What the Free Tier Actually Gets You: The Big Note Apps, Read Straight From Their Pricing Pages

Every big note app gives you a free tier, and almost all of them make the editor itself free. The wall lands elsewhere — and in a different place for each vendor. Read straight from their live pricing pages on July 20, 2026, here is what free actually buys, and where it stops.

The pattern is consistent across eight apps read on the same day. Obsidian states it plainly on its own pricing page: "Free without limits. No sign-up required. No strings attached."¹ Notion lets a solo user "add as many pages and blocks as you like" on the free plan.² Evernote's free tier still exists but caps you at "Create up to 50 notes" on a single connected device.³

Where each vendor draws the line differs — storage on one, sync on another, artificial-intelligence credits on a third. This roundup reads every free tier straight from the vendor's live pricing page, captured 2026-07-20, so the numbers are dated rather than remembered. Prices drift; the date is the only thing that makes a pricing table trustworthy.

What does a free note-app tier actually include?

In almost every case, the editor is free and generous. You can write, format, and organize notes without paying — Obsidian, Notion, Bear, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Joplin, Standard Notes, and even capped Evernote all give away the writing surface. The charge, when it comes, is for something around the notes: sync, storage, artificial intelligence, or device count.

That reframes the buyer's question. "Is this app free?" is almost always yes. The sharper question is what does the free tier not do, because that is where the subscription starts.

Evernote's free tier, subtitled "Capture ideas and find them quickly," is the tightest of the group.³ It limits you to "Create up to 50 notes," "Create 1 notebook," and "Connect 1 device," with "1 GB monthly uploads" and a "200 MB max. note size."³ That is a usable trial, not a home for years of notes.

The free tiers, read from the pricing pages (July 2026)

Below is every free tier, captured 2026-07-20 from each vendor's own live pricing page. The columns are neutral facts, not scores: the free headline, the note or device cap, the storage cap, whether cross-device sync is free, whether artificial intelligence is included, and the first paid step. Prices in United States dollars unless marked; Joplin is in euros.

Read it as a snapshot, not a verdict.

Two currency notes matter for honest reading: Joplin's plans are quoted in euros, and Google One's paid price is geo-localized, so the exact figure depends on the country you buy from — only the "15 GB" free and "100 GB" tier sizes are stable worldwide.⁷⁸

Where does the paywall actually land?

In four different places, depending on the vendor. Evernote walls the device and note count. Notion walls upload size, history, and artificial intelligence. Obsidian and Bear wall cross-device sync. Apple Notes and Google Keep wall shared cloud storage. Standard Notes walls file storage and history, not sync. The editor is rarely the wall — something adjacent to it is.

This is the useful pattern. There is no single "premium feature" across the market; each vendor charges for whatever is most expensive to run on their side.

Cloud sync needs servers, so Notion, Apple, and Google fund it through storage or seats. Local-first apps like Obsidian and Joplin already run on your machine, so they charge only for the optional convenience of hosted sync — or let you self-host it for nothing. The shape of the price follows the shape of the architecture.

Is sync always a paid upgrade?

No. A common assumption is that cross-device sync always costs money — and it is false. Standard Notes lists "Unlimited device sync on web, desktop, and mobile" inside its free "Standard" tier, priced at "$0 / year."⁴ Apple Notes and Google Keep also sync at no separate charge. Sync is walled by some vendors, given away by others.

The mechanism differs, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.

Standard Notes gives free sync and charges instead for file storage and longer note history — its paid tiers run "$90 / year" and "$120 / year."⁴ Apple and Google give free sync but draw it from shared account storage: your notes compete with photos and email for the same "5GB of storage for free" or "15 GB of free cloud storage that is shared."⁶⁷ Free sync is real. It is simply funded from a different pocket each time.

Which free tier fits which person?

It depends entirely on which wall you hit first. On a single device with light needs, Evernote's 50-note cap may still suffice. For free sync without a subscription, Standard Notes gives it. Inside Apple or Google, notes sync free against shared account storage. For local files you control outright, Obsidian, Bear, and Joplin keep the app itself free.

The honest negative matters too. A free tier stops being enough the moment your real usage crosses its specific wall.

If you keep years of research, Evernote's 50-note cap ends fast. If you sync heavy attachments, Apple's and Google's shared storage fills quietly behind your photos. If you want the notes on three devices without a bill, Obsidian's and Bear's paid sync is the gate — though both let you keep local files free and sync them another way. Match the tier to the wall you will actually hit, and prefer an app that stays fully usable offline so a lapsed subscription never locks the door on your own writing.

The pattern worth watching: per-feature add-ons

Across the market, the free editor stays generous while the charges fragment into per-feature add-ons: sync here, storage there, artificial-intelligence credits somewhere else. No single vendor is the villain; it is the shape of subscription pricing itself. The effect on a buyer is add-on fatigue, a stack of small, separate fees that each look reasonable alone.

Artificial-intelligence pricing is the fastest-moving line of all. Notion's credits, "Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 credits," are the kind of figure that can be restructured between the day you read a review and the day you subscribe.² That is why every cell in the table above carries a capture date. A pricing roundup without a date is folklore.

The defense is not outrage; it is arithmetic. Add up the specific add-ons you would actually turn on, ignore the ones you would not, and weigh that number against the cost of keeping your notes portable enough to walk away. Often the tier that costs least over time is the one you can leave.

What survives when the tier changes?

The file does. Every tier in this table can change tomorrow — Evernote's caps have moved before, and Notion has restructured its artificial-intelligence credits more than once. What does not move is a folder of plain Markdown files on a disk you own. When the notes are yours in an open format, the tier becomes a convenience, not a lock.

This is the axis a companion piece takes further: what survives when the company behind your notes shuts down. The answer there rhymes with this one — own the file, and the tool becomes replaceable.

It also changes what you check before committing. Price is one axis; the other is how losslessly you can leave. A generous free tier you cannot cleanly export from is a nicer cage, not a better deal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Notion free in 2026?

Yes, for an individual. Notion's free plan is "$0 per seat/month" and lets a solo user "add as many pages and blocks as you like."² The walls are elsewhere: file uploads capped at "Up to 5 MB," page history at "7 days," and artificial intelligence limited to a trial — "Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 credits."²

Is Obsidian free?

Yes. Obsidian's pricing page says so directly: "Free without limits. No sign-up required. No strings attached."¹ The app, its plugins, and your local files cost nothing. Two optional add-ons carry a price: Sync at "$4 USD" per user per month, and Publish at "$8 USD" per site per month. A commercial-use license is "$50 USD Per user, per year."¹

Is Bear free, and how much is Bear Pro?

The base Bear app is free. Sync across devices, extra export formats, and themes require Bear Pro. Bear lists it as "A 7 day free trial, then $2.99 /month," or "$29.99 /year."⁵ The moment you want the same notes on your phone and laptop, Pro is the gate.

Does a free note-app plan include sync?

Sometimes. This is the single biggest point of confusion. Standard Notes includes "Unlimited device sync on web, desktop, and mobile" free.⁴ Apple Notes and Google Keep sync free against shared account storage. Obsidian and Bear treat sync as a paid add-on. Evernote's free tier connects only one device. There is no universal answer — check the specific vendor's current page.

How much iCloud storage do you get free?

Apple gives "5GB of storage for free" with an Apple Account, and Apple Notes draws on that shared pool alongside photos, backups, and mail.⁶ When 5 GB fills, iCloud+ starts at "$0.99 /month" for 50 GB, "$2.99 /month" for 200 GB, and "$9.99 /month" for 2 TB.⁶ The Notes app itself stays free; the storage under it is the meter.

What is the best free note app in 2026?

There is no single winner. The dated table is the honest answer: the right free tier is the one whose wall you will not hit. Pick by constraint — device count, storage, sync, or artificial intelligence — and prefer an app whose notes you can export in an open format if the tier ever changes.

The free editor is the bait that every vendor offers; the wall is the part worth reading for. Learn where each vendor's wall sits before you commit — and keep your notes in a format that survives the tier changing under you, the way a folder of plain files always has. What outlasts any free tier is a note you own outright.

MNMNOTE keeps your notes as open Markdown on your own device — offline, no account — so the words stay yours whichever tier you outgrow: mnmnote.com.