Freenotes - Notes Taking & PDF

4.8
9.6K reviews
500K+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image
Screenshot image

About this app

Freenotes: The Ultimate Digital Note-Taking Solution for Study and Work
Freenotes lets you experience true paperless learning, combining the pleasure of realistic handwriting with features that boost your study and work efficiency. Whether you're a college student needing PDF annotation or a professional seeking a high-efficiency meeting note tool, Freenotes is the best GoodNotes alternative for a seamless, productive experience across all your devices.

AI Integration: Your Smart Study Assistant
A handwriting app with built-in AI to summarize long notes or check grammar/spelling in handwritten text?
Freenotes is equipped with a powerful AI Assistant designed to optimize your learning and reviewing process:
- Instant Summaries & Answers: Take a screenshot or upload a document (PDF or photo) to instantly get answers to questions and AI-generated summaries of content. Perfect for quickly understanding long documents or creating study outlines for exams.
- AI Study Companion: Use the assistant to clarify concepts, define terms, and check your handwritten notes for accuracy, turning passive review into active recall.

High-Efficiency Note-Taking & Organization
What's a high-quality app to handwrite meeting notes and convert them into searchable text?
We focus on helping you solve the pain point of messy, unsearchable notes:
- Organized and Neat: The folder feature allows you to categorize and organize your notes by projects, courses, or topics, automating the organization of your note library.
- Quick Search via OCR: No more wasting time searching! Our advanced handwriting OCR (Optical Character Recognition) means you can easily find the specific note or keyword you need, even if it was handwritten.

Academic Powerhouse: PDF Annotation & Learning Tools
Best Pad note-taking app for college students? Recommend an aesthetic digital planner app for tablets that works with hyperlinked PDFs?
Freenotes offers features essential for college students and professionals working with documents:
- Interactive PDF Annotation: Annotate, mark up, and highlight large PDF files. Select text to translate and look up words directly for more convenient and engaging learning.
- Hyperlink Support: Create hyperlinked digital planners or study guides that jump to different pages within your notes or to external web pages for easy access to related information.

Multitasking & Focus: Master Video Learning
"Take notes while watching videos," "Split-screen for courses."
Maximize productivity by taking notes while consuming content:
- Seamless Video Learning: Use Picture-in-Picture (PiP) to take notes while watching online videos (YouTube, lecture recordings), and instantly capture relevant screenshots directly into your notes.
- Dedicated Course Learning View: Display your handwritten notes or mind maps alongside course content in a specialized split-screen setup for deeper understanding and quick review.

Review & Memorization for Active Recall
"Helps with active recall," "Exam preparation tool."
We provide specific tools proven to aid memory:
- Active Recall Tape Tool: Use the tape tool to mark key information for memorization and quickly test yourself by toggling visibility—a powerful technique for active recall and exam preparation.
- Exam Prep Center: Access built-in exam materials, timers, and use in-app layers and split-screen to practice and simulate exams without re-importing files.

A True Paper Feel: Natural & Customizable Writing
What app has the most natural and lowest-latency writing feel on a tablet?
- Realistic Pen Strokes: Experience lifelike, low-latency pen strokes on electronic devices by combining handwriting pens, providing the most natural feel for writing on digital platforms.
- Customization: Create and save custom brushes for quick access. Freenotes now supports the latest features of Pencil.
Updated on
Mar 12, 2026

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
This app may share these data types with third parties
App activity, App info and performance, and Device or other IDs
This app may collect these data types
App activity, App info and performance, and Device or other IDs
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.4
2.08K reviews
T S
January 13, 2026
I rarely leave reviews these days but this is a very awesome note app. Notion can be complicated, and Obsidian and Onenote seem scholastic so I've never stuck with them long term. This app feel like it was made for creative brains. Plus they give away a lot of options that would normally be behind a pay-wall in other apps while working half as well. I love the smooth writing with my stylus and my only small issue is I wish I could toggle erase with my stylus, instead of having to select erase.
47 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Emmanuel Precious Omonigho
March 2, 2026
This is the best note-taking app I’ve used so far. It has great potential and I’ve even deleted my other note apps because this one gives me everything I need. I love the folder organization and task/to-do features they make writing much easier for me. However, the “B” option is confusing since it means Bold instead of Body text. I have to manually change it every time I switch from Heading to body text, and it doesn’t adjust automatically. Please look into this.
5 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Tanush
March 7, 2026
Seriously the best app, Nothing is paid in the app/no adds/no subscription & It has all the features I would need & to this day I have got no problem. The developers really understand what the students would actually need .I would rather pay money as a tip for apps like you apps which are genuinely designed to help people, instead of apps with a subscription model Although I can't pay any money at all (still non-earning student who rely on parent money)
Did you find this helpful?

What’s new

New Feature
- Added a filter to show pages with content, allowing you to choose to display only pages with notes.
- Performed some bug fixes and other detail optimizations.

Thanks for using Freenotes!