📚 Best Research and notes AI Tools

Open-source docs, whiteboard, and AI workspace

Free for personal/local and FOSS self-host; Team about $10/seat/mo; Enterprise custom

A desktop or Docker app for chatting with your own documents using local or cloud AI models

Free and open source; self-hosting, model or API costs may apply

Local-first notes and objects with optional AI-friendly workflows

Free plan with limited remote storage; paid plans about $4–$16/mo depending on tier; self-host options noted

Open-source Notion-style workspace with AI options

Personal free at $0/mo; Pro about $16/member/mo billed annually ($20 monthly); self-host options available

Object-based notes workspace with optional AI assist

Basic free forever; Pro about $9.99/mo; Believer from about $12.49/mo

An AI search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed research

Free plan for basic paper search; Pro $12/mo billed annually ($144/yr); Deep and Team plans available

A tool that converts PDFs and office documents into clean text that AI tools can use

Free and open source; self-hosting, model or API costs may apply

An AI research assistant for finding and analysing academic papers

Free Basic plan; Pro $49/user/mo and Scale $169/user/mo billed annually; Enterprise via sales

Free AI meeting notes with unlimited recordings

Free forever plan with unlimited recordings and transcripts; Premium about $16–20/user/mo; Team about $15–19/user/mo billed annually

AI meeting notes with agendas and action items

Free plan available; paid Team and Business plans from roughly $11–$23/user/mo depending on billing (confirm current seats on pricing page)

An AI notetaker that transcribes and summarises your meetings

Free plan; Pro $18/seat/mo monthly ($10 billed annually); Business $29/seat/mo ($19 annually); Enterprise $39/seat/mo annual

Create presentations, documents and simple websites from a prompt with AI

A research partner grounded in your own documents, from Google

Free to use; higher limits through Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra subscriptions

An AI research agent that searches many sources and writes a cited report

Free and open source; self-hosting, model or API costs may apply

An AI notepad that turns your rough meeting notes into clear write-ups

Free Basic plan (limited meeting history); Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35/user/mo

Visual learning whiteboard with AI study help

Premium about $17.99/mo; Premium+ about $53.99/mo with higher AI credit allotments

AI writing partner for research-backed drafts

Free $0/mo; Plus about $12/mo; Pro about $29/mo (annual discounts available)

Ad-free private search with the Kagi Assistant built in

Free trial of 100 searches; Starter $5/mo; Professional $10/mo; Ultimate $25/mo (annual discount available)

A self-hosted bookmark app that saves links, notes and images and tags them with AI automatically

Free and open source; self-hosting, model or API costs may apply

A visual drag-and-drop builder for AI agents and workflows

Free and open source; self-hosting, model or API costs may apply

AI meeting assistant for notes and follow-ups

Basic free forever; Pro about $9.99–$15.99/user/mo depending on billing; Business about $17/user/mo annual; Enterprise custom

An AI notes app that organises what you capture and helps you follow through

Free plan; Mem Plus $9/mo, Mem Pro $29/mo, higher-capacity Pro tiers from $49 to $199/mo

AI-powered workspace and knowledge management

$10/month

A self-hosted AI chat and search platform that connects to your team's documents and apps

Free and open source (open-core: some features are paid); self-hosting, model or API costs may apply