Grape for journalistsRecord the interview.File the story the same day.
Transcripts, background, quotes and the thread you have been pulling for months, all searchable by meaning while the deadline is still hours away.
Free to start. Works offline. Your notes stay on your device.
Results
Three things that stop being a problem
Feature lists are easy to write and hard to care about. This is what changes for journalists.
The quote is text before you are back at the desk
Record on the phone, get the transcript in the note, and pull the line you need straight into the draft.
Reopen a story you dropped in March
Ask your notes what you had on a subject and get the answer with the note attached.
Keep the background in the same place as the copy
Documents, PDFs, links and your own notes sit in one folder rather than four apps.
AI agent
Ask your notes. Get an answer.
Ask a story file a question in plain language and get the answer with the note it came from, so an hour before filing you are reading your own words instead of hunting for them. The agent can file, tag and tidy while it is in there.
Summaries from your own words
A week of meeting notes becomes three bullet points you can send on.
Tidying stops being your job
Ask it to file the loose notes into folders and add the tags you already use.
Web search in the same chat
When the answer is not in your notes, it can look it up and write it in.
Semantic search
Find it by meaning, not by memory.
Describe a story the way you remember it and the right note comes back. No naming convention to keep up with across a story file, and no scrolling through interviews and doorsteps you filed months ago.
No naming convention to keep up
Your filing can be a mess. Search reads what the note is about.
Best match first
Results are ranked by how close they are to what you described.
Folders and tags when you want them
Structure helps, it is just no longer the only way back to a note.
Voice recording and transcription
Say it out loud. Keep it in writing.
Record interviews and doorsteps straight into a note and Grape turns them into text you can search, quote and question, usually before you are back at your desk.
Capture on the move
Talk into your phone on the walk back and read it at your desk.
Transcript and notes together
Your own scribbles sit above the transcript, in the same note.
Searchable the moment it lands
An hour of audio becomes text you can find six months later.
Flashcards
Revise without making the cards.
Turn a story file into a deck without writing the cards. The questions come out of what you captured yourself, which is the version that matters for the copy.
The slow part is done for you
Writing the cards is what stops most people revising. Not anymore.
Ten minutes is enough
Short review sessions on the phone beat one long night before the exam.
Straight from your notes
No stranger on the internet deciding what matters in your course.
Adaptive quizzes
Find the gaps before somebody else does.
A quiz written from a story file shows the difference between having read something and knowing it. Useful an hour before filing, and more useful the week before that.
Reading is not knowing
A quiz shows you the difference in about two minutes.
Targets the weak spots
Answers you miss come back around, the ones you know do not.
One note, one quiz
No question bank to build and no separate app to keep in sync.
Mind maps
See how one topic hangs together.
A long note about a story becomes branches you can follow, which is a different pass over the same material than reading a story file again.
Structure you cannot see in prose
Long notes hide their shape. A map puts it back on the surface.
Revision that is not rereading
Walking a map is a different pass over the same material.
Built from your note, not a template
The branches come from what you wrote, in your own words.
Graph view
See the whole library at once.
See every note you have written about a story and the ones you forgot were connected. Most journalists find a theme running through a story file that they never filed as one.
Connections you did not plan
Two notes from different months turn out to be about the same thing.
Links do the work
Link note to note as you write and the map fills itself in.
Where your attention went
Note stats show what you have actually been writing about.
Drawing canvas
Draw the part words cannot carry.
Some of a story file is not sentences. Put a story on an infinite canvas inside the note, right next to the writing that explains it.
Diagrams without a second app
Boxes and arrows are two clicks away instead of a context switch.
Sketch, then explain underneath
The caption you write is what makes the drawing findable later.
Draw with a pencil in hand
Rough it out on the phone, tidy it up at the desk.
Features
Everything Else It Does
Everything below is in the app today. Nothing here is a roadmap item.
Bring your own AI, or use ours
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio and more.
Work with no wifi and no worry
Your notes live in a database on your device. You choose where the file sits.
Your prompts, one keystroke away
Save the instructions you use constantly and run them on any note.
Pick up where you left off
Notes, drawings, decks, tags, chats and settings stay in step across devices.
Keep the sketch in the note it belongs to
An infinite canvas inside the note for diagrams, wireframes and rough thinking.
Answers that need the web, in the same chat
Grape can search the internet and drop what it finds into the note.
Keep the PDF next to your notes on it
Drop PDFs into a note, page through them and write alongside.
A daily backup you never have to remember
Made automatically on the device you use and kept for thirty days.
Connect a note to the notes around it
Link note to note, then see the whole web in graph view.
Find things in three keystrokes
Nested folders, drag and drop, hashtags with autocomplete and pinned notes.
Move in from your old app in one go
Import Apple Notes, or a folder of Markdown, with the structure intact.
Write without fighting the editor
Tables, checklists, images, files and slash commands for the rest.
Own the file, not a subscription to your own words
No lock in. The database is yours, on disk, from day one.
Desktop and mobile
The Same Notes at Your Desk and on the Train
Grape is a real desktop app and a real mobile app. One library, two ways of holding it.
Mac, Windows and Linux
The full workspace
Sidebar, editor, chat, drawing canvas and search in one window. This is where the long work happens: writing up, cleaning up and asking bigger questions of everything you have collected.
Keyboard shortcuts for everything you do often
A local database you can point wherever you like
iPhone and Android
Capture in ten seconds
Open the app, talk or type, done. Recording, chat and search sit one tap from the note list, so the thought gets saved while you still have it.
Record and transcribe on the move
The same notes you left open on your desk
Install it on everything you write on. Free, and no account needed.
Get the apps In practice
What that looks like for journalists
A few moments in a normal week where the app earns its place.
In the field
Record, tag the note with the story slug, and move on to the next call.
Back at the desk
Read the transcript, mark the usable quotes and draft in the same note.
Six months later
Search the archive by what happened rather than what you named the file.
Pricing
Free Is Not a Trial
Write as much as you like without paying anything. The paid plans add the AI and the syncing.
Free
No account needed, just download and start.
$0
forever
Unlimited notes and folders
Rich block editor and drawing canvas
Tags, pinned notes and organisation
Attachments, images and PDFs
Voice recording
Version history
Export as Markdown, HTML or PDF
Local database, you own your data
Most picked
Pro
Grape AI included, and every device in step.
$19
per month
Everything in Free
Unlimited AI agent (Grape AI)
Semantic search
Voice transcription
AI web search
AI flashcards, quizzes and mind maps
Cross device sync
Priority support
Lifetime
One timePay once and bring your own AI API keys.
Everything in Free
Bring your own AI API keys
Unlimited AI agent
Semantic search
Voice transcription
AI web search
AI flashcards, quizzes and mind maps
Priority support
Cross device sync not included
$29
one time
Every plan keeps your notes in a local database you can export at any time. Stop paying and your writing stays exactly where it is.
How to use it
Six Steps, About Ten Minutes
This is the whole onboarding. There is no workspace to design before you are allowed to write something.
01
Download and open it
No account, no setup wizard, no workspace to design first. Choose where your notes live and start typing.
02
Bring your old notes across
Import from Apple Notes, point Grape at a folder of Markdown files, or drag in the PDFs you keep reopening.
03
Put everything in one place
Type, paste, record, attach. Folders and tags are there when you want them and out of the way when you do not.
04
Ask instead of scrolling
Open the agent and ask a question about your own notes. The answer comes back with the note it came from.
05
Turn notes into the thing you needed
A summary, a deck of flashcards, a quiz, a mind map, or a clean export to send to somebody else.
06
Put it on your other devices
Turn on sync and the same library shows up on your phone, while each device keeps its own daily backup.
FAQ
The Questions People Ask Before Downloading
No marketing hedging. If something is not in the app yet, these answers say so.
Help center
Short Guides for Getting Set Up
Installing, importing, turning on the AI, syncing and backing up, in a few minutes each.
2 min read
Draw inside a note
The drawing canvas for diagrams and sketches, and where to find it on each platform.
Read the guide
2 min read
Sign in and sign out
When you need an account, how signing in works, and what sign out does with local notes.
Read the guide
2 min read
Manage your subscription
Change or cancel your plan, and restore a purchase on a new phone.
Read the guide
Blog
Writing About Notes, AI and the App
Longer pieces about note taking, working with AI and how Grape gets built.
August 19, 2026
Google Keep Alternative for Students
Google Keep is already in Chrome. Grape keeps that speed, then the notes work on any laptop and turn into revision.
Read the post
August 16, 2026
GoodNotes Alternative for Students
GoodNotes is the best paper on an iPad. Grape is what you use when the notes have to leave the tablet and turn into revision.
Read the post
August 15, 2026
Apple Notes Alternative for Students
Apple Notes is already on your phone. Grape keeps that simplicity, then the notes work on any laptop and turn into revision.
Read the post
Mailing list
Stay in the Loop
One short email when something real ships. New features, tips, and nothing else.
File the story the same day.
Transcripts, background, quotes and the thread you have been pulling for months, all searchable by meaning while the deadline is still hours away.