |
| Handwriting | Apple Pencil. Search finds handwriting and turning it into typed text is optional; some of its plans leave these out | Apple Pencil. Handwriting stays handwriting, search finds it, and it becomes typed text only on request |
| PDFs | Write on the page, with a highlighter that snaps to the text, and export as 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 | Text can link to a web 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 | Notes that scroll, or turn page by page | Boards with no edge. Cards are the docs themselves, and connectors join cards, sticky notes and the notes in PDFs’ margins |
| Where notes live | Notability Cloud, on Notability’s servers, with an account. Its older version syncs through iCloud | On your devices and in your own iCloud. No account |
| Getting notes out | PDF, images and Notability’s own formats | 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 connector in Claude. Notability Learn, its study features on paid plans, runs on Claude models | 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 Notability is the better tool
- Recording a lecture: the audio is kept in step with what you wrote, with a transcript.
- Writing directly on slides and PDFs.
- Study tools made from your notes, such as summaries, quizzes and flashcards.
- Windows, Android and the web, as well as Apple devices.
- Working on one note together, live.
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 where docs, PDFs and sticky notes sit together and connect.
- No price and no account. GraphNotes is free, and your notes stay on your devices and in your own iCloud.
Using both
Take the lecture in Notability. Read the papers for it in GraphNotes: from Notability’s Share menu, or from wherever the PDF is, 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. Add it as a link on text in a Notability note to get back to the passage.
Export with Highlights makes a copy of a PDF with your GraphNotes highlights and, if you choose, your notes in it. Notability imports it like any PDF.
GraphNotes is free and in public beta on TestFlight. Join the Beta.
Sources
- Notability: plans and prices
- Notability Help: Notability Cloud
- Notability Help: handwriting conversion
- Notability Help: importing files
- Notability Help: sharing notes
- Notability on the App Store
- Claude: connectors
- Anthropic: how Notability uses Claude
- Notability: subprocessors
- Notability Help: Learn