Goodnotes Review: Pricing, Pros, Cons & Alternatives

Overview

Goodnotes is a digital paper app built around handwriting with a stylus, used widely by students annotating PDFs and lecture slides. Its pricing page lists Free, Essential, Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans that run on Apple, Android, Windows and the web, plus an Apple-only Special Edition sold as a one-time purchase without cloud features^[12].

The plan design reflects a move from a one-off app towards subscriptions with AI. The free plan allows up to three files and 20 minutes of audio recording, with watermarked exports. Essential (US$11.99 a year) removes file limits; Pro (US$35.99 a year) adds Goodnotes Cloud library sync across platforms, real-time collaboration and advanced AI, including Create Mode, image generation and meeting features^[12]. An AI Pass add-on at US$9.99 per month offers roughly twelve times more AI credits. Syncing one library between Apple and non-Apple devices requires Goodnotes Cloud, which is part of Pro^[12].

Goodnotes’ strengths are its ink engine, PDF annotation and math assistance. The main limitations are the three-file cap on the free tier, the need for Pro to sync between Apple and non-Apple devices, and a layered pricing scheme (plans plus AI Pass plus a regional Special Edition) that is harder to compare than a single subscription.

Goodnotes features

Handwritten notebooks and PDF annotation
Math Assist and handwriting spellcheck
Audio recording and transcription
Goodnotes Cloud cross-platform sync (Pro)
Real-time collaboration (Pro)
Admin controls and SAML SSO (Teams)

Goodnotes pricing

Free: 3 files, 20 min audio. Essential: US$11.99/year. Pro: US$35.99/year. Teams: US$120/seat/year (30-day trial). Enterprise: custom. AI Pass: +US$9.99/month. Special Edition: one-time purchase, Apple only, price not listed. Prices as displayed in dollars; 7-day trials on Essential and Pro.