# Napkin review (2026): is it worth $5 a month? > iPhone app for saving quotes and ideas and revisiting them as flows Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Napkin is an iPhone app for saving short ideas and quotes, typed, dictated, scanned from a book or shared from other apps. It links related ideas and plays them back as short curated flows for reflection, with an AI that suggests topics. The earlier desktop version was switched off on June 30, 2026. - **Category:** Note-Taking Apps - **Made by:** Napkin GmbH - **Website:** https://napkin.one - **Runs on:** iOS - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you want to try before paying, as there is no free plan or trial. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Napkin is a paid product, starting at $5 per month, or $40 per year. - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | All features, monthly | $5 per month | Subscription with all features, billed monthly through the App Store. | | All features, yearly | $40 per year | The same subscription billed yearly, which works out to about $3.33 a month. | Read from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/napkin-ideas/id6470183297 on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Napkin before buying. ## Key features - **Share from other apps:** Send text from other apps to Napkin through the share sheet, or type an idea in with the keyboard. - **Flows of ideas:** Saved ideas are connected into short, curated playlists meant for quick moments of reflection. - **AI topic suggestions:** A personal AI reads your saved ideas and suggests topics you may want to look at again. - **Scan and dictate:** Scan a passage from a printed book or dictate an idea by voice instead of typing it. ## Good for - Collecting quotes and short ideas from reading - People who want a calm review habit more than a full note library ## Worth knowing - Runs on iPhone only; the desktop prototype was shut down on June 30, 2026, and no replacement is promised. - The App Store listing says a subscription is needed to use Napkin, and it shows no free plan or trial. - The listing also shows a second pair of subscription prices, $3 monthly and $30 yearly, without saying what differs. - It requires iOS 26.0 or later. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.0 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Napkin is an iPhone app for saving short ideas and quotes and playing them back as short flows. You can't use it without a subscription, it runs on iPhone only, and it needs iOS 26. - **Value for money: B.** $40 a year, or about $3.33 a month, which is the edge of the category's cheapest quarter. The listing also shows a $3 monthly and $30 yearly pair without saying why. - **Free plan and trial: F.** Nothing is free: the listing says a subscription is needed and shows no free plan or trial. - **Features: C.** It does one smaller job fully: collect ideas by typing, dictating, scanning a book or sharing, then revisit them with AI topic suggestions. It isn't a notes library, and the desktop version was switched off on 30 June 2026. - **Ease of use: B.** No store rating on record. You install it and share or type something in, with nothing to set up. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** iPhone only. No iPad, Mac, Windows, Android or web version, and no integrations listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Napkin's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among note-taking apps - Napkin's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 7 of the 169 other note-taking apps we grade, and level with 10. - It stands best on ease of use (B, above 61 of 169) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $3.33 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $5.83 for the category: 20 of the 72 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 19 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/note-taking ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Napkin you would be making dictation that types into any app on your computer. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 152 of the 169 other note-taking apps grade higher. It costs $40 a year. - You could make: Notes: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Dictation that types into any app on your computer. - You could not: A real app for iOS. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Notes, AI features, Dictation ## Alternatives - [mymind](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mymind): Private AI-tagged store for bookmarks, notes and images. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mymind-vs-napkin) - [Reflect](https://toolgpa.com/tools/reflect): Open-source daily notes app with backlinks and local Markdown. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/napkin-vs-reflect) - [Capacities](https://toolgpa.com/tools/capacities): Object-based note-taking app with daily notes and backlinks. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/capacities-vs-napkin) - [Apple Notes](https://toolgpa.com/tools/apple-notes): Apple's free notes app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/apple-notes-vs-napkin) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://napkin.one/ - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/napkin-ideas/id6470183297 Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/napkin Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).