This guide takes you from nothing installed to Grape writing out what you said, one step at a time: install the desktop app, write a note, record your voice, move to Pro, let the AI transcribe the recording and answer questions about your note, then put the same notes on your phone. It takes about fifteen minutes.
Steps 1 to 4 are free and need no account. Your account is made in step 6, on the way to Pro.
1. Download Grape
Open the download page and choose the button for your computer:
- Mac: Apple Silicon for a Mac with an M1 chip or newer, Intel for an older one. To check, open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac: a chip named Apple M1, M2 and so on means Apple Silicon.
- Windows: Download installer. The site first reminds you that Windows may warn you about the installer, so choose Continue.
- Linux: Debian x64, or Debian arm64 on an ARM computer.
A window opens with a Download Grape button. Click it and the download starts. The email box under it is only for news about Grape, so you can leave it empty.
2. Install it
- Mac: open the file you downloaded, which ends in .dmg, and drag Grape onto the Applications folder in the window that opens. Then open Grape from Applications. The first time, macOS checks that you want to open an app from the internet; choose Open.
- Windows: open the Grape Setup file in your Downloads folder. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway. Grape is new to Windows, and nothing is wrong with the app. The installer sets Grape up and opens it.
- Linux: open the file with your software center, or run
sudo apt install ./grape_*.debin the folder it downloaded to. Then open Grape from your apps.
The first time Grape opens, it asks what you do and what you want to use it for. Answer, choose Get Started, and it opens on two sample notes, with no account and nothing to set up.
3. Write a note
Click the New Note button at the top of the note list, type a title on the first line and write under it. To add something other than text, type / on an empty line and pick from the menu: a heading, a checklist, a table, a picture, a PDF and more. Grape saves as you type, so there is no save button to look for. Write your first note has more on the editor and two habits worth forming early.
4. Record your voice
Recording is free as well. Click Voice Recording, the microphone in the toolbar at the top of the note, and a recording block lands in the note. Click the microphone in the block to start. On a Mac, the first recording asks whether Grape may use the microphone; choose Allow.
Keep writing while it records if you like, then click the red button to stop. The audio stays in the note as a player. To record a video call along with your own voice, see Record system audio on desktop.
5. Choose Pro in Settings
Turning the recording into text is part of Pro, along with the rest of Grape's AI: a chat that knows your notes, search by meaning, flashcards and quizzes written for you, and more. Pro is $19 a month and keeps your notes in sync on your phone too. Free, Sync, Pro or Lifetime compares the plans if you want to look first.
Click the gear in the editor header to open Settings, go to Account and choose Subscribe to Pro. Your browser opens on grape.cool for the rest. The Upgrade to Grape Pro buttons you meet elsewhere in the app, like on an AI tool you tried on the free plan, go the same way.
6. Sign in and pay in your browser
grape.cool asks you to log in first, so the plan has an account to belong to. Choose Login with Google and pick your Google account. If you are new, this is also what makes your account, so there is no separate sign up to do. If you are already logged in on grape.cool in that browser, this part is skipped.
The payment page comes next. It is run by Stripe and shows Grape Pro at $19 a month. Enter your card and choose Subscribe. If you have a promotion code, add it on the same page before you pay.
Once the payment goes through, a page welcomes you to Pro and asks your browser to open Grape. The browser checks with you first, so allow it: in Chrome on a Mac the button says Open Grape.app, in Safari it says Allow. If Grape does not come up, choose Open Grape App on the page.
Leaving the payment page before you pay lands you on a Payment Cancelled page instead. Nothing was charged, and Subscribe to Pro in Grape starts again whenever you are ready.
7. Back in Grape
Grape comes to the front, and Settings, Account now shows your name, your email and a Pro badge. Once the first sync has run, which takes a moment, Grape switches its own AI models on, so there are no keys to paste and nothing else to set up.
8. Turn the recording into text
Go back to your note, open the menu on the recording and choose Transcribe. Grape listens to the audio and shows the text in a window, where you can fix a word or two. Click Insert and the text goes into the note under the recording.
Quick prompts wait under the text, like Summarize and Find Tasks. Click one and its result opens in a tab of its own, so an hour long meeting can go into the note as a few lines instead. A long recording can also be left to finish on its own: close the window, keep working, and Grape tells you when the text is ready. Transcribe a recording or audio file has the rest, and Identify speakers splits the text by who was talking.
9. Ask the AI about your note
The chat opens in a panel on the right of the note: click the panel button at the right end of the editor header if it is not showing. With your note open, ask about it without naming it, like Summarize this note in three lines, and the answer starts by reading the note. The chat can also search all your notes, write and edit notes for you and look things up on the web, see Chat with the AI about your notes.
When you want more, make flashcards, a quiz, a mind map or a slide deck from a note, or search your notes by meaning. Any of the four can be made by hand on the free plan too.
10. Put your notes on your phone
Pro keeps your devices in sync, so the phone can hold everything you wrote on the computer.
Install Grape from the App Store on an iPhone or iPad, or from Google Play on Android; the download page links to both. Open it and go through its welcome screens, then tap the gear on the Folders screen to open Settings, tap Account, and tap Already have an account? Sign in.
Tap Continue with Google and pick the Google account you used on the computer. That puts the phone on the same account, with Pro already on it. Sign in with Apple only finds that account when your Apple ID uses the same email, so Google is the sure way.
The first sync starts by itself. Your folders and notes arrive first, then pictures, PDFs and recordings, so the Notes folder on the phone ends up holding the same notes as the one on your computer, the one you wrote included. From then on, what you change on one device shows up on the other. Sync your notes across devices explains when it runs.
If Pro does not work after you paid
- Grape did not open after you paid. Go back to the page that welcomed you to Pro, choose Open Grape App and let the browser open it. Grape has to be installed on that computer.
- You are signed in, but the Account tab says Free. Signing in does not buy a plan, and taking a Sign in or Sign up link on the way stops before the payment page. Choose Subscribe to Pro on the Account tab again. You are signed in now, so the payment page opens straight away.
- You paid, but Grape still shows the plans to pick from. On the Account tab, choose Already have an account? Sign in, and log in with the Google account you paid with. The plan belongs to that account and arrives with it.
- The Account tab shows a different email from the one you paid with. Choose Sign out, keep the notes on this device, and sign in with the right Google account.
- Transcribe fails after the upgrade. Check that the Account tab shows the Pro badge. Then open the Models tab in Settings, switch on Grape under Providers and switch on the Grape Pro models listed above it. Grape only does this by itself when no other AI provider is switched on. Set up AI shows that tab.
- Still stuck? Write to us with the email you paid with, and a person sorts it out.